Successful Service Research Articles

The digital revolution in the tourism industry: role of anthropomorphic virtual agent in digitalized hotel service

PurposeIn the tourism industry, immersive technologies become increasingly vital, amplifying traveler experiences and industry growth. By studying “e-booking” applications prevalent in hotels, this study aims to analyze the impact of integrating an anthropomorphic virtual agent (AVA) on user perceptions of humanness and service usage intent.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments were conducted to examine the effects of using an AVA and explain the psychological mechanism of how AVA’s attributes increase intention to use “e-booking” application.FindingsThe results highlight the positive influence of AVA on the intention to use. They illustrate the psychological mechanism of how AVA’s attributes (agency and emotionality) influence perceived humanness and intention to use. More specifically, the results indicate that perceived humanness mediated the effect of an AVA on intention to use.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should delve into additional capabilities related to humanness.Practical implicationsThis study provides useful insights for hotels’ managers about incorporating AVAs in digital services to enhance the perceived humanness of AVAs. The findings suggest that such efforts could yield benefits, especially when they involve conveying that AVAs possess agency and emotionality.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to investigate how AVA impacts hotel human–computer interaction. It examines agency and emotionality features on humanness perception and behavioral intent. It also guides successful digitalized hotel service development and design, expanding existing research on human–virtual agent digital services, which mainly focuses on superficial traits like face and gender.

Implementing a Hospitalist Comanagement Service in Orthopaedic Surgery.

➤ Hospitalist comanagement of patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery is a growing trend across the United States, yet its implementation in an academic tertiary care hospital can be complex and even contentious.➤ Hospitalist comanagement services lead to better identification of at-risk patients, optimization of patient care to prevent adverse events, and streamlining of the admission process, thereby enhancing the overall service efficiency.➤ A successful hospitalist comanagement service includes the identification of service stakeholders and leaders; frequent consensus meetings; a well-defined standardized framework, with goals, program metrics, and unified commands; and an occasional satisfaction assessment to update and improve the program.➤ In this article, we establish a step-by-step protocol for the implementation of a comanagement structure between orthopaedic and hospitalist services at a tertiary care center, outlining specific protocols and workflows for patient care and transfer procedures among various departments, particularly in emergency and postoperative situations.

Essential Capabilities for Successful Digital Service Innovation at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Several firms worldwide that attempted to penetrate the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) with digital service innovations have encountered disappointing returns. This article explores what capabilities firms should develop and how they should nourish them for value creation at the BOP. Using the multiple-case method, this study inductively derives persuasion, co-creation, adaptation, and self-sustainability as essential capabilities. Cumulative maneuvering of these capabilities resulted in a sand cone model. Both established incumbents and digital natives benefit from this model, which enables them to safeguard their digital offerings while penetrating or expanding within BOP markets.

African women and young people as agriculture service providers—business models, benefits, gaps and opportunities

We use a combination of a global desk review of the literature with information from an on-going action research in Kenya to provide insights into the main characteristics, benefits and shortfalls of business models for engaging women and young people in agricultural service provision in Africa. The findings demonstrate that the engagement of African women and young people in agricultural service provision is not a panacea to the challenges they face. However various business models have been successful in contributing to economic empowerment, to increasing entrepreneurial activities and to upskilling of women and young people engaged as service providers. Business models that are successful are place-based and people-focused, market-driven and focused on value chains. Challenges however abound due to various factors, hence for sustainability there is need for multi-sectoral inter-institutional collaboration that pulls in funding and which makes a case for private sector buy-in. Future research should focus on increasing the evidence base to understand if successes with inclusion of women and young people in agricultural service provision has an influence on emerging agricultural policy. Research should also rigorously assess the extent to which successful agricultural service provision business models are engendered, provide sufficient levels of renumeration and the extent to which they impact farmer outcomes.

Promoting Digital Literacy: The Uptake of OER by Members of Faculty in Teaching and Research for a Technological Transition in Institutions of Higher Learning

In this era of technology, Open Education Resources (OER) are seen as opportunities to give access to high-quality educational and informative materials internationally. The sharing of knowledge and information resources is the primary goal of higher education institutions. Thus, the ladder of education as a means of achieving social and economic mobility is removed using OER. Libraries across the world are rethinking their programs and operations to better fit the needs of the modern world. Successful library services in Africa depend on providing everyone with information and knowledge. The majority of OER initiatives centre on the formal education sector, which includes polytechnics, universities, and colleges. In Kenya’s higher education institutions, not much is being done to promote OER. Understanding and keeping up with the changing nature of the knowledge landscape is essential for effective change management in the library profession. Despite the severe financial situations faced by many institutions, there is a growing need for teaching resources and support systems. Through a review of faculty members’ uptake of OER in teaching and research, this study aims to advance digital literacy in Kenyan higher education institutions. The survey design was used, and data was collected using questionnaires. The population was 655 members of faculty. The findings have implications for universities and libraries on curriculum development and updating the existing one. The observation will influence universities, stakeholders and other regulatory bodies to establish policies supporting the adoption of OER and create effective frameworks for OER uptake for teaching and research by faculty members at universities in Kenya.

