Implementing Customer Relationship Management in the Hotel Sector: Does \u27IT\u27 Always Matter?

Travellers are becoming more price sensitive, less brand loyal and more sophisticated. To enhance guest loyalty, hotels must focus on developing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies that aim to seek, gather, store and share guest information throughout the entire organisation for creating personalised, unique guests experiences. Although CRM in the hospitality industry has been defined by the myriad of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) suppliers that highlight and overstate the importance of ICT capabilities and tools, it is now being widely recognized that successful CRM strategies should effectively combine and align ICT functionality with business operations and strategy. As a widely accepted framework to achieve this has not so far been developed, this paper proposed a model for managing and integrating ICT capabilities into CRM strategies. The model argues that successful CRM implementation requires the management and alignment of three managerial areas: ICT, relationship (internal and external) and knowledge management. The model is applicable and useful for all industries, but by gathering data from a dataset of hotels in Greece, its validity is tested while interesting contextual findings regarding CRM implementation are revealed. Suggestions for future research are also provided

A Genealogy of Crisis : Europe's Legal Legacy and Ordoliberalism

Peer reviewe

Measurement of physical activity and energy expenditure using heart rate, motion sensors and questionnaires

This dissertation was designed to examine new techniques to measure physical activity (PA) and energy expenditure (EE) during lifestyle activities. The specific aims were: 1) to evaluate heart rate (HR), using percent of HR reserve in relation to percent of oxygen uptake reserve, as a method for assessing moderate intensity PA in the field setting; 2) to validate the simultaneous heart rate-motion sensor (HR+M) technique to estimate EE of selected activities; 3) to validate the simultaneous HR +M technique to predict EE over an extended time period; and 4) to use the simultaneous HR+M technique to validate selected PA questionnaires over a 7-day period. For the first aim, sixty-one males performed physical tasks in both a laboratory and field setting. HR and oxygen uptake (V0 2) were continuously measured during 15- min tasks. HR data was used to predict EE using age-predicted maximum HR and estimated maximal V0 2. The correlation between HR and measured V0 2 was r=0.68. After adjusting for age and fitness level, HR provided an accurate estimate of EE, r=0.87. Using percent HR reserve to estimate percent V02 reserve significantly improved the estimation of EE

Yellow card reports associated with use of natural health products in children: an exploratory analysis.

Abstract of a presentation given at the Research council for complementary medicine 2015 conference (RCCM): demonstrating the value of integrative medicine, 10 September, London, UK

The use of complementary and alternative medicine among children in Aberdeen: an outcomes-based cross-sectional survey.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in paediatric subjects is increasing globally. However, most of the data available in the UK is based on hospital-based studies; and studies of such use in the general population are scarce. Also, available British studies were mostly conducted in England; with much fewer Scottish studies. The only such study in Aberdeen, North-east Scotland, was conducted 10 years ago. Current data on the subject is therefore needed, particularly for paediatric CAM use in the general population

Quantifying behavioural determinants relating to health professional reporting of medication errors: a cross-sectional survey using the Theoretical Domains Framework.

The aims of this study were to quantify the behavioural determinants of health professional reporting of medication errors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to explore any differences between respondents. The research was undertaken using a cross-sectional survey of patient-facing doctors, nurses and pharmacists within three major hospitals of Abu Dhabi, the UAE. An online questionnaire was developed based on the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), a framework of behaviour change theories. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify components and internal reliability determined. Ethical approval was obtained from a UK university and all hospital ethics committees. Two hundred and ninety-four responses were received. Questionnaire items clustered into six components of knowledge and skills, feedback and support, action and impact, motivation, effort and emotions. Respondents generally gave positive responses for knowledge and skills, feedback and support and action and impact components. Responses were more neutral for the motivation and effort components. In terms of emotions, the component with the most negative scores, there were significant differences in terms of years registered as health professional (those registered longest most positive, p = 0.002) and age (older most positive, p < 0.001) with no differences for gender and health profession. In conclusion, emotional-related issues are the dominant barrier to reporting and are common to all professions. There is a need to develop, test and implement an intervention to impact health professionals' emotions. Such an intervention should focus on evidence-based behaviour change techniques of reducing negative emotions, focusing on emotional consequences and providing social support

