Quality of service in public transport based on customer satisfaction surveys: A review and assessment of methodological approaches

The growth of literature in the field of quality of service in the public transport (PT) sector shows increasing concern for a better understanding of the factors affecting service quality (SQ) in PT organizations and companies. A large variety of approaches to SQ has been developed in recent years owing to the complexity of the concept; the broad range of attributes required to evaluate SQ; and the imprecision, subjectivity and heterogeneous nature of the data used to analyse it. Most of these approaches are based on customer satisfaction surveys. This paper seeks to summarize the evolution of research and current thinking as it relates to the different methodological approaches for SQ evaluation in the PT sector over the years, and provides a discussion of future directions.This study is sponsored by the Conserjería de Innovación, Ciencia y Economía of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain) through the Excellence Research Project denominated “Q-METROBUS-Quality of service indicator for METROpolitan public BUS transport services”

Information Flows Supporting Circular Economy Adoption in the Manufacturing Sector

Circular economy (CE) is considered one of the drivers pushing towards sustainable development. Indeed, this economy is defined as an “industrial economy that is regenerative and restorative by intention and design” and thus, it boosts responsible consumption and production which is one the sustainable goals promoted by policymakers. In particular, from the extant literature emerged that to pursue the transition towards CE, manufacturers adopt different CE strategies. Their implementation implies to have a clear vision about stakeholders involved along product life cycle and about the implications that are encountered during the decision process of the producer thus, by its companies’ functions. Indeed, all the actors involved should operate concurrently for a single and common direction. For this reason, the objective of the present work is to investigate the vertical information flow within a manufacturing company at strategic, tactical and operational levels while adopting CE strategies to appropriately manage product lifecycle. The paper objective is pursued through a literature review on Scopus together with practitioners’ interviews. The outcome is the development of a conceptual framework to support the decision process. The framework structures the information flow for adopting CE across the three levels above mentioned. Indeed, the main finding of this research is the key role of information as a facilitator for the adoption of CE strategies in manufacturing