Matchmaking Services Research Articles

Proposing Shocks and Dissatisfaction to Explain Quitting and Switching a Service: An Image Theory Perspective

This study sheds light on how shocks, or events perceived as jarring, cause users to discontinue a service. We use image theory to develop a model of discontinuation (MOD), which includes five main concepts: shock, script, image violation, service and task dissatisfaction, and search for and evaluation of superior alternatives. MOD explains how two types of user discontinuation behavior—quitting and switching—are formed along seven paths that are either related to contextual or technological shocks or result from dissatisfaction with a task or service. Our first empirical study shows that more than 95% of the 467 ex-users surveyed followed one of these paths when discontinuing media streaming, social networking, and matchmaking services. In the second study, we developed a research model based on the MOD to understand how the psychological factors associated with shocks lead to the intention to discontinue. We evaluate this model with a scenario study in which we present the situation of users of a matchmaking service and present participants with a contextual shock. Data from 201 individuals show that users are likely to develop intentions to quit when they use an engaged script or experience an image violation. Interviews with a panel of practitioners confirmed that MOD provides a useful and applicable approach to understanding users’ quitting and switching behaviors in different contexts. We conclude our paper with a discussion of implications for research and practice.

Research on the Comparison and Development of Matchmaking Services at Home and Abroad

This article summarizes the feasibility of using value co-creation theory to operate and manage the internet matchmaking industry by reviewing the matchmaking service models and characteristics of developed countries and regions abroad, and combining it with the current development status of internet matchmaking websites in China. This provides reference suggestions for the construction of services for Chinese internet matchmaking enterprises and has practical significance for the current development of internet matchmaking services in China.

NEEDS ANALYSIS OF HALAL MATCHMAKING FOR MUSLIM MARRIAGE IN JAPAN

Today, halal matchmaking services, such as halal apps and halal speed dating have appeared in many Muslim and non-Muslim countries. It is important that Muslims not only marry in a halal manner, but also maintain a healthy family life after marriage. However, in Japan, where Muslims are almost invisible minority, there are no services that provide halal matchmaking including pre-marriage education based on Maqasid al-Shariah. The purpose of the research is to analyze the need for halal matchmaking services in Japan. Halal matchmaking needs of single and divorced Muslims are to be determined. Methods: The researcher recruited potential participants for a halal matchmaking through social media of Chiba Islamic Cultural Center from 25 July to 21 August 2022. Single and divorced Muslims living in Japan who were able to communicate adequately in Japanese, were purposively selected for in-depth interviews. Feedback was obtained through in-depth interviews with all the participants after the halal matchmaking. Findings: 111 people registered their personal profiles. There were 109 valid answers (98.1%). Forty-one people responded for the preliminary interviews. Twenty people who attended the matchmaking were invited for the feedback in-depth interviews. Barriers to find a potential marriage partner among Muslims in Japan include a rarity of Muslims as a user of the Japanese matchmaking services, time and money consuming efforts and anxiety for marriage due to the lack of trust or assurance of individualistic marriage compared to that of communal marriages. Thus, community effort to develop halal matchmaking is needed for the Muslims in Japan.

Dual strategy process in open strategizing

This paper inductively unravels the dual process of open strategy by delving into the relationships between transparency and inclusion from a longitudinal case study. Drawing on these data, we theorize that strategy transparency affects inclusion instead of shaping the success of platform match-making services directly. By disentangling transparency into transparency of procedures and of the participants' assets/resources, and inclusion into the range of participants, participant entitlement and participant commitment, we map how sub-dimensions of open strategy influences one another. Specifically, procedural transparency influences the range of participants and participant entitlement, while transparency of the participants' assets/resources affects participant commitment. In return, inclusion influences the development of three attributes of participants' assets/resources: variety, density and usability, which are key to platform match-making success. Our findings also suggest that open strategy does not exert a one-way influence on the development of participants' assets/resources. Instead, strategy and the attributes of participants’ assets/resources are both the medium and the outcome of recursive interactions, suggesting that experimentation and reflective learning help refine open strategizing.

