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This study assessed the technical (tangible) and functional (human interaction) quality of services in a first‐class international health resort and related these to service management effectiveness. Service management is effective when customers judge the overall service quality to be good, they are highly satisfied, they are willing to recommend the firm to others and they intend to re‐purchase or are predisposed to purchase additional services from the firm. The technical and functional aspects of services quality and their relation to service management effectiveness, were found to be different between the core and supplementary services, between customers and service personnel and between customers with and without experience. The results support the statement that competitive advantage in this industry can be obtained by improving the functional aspects of services management, by better performance of supplementary services and by reducing the gap in perceptions between customers and contact personnel.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the management accounting practice in an organisational unit affects the ability to conduct inter‐organisational control.

Governmentality is used as the main theoretical basis for the interpretation of empirical data. A qualitative case study is used to gather information from an electronics company.

The company enters its inter‐organisational relationships with the ambition of being in power in the relationship. To begin with, management accounting plays a central role in the negotiation process. Due to inadequate management accounting practices, the company is unable to include cost information in their response to proposals made by their suppliers during negotiations. Consequently, the cost aspect of the product fades away from negotiations as they progress.

The study concludes that an important part of management accounting practice is to reveal the intra‐organisational cost consequences of proposals made by suppliers during negotiation processes. These cost consequences are central during negotiation processes since they will keep the focus on costs and cost improvements during the negotiation process. The study indicates that accounting technologies and the physical presence of the management accountant are not sufficient to keep costs on the agenda. Constant cost consciousness requires that the management accountant actively takes part in the joint problem solving process.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the measurement constructs of learning within construction projects' milieu. The literature indicated some mechanisms of learning in projects under four aspects, namely knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, team action to learn, and learning support. The empirical study attempts to verify whether intra-project learning can be measured through these aspects.

The study used a survey method to collect the data from 36 mega-sized building projects in Malaysia. In total, 203 questionnaires were collected from professionals working in the sites of these projects. The data were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the constructs of intra-project learning. Partial least squares-path modeling was used then to confirm the results of PCA and determine the contribution of each construct to intra-project learning.

The results affirmed two constructs of intra-project learning, named, social and technical and each consisted of four indicators of learning.

The paper emphasized the socio-technical perspective of learning and contributed to developing a hierarchical measurement model of learning in construction project. A project manager can propose new initiatives in response to the new perspective of learning for team building and continuous development. Lastly, the paper provides a comprehensive presentation of how to estimate the hierarchical measurement models of project learning as a latent variable.

As the level of implementation of Industry 4.0 increases, misalignments between adopted technologies and organizational factors may result in benefits below expected. This paper aims to analyze how organizational factors can contribute to a higher level of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. The paper uses a sociotechnical perspective lens to achieve this aim.

Using a sample of 231 manufacturing companies in Denmark, a leading country in Industry 4.0 readiness, the paper analyzes through cluster analysis and logistic regression whether the development of four sociotechnical dimensions – that is, Social, Technical, Work Organization and Environmental factors – in these companies can benefit the achievement of higher levels of Industry 4.0 technology adoption.

The results show that companies focused on the development of sociotechnical aspects generally present higher Industry 4.0 adoption levels. However, some sociotechnical factors are less supportive than others.

Based on these results, practitioners can plan the adoption of advanced technologies, using a systemic organizational view. This study provides evidence on a growing field with few empirical studies available. The paper contributes by providing an analysis of a leading country in Industry 4.0 implementation, presenting a systemic view on technology adoption in the Industry 4.0 context.

Examines the effects of service quality on customer satisfaction from two distinct methodological perspectives. Specifically, a study utilizing a sample of international private banking customers is conducted wherein service quality is operationalized via two distinct and well‐known measures – SERVQUAL and Technical/Functional Quality. These two service quality measures are subsequently compared and contrasted as to their ability to predict customer satisfaction. To further assess the validity of these findings, two moderators of the service‐quality/customer‐satisfaction relationship are introduced and evaluated. Finally, this research examines the potential utility of employing separate measures for customer satisfaction from the perspectives of both technical and functional aspects of the service delivery process. Overall, our findings are of importance to service managers as they strive to identify efficient and effective approaches for improving quality. The paper explores the theoretical and practical insights of the findings, including potential strengths and limitations of current service quality models with regard to their ability to define and explain the quality/satisfaction relationship.

Social factors are an under‐researched but important aspect in the success of manufacturing cells. This paper sets out to investigate the impact and importance of various human factors within a socio‐technical system such as team‐based cellular manufacturing (TBCM).

A questionnaire survey was designed to provide information about human factors in TBCM. The survey was conducted at four medium‐to‐large size organisations in Australia and Switzerland where participants were required to be working within a TBCM environment and included managers, team leaders, and operators. A set of research questions and hypotheses was developed and tested.

It was found that human issues account for a significant proportion of problems within team‐based manufacturing cells. Of the eight human factors tested in this survey, communication, teamwork and training were ranked the most important, while reward/compensation was ranked the least important. Testing showed significant relationships between factors such as companies, positions, experience and team size; therefore most hypotheses were supported.

