NAVY GLOBAL MULTI-AWARD CONTRACT: EFFECTS OF COMPETITION ON PRICING OF PORT VISITS

The Navy acquisition community has made significant strides in modernizing policies and contracting vehicles to better support U.S. warships and personnel with husbanding services both at home and abroad. Although much has been done to mitigate risks, reduce inefficiencies, and improve lag times in service provided, serious setbacks have occurred and continue to occur. This research investigates some potential shortfalls in the husbanding service provider process and provides recommendations for improvement and cost savings. The Husbanding Service Portal and the Global Multiple Award Contract strategy are two of the primary tools utilized to examine the correlation of pricing, competition, and performance in task order awards for overseas port visits across all platforms and port visit locations of U.S. Navy ships over the past 5 years. The authors have determined, based on the quantitative analysis, that it would be of great interest for Navy leadership to examine the data and findings within to better manage costs, improve audit compliance, and enhance warfighter operational readiness in the great power competition. The authors have concluded that the Global Multiple Award Contract has resulted in significant costs savings due to increased competition compared to the previous Multiple Award Contracts, with the exception of a small group of port locations outlined in this research paper.NAVSUPLieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Exploring the outcomes of digital marketing on historic sites' visitor behaviour

Purpose – Digital communication and social media have an increasing importance in society and in tourism boosting. This study aims to analyse the role of digital marketing in the destination image and visitor loyalty of historic sites. Design/methodology/approach – Using a mixed-method approach combining survey data from 318 respondents and three in-depth interviews. Using structural equations modelling results reveals experience, satisfaction, image and loyalty are concepts to be considered by the destinations’ digital marketing promotion, as well as the increasing use of digital marketing by tourists, in the sense that tourists are increasing the habit of checking the opinion of others before scheduling their trip and gives them more importance, and a growing importance is given by tourists to the web/social networks of places they intend to visit. Findings – This study contributes to the theory on tourism digital marketing which can be transposed to organizations management in order to encourage discussion on the processes of capture, retention and loyalty of target audiences. Research limitations/implications – To enhance the importance of digital marketing in the process of the tourist development of the city, it is fundamental to define a clear strategy for attracting and responding to the greatest demand from cultural tourists who are increasingly interested in actively participating in learning experiences. Practical implications – The results show that digital communication and social media have an increasing importance in society and in tourism boosting and economy recovery. Social implications – The paper presents digital marketing as a possible factor in tourism development and social inclusion, advancing practical measures aimed at social justice through a fairer distribution of tourism revenues and the defence of historic centre residents’ way (i.e. Barcelos’), and quality of life. Originality/value – The authors suggest the development of a strategic digital marketing plan applied to the development and promotion of tourism in the city of Barcelos (Portugal), to complement the research presented here, thus contributing with a more practical perspective of the subject under study.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Consulting project : recommendations for the services marketing plan do Ginásio Clube Português

The increasing awareness of health problems that are a consequence of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle as well as the snowballing popularity of the concern with aesthetics have been contributing to the growth and development of the Health and Fitness Industry worldwide. Portugal is no exception and, especially due to the contracting economy, new opportunities are emerging for this market. Moreover, in the past few years, motivations towards physical activity have shifted and the fitness centers have to adapt to this change in the customers’ preferences and attitudes. Ginásio Clube Português (GCP) requested a consulting project that involved the development of recommendations for the Services Marketing Plan for the upcoming year that counteracts the challenges stated above. The renowned Gaps Model of Service Quality, developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985), was used as a starting point for this analysis to support future recommendations, by assessing the gap between members’ expectations and perceptions of the service quality of GCP. The research questions that emerged to respond to the problem in hand are: (1) how do GCP members perceive the quality of this health club and what do they expect of such an institution, (2) what is the general opinion on the practice of physical activity, especially in the context of gyms and health clubs, and (3) how can GCP attract new members while retaining the existing ones. The methodology adopted to answer these questions involved the combination of three different research techniques: in-­‐depth interviews, mystery shopping and questionnaires

S-Cart, Intelligent self check-out trolley in hypermarket. Creation of value proposition for intelligent self-checkout trolley.