A Multisided Value Proposition Canvas for Online Platforms

Operators of digital platforms have to convince potential users that their intermediation and matchmaking services bring additional value in the market. To do so, they need to formulate a strong value proposition, which convinces users that joining the platform brings them larger value than staying out. In recent years, a number of frameworks have been developed to help entrepreneurs reflect on which elements should be included (or not) in their value proposition. In this paper, the authors argue that such tools do not necessarily offer a satisfactory answer, as they miss the specificities of platform-based business models. Hence, they propose an alternative tool that overcomes the limitations they identified and is more appropriate for nascent multisided platforms. They argue that it is crucial to identify the complementarities and potential conflicts between the wants, needs, and fears of the different groups of users that the platform connects, so as to formulate a set of interlocked value propositions.

Decentralized vs. Distributed Organization: Blockchain, Machine Learning and the Future of the Digital Platform

The terms decentralized organization and distributed organization are often used interchangeably, despite describing two distinct phenomena. I propose distinguishing decentralization, as the dispersion of organizational communications, from distribution, as the dispersion of organizational decision-making. Organizations can be distributed without being decentralized (and vice versa), and having multiple management layers directly affects only distribution – not decentralization. This proposed distinction has implications for understanding the growth of digital platforms (e.g. amazon.com ), which dominate the global economy in the 21st century. While prominent platforms typically use machine learning as their core technology to transform inputs (e.g. data) into outputs (e.g. matchmaking services), blockchain has emerged as an alternative technological blueprint. I argue that blockchain enables platforms that are both decentralized and distributed (e.g. Bitcoin), whereas machine learning fosters centralized communications and the concentration of decision-making (e.g. Facebook Inc.). This distinction has crucial implications for antitrust policy, which, I contend, should shift both its analysis and its target of action away from the corporate level and focus instead on the data level. Based on this essay’s framework, I make several predictions regarding the future of competition between centralized and decentralized platforms, the evolution of government regulation, and broader implications for managers in the digital economy and for the business schools charged with their education. I conclude with reflections on the opportunity to revive cybernetic thinking for preventing a dystopian future dominated by a handful of platform behemoths.

INTERNET VE E-TİCARET

The quality of life improves with the rate of progress in technology anil comminications. The internet, as a last development of virtual reality, has eventually become an indispensible component of modern living. Services related to education, health, entertainment and even match-making services, are supplied via the internet. Consepuently, a rapidly increasing number of companies conduct their transactions on the web and internet thus become the most preferablef medium of marketing.

The Experience and Enlightenment from University of Minnesota Libraries’ Book Matchmaking Service Based on Forms

The Experience and Enlightenment from University of Minnesota Libraries’ Book Matchmaking Service Based on Forms

Resource Allocation Based on Matchmaking Services in Multiple Clouds Using Trustworthy and Scalable Service Providers Algorithm

Resource Allocation Based on Matchmaking Services in Multiple Clouds Using Trustworthy and Scalable Service Providers Algorithm

Supporting evidence-informed policy and scrutiny: A consultation of UK research professionals.

Access to reliable and timely information ensures that decision-makers can operate effectively. The motivations and challenges of parliamentarians and policy-makers in accessing evidence have been well documented in the policy literature. However, there has been little focus on research-providers. Understanding both the demand- and the supply-side of research engagement is imperative to enhancing impactful interactions. Here, we examine the broader experiences, motivations and challenges of UK-based research professionals engaging with research-users relevant to policy-making and scrutiny in the UK using a nationwide online questionnaire. The context of the survey partly involved contributing to the UK Evidence Information Service (EIS), a proposed rapid match-making service to facilitate interaction between parliamentary arenas that use evidence and research-providers. Our findings reveal, at least for this sub-sample who responded, that there are gender-related differences in policy-related experience, motivations, incentives and challenges for research professionals to contribute to evidence-informed decision-making through initiatives such as the EIS. Male and female participants were equally likely to have policy experience; however, males reported both significantly broader engagement with the research-users included in the survey and significantly higher levels of engagement with each research-user. Reported incentives for engagement included understanding what the evidence will be used for, guidance on style and content of contribution, and acknowledgement of contributions by the policymaker or elected official. Female participants were significantly more likely to select the guidance-related options. The main reported barrier was workload. We discuss how academia-policy engagement initiatives can best address these issues in ways that enhance the integration of research evidence with policy and practice across the UK.

