Tourist Services Quality in the Simien Mountains National Park, World Heritage Site, Ethiopia.

Service quality in the hospitality industry becomes one of the vital contributing factors in tourism marketing. Quality is created by the process of service delivery, such as friendliness, courtesy and efficiency, and the outcomes of services such as accommodation, food, attractions and leisure facilities. The objective of the research was to assess the quality of products and services being delivered within the Simien Mountains National Park (SMNP). A cross-sectional study design was used to describe the quality of products and services being delivered to visitors in the SMNP. The target population in this study was 4,767 foreign tourists and foreign residents who visited the SMNP and from this total, 268 individuals were taken as the sample size. Both probability and non-probability sampling methods were employed. Data were collected for foreign tourists and foreign residents who visited SMNP in the year of 2017. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 was employed to analyze the quantitative data. To describe the survey results, descriptive statistical tools such as frequency distribution, percentages, mean graphs, and tables were used. To triangulate quantitative information, qualitative data generated from open-ended questions were employed. Visitors who visited the park were satisfied with an overall mean value of 3.6, relating to the major qualities of the tourism product such as weather conditions, the value for money of visitor attractions, accessibility, safety and security, and cleanliness of the local environment. Service quality had an overall mean value of 2.69, based on services delivered by tour guides; cooks; hotels, lodges and restaurants; scouts; car and field equipment rental services; and the value for money of the service delivery in the SMNP was considered poor. Tourists were not satisfied by accommodation quality with the overall mean value of 2.87, and with an overall mean value of 2.65 park visitors were not satisfied with the park infrastructure. The quality of tourist information delivered by service providers was poor, failing to satisfy tourists who visited the destination. With the overall mean value of 3.62 visitors were satisfied with park community hospitality such as courtesy, the friendliness of local people and employees and their willingness to help

Relationship intention and service quality as combined competitive strategy

Offering superior service quality or building long-term customer relationships could offer effective strategies to create a competitive advantage. However, since not all customers desire to enter into relationships with service providers, it may be more profitable to focus relationship marketing strategies on customers with relationship intentions. The purpose of this study was to establish whether there is a relationship between relationship intention and service quality, as combining these approaches could result in formulating a greater competitive strategy than using either one of these strategies in isolation. Data were collected from 368 South African respondents. The results indicated positive relationships between respondents' relationship intentions and service quality expectations and perceptions. It was also established that respondents with moderate and low relationship intentions were significantly less satisfied with the service levels they receive compared with their expectations, whereas no difference was found for those with higher relationship intentions.https://www.inderscienceonline.com/loi/ijmedhj2019Marketing Managemen

Exploring supply chain resilience in the South African telecommunications industry

Supply chain resilience (SCRES) is an essential consideration for organisations globally across diverse industries. Paradoxes in the SCRES literature are evident. On the one hand, more resilience is considered better while on the other hand it is acknowledged that resilience results in an additional cost to the focal organisation. The purpose of this study was to explore SCRES, specifically resources committed and predetermined in the process of achieving resilience. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted in the South African telecommunications industry. The main findings of this study identified the drawbacks of SCRES which include financial implications, unwillingly adopting a follower strategy and deleterious effects on customer service. The study further identified measures to prevent the over-utilisation of resources to achieve SCRES such as the learning curve, customer satisfaction and the optimal level of SCRES. Organisational strategy and return on investment (ROI) are the primary considerations for allocating resources to achieve SCRES. This study is one of the first generic qualitative studies to explore SCRES a developing country context. Managers can consider the findings of this study to develop a relevant and customer-driven SCRES strategy that would appeal to organisational shareholders.http://www.journals.co.za/content/journal/jcmanam2020Business Managemen

Green product development under competition: A study of the fashion apparel industry

