Perceived service quality models: are they still relevant?

This paper reviews the concept of perceived service quality and provides an update to the body of service quality knowledge. It consolidates the pathway of perceived service quality concept, from its emergence to the research model’s development. It also critically reviews service characteristics as prerequisites of perceived service quality conceptualisation. The examination of six perceived service quality models is intended to identify a superior model that could be used by further research. Yet, overall, the paper challenges the relevance of existing models for the current stage of service quality research. It also justifies the need to move towards a revised, service-driven framework and to consider perceived service quality through the lens of the customer

Managing diversity: Academics' perspective on culture and teaching

As UK Higher Education institutions continue to accept students from ethnically diverse backgrounds, there is now an onus and an expectation for academics to provide learning environments and experiences that are inclusive, validating and affirming. The aim of this paper is to explore, through the lens of the academic tutor, the pedagogical methods employed towards the implementation of ‘cultural branching’, which we define as helping ethnically diverse students to build bridges between their pre-existing knowledge and what they are expected to learn. To investigate this in more detail, the researchers interviewed 22 academic tutors across three UK Higher Education Institutions in the North of England. The findings suggest that current curriculum structures and pedagogical approaches favour the dominant non-ethnically diverse learner. Our research proposes that additional emphasis needs to be placed on developing a practical and functional approach which embeds cultural branching via technological platforms

Designing Novel Grooved Pallets for Industrial Application

The purpose of this study was to model an improved pallet design which could overcome the drawbacks and failures of the pallets available in the market today. The new modeled pallets were designed to improve the capacity of the individual pallets and thereby increase the efficiency of the material handling process. The new modeled pallets were also designed with the aim to replace the racking system used for storage in the warehouse industry. The study was performed using two finite element analysis software, SOLIDWORKS and ANSYS, as analysis tools to study the behavior of the design under various real world conditions. The results obtained from numerous simulations using these software were compared with the market conditions to evaluate the degree of success of the study. A new design was proposed from the evolution of a primary design by optimizing with respect to capacity and functionality simultaneously. From the data obtained, it was concluded that the proposed new pallet design could significantly increase the capacity and safety compared to the existing ones, and serve as a benchmark for the material handling industry

Identification of Cultural Heuristics for the creation of consistent and fair pedagogy for ethnically diverse students.

This book chapter intends to illustrate the complexity of supporting culturally diverse students in UK Higher Education Business Schools and how this complexity is compounded by pedagogy, which is shaped by educational practice that is dominated by aspirations of Western culture. The role that culturally responsive teaching can play as an approach to meeting the educational needs of students whose educational framework and culture are different from western mainstream education is also explored within the context of UK Business Schools. This chapter investigates the cultural constructs of culturally responsive teaching within the structured framework of the five-pillars of Jabbar and Hardaker (2013). We propose, through the identification of the cultural constructs, that within HE there are gaps within fundamental areas that should be developed to consistently engage with students in a fair, consistent and equitable manner

Service quality models in the context of the fitness industry

Purpose This paper aims to reviews the concept of perceived service quality in the fitness industry by considering the service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004) and examining existing service quality models in the context of sport and fitness. Design/methodology/approach The paper critically reviews generic and industry-specific models of service quality in the fitness industry. The examination of the models is intended to identify the role that the perspective of customers and the dynamics of service co-creation play in these models. Findings Consideration of the context in a particular industry plays an important role in the development of service quality models. If underestimated, it can result in a model being inadequate or having limited explanatory potential. The review shows that both generic and fitness industry-specific models have methodological and conceptual limitations. This requires researchers to consider developing new contextual models that acknowledge a) service as co-creation of experience/value between suppliers and customers; and, b) the goal of this co-creation as fulfilment of customers’ aspirations. Such an approach brings a new light to the meaning of ‘a customer’s perspective’ and emphasises the dynamics of service co-creation in the fitness industry. Practical implications The study provides an agenda for future research to consider perceived service quality models from the customers’ perspective. It suggests researchers to take into account various factors of consumer behaviour (e.g. motivation) which are unique to sport and fitness services. Also, managers of fitness facilities need to revisit their tools for capturing customers' perceptions and to update the areas included in customer satisfaction surveys. Originality/value The paper provides an insight into the role of co-creation for service quality in fitness services. It contributes towards establishing revised relations between service quality in fitness and contextual industry-specific factors suggested by numerous studies previously

