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1 – 10 of 120Eman Abo ElHamd, Hamed Shamma, Mohamed Saleh and Ehab Elkhodary
The purpose of this paper is to close the gap between the theoretical nature of existing contributions in customer engagement value (CEV) and its need to practically empower…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to close the gap between the theoretical nature of existing contributions in customer engagement value (CEV) and its need to practically empower business decisions. This is done by proposing a framework that consists of three techniques, each of which combines the components of CEV to make it more comprehensive and applicable. The paper also reviews and analyzes the work that has been done so far in the area of CEV whether in business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) or consumer to consumer (C2C) markets.
Design/methodology/approach
CEV is a comprehensive term that measures the total value of the customer through capturing his transactional and non-transactional behaviors. Hence, it is an essential term for measuring the value of the customer in direct marketing. This motivates researchers to compete in developing models to maximize CEV. Meanwhile, most of the existing models are conceptual and the majority of them lack applicability due to many reasons. First, these models relied on a linear version of the CEV model, hence double-counting the value of the customer; also they weighted the components of CEV equally, which is unrealistic. Finally, the effect of the environmental components in determining the engagement level of each customer was almost ignored. In this paper, two main contributions are presented. First, a summary and analysis of the contributions of the literature in the CEV field for different market types whether in B2C, B2B or C2C. Furthermore, three modifications are added to the existing models. The first model introduces a non-linear relationship of the components of CEV. The second model is a weighted linear model of these components. Finally, the third model adds the environmental factors to the CEV components. All the proposed models are theoretical in nature, however, these models are expected to show superiority when being applied to real data sets due to their ability to capture the complexity in the relationship between the firm and its customers in real-life situations. The proposed models are expected to attract the practitioners and other researchers and they both are encouraged to apply the proposed models on real-life data sets, test their performance, compare them against each other, to be able to apply each of them on the best suitable data set and business scenario.
Findings
Based on the review and analysis that has been done on about 87 papers, it is found that the majority of the contributions that have been done in the area of CEV are theoretical in nature, in spite of the effectiveness of CEV in empowering business decision. It is also found that few researchers proposed a set of theoretical comprehensive frameworks that combined CEV’s components together. Meanwhile, those frameworks are not practically applicable.
Research limitations/implications
Although the contribution of the proposed models expected to attract both researchers and practitioners, these are not applied to real-life case studies to prove their effectiveness.
Practical implications
The research in this paper has many industrial and managerial implications. First, it helps managers and decision takers to treat the customers as assets and cost-free resources who can work with the firm to achieve what’s both aims to (i.e. increase customer satisfaction and firm’s profitability). Second, it helps the firm to determine the total value of each customer and treat its customers accordingly. Third, it empowers the managers to do target marketing, based on grouping the customers upon their total engagement. This would save time and cost and for sure increase the profitability and customer satisfaction. Forth, the proposed models take into consideration not only the transactional behavior of the customers but also the non-transactional factors that play a significant role in formulating the relationship between the firm and its customers.
Originality/value
This is hereby to certify that the paper is original, neither the paper nor a part of it is under consideration for publication anywhere else. Also, this study has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Details
Keywords
- Marketing
- Data analysis
- Decision-making
- Modeling
- Decision analysis
- Mathematical programming
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Customer engagement value (CEV)
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Customer referral value (CRV)
- Customer influencer value (CIV)
- Customer knowledge value (CKV)
- Business to consumer (B2C)
- Business to business (B2B)
- Consumer to consumer (C2C)
Tarek Bentahar, Djamel Benatia and Mohamed Boulila
In this paper, a new efficient method to de-noise the interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar interferogram, also called wrapped phase image, is proposed with the aim to reduce…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, a new efficient method to de-noise the interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar interferogram, also called wrapped phase image, is proposed with the aim to reduce the residue number and make the phase unwrapping process easy.
Design/methodology/approach
This method is based on two statistics functions, the former is the phase derivative variance (PDV) defined as a quality map to select the badness areas, the second one is the phase derivative variance (PAD) for a local 3 × 3 pixels filtering which allows to assign an estimated phase for each bad area selected by PDV function. Our filter was tested with a simulated interferograms and compared to other most used filters.
Findings
With this proposed method, the residues in the interferogram are minimized better than using a conventional filters, and the phase unwrapping process gives a better estimation.
Originality/value
Combining two statistical functions (PDV and PAD) is efficient in terms of minimizing the noise in the interferogram; this is very helpful to minimize the processing time of the InSAR image particularly the phase unwrapping treatment and have a good quality of the image.
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Keywords
Asela Indunil Gunesekera, Yukun Bao and Mboni Kibelloh
The purpose of this study is to review the effect of usability factors on e-learning user relationships, namely, student–student interaction (SSI), student–instructor interaction…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to review the effect of usability factors on e-learning user relationships, namely, student–student interaction (SSI), student–instructor interaction (SII) and student–content interaction (SCI), in the existing e-learning literature. Further, this study intended to identify whether usability contributes to the satisfaction of e-learners.
