Four-dimensional Construct Research Articles

The impact of port service quality on customer satisfaction: The case of Singapore

This study investigates the concept of Port Service Quality (PSQ) and examines its influence on customer satisfaction in the port sector. Following a literature review, a conceptual model of PSQ and its influence on customer satisfaction is proposed. The model is first checked for validity in an interview with senior executives working in various container shipping lines in Singapore, then validated through a survey of 175 members of the Singapore Shipping Association and Singapore Logistics Association. A confirmatory factor analysis, followed by multiple regression is conducted to confirm the PSQ construct and examine the relationship between PSQ and customer satisfaction. It is found that PSQ is a four-dimensional construct and that the relationship between PSQ and customer satisfaction is positively significant. Specifically, the PSQ dimensions of outcomes, management, process and image and social responsibility all have significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. This study contributes to management practice as port managers can use the PSQ scale to measure their customers’ satisfaction, and justify investments in port service quality as a relational marketing instrument. This research also contributes to theory building, as it presents and validates the respective model of PSQ and customer satisfaction specifically for the port sector.

Service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in the Yemeni mobile service market

The purpose of this research is to reveal the service quality dimensions (SERVQUAL) from the customers' perspectives, and to examine their effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty in Yemen's mobile service market. Using a structured questionnaire, 1400 questionnaires were delivered to customers from which 999 were valid and useable for data analysis. Utilising structural equation modelling, we found that SERVQUAL is a four-dimensional construct consisting of reliability, empathy and assurance, tangibles and responsiveness in opposing to five as proposed by the original hypothesised model. Reliability, empathy and assurance, tangibles positively and significantly affected customer satisfaction. Also, customer satisfaction positively and significantly affected customer loyalty. The results provide managers and CEOs of the Yemeni mobile service operators with significant managerial implications regarding the service quality dimensions and the vital role they play to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty alike.

The differential success of movie trailers

The idea underlying the empirical investigation reported in this contribution is that the success of movie trailers is moderated by Modes of Reception (Suckfüll, M., 2004. Rezeptionsmodalitäten. Ein integratives Konstrukt für die Medienwirkungsforschung [Modes of Reception. An Integrative Construct for Media Effects Research]. Fischer, München). Modes of Reception are a four-dimensional construct consisting of the interdependent factors Identity Work, In-Emotion, Imagination and Production. Three different trailers for the movie THE PIANO (Chapman, J., & Campion, J., 1993. The Piano. Santa Monica, CA: Miramax Lionsgate) were produced. The hypothesis was that the trailers appeal to viewers who predominantly use corresponding Modes of Reception. An online survey with 554 participants was conducted. A moderated regression analysis revealed that the relation between a trailer that focuses on the story told in the movie and the dependent variable Success of the Trailer (in terms of liking and intention to watch the movie) is significantly influenced by the Mode of Reception Identity Work for women, whereas the success of a trailer that focuses on the quality of the movie is significantly lower in men that predominantly use the same mode. This contribution introduces the construct Modes of Reception as a tool for audience segmentation. By considering Modes of Reception as consumer characteristics, a target group-specific distribution of intentionally created movie trailers could increase the efficiency of film marketing campaigns. The idea is discussed in contrast to the popular view that genre is the silver bullet for target group-specific film marketing.

Supergravity-matter actions in three dimensions and Chern-Simons terms

We study off-shell N-extended Yang-Mills multiplets coupled to conformal supergravity in three spacetime dimensions. Superform formulations are presented for the non-Abelian Chern-Simons actions in the cases N=1, 2, 3, and the corresponding component actions are explicitly worked out. Such a Chern-Simons action does not exist for N=4. In the latter case, a superform formulation is given for the BF term that describes the coupling of two Abelian vector multiplets with self-dual and anti-self-dual superfield strengths respectively. The superform results obtained are used to construct linear multiplet action principles in the cases N=2, 3, 4. The N=3 and N=4 actions are demonstrated to be universal in the sense that all known off-shell supergravity-matter systems (with the exception of pure conformal supergravity) may be described using such an action. Starting from the N=3 and N=4 Abelian vector multiplets, we also construct composite O(2) multiplets which are analogues of the four-dimensional construction of an N=2 reduced chiral scalar engineered from the improved tensor multiplet. Using these composites, we present the superfield equations of motion for N=3 and N=4 anti-de Sitter and topologically massive supergravity theories. We also sketch the construction of a large family of higher derivative couplings for N=3 and N=4 vector multiplets.