Motivated by the observed industrial issues, we analytically develop a fashion supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and two competing retailers and investigate how retail competition and consumer returns affect green product development in fashion apparel. In the basic model, that is, the pure “product greenness level” game, we find that the optimal greenness level of the fashion product decreases along with the level of market competition. This finding implies that a more competitive market leads to a lower optimal greenness level. We also identify that when the consumer return rate increases, the optimal product greenness level is substantially reduced. In the extended model with joint decisions on greenness and pricing, we find that the optimal product greenness level for the whole channel is always higher in the scenario when both retailers charge a higher retail price than in the case with a lower retail price. As such, the underdevelopment of green fashion products is a result of fashion industry features, such as an extremely competitive environment for green product development, relatively low retail prices for fashion products, and high consumer return rates. Therefore, fashion companies should join a co-opetition game for the green product market and simultaneously enhance their efficiency in managing consumer returns. To support our analytical findings, we conduct extensive industrial interviews with various representative companies. Based on this multi-methodological approach (MMA), this paper generates practice-relevant managerial insights that not only contribute to the literature, but also act as valuable references for industrialists

Gestión de calidad y satisfacción del usuario en el área de pasaportes de migraciones de un aeropuerto en Lima, 2021

La investigación Gestión de calidad y satisfacción del usuario en el área de pasaportes de Migraciones de un aeropuerto en Lima, 2021, tuvo como objetivo determinar la influencia de la gestión de calidad en la satisfacción del usuario. La problemática radica en la insatisfacción de los usuarios que visitan el área al realizar un trámite en el área de pasaportes. La investigación fue de tipo aplicada, de nivel descriptivo y causal, con un diseño no experimental y de corte transversal conformada por una muestra de 370 usuarios que han realizado el trámite de pasaportes en el aeropuerto en el año 2021, con un muestreo probabilístico estratificado, se recogió la información mediante una encuesta a través de un cuestionario. Los datos fueron procesados mediante estadística descriptica e inferencial llegando a la conclusión que la gestión de calidad tiene una influencia significativa en la satisfacción del usuario de acuerdo con el X2 c =555.746 en 4 grados de libertad y con un coeficiente eta de 0.737 de la variable gestión de calidad y 0.736 de la variable satisfacción del usuario, confirmando la fuerza de la influencia entre la variable independiente a la dependiente

Mutual fund quality, its importance and the most decisive characteristics - The perspective of Finnish mutual funds’ managers

