241 research outputs found
The influence of cell phone users' relationship intentions on expectations and perceptions of service recovery
With the first-time cell phone user market quickly shrinking, it is becoming increasingly important for South African cell
phone network providers to retain customers by building long-term relationships with them and consistently offering
quality service. Despite cell phone network providers' best intentions, service failures do occur. Not all customers want to
build relationships with cell phone network providers, and therefore it is important to consider the influence of
customers' relationship intentions within a service failure and recovery setting. The purpose of the study was to
determine the influence of relationship intention on expectations and perceptions of two service recovery scenarios within
the cell phone industry. Non-probability convenience sampling was used to collect data from 605 cell phone users
residing in Gauteng. Results indicate that as respondents' relationship intentions increase, so do their expectations that
their cell phone network providers should take service recovery action. It was also found that respondents with high and
moderate relationship intentions perceived service recovery strategies of their cell phone network providers including an
acknowledgement, apology, explanation and rectification of the problem more favourable, compared to a service
recovery strategy only rectifying the problem, than those respondents with low relationship intentions.http://www.journals.co.za/content/journalam2016Marketing Managemen
The influence of relationship intention on cell phone usersâ attitudes towards complaining and complaint
In any service environment, there is a strong possibility that customersâ
expectations and the actual service delivery are not in unison. When
service failures do occur, customersâ attitudes towards complaining
directly infl uence their actual complaint behaviour. As not all customers
want to build relationships with service providers, it is imperative that
service providers gain a deeper understanding of the behaviour, and
specifi cally the complaint behaviour, of those customers who do have
relationship intentions. The purpose of this study was to determine
the infl uence of relationship intention on customersâ attitudes towards
complaining and complaint behaviour following a service failure within
the cell phone industry. Convenience sampling was used, and 605
respondents participated in the study. The results indicate that the
majority of respondents who participated in this study had a propensity
to complain, and that respondents with high relationship intentions are
more likely to voice a billing error to their cell phone network provider
than respondents with low relationship intentions. Furthermore,
relationship intention should be considered as a variable that could
infl uence customersâ attitudes towards complaining and complaint
behaviour. The results make a valuable theoretical contribution and
have managerial implications for service providers in the cell phone
industry.http://www.unisa.ac.za/sabusinessreviewam201
The influence of relationship intention and population group on South African cell phone usersâ positive attitude towards complaining
As most customers do not voice their dissatisfaction to service providers following service failures, it
is important to identify those customers most likely to do so. Since customers with positive attitudes
toward complaining are the most likely to voice their dissatisfaction, identifi able customer characteristics
â such as customersâ relationship intentions and population group â infl uencing such attitudes can
be an effi cient way to acquire feedback from customers. This study accordingly investigated the
infl uence of relationship intention and population group on cell phone usersâ positive attitude towards
complaining to their cell phone network providers. By means of non-probability convenience sampling,
605 respondents from South Africaâs Johannesburg metropolitan area participated in this study. The
results indicate that population group as well as relationship intention practically signifi cantly infl uence
respondentsâ positive attitude towards complaining. Despite this fi nding, no interaction effect was
found between respondentsâ population group and relationship intention on positive attitude towards
complaining.http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=257842017-10-31am2016Marketing Managemen
Young adultsâ relationship intentions towards their cell phone network operators
Marketers use relationship marketing to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships with their customers as a
means to retain them in the competitive market environment. Relationship marketing should not be used to target every
customer as not all customers want to build long-term relationships with organisations. In order to identify the most
profitable customers for relationship marketing, organisations should consider their customersâ relationship intentions
to form long-term relationships with them. The primary objective of this study was to determine young adultsâ (aged 18
to 25) relationship intentions towards the South African cell phone network operators they use, namely Vodacom,
MTN or Cell C. Five constructs (involvement, expectations, forgiveness, feedback and fear of relationship loss) were
used to measure relationship intention. Data was collected from 315 respondents at a tertiary education institution in
South Africa by means of a non-probability convenience sample. Findings indicate that a relatively high percentage of
respondents have a high relationship intention towards their cell phone network operator and that respondents with high
relationship intentions are more Involved with and Fear losing their relationship with their cell phone network operator
than respondents with low relationship intentions.This article was co-written by P.G. Mostert before he joined the University of Pretoria.am2016Marketing Managemen
The association between prior statin usage and long-term outcomes after critical care admission
Background:
Statins may have immunomodulatory effects that benefit critically ill patients. Therefore we retrospectively examined the association between survival and the prescription of statins prior to admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), or high dependency unit (HDU), as a result of major elective surgery, or as an emergency with a presumed diagnosis of sepsis.