Matching gerontechnologies to independent-living seniors\u2019 individual needs: development of the GTM tool

BackgroundMost seniors wish to live independently for as long as possible. Gerontechnologies such as personal alarms or remote control systems, have the potential to help them age in place. For seniors, assessing what is the most appropriate technology for their aging in place needs can be difficult. Professionals specifically tasked with matching seniors’ needs with technology solutions can greatly help here. Yet not much is known about the challenges these professionals face or how they can optimize their matchmaking service.MethodsParticipatory action research was conducted in the Netherlands, in two phases. In phase one, ten matchmaking dialogues between municipal technology consultants and seniors were observed, followed by interviews with both technology consultants and seniors to understand the current matchmaking service. In phase two, a new matchmaking tool was co-created with technology consultants and other professionals over the course of four co-creation session. Variants of the tool were tested out in nine additional matchmaking dialogues. The Cycle of Technology Acquirement by Independent-Living Seniors (C-TAILS) model, which can be used to understand both origins and consequences of technology acquirement by independent-living seniors, was used as a theoretical lens.ResultsImportant challenges for municipal technology consultants in their current matchmaking practice are: making the matchmaking service more demand oriented and creating an accurate and complete overview of relevant factors within the seniors’ individual situation so that an optimal match can be made. Together with technology consultants and other professionals, a new Gerontechnologies Matchmaking (GTM) tool was created to help overcome these challenges. Evaluation of the tool showed that it better includes each senior’s personal, social, physical and technological context, within the matchmaking service.ConclusionProfessionals who help seniors match gerontechnology to their aging in place needs experience a variety of challenges in the delivery of their service. Currently, few tools are available for them to overcome these challenges. The newly developed GTM tool can help overcome challenges and optimize matchmaking services. Further testing of the tool in different contexts is needed to determine its generalizability.

A Case Study on BioChannel Partner: How Can the Sales Turnover of BioChannel Partners’ Online Services Be Increased?

Purpose: BioChannel Partners Ltd. (BCP) is a premier supplier of company matchmaking services in the Life Science industry that assists laboratory product suppliers to increase their export sales by identifying the best possible distributors. The study focuses on increment of the sales turnover of BioChannel Partners’ on-line business. Design/methodology/approach: The research is conducted in two phases: primary research and secondary research. The objective of both phases is to identify the reasons for the low sales of BioChannel Partners’ online services. Secondary research represents the first part of the research phase and includes an internal and external analysis of the company. Primary research involves a thorough study of the feedback collected from the primary research to reveal problem areas. The other objective is analysing what should be done to increase the sales turnover of the on-line services of BCP. This involves making recommendations for improvement based on the suggestions gathered from the customers directly through in-depth telephone interviews and online surveys. Findings: The results of the research phase have identified four major problem areas. First, there are prevailing customer habits of selecting distributors on a personal level via references and networking. Second, BCP’s on-line service Silver does not attract customers due to less value for money. Third, BCP only makes use of few market research to adjust product and pricing to customer preferences. Fourth, the benefits of the on-line services are not clearly communicated, whereas the web design confuses the issue even more. Originality/value: This paper provides BCP with a guideline to address its problems and increase its sales turnover by attracting and retaining more customers. These recommendations are relevant for most companies in this industry and can be utilised to improve the functioning of the organization.

Library, Library, Make Me a Match: Impact of Form-Based Readers’ Advisory on Academic Library Use and Student Leisure Reading

Staff from the Access and Information Services (AIS) department at the University of Minnesota Libraries developed several readers’ advisory services to promote student engagement. One project was a Book Matchmaking service, for which users completed a web form and were given reading suggestions owned by the libraries. A brief survey was distributed to users of the service during the fall of 2016 to assess impact. The resulting data made a strong argument for further readers’ advisory activities in academic libraries, as libraries and users benefit equally. Participating in the service encouraged positive engagement with the library and encouraged leisure reading.

Matchmaker Competition and Technology Provision

Matchmaking is a complex process that requires considerable expertise. Matchmakers in various industries often advertise proprietary technologies that presumably help users find an ideal match in a short time. However, matchmakers may have incentives to provide suboptimal matchmaking services so that users remain clients longer and pay more fees. This article considers a matchmaking market with network effects and strategic consumers and analyzes under what conditions matchmakers would offer more effective versus less effective matchmaking services. The authors find that stronger pricing power paradoxically leads to lower technology provision when consumers have high valuation for the matchmaking service. Moreover, network effects typically encourage matchmakers to retain the users in the market to create positive externalities, which can result in less precise matchmaking. In addition, consumer patience prompts competing matchmakers to implement ineffective technology. In two extensions, the authors explore asymmetric two-sided markets and discuss the impacts of alternative pricing schemes on technology provision.

