The interaction between companies internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived quality A case study in the automotive industry

The competition in the automotive industry is constantly increasing and it is no longer sufficient for a company to only deliver a physical product. The companies’ ability to fill a need and provide a solution including a combination of both tangible and intangible products is becoming increasingly important. The service a company offers can be a critical factor for success why a company needs to understand what actions that creates a good service encounter and high perceived quality for the customer. Purpose The purpose is to describe and analyse the interaction between companies’ internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived quality, within the automotive industry. Methodology To fulfil the purpose a case study was preformed with a combination of descriptive and explanatory approaches. A starting point was to define the three different concepts, internal process, service encounter and perceived quality, out of existing literature. Existing literature was also used to form a theoretical framework, consisting of the three models: process mapping, service blueprint and seven criteria for good perceived quality. These were later applied on empirical data from the case company. The empirical data was gathered through interviews and observations on workshops owned or authorized by the case company. This was also complemented with data collected in customer interviews as well as observations and interviews at an extra case company used for comparison. Conclusions In the two examined case companies the internal processes and the service encounters are organised differently, since the customers’ demands for perceiving high quality are different. Which probably is a result of the carand truck workshops acting on different markets, C2B and B2B. In the car workshops there are less people involved and a personal service encounter is satisfying the customers needs. In the truck workshop there are a lot of people involved, but it gives them a possibility to be flexible. This enables delivery of fast correction and qualified staff, which is most important to their customers. What can be concluded is that the internal processes and the service encounters are organised based on the workshops customers’ needs, for the customers to perceive a high quality. But how it is done differs depending on market, customer structure and the size of the workshop

Experiencing trust in multiagency collaboration to prevent violent extremism: A Nordic qualitative study

In previous studies, multiagency collaboration was identified as a key strategy for early intervention in violent extremism. However, there has been little focus on professionals’ shared communication to support collaboration. The aim of this study was to describe trust in multiagency collaboration teams in the Nordic countries tasked with preventing violent extremism. The data have been collected through simulated case discussions for groups (N=13) and individual interviews (N=78) with multiagency professionals in Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden and analyzed using the thematic analysis method. Based on our results, trust emerged on 1) structural, 2) professional and 3) perceived personal levels. In addition, we identified facilitators and barriers for building trust at these levels. To fully understand the potential of trust, we argue that there is a need to take into account all these three levels of trust. Finally, we find that particularized trust can function as a foundation for building generalized trust. In future, more knowledge is needed about how to enable and manage trust with multiagency collaboration at organizational, but also national and international, level.   AcknowledgementsThis article is part of a research project titled Handling Extremism - Nordic Approaches (HEX-NA), funded by NordForsk, and financial contributors to the project include the Norwegian Police University College, University of Gothenburg, University of Aarhus, University of Turku and the University of Oslo

Identification of the first surrogate agonists for the G protein-coupled receptor GPR132

This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/RA/c5ra04804d#!divAbstract.GPR132 is an orphan Class A G protein-coupled receptor. It has been proposed to be activated by protons\ud and to regulate apoptosis, atherosclerosis and inflammation, but these results are still preliminary. In the\ud current work, we now designed and screened a focused compound library using a ?-arrestin recruitment\ud assay, and thereby identified the first disclosed surrogate GPR132 agonist 1 with a potency of 3.4 ?M.\ud This constitutes the first available pharmacological tool for the in vitro characterization of the orphan\ud receptor GPR132. The testing of 32 analogs furthermore identified a number of compounds with lower\ud activity - of which six were agonists and two were antagonists - that were used to construct preliminary\ud structure-activity relationships. Docking followed by molecular dynamics simulation of compound 1 in a\ud structural model of GPR132 displayed the putative interactions for the key ligand functionalities.M.A.S. was supported by a research scholarship from the\ud Drug Research Academy and Novo Nordisk A/S. D.E.G.\ud and H.B.-O. gratefully acknowledge financial support by\ud the Carlsberg Foundation. D.E.G. and D.S.P. gratefully\ud acknowledges financial support by the Lundbeck\ud Foundation. Nils Nyberg is acknowledged for help with\ud NMR spectroscopy. NMR equipment used in this work\ud was purchased via a grant from The Lundbeck\ud Foundation (R77-A6742)

Treatment of intracerebral haemorrhage with tranexamic acid : A review of current evidence and ongoing trials

Peer reviewe