Unveiling AWS Spot Instance Trends: An Empirical Illustration

Cloud services are growing at a very fast rate. One of the most successful cloud service providers is AWS. Its services, such as virtualization with the assistance of Elastic Compute Cloud, have made a lot of the tasks a lot easier to do. Cloud computing offers the option of renting computer systems rather than purchasing them outright. Having many possibilities for renting also brings advantages, depending on the kind of job being done. Spot instances are those that are suitable for tasks that are not mission-critical. This research article will talk about the geographical growth of AWS as well as spot instances. In this article, we will develop an algorithm for the extraction of bulk data from the Amazon cloud about spot instances. When the data have been retrieved, they will be analyzed based on a number of different characteristics, such as the areas they are located in or the operating system that is provided. This data may be put to use for a variety of decision-making scenarios, some of which we may encounter in the not-too-distant future when using the Amazon platform. These may assist users in making decisions on the selection of various spot occurrences.

From Inside Out: Internal Marketing as an Engine for Service Promotion – A Secondary Publication

Focusing on “from inside out” means understanding that the driving force behind a successful service promotion campaign lies in a deep connection with the internal team, turning it into the engine that propels a positive brand perception. The University of Panama faces challenges in the effective implementation of strategies involving its internal staff, impacting the coherence and strength of its promotional messages. The research aimed to determine internal marketing strategies as an engine for service promotion at the Central Campus and CRUSAM. The applied study was descriptive, non-experimental field research, and cross-sectional. The sample consisted of 80 individuals using a quota sampling method to measure and quantify the expression of a construct or variable that is not directly observable. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information, measuring variables in their various dimensions. Content validity of the questionnaire was ensured through the evaluation of three experts, and the reliability of the Likert-type instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s α coefficient, which was found to be very high (0.918). The results led to the conclusion that establishing internal marketing strategies is necessary for the transformation and innovation process in the university through service promotion.

The AI empathy effect: a mechanism of emotional contagion

ABSTRACT While advances in technology have led to the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) in frontline services, the AI empathic effect is often overlooked. Based on emotional contagion theory, this research explores the impacts of AI emotional mimicry and empathic concern in service success and failure via experimental designs, respectively. Results indicate that AI with high emotional mimicry and empathic concern resulted in higher arousal and pleasure, increasing tourists’ continuous usage intention. Arousal and pleasure played significant mediating roles in service success. However, while empathic concern significantly affected continuous usage intention through pleasure, arousal did not have a similar effect. The joint effects of extrinsic and intrinsic anthropomorphism (emotional mimicry) were significant in a successful service context, but not in service failure. These results have important implications for the development and promotion of AI and enriches theoretical applications of emotional contagion theory and empathy.

Hybrid learning based service migration for cost minimization with deadlines in multi-user mobile edge computing systems

Mobile edge computing, a new computing model, aims to reduce network latency and improve user experience by placing computing resources closer to the users. However, when users move away from the current service areas, the quality of services will decline. To guarantee the quality of services, service migration technique is proposed and studied. Due to the wireless resource contention among users, there is service migration decision-making coupling among multiple users. Meanwhile, making real-time service migration decisions for multiple users to minimize service cost with application deadlines remains an open challenge because of the huge state space. In this paper, we formalize the service migration problem with deadlines as a Markov decision process (MDP) and propose a hybrid learning based service migration strategy. The proposed approach integrates Monte Carlo method and DQN learning, which adopts online training without Q-values and neural network approximation to generate service migration decisions for multiple users. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid learning based service migration strategy outperforms the existing migration strategies in terms of service success ratio and service cost.

Vendor capabilities development in blockchain sourcing: A parallel play approach

Vendor capabilities development has been an important research stream in the information systems (IS) sourcing literature. The existing research, which was based on the context of implementing centralized enterprise systems, focused on the adoption of deliberate learning and implicit learning, with the assumption that effective selection between these two learning approaches is sufficient for service providers to acquire vendor capabilities. However, this assumption may not hold in implementing a decentralized system based on enterprise blockchain. Because an enterprise blockchain system affords a new way of governing transactions and demands a new governance mode, it creates an uncertain and complex landscape in which the mere selection between deliberate learning and implicit learning becomes insufficient. Addressing this gap is crucial because many enterprise blockchain projects fail due to the incompetence of service providers. By conducting an in-depth case study of a successful blockchain service provider, our study reveals a new mechanism for developing vendor capabilities: parallel play. As with parallel play by preschoolers, the service provider combines a set of learning approaches featuring borrowing from peers and learning through experimentation. Our study extends the IS sourcing literature on vendor capabilities development from the context of implementing centralized enterprise systems to the context of implementing decentralized enterprise blockchain systems. Our findings also provide guidelines for blockchain service providers to follow when acquiring vendor capabilities and for clients to use when selecting service providers.

The Five-Pillars Methodology: A Crucial Approach for a Successful Community Service Project

The five-pillars methodology has been applied in the community service project Gonçalinho in Brazil. This paper provides an extension and guidelines on how to apply our methodology as a foundation for a successful general community service project. Further advice regarding step-by-step approach will be provided. Behind the five-pillars methodology, a central point related to education as a foundation and lessons learned for life will be pointed out. Important aspects regarding challenges, strategies and future trends will be addressed. Finally, additional examples based on a real community service project will be highlighted.

