Choice Of Services Research Articles

Psychographic Segmentation of Saving Market

The purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of saving market segmentation by identifying segments consumers using a combination of several dimensions, such as psychological motivations, perceptions, attitudes, and demographics. A sample of 1,800 age-appropriate savers, randomly selected, completed a structured questionnaire which contains more than 190 questions to determine an individual's psychological differences for each dimension. Data related to the key objectives were analyzed using Factor analysis, Cluster analysis, and Multi-factor regression. Results revealed certain segments that differed in psychological and demographic characteristics. The further differences were examined among the segments based on the factors that impact on consumer’s purchasing intention and choice of savings services.

Resourcing Issues and Practices in the Cadre Service of Bangladesh

This paper intends to study critically the present resourcing issues and practices inthe cadre service of Bangladesh. It focuses on the existing recruitment and selectionprocedure of cadre services, its training system, performance appraisal process, transferrule and promotion policy in Bangladesh. Present selection procedure in the cadreservice of Bangladesh is merit and quota based. Only 45 percent posts are kept formeritorious students and 55 percent posts are reserved for various groups under quotasystem. In addition, nepotism, favoritism, corruption and political interference arehindering the brilliant graduates to join in the cadre service. Moreover, performanceappraisal system is not overt and scientific. It is not evaluated on the basis ofperformance. Furthermore, training system is not modern and most of the trainingmethods are class room based. For recruitment purpose, Bangladesh Public ServiceCommission does not follow campus recruitment process, consulting the firms ofmanagement or associations that have proven expertise in attracting the talentedgraduates. There are also other pressing issues that are considered to be casting farreaching negative impacts on services like cadre service choice and their selectionprocess, ambiguous promotion policy, absence of proper transfer rule etc. This isbasically a review of secondary research contents conducted earlier in this field of study.It finds that resourcing is very important tool for the development of public sector in anycountry. It is the technique to minimize the cost of employees and maximize their valueto the organization. It helps to keep right people in the right place at the right time. Thestudy has also found that resourcing aspects are inter-related to each other. Effectiverecruitment helps to avoid this kind of chain reaction. It saves time, money and effort.But in Bangladesh recruitment system it is not sound. The study therefore argues forchanging traditional systems, developing resourcing issues scientifically which willattract bright graduates in the cadre services.

ANALISIS SENTIMEN APLIKASI JASA KURIR DI PLAY STORE MENGGUNAKAN ALGORITMA NAIVE BAYES

Along with the passage of sales through the marketplace. The courier service industry has also experienced an increase. There are many choices of courier services to choose from, each courier service has different qualities depending on how the service provided by the courier service to customers. To find out the quality of courier services, this research was carried out, this research was conducted on courier service applications on Playstore, usually the best application predicate is for applications with a high number of downloads and ratings, while comments from users must also be considered to get results which is relevant. In this study, the Naïve Bayes algorithm is used because it has a high level of accuracy to determine the best courier service application. Based on the research that has been done, the highest accuracy value is obtained by the JNT application of 100% but has a positive sentiment of 50 reviews. The two JNE applications with an accuracy value of 98% with a positive sentiment of 46 reviews, the three ninjaxpres applications with an accuracy value of 97.87% with a positive sentiment of 49 reviews, the fourth by the Sicepat application with an accuracy value of 97.85% with a positive sentiment of 47 reviews and finally by the Idexpress application with an accuracy value of 94% with a positive sentiment of 49 reviews.

Distance and health facility choice: Evidence from a health micro insurance program in Punjab, Pakistan.

Health micro insurance offers a promising mechanism to protect the poor against risk and vulnerability arising from catastrophic healthcare expenditures. In light of this, we study the relationship between physical distance to hospitals and the choice of healthcare services in the context of a health micro insurance program in Punjab, Pakistan. We address three main research questions; first, how does physical distance affect choice of health facility? Second, is the burden of physical distance greater for women? Third, can the diffusion of information in social networks be a potential mechanism for reducing the burden of distance? We employ a Probit model with administrative data on hospitalisation claims made between 2014 and 2017. Our findings show that distance impedes individuals from making panel (cashless) claims and thus increases the likelihood of out-of-pocket expenditures at nearby non-panel hospitals. This adverse effect is more pronounced for women as compared to men. Dissemination of information in social networks increases the usage of panel facilities, especially by women. Hence, this can be an effective mechanism in reducing the role that distance plays in the choice of health facility.

