Application of the European Customer Satisfaction Index to Postal Services. Structural Equation Models versus Partial Least Squares

Customer satisfaction and retention are key issues for organizations in today’s competitive market place. As such, much research and revenue has been invested in developing accurate ways of assessing consumer satisfaction at both the macro (national) and micro (organizational) level, facilitating comparisons in performance both within and between industries. Since the instigation of the national customer satisfaction indices (CSI), partial least squares (PLS) has been used to estimate the CSI models in preference to structural equation models (SEM) because they do not rely on strict assumptions about the data. However, this choice was based upon some misconceptions about the use of SEM’s and does not take into consideration more recent advances in SEM, including estimation methods that are robust to non-normality and missing data. In this paper, both SEM and PLS approaches were compared by evaluating perceptions of the Isle of Man Post Office Products and Customer service using a CSI format. The new robust SEM procedures were found to be advantageous over PLS. Product quality was found to be the only driver of customer satisfaction, while image and satisfaction were the only predictors of loyalty, thus arguing for the specificity of postal services.European Customer Satisfaction Index; ECSI; Structural Equation Models; Robust Statistics; Missing Data; Maximum Likelihood

Innovation strategies in the presence of technology markets: evidence from Spanish innovative firms

The development of markets for technology has eased the acquisition of technology and reshaped the innovation strategies of firms that we classify as producers of innovations or as imitators. Innovative activities of firms include research, acquisition of technology and downstream activities. Within an industry, firms producing innovations tend to conduct more research and downstream activities than those imitating innovations. Acquisition of technology is equally important for both. To implement innovation strategies, firms producing innovations require both the capability to scan the external environment for technology and the capability to integrate new technology. Firms producing innovations require both, while firms imitating innovations require scan capabilities only.Innovation; R&D; technology acquisition; appropriability; absorptive capacity

Assessing teachers’ beliefs to facilitate the transition to a new chemistry curriculum: what do the teachers want?

In this article, we describe the results of a study of chemistry high school teachers’ beliefs (N = 7) of the chemistry curriculum and their roles, their beliefs on the teacher as developer of materials, and their beliefs about professional development. Teachers’ beliefs influence the implementation of a curriculum. We view the use of a new curriculum as a learning process, which should start at teachers’ prior knowledge and beliefs. The results reveal that it is possible to develop a new curriculum in which teachers’ beliefs are taken as a starting point. Promising approaches to prepare teachers for a new curriculum is to let them (co)develop and use curriculum materials: It creates ownership, and strengthens and develops teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

The effects of the design and development of a chemistry curriculum reform on teachers’ professional growth: a case study

A curriculum innovation requires new learning material for students and a preparation program for teachers, in which teacher learning is a key ingredient. In this paper we describe how three experienced teachers, involved in the development and subsequent classroom enactment of student learning material for context-based chemistry education, professionalized. For data collection a questionnaire, three interviews and discussion transcripts were used. Our results show that: (a) teachers, cooperating in a network under supervision of an expert, can develop innovative learning material; (b) the development of learning material can be seen as a powerful program to prepare teachers for an innovation; and (c) teachers’ knowledge increased in all five pedagogical content knowledge domains during the development and class enactment phases

Social Network Measures for Nosduocentered Networks, their Predictive Power on Performance

Our purpose in this article is to define a network structure which is based on two egos instead of the egocentered (one ego) or the complete network (n egos). We describe the characteristics and properties for this kind of network which we call “nosduocentered network”, comparing it with complete and egocentered networks. The key point for this kind of network is that relations exist between the two main egos and all alters, but relations among others are not observed. After that, we use new social network measures adapted to the nosduocentered network, some of which are based on measures for complete networks such as degree, betweenness, closeness centrality or density, while some others are tailor-made for nosduocentered networks. We specify three regression models to predict research performance of PhD students based on these social network measures for different networks such as advice, collaboration, emotional support and trust. Data used are from Slovenian PhD students and their supervisors. The results show that performance for PhD students depends mostly of the emotional network, because it is significant for all three models. Trust and collaboration networks are significant for two models and advice is not significant for any model. As regards network measures, classic and tailor-made measures are about equally good. Measures related to the total intensity of contacts (e.g., density, degree centralization and size) seem to work best to predict performance.nosduocentered network; academic achievement; performance; network measures

Teacher and student learning through a Teacher Design Team (TDT)

The change from teacher dominated to student controlled classrooms is not easy as teachers fear poorer learning. However, in context based education students need more autonomy. Mandatory context based curricula for the natural sciences were introduced in 2013 in the Netherlands. To support teachers during preparation and implementation, teacher design teams (TDT) were set up. In a TDT subject teachers from different schools under supervision of a teacher educator, (re)design student learning material suitable for context based education, subsequently enact this is their classes, and discuss the outcomes. In 2012, nine chemistry teachers participated in such a TDT. The teachers realized that autonomous cooperative learning groups would be appropriate, but wondered how to monitor student progress as their concern was that students would not stay on task, make mistakes without being corrected and that this would only surface after the final test. A group log was designed to allow students to record their progress during each period. Each group had to write down all results from their activities and all answers to questions, and had to answer specific questions related to the cooperation process and products. To do this the group had to reflect on their cooperation. During the design of the material in the discussions in the TDT one concern often surfaced: how often do teachers need to check the logs, what information do they need to provide and how time consuming is all this? Four teachers class enacted the learning material plus group log. These teachers were interviewed after use at school, group interviews with their students were held, and the logs analyzed. The results showed that teachers needed between 3-5 minutes per log after each period for feedback. They stressed that this time was well invested as they could see how students had worked and what the result was. Students were also positive, and especially appreciated teachers’ quick feedback. The log stimulated student interaction, guided the learning processes, and stimulated reflection