Customer-oriented service in retirement homes

The purpose of this thesis was to learn about the customer-orientation in public sector retirement homes in Rauma. Furthermore, the intention is to find ways how to improve the level of customer-orientation in the chosen retirement homes. The re-tirement homes that participated in the research were Kaunisjärvi, Marttilanmäki and Uusilahti. The objective was to interview nurses and managers to find out how they understand customer-orientation and are they able to give customer-oriented service. Further-more, residents and their family members were interviewed to understand how they have experienced customer-orientation and how to improve it. Parties involved in the research are going to benefit from the research outcomes. Research can improve customer satisfaction, which directly affects the atmosphere positively. This in turn can motivate and encourages the staff to maintain a high level of customer-oriented service. The theory part looks into what is customer-orientation in providing service in the retirement home field. The part is combined from customer-orientation, perception of service quality and the gap analysis approach to managing service quality, and how to implement customer-oriented service. The research was carried out in a way that the task was divided between me and six students from the Faculty of Social Services and Health Care of Satakunta University of Applied Sciences. I conducted audio recorded interviews with the nurses and managers at private premises. The students interviewed the residents and family members at the retirement homes with modified questionnaire, which suited the interviewees better. The answers of residents and family members were documented in writing. The conclusion made from the research was that both the staff and residents feel that retirement homes are under staffed. Moreover, the information flow has challenges in that there is far too little conversation between staff and family members. My sug-gestion is to create an online portal for regular information exchange where both private and public information is shared between the retirement home staff and residents and their family members

Salesperson Behavioral Determinants of Customer Equity Drivers: Mediational Role of Trust

This dissertation examines the role of different types of salesperson behaviors on building and managing customer equity drivers. It is proposed that customers develop positive attitudes towards different value drivers through developed trust by different salesperson behaviors. Specifically, it is hypothesized that customer trust effects customers’ perceptions of brand value, product value and relationship value; the customer trust in turn is affected by different salesperson behaviors, namely, adaptive selling, customer oriented, selling oriented and un/ethical behaviors. Thus, this dissertation integrates selling behaviors literature with customer equity literature. This dissertation builds on past literature and proposes a conceptual model using nine different constructs representing three broader constructs, Selling behaviors, Customer trust and Customer equity drivers: Adaptive selling behavior, Selling orientation – Customer orientation (SOCO) behaviors and Un/ethical selling behavior, Customer trust with salesperson and selling firm, Value equity, Relationship equity and Brand equity. Descriptive research design is used for investigating the role of customer trust as a mediator in the relationships between selling behaviors and customer equity drivers. The research design uses a dyadic sampling design where data for independent variables, selling behaviors and customer trust, is collected from insurance customers in St.Louis metropolitan area and the data for dependent variables, customer equity drivers, is collected from insurance salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data. The results support the mediational role of trust in the relationship between selling behaviors and customer equity drivers. They also support the hypothesis that different selling behaviors have different effects on customer equity drivers. This research provides significant theoretical and managerial implications. It provides the existing body of literature with a different perspective on customer equity management. Managerially, it provides newer insights to sales managers of the effects of relational selling behaviors. This research also introduces a newer way to investigate selling behaviors by using a second order construct, relational selling behavior

Service-dominant logic for exploring modular business service system

Investigating the management of the three dimensions of modular business service system from the perspective of the service-dominant (S-D) logic. An integrated approach with an abductive research process in theory building was conducted through case study. The results show that ten foundational premises of S-D logic, especially service -focused, customer-oriented, and rational views can be applied in defining and managing the modular business service system constructed by service modularization

An empirical investigation of Network-Oriented Behaviors in Business-to-Business Markets

This study is concerned with the extent to which network-oriented behaviors directly and/or indirectly affect firm performance. It argues that a firm's interaction behaviors in relation to an embedded network structure are key mechanisms that facilitate the development of important organizational capabilities in dealing with business partners. Such network-oriented behaviors, which are aimed at affecting the position of a company in the network, are consequently important drivers of firm performance, rather than the network structure alone. We develop a conceptual model that captures network-oriented behaviors as a driving force of firm performance in relation to three other key organizational behaviors, i.e., customer-oriented, competitor-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors. We test the hypothesized model using a dataset of 354 responses collected via an on-line questionnaire from UK managers, whose organizations operate in business-to-business markets in either the manufacturing or services sectors. This study provides four key findings. First, a firm's networkoriented behaviors positively affect the development of customer-oriented and competitor-oriented behaviors. Secondly, they also foster relationship coordination with its important business partners within the network. Thirdly, the effective management of the firm's portfolio of relationships is found to mediate the positive impact of network-oriented behaviors on firm profitability. Lastly, closeness to end-users amplifies the positive effect of network-oriented behaviors on relationship portfolio effectiveness