Impact of Farmers’ Climate Risk Perception and Socio-Economic Attributes on Their Choice of ICT-Based Agricultural Information Services: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

In Pakistan, research on information and communication technologies-based agricultural information services (ICTbAIS) have gained significant attention owing to the overwhelming population of smallholder farmers (whose information needs are unable to be met by the conventional extension services) and the increasing incidence of climatic risk. This study is, therefore, conducted in the Punjab province of Pakistan (mixed cropping region) to explore farmers’ use of ICTbAIS and understand the relationship between farmers’ socio-economic attributes, risk perception, and choices of ICTbAIS. A sample of 480 farmers was drawn using a multistage sampling approach, and farmers were interviewed face-to-face. To analyze the dataset, a multivariate Probit (MVP) model was employed. The results show that Television (TV) and mobile-based advisory and mobile-based consultations appeared to be the most used ICTbAIS, followed by radio and internet-based advisory. The estimates of the MVP model showed that farmers’ age, education, farmland, tenancy status, off-farm income, and climate risk perception are significant determinants of their choices of ICTbAIS. Based on our results, we suggest policymakers and extension agencies to improve the content of ICTbAIS and make efforts for the awareness and training of farmers regarding the use of contemporary ICTs.

How to evaluate surgical tourism service organizations in China: indicators system development and a pilot application

BackgroundSurgical tourism is an emerging economic sector, with the most growth potential demonstrated in China's health industry before the COVID-19 pandemic. Surgical tourism accounts for a large part of medical tourism services in China, with high requirements in terms of quality and safety. By contrast, China suffers from insufficient measurement tools and theoretical research. The aim of this study was to develop a set of reliable and feasible indicators by augmenting the Donabedian model to evaluate the quality of surgical tourism services.MethodsA literature review and focus group interview were used to generate indicators for the quality of surgical tourism services. The basic framework of the evaluation system was based on the structure–process–outcome Donabedian model. The screening and weight setting were conducted through an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and a two-round Delphi consultation with 13 panelists. The validity and reliability of experts were tested by the experts' positive coefficient, authority coefficient, and coordination coefficient. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by a pre-test distributed within an International Medical Department of a public hospital in China.ResultsBased on the Donabedian quality theory, a novel evaluation system of surgical tourism service institutions was constructed with three dimensions, nine first-level items and 39 second-level items. The three dimensions consisted of the structure (0.315), process (0.287), and outcome (0.398), with several indicators for each dimension and each indicator was given a weight. Of the two rounds of Delphi consultation, the response rates were 86.67% and 100%. The coordination coefficient of expert opinions in the two rounds of consultation were 0.49 and 0.65 (p < 0.05). For the empirical study, the self-evaluation score of a public hospital was 86, which could rate as a two-star institution.ConclusionsOur evaluation system identified three suitable quality dimensions of surgical tourism services to improve the safety and quality of practical healthcare. It reflects the access criterion of surgical tourism institutions, provides references for the best choice of surgical services for tourists, and can be applied by healthcare managers and policy makers to allocate resources more efficiently and promote more surgical tourism services with international standards.

Modeling the competition between multiple Automated Mobility on-Demand operators: An agent-based approach

Automated Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) systems, in which fleets of automated vehicles provide on-demand services, are expected to transform urban mobility systems. Motivated by the rapid development of AMoD services delivered by self-driving car companies, an agent-based model (ABM) has been developed to study the coexistence phenomena of multiple AMoD operators competing for customers. The ABM is used to investigate how changes in pricing strategies, assignment methods, and fleet sizes affect travelers’ choice of different AMoD services and the operating performance of competing operators in the case-study city of The Hague, in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that an optimal assignment algorithm can reduce the average waiting time by up to 24% compared to a simple heuristic algorithm. We also find that a larger fleet could increase demand but lead to higher waiting times for its users and higher travel times for competing operators’ users due to the added congestion. Notably, pricing strategies can significantly affect travelers’ choice of AMoD services, but the effect depends strongly on the time of the day. Low-priced AMoD services can provide high service levels and effectively attract more demand, with up to 64.7% of customers choosing the very early morning service [5:30 AM,7:20 AM]. In the subsequent morning hours, high-priced AMoD services are more competitive in attracting customers as more idle vehicles are available. Based on the quantitative analysis, policies are recommended for the government and service operators.