Traditionally, the research focus has been on the technical aspect of socio‐technical systems such as TBCM. This study offers practitioners and academics a better understanding of the human issues associated with this important form of manufacturing, therefore improving the likelihood of its success.

This paper demonstrates the need for research into the social side of TBCM, while providing an understanding of the important human factors associated with this system.

The individual levels involved in real estate management are thoroughly discussed in the literature. This paper provides a structured meta-analysis of the different theoretical approaches in German-speaking countries. It also investigates the integration of transaction management and technical due diligence into the concepts of organisation theory. In this process, the interfaces are analysed and optimised models are developed for transferring the technical due diligence findings to the operational level.

Interviews with transaction management experts were conducted based on a narrative literature review. These interviews shed light on how the components of transaction management and due diligence are integrated into the transaction process, with a particular focus on technical due diligence. They also provide insights into how the related results are taken into account in relation to the transaction, and how they are transferred into the operational phase.

It becomes apparent that the role of transaction management is not clearly defined and delimited in the structural model of the real estate industry. Technical due diligence findings are usually transferred to the operation of the property via several, manual interfaces with corresponding losses of knowledge. The related models derived and developed for the purpose of operational optimisation define the role of transaction management against a technical background and identify the interfaces to be considered.

The significance of transaction management for subsequent operations is discussed and elaborated on. More specifically, transferring safety-relevant, high-priority findings from the technical due diligence exercise plays a crucial role for the modelling stage. On the implementation level, the derived models serve as a basis for customising the internal organisational structure.

In Germany, there has hardly been any research into the involvement of technical experts in the real estate transaction process to date. This paper provides initial approaches to optimising organisational structures and sustainably integrating technical due diligence findings into real estate operations.

Assesses whether consumer segments based on relational aspects, service aspects, or price aspects have different preferences concerning these three key decision‐making variables when buying a car. In addition, assesses consumer segments resulting from simultaneously incorporating relationships, service package, and price. Investigates a large sample of Mitsubishi drivers in The Netherlands emphasizing consumers’ trade‐off between dealer relationship, service package and price. Conjoint analysis showed that dealer relationships (as opposed to price) represent a very important decision‐making variable when buying a car and consumer preferences concerning relationships provide a useful instrument for segmenting markets. Cluster analyses on the basis of three aspects simultaneously revealed that some consumers do value relationships, while others emphasize the service package in their purchase, both opposed to the third segment that is most probably not inclined to be loyal to a car dealer at all. Clearly indicates that different consumer segments can be distinguished on the basis of preferences for relationships and service packages rather than on the basis of price. This knowledge enables car dealers to use their resources more effectively.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of human-related support practices, total productive maintenance (TPM) practices, and total quality management (TQM) practices on manufacturing performance parameters and their inter-relationship.

A research project was carried out in 94 Indian manufacturing companies, using the questionnaire method. The survey data was drawn from 169 respondents working in these companies. In this paper, the impact of TPM and TQM practices on manufacturing performance parameters and especially the role of support practices is investigated empirically using various structural equation models.

Two factors namely top management and leadership and human resource development categorized as support practices were found to positively influence the adoption of technical practices, i.e., TPM and TQM practices. Hence support practices were found to indirectly affect the manufacturing performance parameters via the technical factors. Also analyzing various structural equation models (SEM), shop floor implementation of TPM practices were found to be influenced (or guided) by the philosophy of TQM practices. In other words, through the proper adoption of TQM practices, the effectiveness of TPM practices gets increased.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further using a case study approach.

The present study provides useful insights to practicing managers. The result of the study explaining the interrelationship between support practices (behavioral aspect) and technical practices can be used by practicing managers to develop a better understanding of the contribution of support and technical practices towards the realization of organizational objectives of growth and sustainability. In practice, TQM plays a great role in the adoption of TPM practices, which in turn helps to achieve quality in processes and therefore in products.

Previous research has often either concentrated on technical practices as one dimension without studying the effects of support practices on improving the adoption of technical practices. The results of the study take one step further by investigating the relationship between multiple aspects (support and technical aspects) of manufacturing practices and their impact on manufacturing performance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model to analyze the relationships between three aspects of technical electronic commerce (EC)‐based information system (IS) resources; the supply chain process integration; and business value.

The paper is consistent with the perspective on IS‐enabled organizational capabilities and resource based view of the firm. A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to collect data from 214 supply chain, logistics, or procurement/purchasing managers of leading manufacturing firms.

The findings suggest that supply chain process integration, a key EC‐enabled organizational capability, can enhance business value. We found that this capability serve as a catalyst in transforming technical EC‐based IS resources (technical quality of EC applications, EC advancements, and EC alignment) into higher value for a firm.

Among other limitations, this paper does not address human IS resources as the other potential determinants of firm's supply chain capabilities. Moreover, this study relies on cross‐sectional data.

The results suggest that supply chain process integration is an important intermediate organizational capability through which value of EC‐based IS resources can be materialized. The technical aspects of EC‐based IS resources need to be developed to effectively form supply chain capabilities.

The paper is perhaps one of the first to show theoretically and empirically how firms, in particular in developing countries, can generate business value from EC‐enabled supply chain process integration; also it broadens the scope of EC alignment in relation to process integration and business value to the entire supply chain.