Customer orientation of service employees in family businesses in the hotel sector

The business interactions between front-line employees and customers are crucial to evaluating service quality and for business performance. A gap has been identified in the literature on both customer orientation of service employees (COSE) and family businesses (FBs). These two concepts have never been studied together before. This study presents a concept that develops a theoretical model based on Hennig-Thurau (2004). This model drives research about the COSE and FBs in the hotel sector. The two main contributions are: (1) electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is proposed as a consequence of COSE within FBs and (2) a questionnaire has been developed from relevant subscales to measure COSE and the two possible consequences derived from it (Customer Satisfaction and eWOM). A database from Iberic Balance Analysis System (SABI) has been selected to study these variables in the hotel sector, and it will be used in a future empirical study that is expected to provide support for the theory

The influence of digital capabilities on customer orientation of service employees (COSE) and its consequences on customer satisfaction and e-WOM within Family Businesses

Customer relations have become a key matter in services businesses daily activities. Due to the intangibility of services, the employee service performance is what customers perceive as the reflection of the service quality. Due to this fact, the customer orientation of front-line employees, primarily in services industry, plays a crucial role in getting positives/negatives results with regards to customer satisfaction. Customer orientation of service employees (COSE) is a key concept within marketing literature. It has been demonstrated by previous authors the positives effects that has in customer satisfaction and customer retention (Hennig-Thurau. 2004: Morales and Ruiz-Alba, 2018)

Optimización de redes de distribución de agua utilizando un algoritmo genético

Un algoritmo genético (AG), es un procedimiento de búsqueda del óptimo de una función basado en la mecánica natural darwiniana de supervivencia de los individuos mejor adaptados. En el presente trabajo se ha desarrollado un algoritmo genético que permite determinar la red de distribución de agua de coste mínimo para una topología y una condición de carga dadas. El procedimiento consiste en asimilar las redes a cadenas binarias (conjuntos de unos y ceros). Partiendo de una población de redes generada aleatoriamente, se realizan los procesos naturales de selección, cruce y mutación, obteniéndose una nueva población. Así, generación tras generación, se llega al individuo mejor adaptado, es decir la red de distribución de mínimo coste. El algoritmo, implementado en FORTRAN-77 y ejecutable en PC, se ha aplicado a un ejemplo extraído de la bibliografía, obteniéndose resultados satisfactorio

Parámetros de calidad de la canal y la carne de cabritos lechales de raza payoya en sistema de explotación convencional

En el trabajo se han elegido 24 cabritos pertenecientes a la raza Payoya, 12 machos y 12 hembras con el objeto de comparar los parámetros de la calidad de la canal y de la carne. Los resultados nos muestran que aunque existen algunas diferencias en algunas medidas de calidad de la carne (pH, CRA, L*, a*, b*, C y Hº), el resto de los parámetros estudiados no presentaron diferencias significativas entre los dos sexos

Cooperative CPU, GPU, and FPGA heterogeneous execution with EngineCL

Heterogeneous systems are the core architecture of most of the high-performance computing nodes, due to their excellent performance and energy efficiency. However, a key challenge that remains is programmability, specifically, releasing the programmer from the burden of managing data and devices with different architectures. To this end, we extend EngineCL to support FPGA devices. Based on OpenCL, EngineCL is a high-level framework providing load balancing among devices. Our proposal fully integrates FPGAs into the framework, enabling effective cooperation between CPU, GPU, and FPGA. With command overlapping and judicious data management, our work improves performance by up to 96% compared with single-device execution and delivers energy-delay gains of up to 37%. In addition, adopting FPGAs does not require programmers to make big changes in their applications because the extensions do not modify the user-facing interface of EngineCL

Short communication: Effects of the addition of a marigold extract to diets fed to channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) on growth parameters

The expansion of aquaculture in the last 10 years has made it an important source of protein worldwide. However, increased production, and the culture intensification it carries, results in higher risk of infectious disease due to poor water quality and high stocking densities. ... Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) is a plant native to Mexico whose flowers accumulate carotenoids. Natural carotenoids extracted from marigold have been used in aquaculture to help in the survival of fish juvenile stages by strengthening their immunological system, thus reducing mortality rates. The effect of carotenoids in fish health may exert a positive effect on fish growth indices; however, these effects on growth parameters have not been studied in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), which is the most cultured fish species in north-eastern Mexico, and one of the most cultured on the southern United States. Consequently, the aim of this study was to investigate if there were significant differences in growth among channel catfish juveniles when fed diets containing various carotenoid doses from a natural source

Short communication: Effects of the addition of a marigold extract to diets fed to channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) on growth parameters

The expansion of aquaculture in the last 10 years has made it an important source of protein worldwide. However, increased production, and the culture intensification it carries, results in higher risk of infectious disease due to poor water quality and high stocking densities. ... Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) is a plant native to Mexico whose flowers accumulate carotenoids. Natural carotenoids extracted from marigold have been used in aquaculture to help in the survival of fish juvenile stages by strengthening their immunological system, thus reducing mortality rates. The effect of carotenoids in fish health may exert a positive effect on fish growth indices; however, these effects on growth parameters have not been studied in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), which is the most cultured fish species in north-eastern Mexico, and one of the most cultured on the southern United States. Consequently, the aim of this study was to investigate if there were significant differences in growth among channel catfish juveniles when fed diets containing various carotenoid doses from a natural source