SST and the Consumer Behaviour in Portuguese Financial Services

Financial services, especially commercial banking has been introducing new self-service technologies (SST), in the contact with customers, which allows the customer to accede service in an autonomous and timeless form. This paper discusses the behaviour of users and non-users of self-service technologies (namely, ATMs, call center/telephone, and internet) in Portuguese banking services. An empirical study was carried out by means of a questionnaire. Data were collected on 300 individuals, representing a sample, by region, gender and age group, of the Portuguese population, age 18 and over, and living in mainland Portugal. The results call for a user’s profile and consumer’s behaviour of SST. The SST users reveal a higher intention of repurchase, propensity to complain and higher price sensibility than the non-users. They are younger and middle-aged individuals, with a medium and high level of education. The main contribution of the paper is that banking managers that invest in SST may expect more sales (as a result of consumers with higher intention of repurchase), more opportunities of recovering the service (as a result of consumers with higher propensity to complain), but more price competitiveness (as a result of a consumer behaviour more price sensible). The paper put in evidence that SST use is not sufficient to determine consumer satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth, and it is not a barrier to bank switching.TSS (self-service technology), consumer’s behaviour, ATM, internet banking, telephone banking, Portugal

The Interactions between clients and providers of services related to marketing activities

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the business interactions involved in the purchase of services related to marketing activities. We build on the literature about business services classifications and the interaction between clients and providers of business services. An empirical study is conducted by means of a survey questionnaire. Data were collected from a sample of 80 buying firms of services related to marketing activities who agreed to cooperate and represent medium and large Portuguese’s firms. The results show that the buying of services related to marketing activities involves both the client and the provider in the interaction process. This paper contributes to understanding the interaction process of buying services related to marketing activities in terms of the parties involved, product/service exchange, financial and information exchange. Providers of services related to marketing activities can expect stable and preferred relationships if they can offer a good price and quality of service, meet the agreed deadlines and respond quickly to client orders. On the client’s side, the relevance, the characteristics and the wide diversity of services related to marketing activities requires a good understanding and management of the interaction portfolio with providers.ISCAP/FC

Learning through planning experiments: a case study in thermal comfort in hospitals

Learning engineering involves observing and understanding how systems or processes work, but also knowing the cause and effect relationships present. During the course, students learn that the process of engineering investigation requires conducting experiments to validate theories or hypotheses about what makes the system work. Each experimental run is a test. It is through active experimentation, the controlled intervention of a process that modifies the inputs and characteristics of the process, that it is possible to learn the effect of a set of different factors on a response variable. Based on experimental data collected to model thermal comfort in hospital waiting rooms, this paper aims to contribute to the knowledge of this phenomenon through the selection of the most appropriate statistical techniques to analyze the data. For engineering students this is an opportunity to bring theory to practice.- This research was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), within the Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020 (ALGORITMI) and R&D Units Project Scope UIDP/04077/2020 (METRICS). Diogo Gracoeiro acknowledges the BII scholarship VCC-ALG-04/2021 attributed by FCT

Work satisfaction within community pharmacy professionals

Work is a profession, a craft, or an activity in which man produces something central to his life. The job satisfaction is reflected simultaneously on the worker and the functioning of organizations. Workers more satisfied with their work have higher productivity levels, higher subjective well-being and well-being with life in general. Community pharmacy professionals are categorized in three professional categories: pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and technical pharmacy assistants. Work satisfaction was previously associated with gender, age, job category, years of service, remuneration, security concerning the future of the profession, relationships with colleagues and satisfaction with the professional category. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the satisfaction level of community pharmacy professionals and to identify associated factors. These professionals have revealed, in general, a level of moderated satisfaction. There were no significant differences between job satisfaction and gender, age, years of service, professional category and remuneration

Cost-effective bioethanol production at low content of nitrogen source from carob syrup

Ethanol, as biofuel, has received great interest in the latest decades due to its potential as an alternative transport fuel. Nowadays, ethanol can be produced through fermentative processes, using sugar rich agricultural raw material and it may have a significant role in reducing environmental impact of fossil fuels