Disertasi ini ialah satu pelan perniagaan untuk memasarkan troli semakan diri, “S-Cart”. This dissertation is a business plan to market the self checkout trolley, called “S-Cart”

A real-time assessment of customer experience

We have now entered into the age of the customer, a time where competing through traditional methods is no longer valid; it is the customer experience that is crucial to gaining a competitive advantage. Despite the recognition of the importance of customer experience, there is a considerable dearth of knowledge among both academics and practitioners on aspects relating to customer experience including the drivers, measurement and value it provides to firms. In an attempt to move forward the body of knowledge on customer experience, the researcher set out to answer the following research question: what is the impact of customer experience on customer intentions and actual behaviour in multichannel retail and service settings? The research comprised two successive studies. Study 1 was conducted to identify the elements that encompass customer experience touch points. The study was based on a qualitative research approach, using a sequential incident technique to guide the data collection. A total of 28 customer experience narratives provided by 22 informants was collected through semi-structured interviews. An inductive thematic analysis of the semi-structure interview transcripts was employed to identify distinct elements of customer experience touch points; elements to be used to develop a holistic model of customer experience in Study 2. Study 2 was conducted to investigate empirically the real-time impact of customer experience on customer intentions and actual behaviour in multichannel retail and service settings

Exploring the outcomes of digital marketing on historic sites' visitor behaviour

Purpose – Digital communication and social media have an increasing importance in society and in tourism boosting. This study aims to analyse the role of digital marketing in the destination image and visitor loyalty of historic sites. Design/methodology/approach – Using a mixed-method approach combining survey data from 318 respondents and three in-depth interviews. Using structural equations modelling results reveals experience, satisfaction, image and loyalty are concepts to be considered by the destinations’ digital marketing promotion, as well as the increasing use of digital marketing by tourists, in the sense that tourists are increasing the habit of checking the opinion of others before scheduling their trip and gives them more importance, and a growing importance is given by tourists to the web/social networks of places they intend to visit. Findings – This study contributes to the theory on tourism digital marketing which can be transposed to organizations management in order to encourage discussion on the processes of capture, retention and loyalty of target audiences. Research limitations/implications – To enhance the importance of digital marketing in the process of the tourist development of the city, it is fundamental to define a clear strategy for attracting and responding to the greatest demand from cultural tourists who are increasingly interested in actively participating in learning experiences. Practical implications – The results show that digital communication and social media have an increasing importance in society and in tourism boosting and economy recovery. Social implications – The paper presents digital marketing as a possible factor in tourism development and social inclusion, advancing practical measures aimed at social justice through a fairer distribution of tourism revenues and the defence of historic centre residents’ way (i.e. Barcelos’), and quality of life. Originality/value – The authors suggest the development of a strategic digital marketing plan applied to the development and promotion of tourism in the city of Barcelos (Portugal), to complement the research presented here, thus contributing with a more practical perspective of the subject under study.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

More Than Just a Party: How the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boosted Participation by Young Adults

Describes an after-hours program designed to boost attendance among young adults and factors contributing to its success, including the elimination of perceptual barriers, encouragement of informal interaction, and exploration of galleries