Methods:
We retrospectively studied critical care patients (ICU or HDU) from a tertiary referral UK teaching hospital. Nottingham University Hospitals has over 2200 beds, of which 39 are critical care beds. Over a five-year period (2000â2005) 414 patients were identified with a presumed diagnosis of sepsis, and 672 patients were identified with a planned ICU/HDU admission following elective major surgery. Patients prescribed statins prior to hospital admission were compared with those who were not. Demographics, past medical history, drug history, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores were examined. Univariate and multivariate analyses were applied using the primary endpoint of survival at five years after admission.
Results:
Patients prescribed statins prior to critical care admission were, on average, older, with higher initial APACHE II scores and more pre-existing comorbidities. Statins were almost invariably stopped following admission to critical care. Statin usage was not associated with significantly altered survival during hospital admission, or at five years, for either patients with sepsis (9% v 15%, P=0.121; 73% v 84%, P=0.503 respectively), or post-operative patients (55% v 58%, P=0.762; 57% v 63%, P=0.390).
Conclusions:
Prior statin usage was not associated with improved or worsening outcomes in patients admitted to critical care after elective surgical cases or with a presumed diagnosis of sepsis
Supersymmetric CP Violation in in Minimal Supergravity Model
Direct CP asymmetries and the CP violating normal polarization of lepton in
inclusive decay B \to X_s l^+ l^- are investigated in minimal supergravity
model with CP violating phases. The contributions coming from exchanging
neutral Higgs bosons are included. It is shown that the direct CP violation in
branching ratio, A_{CP}^1, is of {\cal{O}}(10^{-3}) for l=e, \mu, \tau. The CP
violating normal polarization for l=\mu can reach 0.5 percent when tan\beta is
large (say, 36). For l=\tau and in the case of large \tan\beta, the direct CP
violation in backward-forward asymmetry, A_{CP}^2, can reach one percent, the
normal polarization of \tau can be as large as a few percent, and both are
sensitive to the two CP violating phases, \phi_\mu and \phi_{A_0}, and
consequently it could be possible to observe them (in particular, the normal
polarization of \tau) in the future B factories.Comment: 14 pages, latex, 5 figure
Exploring flavor structure of supersymmetry breaking from rare B decays and unitarity triangle
We study effects of supersymmetric particles in various rare B decay
processes as well as in the unitarity triangle analysis. We consider three
different supersymmetric models, the minimal supergravity, SU(5) SUSY GUT with
right-handed neutrinos, and the minimal supersymmetric standard model with U(2)
flavor symmetry. In the SU(5) SUSY GUT with right-handed neutrinos, we consider
two cases of the mass matrix of the right-handed neutrinos. We calculate direct
and mixing-induced CP asymmetries in the b to s gamma decay and CP asymmetry in
B_d to phi K_S as well as the B_s--anti-B_s mixing amplitude for the unitarity
triangle analysis in these models. We show that large deviations are possible
for the SU(5) SUSY GUT and the U(2) model. The pattern and correlations of
deviations from the standard model will be useful to discriminate the different
SUSY models in future B experiments.Comment: revtex4, 36 pages, 10 figure
Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment
This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and
W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with
the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and
the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto
the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions
f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV
and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw
> 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour,
are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017
+/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second
include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables,
revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio
Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS
The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS
detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4
fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to
Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks
corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new
structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is
also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes.
This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table,
corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter
Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS
We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a
significant distance from their production point into a final state containing
charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is
conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV
and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS
detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles
is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We
observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of
supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the
neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino
masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final
version to appear in Physics Letters
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