Inclusion Relations among methods of four-dimensional summability compounded from given four-dimensional methods

The goals of this paper include the introduction of a new four-dimensional summability method construction by compounding a single four-dimensional method. The examination of this method begins with the characterization of its RH-regularity properties. In addition, the following inclusion and consistent theorems will be presented.

Integrated Market-related Internal Communication: Development of the Construct

Although companies are increasingly using integrative communication processes to develop and improve market information dissemination, research in marketing has typically conceptualised and measured dissemination in terms of the use and frequency of information-sharing activities. In view of this asynchrony between theory and practice, this research explores the above neglected domain of market information dissemination, proposing a new construct that we call ‘integrated market-related internal communication’ (IMIC), which encompasses the integrative communication processes implemented by firms aimed at enhancing employees' market information processing. After conceptualising IMIC as a fourdimensional construct, we developed and validated a measurement instrument for assessing this emergent concept. In particular, the proposed dimensions were confirmed as reflective factors of the higher order-construct IMIC, and nomological validity was assessed by demonstrating the positive influence of IMIC on both employees' capacity to assimilate market information and shared interpretation of this information.

Developing a multidimensional scale of customer-oriented deviance (COD)

Although frontline employees' bending of organizational rules and norms for customers is an important phenomenon, marketing scholars to date only broadly describe over-servicing behaviors and provide little distinction among deviant behavioral concepts. Drawing on research on pro-social and pro-customer behaviors and on studies of positive deviance, this paper develops and validates a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional construct term customer-oriented deviance. Results from two samples totaling 616 frontline employees (FLEs) in the retail and hospitality industries demonstrate that customer-oriented deviance is a four-dimensional construct with sound psychometric properties. Evidence from a test of a theoretical model of key antecedents establishes nomological validity with empathy/perspective-taking, risk-taking propensity, role conflict, and job autonomy as key predictors. Results show that the dimensions of customer-oriented deviance are distinct and have significant implications for theory and practice.

A Systematic Approach to Scale Development in Tourist Shopping Satisfaction

Tourism shopping has been acknowledged as a primary travel motive. Yet research on the underlying dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of tourist shopping satisfaction has not received adequate attention. The objective of this article is to explore tourist shopping satisfaction and examine its dimensionality. The authors systematically develop a scale that conceptualizes tourists’ shopping satisfaction as a four-dimensional construct that reflects tourists’ satisfaction of service product and environment, merchandise value, staff service quality, and service differentiation during their shopping excursion. Using this scale, the authors examine a structural model linking tourist facilities, as major destination attributes, to shopping satisfaction and shopping experience. This article ends with a discussion of the implications and future research directions.

Exploring the animosity domain and the role of affect in a cross-national context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of animosity theory in three areas; construct domain, the mediating role of affect and model testing. Design/methodology/approachExploratory and empirical research is carried out in two countries in order to explore the domain and to test the factor structure and the hypotheses through confirmatory analysis. FindingsWe find animosity is a four-dimensional construct which impacts buying behavior through affect. Originality/valueThe research extends the domain of the animosity construct to a four-dimensional structure rather than the two-dimensional structure used in most previous studies. It is the first study to empirically test an extended animosity domain and investigate the mediating role of affective emotional responses between animosity and buying intentions.

Development and validation of the casino service quality scale: CASERV

With intensifying competition among casino operators, consumers are demanding better services. This research conceptualizes casino service quality as a second-order, four-dimensional construct which assesses casino patrons’ perceptions of service delivery, service environment, food service, and service product. Based upon a rigorous psychometric process of scale development and validation through three studies in the casino setting, the authors propose the CASERV scale as a comprehensive instrument for measuring casino services that is reliable, valid, and distinct from other service quality measures. The paper concludes with discussion of managerial implications and future research directions.