Design/methodology/approach
This study has undertaken a systematic review using the PRISMA methodology to filter the literature in the domain of e-learning with respect to usability concerns using six databases. An analytical framework has been formulated to evaluate the literature against different dimensions of interactions and usability.
Findings
Results reveal that while SSI has grabbed 71.4 per cent research attention with respect to usability factors of e-learning systems, SCI has been given the least focus, i.e. 26.6 per cent. According to the results, e-learning systems’ usability issues influence the user relationships and affect the user satisfaction, which will lead to lack of user continuity.
Practical implications
The findings of this review will provide insights to instructional designers to construct more satisfied learning content for the users. The analysis framework of this study will encourage researchers to drive future research in e-learning along with the concern of usability.
Originality/value
This research emphasizes on the importance of SCI to focus future e-learning research on a different angle, in addition to SSI and SII. The analysis framework of this study will provide different dimensions, specifically for the empirical research in the domain of e-learning.
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Keywords
Lucas Lobo Latorre Fortes and Sandro Trindade Mordente Gonçalves
This paper aims to explore the limitations of the conformal finite difference time-domain method (C-FDTD or Dey–Mittra) when modeling perfect electric conducting (PEC) and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the limitations of the conformal finite difference time-domain method (C-FDTD or Dey–Mittra) when modeling perfect electric conducting (PEC) and lossless dielectric curved surfaces in coarse meshes. The C-FDTD is a widely known approach to reduce error of curved surfaces in the FDTD method. However, its performance limitations are not broadly described in the literature, which are explored as a novelty in this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the C-FDTD method applied on field scattering simulations of two curved surfaces, a dielectric and a PEC sphere, through the frequency range from 0.8 to 10 GHz. For each sphere, the mesh was progressively impoverished to evaluate the accuracy drop and performance limitations of the C-FDTD with the mesh impoverishment, along with the wideband frequency range described.
Findings
This paper shows and quantifies the C-FDTD method’s accuracy drops as the mesh is impoverished, reducing C-FDTD’s performance. It is also shown how the performance drops differently according to the frequency of interest.
Practical implications
With this study, coarse meshes, with smaller execution time and reduced memory usage, can be further explored reliably accounting the desired accuracy, enabling a better trade-off between accuracy and computational effort.
Originality/value
This paper quantifies the limitations of the C-FDTD in coarse meshes in a wideband manner, which brings a broader and newer insight upon C-FDTD’s limitations in coarse meshes or relatively small objects in electromagnetic simulation.
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Keywords
Mohd Khairulnizam Sahlan, Mohd Fauzi Abu-Hussin and Aminudin Hehsan
The purpose of this paper is to explore coopetition, a strategy that combines cooperation and competition, in addressing relationships between small grocery retailers. Using…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore coopetition, a strategy that combines cooperation and competition, in addressing relationships between small grocery retailers. Using coopetition as an underlying concept, this study examines how religious influences play a role in determining business strategies for grocery retailers.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper integrates the concept of coopetition into a definition that holds for coopetitive interactions across small-scale retailers. The study uses a qualitative multi-case methodology to gather data regarding horizontal channel relationships in retailing. A preliminary pilot study was conducted to gain a clearer understanding and develop a basic information pattern for the relationship between Halal Mart retailers and coopetition.
Findings
Preliminary findings have shown that halal mart retailers at Muslim marts may have involvement with four categories of business relationships (cooperation, competition, coexistence and coopetition).
Originality/value
This paper provides a conceptual understanding of coopetition among small firms, which have not received much focus in the literature. The addition of religiosity extends the theory of coopetition beyond activity, actors and resources.
Details
Keywords
Vítor Tinoco, Manuel F. Silva, Filipe N. Santos, António Valente, Luís F. Rocha, Sandro A. Magalhães and Luis C. Santos
The motivation for robotics research in the agricultural field has sparked in consequence of the increasing world population and decreasing agricultural labor availability. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The motivation for robotics research in the agricultural field has sparked in consequence of the increasing world population and decreasing agricultural labor availability. This paper aims to analyze the state of the art of pruning and harvesting manipulators used in agriculture.
Design/methodology/approach
A research was performed on papers that corresponded to specific keywords. Ten papers were selected based on a set of attributes that made them adequate for review.
Findings
The pruning manipulators were used in two different scenarios: grapevines and apple trees. These manipulators showed that a light-controlled environment could reduce visual errors and that prismatic joints on the manipulator are advantageous to obtain a higher reach. The harvesting manipulators were used for three types of fruits: strawberries, tomatoes and apples. These manipulators revealed that different kinematic configurations are required for different kinds of end-effectors, as some of these tools only require movement in the horizontal axis and others are required to reach the target with a broad range of orientations.