VisHive: Supporting web-based visualization through ad hoc computational clusters of mobile devices

Current web-based visualizations are designed for single computers and cannot make use of additional devices on the client side, even if today’s users often have access to several, such as a tablet, a smartphone, and a smartwatch. We present a framework for ad hoc computational clusters that leverage these local devices for visualization computations. Furthermore, we present an instantiating JavaScript toolkit called VisHive for constructing web-based visualization applications that can transparently connect multiple devices—called cells—into such ad hoc clusters—called a hive—for local computation. Hives are formed either using a matchmaking service or through manual configuration. Cells are organized into a master–slave architecture, where the master provides the visual interface to the user and controls the slaves and the slaves perform computation. VisHive is built entirely using current web technologies, runs in the native browser of each cell, and requires no specific software to be downloaded on the involved devices. We demonstrate VisHive using four distributed examples: a text analytics visualization, a database query for exploratory visualization, a density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise clustering running on multiple nodes, and a principal component analysis implementation.

BiobankUniverse: automatic matchmaking between datasets for biobank data discovery and integration.

MotivationBiobanks are indispensable for large-scale genetic/epidemiological studies, yet it remains difficult for researchers to determine which biobanks contain data matching their research questions.ResultsTo overcome this, we developed a new matching algorithm that identifies pairs of related data elements between biobanks and research variables with high precision and recall. It integrates lexical comparison, Unified Medical Language System ontology tagging and semantic query expansion. The result is BiobankUniverse, a fast matchmaking service for biobanks and researchers. Biobankers upload their data elements and researchers their desired study variables, BiobankUniverse automatically shortlists matching attributes between them. Users can quickly explore matching potential and search for biobanks/data elements matching their research. They can also curate matches and define personalized data-universes.Availability and implementationBiobankUniverse is available at http://biobankuniverse.com or can be downloaded as part of the open source MOLGENIS suite at http://github.com/molgenis/molgenis.Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Nonprofit Matches Volunteer Physicians With Communities in Need

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Professional NewsFull AccessNonprofit Matches Volunteer Physicians With Communities in NeedNick ZagorskiNick ZagorskiSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:26 Jan 2017https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2017.2a8AbstractThe Maven Project aims to leverage the strength of medical alumni associations to provide health care services where they are needed—but all physicians are welcome to volunteer.As the lack of access to health care continues to affect many communities in the United States, especially those in in disadvantaged or rural areas, gynecologist Laurie Green, M.D., believes that the large body of retired or semi-retired physicians in this country can provide much-needed help.Laurie Green, M.D., founded the MAVEN Project as a means to leverage the reach of medical alumni associations to find retired physicians willing to volunteer using telehealth technology.Maven ProjectThat belief led Green, a managing partner at Pacific Women’s Obstetrics & Gynecology Medical Group in San Francisco, to launch the Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network, or MAVEN Project.The MAVEN Project seeks to leverage the networking power of medical school alumni groups—which Green understands firsthand as a former president of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Association—to recruit retired physicians or those downsizing their practices to volunteer their services via telemedicine to community clinics or other facilities that need medical expertise. As Green described it, MAVEN is like a medical matchmaking service. The MAVEN staff align each volunteer with a clinic based on the volunteer’s area of expertise and availability. MAVEN also handles all the administrative details, such as working out any issues with cross-state licensure or malpractice insurance. They also provide the telemedicine equipment and ensure that it is compliant with patient protection laws.Both primary care physicians and specialists are being sought, and while retired professionals are the main targets of recruitment, active physicians are also welcome. To help encourage enrollment, MAVEN has flexible guidelines on time commitment, requesting that volunteers provide a minimum of four hours of service a month for at least six months. Volunteers have a range of options in how they can assist. Specialty physicians who are willing to provide remote patient consultations or evaluations are, of course, valuable, said Green. “However, volunteers can also present educational talks to community physicians or work with colleagues on case discussions in a lunch and learn format.”As Green told Psychiatric News, the MAVEN Project has been progressing well in its recruitment efforts since it was founded in 2014; it is now involved in pilot projects with four clinical partners (two centers each in Massachusetts and California), and MAVEN volunteers have completed more than 350 remote patient visits. However, physician recruitment has not been equal across the specialties, and Green said that there is an urgent need for more psychiatrist involvement. It is not that surprising that psychiatrist recruitment has been difficult, said Larry Schmitt, M.D., a child and adolescent psychiatrist who retired from UC San Diego Health in 2005. “This country is short on psychiatrists in general, and child psychiatrists, in particular,” he told Psychiatric News. This shortage, coupled with the fact that psychiatry practice is less physically demanding than some other medical specialties translates to psychiatrists’ often staying active and with busy practices longer in life. However, mental health care is especially needed in these underserved communities, and Schmitt, who began volunteering with MAVEN last year, thinks psychiatrists with even limited time should consider opportunities like these.“I have been struck at how apparently effective I have been with my limited services,” said Schmitt, who has been providing about two patient consultations a week on average for clinics in California. “And my wife says I sound 10 years younger.”Green hopes more psychiatrists will follow Schmitt’s footsteps, as the need for quality mental health care is only expected to grow in the coming years.“When MAVEN first started, the goal was to help fill the gaps that have arisen given the millions of new people insured under the Affordable Care Act,” she said. “Many of these new enrollees are able to visit only their community clinic or a hospital, and we thought that remote specialist care would hit that ‘sweet spot’ between the two, providing the comfort of a local clinic with the services of a hospital.”Following the 2016 election, Green and her team are also keeping a close eye on how funding for Medicaid and other safety-net programs might be impacted. They are poised to tackle the challenges—as well as the opportunities—that could result. ■More information about the MAVEN Project, including how to volunteer or request a medical need for a clinic, can be accessed here. Physicians interested in volunteering can also email [email protected]. ISSUES NewArchived