Superpartner spectrum of minimal gaugino-gauge mediation

We evaluate the sparticle mass spectrum in the minimal four-dimensional construction that interpolates between gaugino and ordinary gauge mediation at the weak scale. We find that even in the hybrid case -- when the messenger scale is comparable to the mass of the additional gauge particles -- both the right-handed as well as the left-handed sleptons are lighter than the bino in the low-scale mediation regime. This implies a chain of lepton production and, consequently, striking signatures that may be probed at the LHC already in the near future.

Micromanaging de Sitter holography

We develop tools to engineer de Sitter vacua with semi-holographic duals, using elliptic fibrations and orientifolds to uplift Freund–Rubin compactifications with CFT duals. The dual brane construction is compact and constitutes a microscopic realization of the dS/dS correspondence, realizing d-dimensional de Sitter space as a warped compactification down to (d − 1)-dimensional de Sitter gravity coupled to a pair of large-N matter sectors. This provides a parametric microscopic interpretation of the Gibbons–Hawking entropy. We illustrate these ideas with an explicit class of examples in three dimensions, and describe ongoing work on four-dimensional constructions.

The sparticle spectrum in minimal gaugino-gauge mediation

We compute the sparticle mass spectrum in the minimal four-dimensional construction that interpolates between gaugino mediation and ordinary gauge mediation.

Ethics and Law: Guiding the Invisible Hand to Correct Corporate Social Responsibility Externalities

Tokenistic short-term economic success is not good indicia of long-term success. Sustainable business success requires sustained existence in a corporation’s political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental contexts. Far beyond the traditional economic focus, consumers, governments and public interest groups alike increasingly expect the business sector to take on more social and environmental responsibilities. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the model in which economic, social and environmental responsibilities are fulfilled simultaneously. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence that demonstrates genuine widespread adoption of CSR in practice, and its underlying reasons. Though research in CSR has been rapidly growing, its commercial reality and implications need to be further improved if it is to inspire corporations to voluntarily adopt CSR. In the literature, Carroll’s four-dimensional (economic, legal, ethical and discretionary) CSR framework offers a theoretical basis for developing an empirically based model to explain why and how profit-motivated managers take up CSR voluntarily. Our study has developed a structural equation model to identify the key factors and their interactions that influence economically motivated managers to take on voluntary CSR, and validate Carroll’s four-dimensional construct. The results support Carroll’s four-dimensional CSR framework, with the exception of the link pertaining to the relationship between economic and discretionary/voluntary responsibility. This characterises the economic reality that financial market-driven economic responsibility does not automatically translate into social responsibility. Nevertheless, the empirical results demonstrate that corporations can be led to engage in more voluntary CSR activities to achieve social good when appropriate legal and ethical controls are in place.

Performance of International Joint Ventures in Construction

International joint ventures (IJVs) have become popular because of their importance as a strategic alternative in global competition. The measurement of the performance of IJVs has been an important research topic for a few decades, however there is no consensus on an appropriate definition and measurement of IJV performance. In this study, a model is proposed to assess IJV performance in construction. The validity of the proposed drivers and measures of performance is investigated and relationships between them are analyzed. The effects of interpartner fit/relations, structural IJV characteristics, host country factors, and project-related factors on IJV performance are examined through a questionnaire survey. IJV performance is defined by a four-dimensional construct that considers the performance of the project, the IJV partners, the IJV organization itself, and the perceptions of the IJV partners. The results point out the significance of the interpartner fit and the quality of partner relations for a successful IJV operation. The findings of the study also suggest that project-related factors have a moderate influence on IJV performance. In a properly designed IJV structure, partners with compatible skills, resources, and cultures are found to maintain good relations and are expected to achieve greater IJV success.

