Perceived Justice and Email Service Recovery

This study adds to the limited research of email service recovery. It is perhaps the first non-US study of email service recovery as well as the first study to apply a theoretical perspective ¬– perceived justice – to email service recovery. The results of three annual studies using Australian data resemble US results and support extending perceived justice to service recovery via email. The distributive elements of replying and offering compensation, the procedural element of answering completely and the interactional element of thanking the customer showed significant positive relationships with customer satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth and repurchase intent. Perhaps most importantly for practitioners, the results of a stepwise regression showed that incorporating the simple phrase "thank-you" in the email reply was a strong predictor of successful email service recovery. Finally, this study found that response time might be less critical than previously thought

Amenable groups and smooth topology of 4-manifolds

A smooth five-dimensional s-cobordism becomes a smooth product if stabilized by a finite number n of $S^2xS^2x[0,1]$'s. We show that for amenable fundamental groups, the minimal n is subextensive in covers, i.e., n(cover)/index(cover) has limit 0. We focus on the notion of sweepout width, which is a bridge between 4-dimensional topology and coarse geometry

Google online marketing challenge and research opportunities

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an ongoing collaboration between Google and academics, to give students experiential learning. The Challenge gives student teams US$200 in AdWords, Google’s flagship advertising product, to develop online marketing campaigns for actual businesses. The end result is an engaging in-class exercise that provides students and professors with an exciting and pedagogically rigorous competition. Results from surveys at the end of the Challenge reveal positive appraisals from the three—students, businesses, and professors—main constituents; general agreement between students and instructors regarding learning outcomes; and a few points of difference between students and instructors. In addition to describing the Challenge and its outcomes, this article reviews the postparticipation questionnaires and subsequent datasets. The questionnaires and results are publicly available, and this article invites educators to mine the datasets, share their results, and offer suggestions for future iterations of the Challenge

Suppression of Subsynchronous Vibration in the SSME HPFTP

Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) High Pressure Fuel Turbopump (HPFTP) hot-fire dynamic data evaluation and rotordynamic analysis both confirm that two of the most significant turbopump attributes in determining susceptibility to subsynchronous vibration are impeller interstage seal configuration and rotor sideload resulting from turbine turnaround duct configuration and hot gas manifold. Recent hot-fire testing has provided promising indications that the incorporation of roughened damping seals at the impeller interstages may further increase the stability margin of this machine. A summary of the analysis which led to the conclusion that roughened seals would enhance the stability margin is presented along with a correlation of the analysis with recent test data

THE EFFECT OF DISCRETIZATION ON THE PI CONTROL OF A TUBULAR REACTOR MODEL WITH AXIAL DIFFUSION

Various nonlinear behaviors, including chaos, may result from a tubular reactor with an exothermic reaction when a PI controller is added. In this paper, we show that for this highly nonlinear system the stable gains are very sensitive to the number of states used for controller design. The region of successful control is determined as a function of kp , kJ, and the number of spatial discretizations

Earth-Coupled Heat Pump Systems--Selection, Design & Performance

Rising energy costs have caused many people to look for more efficient ways to heat and cool their homes. One of the most energy-efficient systems to come along in recent years is the earth-coupled heat pump. Pioneered at the University of Kentucky in the 1950s, the earth-coupled system relies on the thermal capacity of water to transfer heat, whereas conventional heat pump relies on outside air. ln an earth-coupled system, water source heat pump is connected (or coupled ) to pipes in the ground or in wells for the source of heat in winter and cool air in the summer. In this way, heating or cooling energy is transferred by water through the system

Revisiting the Nature of Information Systems: The Urgent Need for a Crisis in IS Theoretical Discourse

This paper suggests that the emergence of large scale integrated business and financial information systems is another aspect of the deconstruction of financial and business realities into a simulacrum. It draws largely upon Baudrillard’s theory of modern society and how this society processes and exploits information in an ever increasing vortex of non-information. IS and management literature argues that large scale information systems such as ERP systems and supply chain integration systems are an important step forward for financial information processing because they integrate the disparate units of business information into a coherent whole. However, whilst this is a very tantalising vision, the reality on the ground seems to be different. This paper posits a theoretical position which adopts neither the traditional positivist, decision theory approach nor the social constructivist theories in which the IS is seen as a primarily social system. Instead the work of French Deconstructivists is used to interpret empirical data gathered by the researcher in a new way suggesting radical new trajectories for information systems research

ADDRESSING TACIT KNOWLEDGE IN ISD METHODOLOGIES

This paper identifies a gap in ISD methodologies regarding the exclusion of tacit user requirements in the development of information systems (IS). It recognises that this will lead to IS failure, since given that tacit requirements are not considered or incorporated, these systems will not address these types of requirements. In the mid 90’s Clegg et al (1997) argued that 80-90% of IT investments do not adhere to the performance objectives of the user. They identified a number reason for systems failure, one of them being the poor articulation of user requirements. Tacit knowledge is inarticulable (Wong & Radcliffe, 2000) and subjective (Baumard, 1999). Therefore requirements that result from tacit knowledge use are omitted from consideration in current ISD processes. This paper identifies three characteristics and five acquisition dimensions of tacit knowledge that have a significant impact upon the ISD process. Four well-known ISD methodologies are then critiqued in relation to these. This leads to a revised perspective on current ISD methodologies, which challenges the traditional view regarding the development of systems

EXAMINING NON-REPRESENTATION IN ENGINEERING NOTATIONS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE ONTOLOGICAL INCOMPLETENESS OF THE FUNCTIONALLY-RATIONAL MODELLING PARADIGM

The assumption that functionally rational notations can represent organisational spaces is central to engineering diagrammatical approaches in the delivery of advanced technology. This is reflected in a approach to notations which assumes objective, rationalistic ontologies. This paper opens the debate on research into notations and their relationship to sound method and socio-technical issues, suggesting that researchers need to rethink the ways in which the world is represented in engineering documentation, especially Requirements Engineering and Business Process Re-Engineering (BPRE). Empirical data from 9 companies and 48 people involved in manufacturing systems projects is presented which provides evidence for this position