Originality/value
This work serves to reduce the gap in the literature regarding agricultural manipulators and will support new developments of novel solutions related to agricultural robotic grasping and manipulation.
Details
Keywords
Poliana Martins, Edson Pinheiro de Lima, Sandro César Bortoluzzi and Sergio E. Gouvea da Costa
In this study, the performance assessment of credit unions is developed, seeking to demonstrate how the content of their operations strategy is present in the structuring of…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the performance assessment of credit unions is developed, seeking to demonstrate how the content of their operations strategy is present in the structuring of unique models of organisational performance assessment. The main objective is to compare sources of knowledge through the content analysis of the service operations strategy as proposed by the literature and validated by specialists.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is a qualitative study that uses the knowledge of specialists to frame a performance assessment structure applied to credit unions. The research strategy is based on multicriteria analysis, and the selected techniques are based on the MCDA-C procedure, that is, the processes of structuring, evaluating and recommending improvements.
Findings
The research results provided: a data set external to the context that serves as theoretical support for the comparisons made; the structuring of 4 unique organisational performance assessment models carried out through the MCDA-C procedure; conceptual interpretation using the lens of the operations strategy in the cognitive maps of the assessment models, which identifies the operations strategy carried out; and comparison of the result models that show their uniqueness.
Originality/value
The comparison between the origins of knowledge is highlighted, and the demonstration of the content was proposed by the literature and by specialists to evaluate the performance in operations. This was then compared with the content constructed with credit union managers in structuring models based on the singularities of the respective contexts. The theory was compared to practice, and it was demonstrated how the content of the operations regarding the performance could be used in decision contexts.
Details
Keywords
Markus Polzer, Marcel Bartz, Benedict Rothammer, Edgar Schulz and Sandro Wartzack
The curved and tribologically highly stressed surfaces of bearing components pose a major challenge for steel alloys or tribological resistant coatings like tetrahedral amorphous…
Abstract
Purpose
The curved and tribologically highly stressed surfaces of bearing components pose a major challenge for steel alloys or tribological resistant coatings like tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) coatings which in particular have an increased risk of delamination due to the significantly increased residual stresses. A possibility to prevent coating failure is the use of dopants while maintaining or even increasing tribological properties. This study aims to compare the tribological behavior of several doped diamond-like-carbon coatings with an undoped ta-C coating under varying slip conditions and Hertzian pressure up to 1800 MPa.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, the tribological behavior was studied using of a ball-on-disc tribometer and a two-disc test rig under mixed/boundary conditions. The tests were conducted with coated specimens against uncoated 100Cr6 steel. Additionally, the influence of lubrication additives was studied due to the use of two fully formulated PAO-based oils, one without and one with molybdenum containing additives. The friction was measured in situ, and the wear was analyzed trough laser scanning microscopy and tactile measurement.
Findings
It was shown that the use of doped ta-C coatings exhibited a tendency for a more favorable tribological behavior compared to undoped ta-C coatings, with no general dependence on the lubricants used. The use of the most suitable coatings reduced the wear of the steel counter-body considerably.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first approach of testing the tribological behavior of these doped ta-C coatings, developed for friction efficiency, in dependency on lubrication additives under the given load collective. The approach is relevant to determine whether the friction reduction and the wear inhibition of these coatings are suitable for higher contact pressures and load cycles.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-11-2022-0336/
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Keywords
Sandro Castaldo, Lara Penco and Giorgia Profumo
Cruising is one of the industries most susceptible to the current COVID-19 health crisis, due to the closed environment and the contacts between cruisers and crewmembers. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Cruising is one of the industries most susceptible to the current COVID-19 health crisis, due to the closed environment and the contacts between cruisers and crewmembers. This study aims to understand if the perceived crowding and the health risk perception related to the pandemic situation might threaten passengers’ intentions to cruise. The study also examines corporate reputation and trust, as well as social motivation and self-confidence, as possible predictors of consumers’ intention to cruise.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on the development of a structured questionnaire submitted online via social media. Overall, 553 individuals’ responses were used for understanding the factors that can affect consumers’ intention to cruise by performing several regression models.
Findings
The results show that the perceived crowding related to the pandemic does not seem to influence people’s intention to cruise. On the contrary, trust in the cruise company, corporate reputation, cruisers’ self-confidence and research of social motivation are positive predictors of intention to cruise, thus reducing the perceived risk’s deterring impact. The importance of such factors differs in respect of repeat and not repeat cruisers.
Practical implications
The study presents several managerial implications as it analyses the variables that could help cruise management cope better with COVID-19’s negative impact.
Originality/value
Despite the severity of COVID-19’s impact on the cruise industry, no studies have yet focussed on how the current pandemic situation may influence customers’ intention to cruise in the future.