Evaluating strategies for promoting retail mobile channel using a hidden Markov model

With the proliferation of mobile communication technology, many firms, including retailers and consumer banks, are making efforts to develop mobile platforms to better engage with their customers and reduce operational costs. However, the cost advantage of these mobile technologies will not yield fruition unless the mobile channel accounts for a significant share of total transactions. In this article, we explore potential options for firms to promote usage of the mobile channel. To achieve this, we propose a hidden Markov model to both model customers’ decisions and assess different managerial strategies through simulations. While we apply our proposed model to data from a leading financial institution, our approach is equally applicable to other retail settings. The results show that customers’ choices of services and channels are sensitive to process time by type of channel. A 10% increase in process time through non-mobile channels leads to a nearly 14% increase in utilization of mobile banking channel. Therefore, retailing firms could potentially influence customers’ choice of different channels by changing channel-specific process times. Motivated by these findings, we present and compare performances across five different policies, in promoting the usage of mobile channel. Drawing on our simulation results, we also make personalized policy recommendations to firms facing different levels of financial constraints. For those with financial constraints, we recommend a policy of increasing process time for a selected subset of service requests through non-mobile channels. Firms not constrained by the resources might be better off improving process time with the mobile channel by targeting customers identified as having a better relationship with the firm.

Implementation of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Method In Determining Expedition Services at the Market Place

The delivery of goods is an important part, where the seller's efforts in sending the order package reach the consumer and become a satisfaction for consumers to be able to reason again. Decision-making is often faced with a number of confusing choices, especially in the selection of expedition services. The selection of acquisition services is the main point in supporting business processes. The purpose of this study provides more important criteria for determining alternative expedition services. This research used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Method. Pairwise comparison questionnaires are given to obtain the degree of importance of the criteria. Price Criteria are the highest criteria in this study compared to location criteria, services and responses. Meanwhile, the response criteria that have sub criteria for claiming goods are more important than the sub criteria for ordering and tracking goods while the service criteria where in the sub criteria for losing goods are a more important condition than damage to goods, speed of delivery criteria . These criteria are used to determine the best choice of expedition services so that from the calculation results of the three alternatives obtained the top ranking with a value of 0.546933. Keywords : AHP, Expedition Services, Market Place

Information effects on parental choices for early childhood education and care

Abstract Existing research demonstrates that parents are poorly informed consumers of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. Choosing such services is a complex process shaped by a combination of logistical limitations (e.g., cost/location), informational barriers and ideas about what the goal of care should be (e.g., education of young children or provision of an environment that feels like home). Experimental studies have also demonstrated that when study participants are informed of the importance of a specific decision, they engage in more complex decision-making. In this article, we test whether providing parents with information about the regulatory stringency of ECEC options available influences their choices regarding ECEC. A conjoint survey designed to capture quasi-behavioural choices for ECEC services was completed by 682 parents. Before engaging with the survey, participants were randomly assigned into either a control group or a treatment group that informed them about the stringency of oversight regarding ECEC options available in the province of Ontario, Canada. Receiving information did not meaningfully change the choices of the entire sample. However, a subgroup analysis revealed an important information effect on parent decisions for lower income/lower-education parents.

Social prescribing: Exploring general practitioners' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of, and engagement with, the NHS model.

Social prescribing (SP) has rapidly expanded over recent years. Previously a bottom-up, community-led phenomenon, SP is now a formal part of structured NHS policy and practice. This study was designed to ascertain how general practitioners and other primary healthcare professionals (HCPs) within one clinical commissioning group (CCG) perceive and engage with this new NHS model. The research comprised an online survey distributed to HCPs within a predominately rural, English CCG between June and August 2021. Qualitative data were gathered and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Positive portrayals of SP were found, although definitions and perceptions varied greatly. Many HCPs reported high levels of engagement with SP services; yet referral rates appeared to remain significantly lower than the previously estimated 20% of primary care attendees referred for social reasons. Moreover, 96% of HCPs reported signposting patients directly to community or external services, rather than referring them to SP. This signposting, which has been positioned as a model of SP, reflects engagement with SP in practice, which is likely to have pre-dated the introduction of the fuller NHS model. HCPs may be unaware that this could be classed as a social prescription, and this type of SP remains uncaptured within NHS statistics. These results indicate an underuse of the national system set up to deliver one particular model of SP, rather than that SP does not occur. Additionally, despite national guidance issued to accompany the NHS model, practices such as referral and feedback processes, and link worker presence within practices, were not uniform even within this single CCG. Nevertheless, understanding is increasing as SP becomes embedded within primary care. The lack of consistency in referrals between practices warrants further examination in terms of equity of service choices to patients, as does the very low self-reported referral rate to SP.

