Related Service Industries Research Articles

Decision-Making Tactics and Contextual Features: Strategic, Tactical and Operational Implications

ABSTRACT This exploratory study considers how managers in hospitality and related service industries make significant organizational decisions and how this process is impacted by contextual features. Using a qualitative research design, this study found direct and interacting relationships among several contextual features with decision-making tactics. Key contextual features include decision urgency, risk level, complexity, dynamism, level of decision maker, and internal or external support/opposition. Three primary decision-making process tactics were identified as analysis, judgment, and participative tactics. While this study pointed out many of the relationships among context and process, it also points to the concept that successful decision outcomes seem more likely to occur when multiple tactics are used in hospitality and other high-contact service business sectors.

A NON-ADDITIVE MODEL FOR THE EVALUATION OF PORTAL WEBSITE SERVICE QUALITY

ABSTRACT Due to the rapid growth of usage of Internet and WWW, there has been a fast growth in Internet users and related service industries in the past few years. Portal websites have shown its growing ability and economic benefit on business competition. In practical environments, Internet users face a variety of service quality of portal websites that are vague from human beings' subjective judgments, and most criteria have interdependent or interactive characteristics. These problems may not be correctly evaluated by conventional additive measures, and crisp data cannot represent precisely the perception of portal website service quality. To overcome these problems, this study aims to propose a non-additive model based on fuzzy integral and AHP for evaluating the service quality of portal websites from Internet users' viewpoint under fuzzy environment. In this paper, the ratings and weights of these criteria are assessed by linguistic (natural language) variables expressed in triangular fuzzy numbers. Therefore, a model based on linguistic variable and fuzzy integral is proposed to deal with evaluating the service quality of portal websites in this study. In order to show the practicality and usefulness of this model, an empirical case of the Taiwan portal website is demonstrated to highlight the procedure of proposed model at the end of this paper. The results show that providers of portal website improve properly the service quality of portal website for satisfying of customer's needs is the most applicable.

Resource Based View of the Firm: Measures of Reputation Among Health Service-Sector Businesses

ABSTRACT Application of the strategic leverage of Resource Based View of the Firm (RBV) directly advocates that a company's competitive advantage is derived from its ability to assemble and exploit an appropriate combination of resources (both tangible and intangible assets). The three companies that were selected were Pittsburgh-based companies that were within relatively easy access, representing healthcare service-related industries, and can be reviewed for the principles of the RBV. The particular firms represented a variety of establishments and included Baptist Homes (a long-term care facility), University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) (a provider of hospital and other health services), and GlaxoSmithKline, Consumer Healthcare, North America (GSK-CHNA) (a global provider of healthcare products and services). Through the case studies, it was found that not all intangible assets are strategic, and by extension, not all measures of reputation are strategic either. For an intangible asset to be considered strategic, in this case reputation, it must be valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and non-substitutable.

Agglomeration Effects on Regional Economic Disparities: A Comparison between the UK and Japan

In this study, the reason and cause of regional economic disparities in terms of per capita value-added are investigated by comparing the UK and Japanese regions. Special attention is paid to agglomeration effects on the differences of regional productivities. The Gini coefficients of per capita values-added exhibit relatively higher levels for the UK regions than for Japanese regions over the period 1995—2003. The cause of this difference is found to be in labour productivities rather than employment rates or labour per population. Furthermore, a decomposition of labour productivity into main industries clarifies agglomeration effects on manufacturing and service-related industry between both countries. Based on these findings, the production functions are estimated by main industries and differences in agglomeration effects on industries between the two countries are examined. Taking a dynamic view of the changing disparities across regions, an increase in regional disparities is associated with the cumulative growth theory.

An Application of the Hierarchical Fuzzy Process to Container Port Competition: Policy and Strategic Implications

This paper aims to empirically identify the competitiveness of container ports in Asia by examining factors influencing the perceived competitive edge of each port using the Hierarchical Fuzzy Process, a method embracing human knowledge and/or judgement into a mathematical framework. This analysis is unique in that the ‘human-perceived’ competitiveness on Asian container ports is examined under the quantifiable framework. The findings reveal that Singapore is the most competitive port among the sampled ports. Moreover, the methodology employed here shows the potential to be applicable to other transport and logistics related service industries.

Airline Traffic and Urban Economic Development

This paper provides new evidence on the link between airline traffic and employment in US metropolitan areas. The evidence confirms the common view that good airline service is an important factor in urban economic development. Frequent service to a variety of destinations, reflected in a high level of passenger enplanements, facilitates easy face-to-face contact with businesses in other cities, attracting new firms to the metro area and stimulating employment at established enterprises. The empirical results show that a 10 per cent increase in passenger enplanements in a metro area leads approximately to a 1 per cent increase in employment in service-related industries. However, airline traffic has no effect on manufacturing and other goods-related employment, suggesting that air travel is less important for such firms than for service-related businesses. These estimates are generated controlling for reverse causality between employment and traffic. The results imply that expansion of Chicago's O'Hare airport would raise service-related employment in the Chicago metro area by 185 000 jobs (this impact assumes that expansion raises traffic by 50 per cent). Thus, the expansion of O'Hare airport represents a powerful economic development tool, as argued by its proponents.