Knowledge aggregation in people recommender systems : matching skills to tasks

People recommender systems (PRS) are a special type of RS. They are often adopted to identify people capable of performing a task. Recommending people poses several challenges not exhibited in traditional RS. Elements such as availability, overload, unresponsiveness, and bad recommendations can have adverse effects. This thesis explores how people’s preferences can be elicited for single-event matchmaking under uncertainty and how to align them with appropriate tasks. Different methodologies are introduced to profile people, each based on the nature of the information from which it was obtained. These methodologies are developed into three use cases to illustrate the challenges of PRS and the steps taken to address them. Each one emphasizes the priorities of the matching process and the constraints under which these recommendations are made. First, multi-criteria profiles are derived completely from heterogeneous sources in an implicit manner characterizing users from multiple perspectives and multi-dimensional points-of-view without influence from the user. The profiles are introduced to the conference reviewer assignment problem. Attention is given to distribute people across items in order reduce potential overloading of a person, and neglect or rejection of a task. Second, people’s areas of interest are inferred from their resumes and expressed in terms of their uncertainty avoiding explicit elicitation from an individual or outsider. The profile is applied to a personnel selection problem where emphasis is placed on the preferences of the candidate leading to an asymmetric matching process. Third, profiles are created by integrating implicit information and explicitly stated attributes. A model is developed to classify citizens according to their lifestyles which maintains the original information in the data set throughout the cluster formation. These use cases serve as pilot tests for generalization to real-life implementations. Areas for future application are discussed from new perspectives.Els sistemes de recomanació de persones (PRS) són un tipus especial de sistemes recomanadors (RS). Sovint s’utilitzen per identificar persones per a realitzar una tasca. La recomanació de persones comporta diversos reptes no exposats en la RS tradicional. Elements com la disponibilitat, la sobrecàrrega, la falta de resposta i les recomanacions incorrectes poden tenir efectes adversos. En aquesta tesi s'explora com es poden obtenir les preferències dels usuaris per a la definició d'assignacions sota incertesa i com aquestes assignacions es poden alinear amb tasques definides. S'introdueixen diferents metodologies per definir el perfil d’usuaris, cadascun en funció de la naturalesa de la informació necessària. Aquestes metodologies es desenvolupen i s’apliquen en tres casos d’ús per il·lustrar els reptes dels PRS i els passos realitzats per abordar-los. Cadascun destaca les prioritats del procés, l’encaix de les recomanacions i les seves limitacions. En el primer cas, els perfils es deriven de variables heterogènies de manera implícita per tal de caracteritzar als usuaris des de múltiples perspectives i punts de vista multidimensionals sense la influència explícita de l’usuari. Això s’aplica al problema d'assignació d’avaluadors per a articles de conferències. Es presta especial atenció al fet de distribuir els avaluadors entre articles per tal de reduir la sobrecàrrega potencial d'una persona i el neguit o el rebuig a la tasca. En el segon cas, les àrees d’interès per a caracteritzar les persones es dedueixen dels seus currículums i s’expressen en termes d’incertesa evitant que els interessos es demanin explícitament a les persones. El sistema s'aplica a un problema de selecció de personal on es posa èmfasi en les preferències del candidat que condueixen a un procés d’encaix asimètric. En el tercer cas, els perfils dels usuaris es defineixen integrant informació implícita i atributs indicats explícitament. Es desenvolupa un model per classificar els ciutadans segons els seus estils de vida que manté la informació original del conjunt de dades del clúster al que ell pertany. Finalment, s’analitzen aquests casos com a proves pilot per generalitzar implementacions en futurs casos reals. Es discuteixen les àrees d'aplicació futures i noves perspectives.Postprint (published version

The Quality of Insurance Intermediary Services – Empirical Evidence for Germany

Insurance intermediaries help consumers to economize on information and transaction costs in insurance markets. However, competing insurance intermediaries provide heterogeneous services, which are difficult to assess by incompletely informed consumers. Transaction costs economics, search theory and principal agent theory provide arguments on product quality differences between the two main distribution channels in insurance markets (exclusive agents vs. independent intermediaries). The present paper uses a sample of 927 insurance intermediaries in Germany. By performing OLS estimations we test the impact of the different distribution channels, but also of other factors relating to the information processing activities on intermediaries’ service quality. Depending on the proxies used for service quality, we find mixed evidence for the “product quality” hypothesis according to which independent intermediaries provide better service quality than exclusive agents. We find that service quality depends also to a large extent on the information gathering and processing activities of the individual intermediaries.Insurance Distribution Channels, Service Quality