Factors of customers’ channel choice in an omnichannel environment: a systematic literature review

The proliferation of mobile devices and the continuous development of online technologies has led to an increasing variety of channels, leaving customers with a choice of channel alongside the choice of product, service, or retailer. Any attempt to optimize customer experience and engage in successful omnichannel management will require a complete, multifaceted understanding of the processes around channel choice of customers. To date, the many existing studies around multi- and omnichannel research have failed to yield an integrated, comprehensive synthesis of factors involved in customers´ channel choice. Our study conducted a systematic literature review to the end of identifying the factors involved in channel choice which appear in the scientific literature on this topic over the last two decades. We retrieved 128 papers from three bibliographic databases (EBSCO Host, Scopus, and Web of Science) and carried out descriptive analysis on them. Qualitative thematic analysis inductively extracted 66 different factors of channel choice, each assignable to five broader categories, from the studies included in the review. The findings indicate that perceived channel characteristics, customer needs and situational or contextual factors influence customers´ channel choice directly, and customer characteristics and characteristics of products or services influence it indirectly. Alongside its presentation of an integrated conceptual framework comprising these relationships, our study details a comprehensive research agenda with regards to theories, contexts, and methods and, in particular, with regards to factors influencing customers´ channel choice. Our findings advance the academic understanding of channel choice behavior and provide researchers and practitioners in this area with information on important implications for omnichannel management.

The impact of health insurance on households’ financial choices: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper investigates the impact of health insurance on families' financial service choices in Vietnam using TVSEP data from three waves in 2013, 2016, and 2017. The endogeneity is handled via a recursive multivariate probit model. The findings indicate that while health insurance has no effect on private health insurance, it has a positive effect on savings and investments and a negative effect on credit choice. The multivariate probit model's results are robust to both the instrumental variable two-stage least squares model and the bivariate probit model. In addition, correlations between error components in financial service choice equations indicate a possible pattern of household financial usage. The results suggest that health insurance improves households' financial well-being. The implication of the findings is that when developing social security policies aimed at achieving universal health insurance, the influence of health insurance on household finances should not be underestimated.

Big Data Processing in Geo-Distributed Data Centers Using Cost Minimization Methods

Abstract: The explosive growth of demands on huge process imposes a crucial burden on computation, storage, and communication in data centers, that so incurs wide operational expenditure to data center suppliers. Therefore, Price decrease has become Associate in Nursing rising issue for the longer term huge data era. All totally different from customary cloud services, one in each of the foremost choices of huge data services is that the tight coupling between data and computation as computation tasks is also conducted provided that the corresponding data is obtainable. As a result, 3 factors, i.e., task assignment, data placement and data movement, deeply the operational expenditure of data centers. Throughout this paper, we tend to tend to unit of measurement meant to see the worth decrease downside via a joint improvement of these three factors for big data services in geo-distributed data centers. To elucidate the task completion time with the thought of every data transmission and computation, we tend to tend to propose a two-dimensional stochastic process and derive the standard task completion time in closed-form. Moreover, we tend to tend to model the matter as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) and propose economical resolution to correct it. The high efficiency of our proposal is valid by thorough simulation primarily based studies Keywords— Nonlinear Programming, Big Data, Computer Centres, Integer Programming, Minimisation, Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming, Cost Minimization, Data Centers, Big Data Services, Operational Expenditure, Task Assignment, Big Data

Corporate social responsibility committees and the use of corporate social responsibility assurance services

This study examines whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees associate with the external assurance of CSR reports. Specifically, we consider the presence and effectiveness of CSR committees. Using a sample of Australian firms over the period 2004–2016, we show the mere presence of a CSR committee is not related to the external assurance of CSR. However, CSR committee effectiveness is positively related. In addition, firms with higher CSR committee effectiveness are more likely to seek external assurance provided by the Big4 accountancy firms and acquire financial audit and CSR assurance services from the same provider. Taken together, CSR committee effectiveness plays an active role in CSR assurance services. Our results are particularly relevant to those with interests in understanding the demand and choice of external CSR assurance services, as well as the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on these services.

Determinants of Using Ride-Hailing Service: Evidence from Malaysia

With the entrance of Uber into the land transportation industry, ride-hailing service has gained popularity and changed the way people travel in urban areas in Malaysia. Despite the growing popularity of this new mode of cab service, studies about factors influencing consumers’ choice to use ride-hailing service are limited in developing countries. This study used primary data collected via a survey in Penang, Malaysia. This study aims to examine the factors affecting consumers’ decision to utilise ride-hailing service. The novelty of this study is the adoption of a Heckman probit selection model to account for the possibility of sample selection bias and the introduction of an important explanatory variable - consumers’ comparative satisfaction with the attributes of ride-hailing and traditional taxi service that affect consumers’ choice of cab service. The results show age, gender, education, marital status, income, cost considerations and vehicle ownership significantly determine the probability of using cab service. Consumers’ choice between ride-hailing and traditional taxi service is affected by gender and their comparative rating of both services in terms of waiting time and the disposition of drivers. This suggests the necessity for cab service providers to improve their service in order to remain competitive in the industry.