Investing in mutual funds has become increasingly popular globally and in Finland. As more people invest in mutual funds, funds’ quality is becoming a central issue. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to study how important quality is for mutual funds. Also, the decisive charac-teristics of mutual fund quality are examined. Finnish funds’ managers’ perspective is exam-ined in the thesis. Their perspective is central, as they have an in-depth understanding of funds and a direct impact on them. This study focuses on studying conventional mutual funds. A mu-tual fund is an investment product that combines investors’ assets and acquires various invest-ments in its portfolio. The decisive characteristics affecting the quality of the funds were sought in the past litera-ture. The literature focuses on studying the impact of different fund attributes on perfor-mance. Performance is one of the eight quality dimensions according to David Garvin’s (1984) quality theory. The theory was chosen to be applied because it has been widely used as a theo-retical framework for the analysis of the quality of intangible and tangible products. A mutual fund can be classified as an intangible product because it is an instrument designed to meet customers’ needs. The found characteristics’ importance was asked to be assessed in an email survey. Based on the results, it was possible to rank the characteristics using a quantitative Fuzzy TOPSIS method. The most decisive factors are in order of importance: risk-adjusted profit, fund man-ager skill, fund age, turnover rate, fund manager reputation, responsibility and sustainability, fund size and management fee. The survey also provided background information on the im-portance of the factors. Additionally, respondents mentioned other important attributes, but their statistical significance was low. The results of this thesis can be used to develop higher quality mutual funds. Higher quality products benefit both investors and fund management companies, for example, by improving customer satisfaction and increasing sales. In addition, the results of the thesis can be used to compare funds and in the marketing of funds. This Master’s thesis offers a new research perspective regarding the relationship between quality and mutual funds. The relationship has not been profoundly studied earlier and based on the responses to the survey, fund managers consider quality as an important aspect. Therefore, there is an interest and a need for more research on the topic.Sijoitusrahastoihin sijoittamisesta on tullut sekä Suomessa, että maailmalla yhä suositumpaa viime vuosien aikana. Kun sijoitusrahastoihin sijoitetaan yhä enemmän, on rahastojen laadusta tullut keskeisempi aihe. Tämän Pro gradu- työn tarkoituksena onkin tutkia kuinka tärkeää laatu on sijoitusrahastolle. Lisäksi tutkitaan sijoitusrahastojen laatuun eniten vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Edellä mainittuja asioita tutkitaan suomalaisten rahastojen hoitajien näkökulmasta. Heidän näkökulmansa on keskeinen, sillä heillä on syvällinen ymmärrys rahastojen luonteesta ja suora vaikutus niihin. Tässä tutkimuksessa keskityttiin käsittelemään tavallisia sijoitusrahastoja poislukien erikoissijoitusrahastot. Sijoitusrahasto tarkoittaa sijoitustuotetta, joka kerää yksittäisten sijoittajien varoja yhteen ja hankkii varoilla erilaisia sijoituksia portfolioonsa. Rahastojen laatuun vaikuttavia keskeisimpiä ominaisuuksia etsittiin aiheeseen liittyvästä kirjallisuudesta. Aiempi kirjallisyys keskittyy tutkimaan eri rahaston ominaisuuksien vaikutusta suorituskykyyn. Suorituskyky on yksi kahdeksasta laadun ulottuvuudesta David Garvinin (1984) laatuteorian mukaan. Teoria valikoitui käytettäväksi, koska sitä on laajasti käytetty aineettomien ja aineellisten hyödykkeiden laadun analysoinnin teoreettisena kehyksenä. Sijoitusrahasto voidaankin luokitella aineettomaksi hyödykkeeksi, koska se on aineeton väline jonka tarkoituksena on täyttää jokin asiakkaan tarve. Kirjallisuudesta löydettyjen ominaisuuksien tärkeyttä pyydettiin arvioimaan sähköpostikyselyssä. Tulosten perusteella pystyttiin asettamaan ominaisuudet tärkeysjärjestykseen käyttäen kvantitatiivista Fuzzy TOPSIS-metodia. Ominaisuudet ovat tärkeysjärjestyksessä riskikorjattu tuotto, rahastonhoitajan ammattitaito, rahaston ikä, kiertonopeus, rahastonhoitajan maine, vastuullisuus, rahaston koko ja hallinnointipalkkio. Kyselyn avulla saatiin myös perusteluja ominaisuuksien tärkeydelle. Lisäksi vastaajat mainitsivat muita tärkeitä ominaisuuksia, mutta niiden tilastollinen merkittävyys jäi pieneksi. Tämän tutkielman tuloksia voidaan käyttää sijoitusrahastojen kehittämisessä laadukkaammiksi. Laadukkaammat tuotteet hyödyttävät sekä sijoittajia, että rahoitusyhtiöitä esimerkiksi parantamalla asiakastyytyväisyyttä ja lisäämällä myyntiä. Lisäksi tutkielman tuloksia voidaan käyttää vertailtaessa eri rahastoja sekä rahastojen markkinoinnissa. Tämä pro gradu-tutkielma tarjoaa uuden tutkimusnäkökulman liittyen laadun ja sijoitusrahastojen suhteeseen. Suhdetta ei ole aiemmin tutkittu kattavasti ja kyselyssä saatujen vastausten perusteella rahastonhoitajat pitävätkin laatua tärkeänä rahastoille. Aiheeseen liittyvälle tutkimukselle onkin siis kiinnostusta ja tarvetta