New charged black holes in five dimensions

We obtain new stationary charged solutions of five-dimensional minimal supergravity. We first obtain purely dipole-charged solutions by extending a technique that we developed for five-dimensional Ricci-flat metrics in a previous paper, which could be viewed as being analogous to a four-dimensional construction by Demianski and Plebanski. The further introduction of electric charge is achieved by means of a solution-generating technique, which exploits the global symmetry of five-dimensional minimal supergravity reduced on a time-like direction to four dimensions. We present this procedure in detail, since it provides a particularly simple general way of adding charge to any stationary solution of five-dimensional minimal supergravity. The new charged solutions we obtain limit in special cases to black rings carrying electric and magnetic dipole charge, or to charged Myers–Perry rotating black holes. We analyze the general solutions in detail, showing that they can describe asymptotically locally flat black holes whose horizon is a lens space L(n; m) = S3/Γ(n; m). At infinity they approach Minkowski5/Γ(m; n).

Proenvironmental Value Orientation Across Cultures

The present study develops and validates a German and Russian scale of proenvironmental value orientation. Proenvironmental value orientation is conceptualized as a four-dimensional construct, entailing egocentric, ecocentric, and anthropocentric value orientations as well as environmental apathy. The first stage of the research is an expert test of indicator content validity. In a subsequent step, the authors provide evidence of internal consistency for a student sample (N = 223) and for the structural equivalence and criterion validity for a representative sample (N = 430). The structure of proenvironmental value orientation appears to be largely equivalent in both cultures, though the behavioral relevance of the dimensions differs. In the Russian sample, proenvironmental behavioral intention correlates with any of the four dimensions, whereas in Germany, anthropocentric value orientation does not relate to behavioral intention.

Empirical Study on the Merit of Web-Based 4D Visualization in Collaborative Construction Planning and Scheduling

This paper reports an empirical study that tested the usefulness of Web-based four-dimensional (4D) construction visualization in collaborative construction planning and scheduling. Several recent construction projects have employed 4D visualization to better understand the construction schedule and make proactive decisions to prevent logical errors in the construction sequence. Other groups have shown that construction information management with asynchronous Web-based communication can improve decision making among dispersed industry practitioners. It seems reasonable to anticipate that combining 4D visualization with Web-based information management would facilitate dispersed industry practitioners to make collaborative decisions for construction planning and scheduling. The empirical study presented here reports how experiment participants at separate locations collaboratively detected logical errors in a construction schedule when the 4D visualization model of the schedule was represented on the Web browser. Our results show that teams using 4D models detected logical errors more frequently, faster, with fewer mistakes, and with less team communication, than teams using 2D drawings and bar charts. These findings show industry practitioners empirical evidence that Web-based 4D construction visualization can improve team collaboration on construction planning and scheduling.

Ist die Diagnose Schizophrenie noch sinnvoll?

To analyse what psychotic, depressive and manic syndromes have in common and what separates them, we compared 130 population-based first-admission cases of schizophrenia and depression from illness onset until first admission and 130 "healthy" controls. We also studied 107 first-episode cases of schizophrenia over 11.2 years. Illness onset in depression and schizophrenia is marked by identical symptoms, mostly depressive in type. Throughout the course of schizophrenia depression is the most frequent symptom. Psychosis risk increases when depressive and anxiety symptoms increase and decreases when these symptoms decrease. The depressive syndrome is an integral part of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia diagnosis should be replaced by a four-dimensional construct, with each dimension associated with a mainly specific indication for therapy.

More about soft terms and FCNC in realistic string constructions

In realistic four-dimensional string constructions the presence of anomalous U(1)'s is generic. In addition, the associated Fayet-Iliopoulos contribution to the D-term can break the extra gauge symmetries. As a consequence, physical particles can appear combined with other states. We show that even if a three-generation standard-like model has originally flavour-independent soft scalar masses, the particle mixing contribution may generate non-universality among them. Thus FCNC effects which were apparently absent reappear. We also discuss the size of these contributions in an explicit model, and how they can be suppressed.