Energy expenditure of interruptions to sedentary behavior

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Advances in technology, social influences and environmental attributes have resulted in substan-tial portions of the day spent in sedentary pursuits. Sedentary behavior may be a cause of many chronic diseases including obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Research demonstrated that breaking up sedentary time was beneficially associated with markers of body composition, cardiovascular health and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to quantify the total energy expenditure of three different durations of physical activity within a 30-minute sedentary period and to examine the potential benefits of interrupting sedentary behavior with physical activity for weight control.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants completed four consecutive 30-minute bouts of sedentary behavior (reading, working on the computer, or doing other desk activities) with and without interruptions of walking at a self-selected pace. Bout one contained no walking interruptions. Bout two contained a 1-minute walking period. Bout three contained a 2-minute walking period. Bout four contained a 5-minute walking period. Body composition and resting metabolic rate were assessed.</p> <p>Result</p> <p>Twenty males and females (18-39 years) completed this study. Results of the repeated measures analysis of variance with post-hoc testing showed that significantly more energy was expended during each 30 minute sedentary bout with a walking break than in the 30 minute sedentary bout (<it>p </it>< 0.05 for all comparisons). On average, participants expended an additional 3.0, 7.4, and 16.5 additional net or activity kilocalories during bouts 2, 3, and 4, respectively compared with bout 1. When extrapolated for a full eight-hour working day, this data shows that an individual would theoretically expend an additional 24, 59 or 132 kilocalories per day, if they stood up and walked at a normal, self selected pace for one, two or five minutes every hour, respectively, compared with sitting for the 8-hour period.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrated that making small changes, such as taking a five minute walking break every hour could yield beneficial weight control or weight loss results. Therefore, taking breaks from sedentary time is a potential outlet to prevent obesity and the rise of obesity in developed countries.</p

Human factors approaches to evaluating outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy services: a systematic review.

Background: The expansion in terms of available treatment options and models of care has led to a growing global momentum for outpatient antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) services. A systematic review was undertaken to explore Human Factors aspects relating to OPAT service delivery and to evaluate whether OPAT is amenable to description using the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS 2.0) model. Method: Following a preliminary search, a search string was applied to four databases, including Medline, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts and PsychINFO. Inclusion criteria ensured only articles published after the year 2000 and written in English were accepted. The methodological quality of studies was assessed by three reviewers. Narrative synthesis was performed to uncover the key interactions between work system entities which underpin OPAT processes and outcomes as described using the SEIPS 2.0 model. Results: A total of twenty-seven studies were deemed eligible for the final review. Of these, most described sample populations representative of the population under study, while duration of the studies varied from a few months to years. Some studies evaluated a single model of care whilst others evaluated all three currently available models. The breadth and scope of the studies included enabled extraction of rich Human Factors data describing barriers and enablers to service provision. Conclusion: OPAT is a service which offers significant benefits to both patients and care providers. These benefits include patient satisfaction and wellbeing, as well as financial performance. OPAT is a complex sociotechnical system, and a systems approach may offer the opportunity to enhance system design, maximising system performance. This review demonstrates that the service can be better understood using the SEIPS 2.0 model to identify key work system interactions that support performance

Union strategies in historical perspective: Sweden and Germany

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020

Healthcare professionals' perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to implementing electronic systems for the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines in hospitals: a systematic review.

Abstract Objective To identify, critically appraise, synthesise and present the available evidence on healthcare professionals' perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to implementing electronic prescribing, dispensing and/or administration of medicines in the hospital setting. Methods A systematic search of studies focusing on healthcare professionals' perceptions of technologies for prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines in the hospital setting was performed using MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Grey literature inclusive of manual searching of core journals, relevant conference abstracts and online theses were also searched. Independent duplicate screening of titles, abstracts and full texts was performed by the authors. Data extraction and quality assessment were undertaken using standardised tools, followed by narrative synthesis. Key findings Five papers were included in the systematic review after screening 2566 titles. Reasons for exclusion were duplicate publication; non-hospital setting; a lack of investigation of healthcare professionals' perceptions and a lack of focus on implementation processes or systems specific to electronic prescribing, dispensing or administration of medicines. Studies were conducted in the USA, Sweden and Australia. All studies used qualitative interview methods. Healthcare professionals perceived systems improved patient safety and provided better access to patients' drug histories and that team leadership and equipment availability and reliability were essential for successful implementation. Key barriers included hardware and network problems; altered work practices such as time pressure on using the system and remote ordering as a potential risk for errors; and weakened interpersonal communication between healthcare professionals and with patients. Conclusions Few studies were identified on healthcare professionals' perceptions of the facilitators and barriers to system implementation in hospitals. Key facilitators included a perception of increased patient safety and better access to patients' drug history while key barriers involved technical problems, changes to routine work practices and weakened interpersonal communication. Investigating this area further will assist in improving patient safety and reducing medication costs by informing and strengthening implementation strategies