Assessing service quality in the South African advertising industry

Service excellence is recognised as a valuable company asset and an ideal way for service organisations to achieve competitive differentiation. For the most part, the fast paced and continuously changing business environment has forced many companies to reconsider service quality as a potent tool to enhance customer relationships, increase employee morale and productivity. However, due to the nature of services, attempts to achieve service quality require ongoing effort and commitment. The research objective was to examine service quality in the South African advertising industry, identify the quality dimensions that are most important to advertisers, rank the dimensions in order of importance and make recommendations thereof. From the literature review, four research questions were identified and answered, through a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire, which was sent via e-mail to 100 marketers in the top 100 companies in terms of media spend. The conclusion was that the advertising industry is not delivering the required service quality to advertisers in terms of their expectations as measured against the service quality dimensions. Advertising agencies should therefore devote more effort to improving service quality levels throughout the advertising industry in South Africa.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

A temporal refuge from predation can change the outcome of prey species competition

Funding Information: – AS was supported by The Maxwell Institute Graduate School in Analysis and its Applications, a Centre for Doctoral Training funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant EP/L016508/01), the Scottish Funding Council, Heriot‐Watt University and the University of Edinburgh. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Oikos published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Zephyr: The First Issue

This is the first issue of Zephyr, the University of New England\u27s journal of creative expression. Since 2000, Zephyr has published original drawings, paintings, photography, prose, and verse created by current and former members of the University community. Zephyr\u27s Editorial Board is made up exclusively of matriculating students.https://dune.une.edu/zephyr/1000/thumbnail.jp

Applications of SuDS Techniques in Harvesting Stormwater for Landscape Irrigation Purposes:Issues and Considerations

While urbanization and increasing population has put much pressure on natural drainage channels and resulted in increase in flooding, there is increased pressure on available water resources due to climate change, reduction in frequency of rainfall events and drought. The emergence of a sustainable drainage system (SuDS), also known as best management practice (BMP) and low impact development (LID), has changed the management strategy of drainage from conventional to sustainable. SuDS techniques seek to deliver the three cardinal paradigms of sustainable drainage: quantity, quality and amenity and as such, they can offer an additional benefit for applications such as landscape irrigation. Most SuDS techniques have the potential for water storage with minimal or no modifications required. This chapter, while covering the capabilities of SuDS systems, explores SuDS devices such as pervious pavements equipped with excess storage capacity, cisterns and tanks harvesting roofwater, infiltration systems aimed at supporting the growth of urban plants and green roofs with the potential to store water in order to maintain water demanding planting scheme even during dry periods. It also covers systems where SuDS is the main driver to device installation and address issues and considerations surrounding applications of such systems in water harvesting for irrigation

Zephyr: The Second Issue

This is the second issue of Zephyr, the University of New England\u27s journal of creative expression. Since 2000, Zephyr has published original drawings, paintings, photography, prose, and verse created by current and former members of the University community. Zephyr\u27s Editorial Board is made up exclusively of matriculating students.https://dune.une.edu/zephyr/1001/thumbnail.jp

Zephyr: The Third Issue

This is the third issue of Zephyr, the University of New England\u27s journal of creative expression. Since 2000, Zephyr has published original drawings, paintings, photography, prose, and verse created by current and former members of the University community. Zephyr\u27s Editorial Board is made up exclusively of matriculating students.https://dune.une.edu/zephyr/1002/thumbnail.jp

Modification of the wettability characteristics of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) by means of CO2, Nd:YAG, excimer and high power diode laser radiation

The surface of the bio-material polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was treated with CO2, Nd:YAG, excimer and high power diode laser (HPDL) radiation. The laser radiation was found to effect varying degrees of change to the wettability characteristics of the material depending upon the laser used. It was observed that interaction with CO2, Nd:YAG and HPDL effected very little change to wettability characteristics of the PMMA. In contrast, interaction of the PMMA with excimer laser radiation resulted an increase in a marked improvement in the wettability characteristics. After excimer laser treatment the surface O2 content was found to have increased and the material was seen to be more polar in nature. The work has shown that the wettability characteristics of the PMMA could be controlled and/or modified with laser surface treatment. However, a wavelength dependence of the change of the wetting properties could not be deduced from the findings of this work

Polysaccharide-derived mesoporous materials (Starbon®) for sustainable separation of complex mixtures

The recovery and separation of high value and low volume extractives are a considerable challenge for the commercial realisation of zero-waste biorefineries. Using solid-phase extractions (SPE) based on sustainable sorbents is a promising method to enable efficient, green and selective separation of these complex extractive mixtures. Mesoporous carbonaceous solids derived from renewable polysaccharides are ideal stationary phases due to their tuneable functionality and surface structure. In this study, the structure-separation relationships of thirteen polysaccharide-derived mesoporous materials and two modified types as sorbents for ten naturally-occurring bioactive phenolic compounds were investigated. For the first time, a comprehensive statistical analysis of the key molecular and surface properties influencing the recovery of these species was carried out. The obtained results show the possibility of developing tailored materials for purification, separation or extraction, depending on the molecular composition of the analyte. The wide versatility and application span of these polysaccharide-derived mesoporous materials offer new sustainable and inexpensive alternatives to traditional silica-based stationary phases