Identifying the factors influencing the choice of different ride-hailing services in Shenzhen, China

In recent years, transportation network companies have developed various services, such as express, ride-pooling, premium service and app-based taxi hailing service, to satisfy the diversified travel demands of residents. However, the existing knowledge on the factors that affect the choice of different ride-hailing services remains scarce, and the difference of this impact between the users with and without household vehicles (HVs) has been little examined. To fill these gaps, the goal of this study is to explore the influential factors of different ride-hailing services choice as for the users with and without HVs. The results of multinomial logistic models indicate that: (1) the users without HVs whose original travel mode is bus are more likely to utilize ride-pooling, the users with HVs whose original mode is private car are more inclined to use premium service and express. (2) These two types of users focus on different aspects of ride-hailing travel. The users with HVs are concerned about the travel service quality and travel experience, while the counterpart users care about whether their basic travel needs can be satisfied. (3) Premium service has a positive effect on reducing the use of private cars among users with HVs, but this effect is relatively weak. (4) Ride-pooling and express could delay private cars’ purchasing plan by users without HVs, indicating a governance way to inhibit the growth of cars, i.e., reducing car ownership by ensuring car use. Finally, some suggestions are proposed to promote the sustainable and healthy development of different ride-hailing services.

Shippers’ willingness to use flexible transportation services

Factors driving the choice of shipper firms for services of logistics service providers have long been recognized in the freight transportation literature. However, the willingness among shippers to choose flexible transportation services, where the service package can be adapted during planning and execution, has received less attention. In particular, little is known about the contextual circumstances under which shippers would be inclined to select such flexible transportation service. In this study, experimental scenarios and discrete choice modeling are used to investigate the willingness among shippers to use flexible transportation services. We estimate multinomial logit, mixed logit, and latent class models for a sample of nearly 200 global shipper firms and calculate willingness-to-pay measures for flexibility. The findings indicate that flexible services are essential in demand-volatile markets. Since logistics services may provide external flexibility for shipper firms, we also study which related internal flexibilities in supply chains drive these choices. In particular, our findings show that it is mainly the volume flexibility of shippers that mediates the choice of flexible transportation services.

Demystifying tourists’ intention to purchase travel online: the moderating role of technical anxiety and attitude

ABSTRACT This study investigates the influence of consumption value on tourists’ intention to purchase travel products online through the lens of the theory of consumption value framework. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) and a fuzzy set of qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on 559 responses collected using M-Turk. The findings show that price value is the most significant factor and necessary for the purchase intention of tourists’ online travel products. Notably, technical anxiety and attitude moderate the relationship between consumption value and tourists’ purchase intention. This study offers meaningful insights into managers, policy-makers, and practitioners about the roles of various factors of consumption value, vis-avis their relative significance in driving individuals’ decision-making and travel service choices.

“Sustainability” as a Motive for Choosing Shared-Mobility Services: The Case of Polish Consumers of Uber Services

(1) Background: Uber Technologies are currently changing the pattern of urban transport. Statista reports that in the period 2017–2019 alone, the average monthly number of active Uber users worldwide increased by 126.5%, and the average monthly number of Uber trips grew by 115%. The purpose of this article is to identify the most important motives encouraging both current and potential customers to use Uber “taxi” services. Particular attention was paid to the factor of perceiving these services as a more sustainable way of meeting transport needs. Uber creates its image specifically on the idea of sustainability. (2) Methods: The operationalization of the sustainability concept was based on three dimensions: ecological, social and economic. The CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) technique was used to collect the research data. The representative research sample covered 1003 Poles. A logistic regression model was used to analyze empirical data collected based on the survey. The data analysis used R program and the selected packages for this program. (3) Results: Among the most important motives, sustainability is the most frequently indicated. (4) Conclusions: The choices of Uber services are significantly influenced by the reasons related to two sustainability pillars—one social and one economic. The factors significantly influencing consumer decision-making processes related to the use of shared mobility services belong to the following groups of motives: sustainable development, knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT), innovation, user convenience and savings. The findings from the study can become the basis for organizations and local authorities to undertake appropriate marketing activities to promote shared-mobility services (SMS) and support sustainable and environmentally friendly development.