Using Counts as Heuristics for the Analysis of Static Models

The upstream activities of software development are often viewed as both the most important, in terms of cost, and the yet the least understood, and most problematic, particularly in terms of satisfying customer requirements. Business process modelling is one solution that is being increasingly used in conjunction with traditional software development, often feeding in to requirements and analysis activities. In addition, research in Systems Engineering for Business Process Change, highlights the importance of modelling business processes in evolving and maintaining the legacy systems that support those processes. However, the major use of business process modelling, is to attempt to restructure the business process, in order to improve some given aspect, e.g., cost or time. This restructuring may be seen either as separate activity or as a pre-cursor to the development of systems to support the new or improved process. Hence, the analysis of these business models is vital to the improvement of the process, and as a consequence to the development of supporting software systems. Supporting this analysis is the focus of this paper. Business processes are typically described with static (diagrammatic) models. This paper proposes the use of measures (counts) to aid analysis and comparison of these static process descriptions. The proposition is illustrated by showing how measures can be applied to a commonly used process-modelling notation, Role Activity Diagrams (RADs). Heuristics for RADs are described and measures suggested which support those heuristics. An example process is used to show how a coupling measure can be used to highlight features in RADs useful to the process modeller. To fully illustrate the proposition the paper describes and applies a framework for the theoretical validation of the coupling measure. An empirical evaluation follows. This is illustrated by two case studies; the first based on the bidding process of a large telecommunications systems supplier, and the second a study of ten prototyping processes across a number of organisations. These studies found that roles of the same type exhibited similar levels of coupling across processes. Where roles did not adhere to tentative threshold values, further investigation revealed unusual circumstances or hidden behaviour. Notably, study of the prototyping roles, which exhibited the greatest variation in coupling, found that coupling was highly correlated with the size of the development team. This suggests that prototyping in large projects had a different process to that for small projects, using more mechanisms for communication. Hence, the empirical studies support the view that counts (measures) may be useful in the analysis of static process models

From customer-oriented strategy to perceived organizational financial performance: the role of human resource management and customer-linking capability

Drawing on the organizational capabilities literature, we developed and tested a model of how supportive human resource management (HRM) improved firms’ financial performance perceived by marketing managers through fostering the implementation of a customer-oriented strategy. Customer-linking capability, which is the capability in managing close customer relationships, indicated the implementation of the customer-oriented strategy. Data collected from two emerging economies–China and Hungary–established that supportive HRM partially mediated the relationship between customer-oriented strategy and customer-linking capability. Customer-linking capability further explained how supportive HRM contributed to perceived financial performance. This study explicates the implication of customer-oriented strategy for HRM and reveals the importance of HRM in strategy implementation. It also sheds some light on the “black-box” between HRM and performance. While making important contributions to the field of strategy, HRM and marketing, this study also offers useful practical implications

Designing market-oriented beta-glucan enriched functional foods through conjoint analysis: evidence of differing consumer preferences

New product development (NPD) has a significant role to play in the rapidly evolving food supply chain where firms wish to utilise innovative novel ingredients to meet consumers’ increased needs for healthier foods. It is a knowledge intensive process where the generation of new ideas and concepts requires detailed knowledge of both products and consumers. Beta-glucan, a novel soluble fibre, is of major interest to global food firms for its ability to increase the functionality of food and beverage products through increasing the soluble fibre content. The determination of intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes that maximise consumer acceptance of beta-glucan enriched products is largely dependant on a market-oriented NPD process. This study utilised a Conjoint Analysis methodology to examine the tradeoffs consumers would make during the purchasing decision process for healthy beta-glucan enriched breads. Three hundred consumers rated twenty-two hypothetical products on a nine-point Likert scale according to their willingness to purchase. This research identified key attributes which determined consumers’ preferences for these enriched products and identified four viable consumer segments. Managing customer knowledge during the early stages of the NPD process can help firms overcome customer acceptance issues associated with innovative functional ingredients and encourage firms to respond to new market opportunities along the food supply chain.Knowledge Management, Market orientation, Conjoint Analysis, Beta-glucan., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainability: Waste Recycling

Unlike many existing research studies that explain reverse marketing from a purchasing perspective, this study recognizes it as an honest effort made by managers aiming to promote sustainability by purposefully managing waste and discusses the spillover effect of their initiatives on brand equity. It argues that efficient recycling of products through reverse marketing by a brand demonstrates its sincere intent to adopt sustainable business practices and enhances its equity in the marketplace. A business-to-business viewpoint has been used to combine knowledge about waste recycling and management through reverse marketing based on the unpretentious operations and management practices. The propositions reflect on the criticality of engaging business customer firms in a procedural mechanism of recycling for increase in brand equity as the success of reverse marketing. A comprehensive adoption of an initiative like waste management through reverse marketing by a brand highlights how sustainability initiatives can create value for the customers of the brand and ultimately drive brand equity