Tourism, linkages, and economic development in Jamaica

This article offers, briefly, a production‐oriented development framework for Jamaica, based on growth‐promoting linkages between tourism, commodity production sectors, and complementary and related service industries. These linkages can boost the Jamaican endogenous competency and industrial competitiveness, while improving the country’s macroeconomic performance. Alternative development policy considerations are also within the scope of this article.

Changes in the Age and Education Profile of Displaced Workers

This analysis of data from the Displaced Workers Surveys suggests that between the periods 1983-87 and 1993-97, although the likelihood of involuntary job loss declined among most age groups, including older workers, it rose for middle-aged and older workers relative to younger workers. Three potential explanations for this shift the authors investigate are changes in educational attainment, changes in the relationship between education and displacement, and industry shifts that had adverse effects on older workers relative to younger workers. The results of the analysis indicate that the relative displacement rate among college graduates increased over time, but there were few significant changes in the relationship between displacement and education within or across age groups. The probability of displacement increased significantly for workers in service-related industries across all age groups. The results do not conclusively indicate why older workers' relative risk of displacement increased but do rule out several possibilities.

Changes in the Age and Education Profile of Displaced Workers

This analysis of data from the Displaced Workers Surveys suggests that between the periods 1983–87 and 1993–97, although the likelihood of involuntary job loss declined among most age groups, including older workers, it rose for middle-aged and older workers relative to younger workers. Three potential explanations for this shift the authors investigate are changes in educational attainment, changes in the relationship between education and displacement, and industry shifts that had adverse effects on older workers relative to younger workers. The results of the analysis indicate that the relative displacement rate among college graduates increased over time, but there were few significant changes in the relationship between displacement and education within or across age groups. The probability of displacement increased significantly for workers in service-related industries across all age groups. The results do not conclusively indicate why older workers' relative risk of displacement increased but do rule out several possibilities.

Study on the Degree of Importance of Convention Service Factors

ABSTRACT As customers come to understand that service is one of the most important industry products, identifying customer needs and providing what they want will be essential to a successful approach in service-related industries. In consideration of the increased importance of service in the convention industry, this article identifies convention service factors and provides statistical analysis based on data from the actual industry. The results of this research will enhance an understanding of the factors used by customers to evaluate the quality of convention service and help planners improve their performance in the planning of conventions.

Developing the criteria to evaluate previous work experience for credit

LEARNING OUTCOME: To examine criteria used in a dietetic technology program to determine credit for previous work experience.In a region with limited health care resources, Purdue University Calumet is increasingly challenged to provide quality supervised practice experiences for dietetic technology students. Since many students who enroll in the program are currently working in health care or the related food service industry, the program wanted to give credit for previous work experiences. The difficulty, however, was determining how to effectively evaluate these experiences in relationship to dietetic performance requirements, clock hours and course credit. A policy to ensure that all students are treated equally, a criteria checklist, performance requirements and dietetic practice areas forms, with functions and frequency, were developed and will be shared. The use of this system has alleviated repetitious experiences for many students and increased availability of quality supervised practice experiences for all students enrolled in the program.

Back to the Energy Crisis

''The United States and the rest of the world are being set up for a major oil price shock,'' says Interior Secretary Hodel. Waning US oil output, rising imports, and Middle East tensions are reheating energy policy debates of the 1970s. Gasoline is still cheap and there are no shortages at the pump, but increasingly, government officials and private energy analysts are sounding warnings about the nation's energy future. For the first time since 1980, US reliance on oil imports has gone up and will rise further by the early 1990s. This expanding dependence is reigniting the energy policy debates of the 1970s. At issue is not only national security, but economic concerns about inflation, slower growth, and a stifling of efforts to slash the nation's staggering $171-billion trade deficit. The drive to arouse the nation's energy conscience is led by battered domestic oil producers, oil exploration companies, and related service sectors. Wild swings in the price of oil during 1986 have knocked high-cost American production out of the market. Industry executives estimate that 360,000 oil field and related service industry workers lost their jobs in the last year. In response, some domestic producers are seeking tariffs and tax breaksmore » to keep the industry from collapsing further. Thus far, the Reagan Administration has rejected pleas to impose import fees, noting that consumers have benefited from lower prices. With oil imports projected to supply 50% of US needs by the early 1990s, pressure is building in and outside Congress for an overhaul of Administration energy policy.« less