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This article aims to open the black box of the relationship between customer experience and customer satisfaction. The authors also take a fine-grained approach to the concept of customer experience analysis in terms of four dimensions: basic service experience (BSE), moments of truth (MT), focus on results (FR) and peace of mind (PM).

A total sample of 185 industrial customers in Spain was collected via an online platform from March to April 2020. The data were analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicated that the four dimensions of customer experience are the foundation of commercial success (i.e. customer satisfaction) for express parcel companies in the business-to-business (B2B) environment. Therefore, the most innovative express parcel companies should not only pay attention to providing services in accordance with the customer agreement but also go beyond that; hence, these companies must understand customer needs to be able to offer a unique experience. Therefore, these companies must design experiences that go beyond pure technical delivery services.

Although previous work has linked customer experience to customer satisfaction, there is little work that does so specifically in an industry as in vogue as express parcels and less so in the B2B environment. In addition, this work analyses fine-grained customer experience in terms of grain's four dimensions, and therefore, the authors analyse how each dimension (e.g. more rational or more subjective dimensions) impacts customer satisfaction. Few studies have focussed on this type of analysis for express parcel companies in the B2B environment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of a direct current (DC) hysteresis measurement on power transformer terminals for the subsequent hysteresis model parametrization in transformer grey box topology models.

Two transformer topology models with two different hysteresis models are used together with a DC hysteresis measurement via the power transformer terminals to parameterize the hysteresis models by means of an optimization. The calculated current waveform with the derived model in the transformer no-load condition is compared to the measured no-load current waveforms to validate the model.

The proposed DC hysteresis measurement via the power transformer terminals is suitable to parametrize two hysteresis models implemented in transformer topology models to calculate the no-load current waveforms.

Different approaches for the measurement and utilization of transformer terminal measurements for the hysteresis model parametrization are discussed in literature. The transformer topology models, derived with the presented approach, are able to reproduce the transformer no-load current waveform with acceptable accuracy.

Digital systems for independent aging, support and care are not being adopted as hoped. The purpose of this paper is to examine the results of three studies to derive key factors during the development and engineering process of care and support systems for older people that can impact acceptance and uptake to provide support to future projects.

The paper analyzed the results of three qualitative studies, including two detailed case studies and a further study with 35 participants, to derive key factors. Methods for deriving factors are based on thematic analysis to identify common factors across cases and participants.

The findings point to a broad set of interconnected factors that give developers of these types of systems specific recommendations. These highlight what makes these projects complex and identify implications for the development process. Furthermore, they show way the needed user-centered and iterative methods may be in conflict with funding processes.

While others have reported on single projects or looked at acceptance, these studies were the first to explore aspects of the development process that may contribute to the lack of success to date of these types of systems. The results here support more successful outcomes in the future, both by helping people involved in the development of these systems to avoid some of the issues others face and providing input to improve the performance of the engineering process.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of two formal controls, namely target rigidity and process autonomy, on team adaptability and project success in new product development (NPD) projects. Target rigidity refers to performance goals that are non-negotiable once they have been set. Process autonomy refers to the extent to which a project team is free to choose ways to achieve its goals. Team adaptability is considered a key factor that explains the relationship between formal controls and project success.

Two separate models related to resource and cost measures are analysed, since different target types may influence managerial perceptions. This study uses data collected from a survey with 113 project managers as respondents.

The findings show that target rigidity and process autonomy support team adaptability. Furthermore, team adaptability mediates the impact of formal controls on project success. The effects are more pronounced for cost targets as compared to resource targets.

Firms can increase project success by using formal controls in such a way that they allow project managers to provide their teams with motivating guidelines (target rigidity) and discretion (process autonomy) to adapt to new circumstances.

This study reveals the impact of formal controls on NPD project success through team adaptability. A balanced use of target rigidity and process autonomy may help improving NPD project success.

Customer orientation of service employees relates to customer satisfaction and loyalty, sales growth and business performance. Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory, the aim of this study was to test the interactive effects of service employees' role clarity and learning goal orientation on customer orientation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that even under conditions of low role clarity, service employees with high learning goal orientation would maintain a high level of customer orientation.

Participants were 323 employees of 4- and 5-star hotels in Singapore. Using questionnaires, they reported their role clarity, learning goal orientation and customer orientation. For hypothesis testing, moderated regression analysis was performed.

Role clarity and learning goal orientation were significantly related to customer orientation, and in support of the hypothesis, the interaction effect of role clarity and learning goal orientation was also significant. With high role clarity, all employees showed high customer orientation. But with low role clarity, only employees with high learning goal orientation demonstrated high customer orientation.

The recommendations from this study are to include learning goal orientation as a selection criterion for service employees and to clearly define the roles of existing service employees, especially for those with low learning goal orientation.

