An Investigation into Management Response to Negative Online Reviews in Hotel Operations

The advent of web2 and the interactivity it allowed net surfers to communicate freely with the purpose of exchanging ideas and opinions regarding the products they have purchased has given rise to a new marketing tool identified in the literature as consumer-generated content. As travel and hospitality are amongst the highest purchased services on the World Wide Web, a multitude of sites are currently made available to travelers to express either their satisfaction or voice their complaints on hotel properties that they have stayed at for business or pleasure. In providing informational queues, these online reviews are strongly affecting traveler’s pre-purchase decisions and their attitudes toward hotel choice. One factor that is considered of great effect on this decision-making process is identified as management response to reviews; regardless of their positive or negative nature. The purpose of this research is to provide an investigation into management’s behavior in responding to negative online reviews and the manner in which this type of feedback is handled in a way to build customer trust as well as a venue to service recovery.     Keywords: Customer-generated Content, Online Reviews, Travel, Hospitality, Management Response, Bahrai

Inclusive Photoproduction of η\eta Mesons on Nuclei and the in-medium properties of the S11_{11} Resonance

A relativistic non-local model for the inclusive photoproduction of $\eta$ mesons from complex nuclei is introduced. The model is based on the dominance of the S$_{11}$(1535) resonance. We compare the results of our calculations with the available data on inclusive cross sections for the nuclei C, Al and Cu. Assuming the resonance propagates freely in the nuclear medium, we find that the calculated angular distribution and energy dependence of the cross sections reproduce the data in a reasonable fashion. The present non-local model allows the inclusion of density dependent mass and width in the calculations. Including these in the calculations reveals that the presently available data do not show clear preference for the inclusion of such modifications of the properties of the S$_{11}$(1535) in the nuclear medium.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Lean Maintenance Roadmap

AbstractMaintenance shares significant operating costs in an organisation. It is considered as a main pillar of the organisational performance. Lean thinking can be incorporated into maintenance activities through applying its principles and practices. Lean maintenance is a prerequisite for lean manufacturing systems. The exhaustive literature review has been conducted to collect the up-to-date maintenance strategies and activities, lean principles and practices in the lean maintenance process. The scope of this paper includes eight types of waste (non-value added maintenance activities), maintenance value stream mapping and a scheme of lean maintenance practices. The output of this paper is a proposed roadmap to apply lean thinking in a maintenance process

A framework for lean manufacturing implementation

The lean implementation initiatives can be categorised as roadmap, conceptual/implementation framework, descriptive and assessment checklist initiatives. A literature review on the lean initiatives has examined 28 initiatives. A set of rules is proposed to evaluate these initiatives with respect to nine factors impacting lean implementation. The evaluation has proved that the implementation frameworks have highest association with lean factors. However, existing lean initiatives are not demonstrated in a structured nature. The failure in managing lean implementation process is often consolidated to poor mind-set and inadequate understanding of the lean concept itself. In this paper, an attempt has been made to propose a framework to overcome some of the limitations. The proposed framework is constructed as a project-based framework with detailed four implementation phases. Appropriate practices and decision tools are proposed and assigned to each phase. However, the proposed framework is at conceptual stage. It requires further implementation to be validated.Full Tex

Arterio-ureteral Fistula – a Systematic Review

AbstractObjective: to review published reports on arterio-ureteral fistula. Method: literature search. Results: eighty cases were identified. Primary fistulas were mainly seen in combination with aortoiliac aneurysmal disease. Secondary fistulas were seen after pelvic cancer surgery, often with radiation, fibrosis and ureteral stenting or after vascular surgery with synthetic grafting. The dominating symptom is massive haematuria, often with circulatory impairment. The clue to a rapid and correct diagnosis is a high degree of suspicion. Most frequently diagnosis has been obtained through angiography or pyelography. When there is a ureteral stent manipulation it will often provoke bleeding and lead to diagnosis. The fistula must be excluded and a vascular reconstruction made. Most frequently this has been obtained through occlusion of the fistula and an extra-anatomic reconstruction (femoro-femoral crossover). Recently stent-grafting has been successfully used but follow-up is short. Conclusion: arterio-ureteral fistula is rare and should be suspected in patients with complicated pelvic surgery and massive haematuria, especially where rigid ureteral stents have been placed

Importance of the direct knockout mechanism in relativistic calculations for (gamma, p) reactions

Results of relativistic calculations of the direct knockout (DKO) mechanism for the photon induced removal of a proton from a target nucleus over a wide range of energies and nuclei are presented. Spectroscopic factors used in the calculations are fixed from consistent analyses of the quasifree electron scattering process (e,e'p). The results indicate that within the uncertainties of the model, the knockout contributions are generally close to the experimental data for missing momenta below approximately 500 MeV/c. This is in disagreement with nonrelativistic analyses which often find that the direct knockout contribution can be quite small compared to the data and that meson exchange corrections can be important. The present study suggests that meson exchange current contributions may not be as large when treated in a relativistic framework. We also point out some difficulties we encountered in analyzing the data for a 12C target at photon energies below 80 MeV.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX with 8 postscript figure