The ethics of contemporary readers' advisory

ABSTRACTReaders' advisory (RA) is a library service dedicated to suggesting leisure reading materials to patrons. Through a critical examination of popular RA textbooks, this poster (1) identifies core moral principles underpinning RA and (2) demonstrates that contemporary RA follows (what I am calling) a pure preference satisfaction model wherein readers' advisors aim to satisfy patrons' preferences without judging or altering them. On the common view, RA functions as a kind of nonjudgmental “matchmaking service,” pairing leisure readers with books they are likely to enjoy. While such an approach to RA is politically commendable in some respects, this poster will show that it places overly rigid restrictions on efforts to undermine social inequality through the promotion of diverse books.

A Good Match? Offline Matchmaking Services and Implications for Gender Relations

ABSTRACTFaced with barriers to successful coupling, namely disappointments with online dating, rising numbers of North Americans of varying ages and backgrounds are using personalized, offline matchmaking services to find long-term partners. However, few studies have examined the process interpretively from clients’ and matchmakers’ perspectives. Using interview data from 20 matchmakers and 10 heterosexual clients, content analyses of 102 company websites, and associated client comments and media coverage, this study queries connections between matchmaking’s growing popularity, (un)changing institutions, and gender relations. Analyses demonstrate that opportunities and constraints offered by the strategy are gendered, with men largely maintaining the partnering privileges they enjoy in other dating arenas and women making modest gains when participating as paying clients. Experiences are further shaped by age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Facilitating resource sharing and selection in ubiquitous multi-user environments

Mobile technologies have increased the interest of industry and academia in providing users with information and services anytime and anywhere. Some services are customized according to the users’ characteristics, attempting to create ubiquitous environments that enable such users to share and discover resources. However, research that addresses the creation of these environments is scant. In this article, we go further than single-user pervasive systems, by developing a support that manages shared resources in ubiquitous multi-user environments. Our contribution is a semantic matchmaking service capable of finding the most suitable resources that satisfy the users’ requirements. This service processes the users’ requests, their context, and the community participating in the resource sharing process, by respecting restrictions, the natural interaction among participants, and the changes that this interaction produces. We model the environment, shared resources, and users as dynamic entities that generate new information, which might affect the availability states of such resources. These states have been defined through the Contextual-Graphs formalism to incorporate new knowledge that can refine, extend, or customize such states, according to the users’ habits. Our matchmaking service has been deployed across the Computer Science Department of CINVESTAV-IPN research center, where it has been validated by means of several test cases.