Service quality in fitness centres- literature review and further research

Addressing the needs of the customers and understanding their perspectives on service quality (SQ) have become essential for fitness organisations in a competitive environment. In a saturated market, fitness clubs seek methods of both retaining existing and attracting new customers. This places a significant emphasis on SQ and the identification of what customers perceive as quality. SQ in the sport and fitness industries evolved into a credible research stream from the late 1980s. However, there is still no agreement in the literature about the key dimensions of quality in these industries. Due to the unique aspects of the sport services, there are distinct differences between sport organisations and other businesses. Recognising this distinction, a number of studies (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Martinez and Martinez, 2010) have emphasised the need for developing industry specific SQ models. The current study aims to review the existing body of literature on SQ in the fitness industry. Future research aims to examine SQ in fitness clubs in England and to test measurement scales from previous studies for their validity. The model of Brady and Cronin (2001) is taken as a basis for the research framework and suggestions for overcoming its existing limitations are proposed

GSU Event Portal

The project is the conceptual design for the website which has the content management which is commonly known as the GSU Event Portal. Which is very helpful for the student and faculty to display or to showcase there event and various promotion and the registration this will be helping the both the faculty and the student to display the information and also it can be used for the marketing purpose in order to make to event and other promotion visible to everyone. The even portal is the website where student can view the event posted by the user and also you can register them and get the updates about the event and the event portal website even let you create or modify your own even and manage them with the account you have been created in it and make changes to it. And now the user may able to see you event and even register it some of the event will be free and some of them will be paid. The main idea about the project will be a content management website which will be responsible to creation and modification of the online event portal which will be support the mobile and the desktop platform the website will be having categories which will be helping the user to search for the various event based on their categories. The website will be helpful in reducing the time and cost for the faculty and student for marketing there event

Digitized Engineering Notebook

Digitizing engineering notebooks, articles, assignments, multimedia things, event calendar and uploading downloading files from online web portal will certainly help engineering students in their studies. Here in this abstract we are proposing a system where students can share their notebooks on online web portal and others can read it and download it in a PDF format. This system will surly help and make updated all the students about college activities, studies and other activities. Proposed system will implement in Microsoft .Net Framework, C#.Net, ASP.Net and required an IIS web server to run it on live server. Developing this system require an IDE i.e. Visual Studio and backed database MS SQL to keep records of notebooks, data and assignments etc. There will be another super user which will manage student’s record and manage and restrict them to access the system. He can manage projects, assignments and assign to students

Microwave photonic downconversion with improved conversion efficiency and SFDR

In this paper, we report a novel approach of microwave frequency downconversion with improved conversion efficiency and high dynamic range, using two different configuration schemes. The first proposed scheme is designed by using a dual-parallel dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator and the second one using dual-parallel dual-phase modulator. The radio frequency (RF) message signal and the local oscillator (LO) signal are feeding these two parallel connected modulators. By using a tight control of the system parameters, we have reported an effective optical carrier suppression, resulting in high conversion efficiency. We show that when the link is amplified, the relation between m{\mathrm {LO}} and m{\mathrm {RF}} plays a vital role and gives a high value of conversion efficiency, where key parameters lead to the LO and RF modulators modulation index. The conversion efficiency is improved by 5.72 dBm, compared with previously published work using DP-MZM, and 28.4 dBm, compared with the cascaded connected modulator. An experimental demonstration of a proof of concept is also carried out where the intermediate frequency to noise ratio of 69.5 dB is reported