The originality and value of this study lies in highlighting the importance of learning goal orientation especially under conditions of low role clarity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a solution strategy for coupled nonlinear magnetic-thermal problems and apply it to the heating process of a thin moving steel sheet. Performing efficient numerical simulations of induction heating processes becomes ever more important because of faster production development cycles, where the quasi steady-state solution of the problem plays a pivotal role.

To avoid time-consuming transient simulations, the eddy current problem is transformed into frequency domain and a harmonic balancing scheme is used to take into account the nonlinear BH-curve. The thermal problem is solved in steady-state domain, which is carried out by including a convective term to model the stationary heat transport due to the sheet velocity.

The presented solution strategy is compared to a classical nonlinear transient reference solution of the eddy current problem and shows good convergence, even for a small number of considered harmonics.

Numerical simulations of induction heating processes are necessary to fully understand certain phenomena, e.g. local overheating of areas in thin structures. With the presented approach it is possible to perform large 3D simulations without excessive computational resources by exploiting certain properties of the multiharmonic solution of the eddy current problem. Together with the use of nonconforming interfaces, the overall computational complexity of the problem can be decreased significantly.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the worst-case behavior of a given electronic circuit by varying the values of the components in a meaningful way in order not to exceed pre-defined currents or voltages limits during a transient operation.

An analytic formulation is used to identify the time-dependent solution of voltages or currents using proper state equations in closed form. Circuits with linear elements can be described by a system of differential equations, while circuits composing nonlinear elements are described by piecewise-linear models. A sequential quadratic program (SQP) is used to find the worst-case scenario.

It is found that the worst-case scenario can be obtained with as few solutions to the forward problem as possible by applying an SQP method.

The SQP method in combination with the analytic forward solver approach shows that the worst-case limit converges in a few steps even if the worst-case limit is not on the boundary of the parameters.

There are many academic contributions dealing with the impact of additive manufacturing on supply chains (Ben-Ner and Siemsen, 2017; Durach, 2017; Gravier and Roethlein, 2018; Brown, 2018; Rogers et al., 2016; Sasson and Johnson, 2016; Nyman and Sarlin, 2014). But how future supply chain design may differ from today is still vague. In this article, possible scenarios are discussed and decision support is provided for the management, which is responsible for long-term strategic decisions.

This papers introduces the general characteristics of additive manufacturing and its next steps of development. Based on these technological assumptions various scenarios are systematically derived applying the standardized nomenclature of SCOR-model. Resulting threats and chances will be discussed and finally brought to a conclusion.

With the spread of additive manufacturing, the industry has the opportunity to pursue completely new approaches in terms of product development, design and product properties. This not only leads to new competitive models and the possibility of customer individualization of the products down to volume “1”. In addition, there are new models for supply chain management that can be used to react quickly and flexibly to customer requests. Already today new approaches for the cooperation between partners play an essential role.For start-ups, market entry should be simplified by using the resulting opportunities.

Future developments and especially the development speed of additive manufacturing are not predictable. Therefore, the expected scenarios may differ from reality and lead to a different supply chain design. There will also be industries that can use additive manufacturing much more intensively than others – not least because of the technological restrictions of the manufacturing process. Corporate culture and the overcoming of technical challenges are a decisive factor.

This paper gives supply chain management an outlook on future development opportunities. This enables management to set the right course for a future-oriented position today.

The changes in the supply chain will open up new business models while existing models will disappear. This leads to a change in the field of logistics but also for many technology providers. As a consequence, there will be serious changes (opportunities and risks) for the employees involved and their working environment.

This paper enables management to understand the scope and impact of upcoming changes. In this way, it significantly promotes awareness-raising and contributes to the future-oriented proceeding of companies.

Building a cycling route is an interesting example of sustainable, environmentally friendly leisure and tourism project and this also fosters innovation in eco-friendly transport options. Financial resources must be found to achieve these ambitious goals and crowdfunding could be the answer. The study analyses the factors that influence potential backers' decisions to contribute to the fundraising campaign.

A Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA) was applied to elaborate a map of factors that could influence the process of the crowd's contribution to a crowdfunding round for supporting the enhancement of a cycling route. The factors taken into account were the motivations to contribute, the crowdfunder's features and the dynamics of the fundraising campaign.

The results demonstrate the strategic role played by rewards in the design of a crowdfunding round for a sustainable tourism and leisure project. The results also add more insights by considering backers' attitudes to rewards.

Understanding the factors that can influence the decision to pledge in the tourism and leisure context has extremely valuable implications for tourism businesses developing the business idea and associated capital raising strategies. The study also has practical implications for all institutions trying to foster innovation in eco-friendly transport, particularly in promoting more cycling and improving the image of cycling in the culture.

The study is a step forward in understanding the factors that lead backers to support a sustainable project in the tourism and leisure context and the related dynamics of the crowdfunding round.