1846 A bespoke teaching programme for Hospital at Home improves staff confidence in the clinical management of HaH presentations

Abstract Background Hospital at Home (HaH) provides high acuity clinical care for patients in the community. HaH teams are varied and multidisciplinary. A successful HaH service depends upon streamlined communication between multidisciplinary team (MDT) members, facilitated by an integrated knowledge base. Whilst training protocols are under development, there are currently no published teaching programmes for HaH. We responded to this unique challenge by devising a teaching programme for the HaH team at St John’s Hospital, Livingston. Methods We identified learning needs within our team with a preliminary survey. We conducted a literature review to select four competency resources which were mapped to five domains: clinical care; pharmacy; service design and delivery; anticipatory care planning and palliative care; and ethical and legal guidance. We formalised a weekly teaching session and linked teaching topics to the core competencies. We conducted a review at 3 months and 6 months to assess the impact of the programme on staff learning and clinical confidence. Results A tailored teaching programme with domains linked to multidisciplinary competencies increases staff confidence in the clinical management of common HaH presentations. Our bespoke programme has successfully delivered teaching that caters for multiple clinical backgrounds. Conclusions HaH teams represent an opportunity to learn from MDT colleagues with diverse training backgrounds and offer a unique challenge in tailoring teaching to multiple learning needs. A formal programme with clear, identifiable domains linked to learning objectives provides an essential framework for staff to demonstrate engagement with professional development, allows staff to develop personal teaching skills and cultures a strong collaborative learning environment. Going forward, we aim to evaluate the impact on staff competence and formalise a cyclical HaH curriculum for circulation to the NHS Lothian HaH teams with scope for wider dissemination.

Chat service in a multichannel system under competition where customers are boundedly rational

Many service systems in various type of industry provide services via chat technologies. This type of service system is characterized by an interesting combination of properties. First, the customer is actively involved in service execution, since the service is comprised of responses of the server and the customer to each other, until the customer's request is satisfied. In addition, in such a system, the service can be provided by a single server in a parallel manner to a number of customers. Motivated by these and others interesting properties of the chat service, we formulate and analyze the stochastic queueing system as a two-dimensional quasi-birth-and-death process and derive its steady-state probabilities using matrix geometric methods. By means of economic analysis, we provide a scheme for deriving the optimal capacity of parallel chats and the optimal response effort that should be made by the server, considering that higher effort lengthens the response time but increases the probability of successful service completion. We next investigate a queueing game that considers a multi-channel service system consisting of a chat service and a traditional multi-server call center, and we consider strategic customers under both a centralized and a decentralized scenario. We show that competition between service channels may lead to lower service utilization even though customers enjoy higher expected utility. Finally, customer bounded rationality is considered and it is shown that customers who are less rational may enjoy higher utility. Sensitivity analyses are conducted for all scenarios.

Integrating design thinking and implementation science principles in delivering a medication review service in the community pharmacy setting-An implementation testing study.

Medication review (MR) services are evidenced-based practices in which a systematic assessment of a patient's medication is conducted, primarily aiming to optimize drug therapy and minimize adverse drug events through pharmacist interventions. Although studies show that MR services are effective, the implementation of MR services in Malaysia has been challenging due to several barriers. An MR services blueprint was developed to be adapted to the Malaysian community pharmacy setting as part of tailoring strategies. Through utilizing the design thinking triple diamond model and implementation science principles, a powerful guide for healthcare researchers and stakeholders to assist with effective service implementation, this study aimed to evaluate the implementation testing and observe the effectiveness of the developed MR service blueprint. The study utilizes an effectiveness-implementation Type 3 hybrid implementation science framework conducted from May 2021 to April 2022. Employing a qualitative ethnographic approach, researchers observed pharmacy study sites during the implementation of MR services. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected across exploration, preparation, testing, and operational phases. Implementation outcomes evaluated include phases, reach, fidelity, acceptability, as well as implementation barriers and strategies. MR intervention outcomes included service characteristics and the number and type of drug-related problems and interventions offered. 17 community pharmacists were invited to pilot the MR service blueprint for six months in their setting. Of this, 78.5% (n = 11) of the pharmacies reached the testing phase, and 36% (n = 4) reached the implementation phase. Fifty-four patients were in the study, giving an implementation reach of 70%. The majority of surveyed patients expressed satisfaction with the service. The total DRP identified was 133, and 64 interventions were provided by the pharmacists. Facilitation strategies such as "Engage stakeholders by creating ownership of the change" and "Equip stakeholders with training" are needed to overcome the barriers. This study marked the beginning of successful MR service implementation at Malaysian community pharmacies. Future studies with multi-level partnered strategies are required to reach full implementation and sustainability.

Addressing the occupancy problem of Soekarno-Hatta Airport rail link during its first five years of operation

Airport rail links have long been acknowledged as a crucial component of the modern transportation system. Their attractiveness among air travellers stems from their convenience, speed, and environmental benefits. Despite their advantages, these services often face several occupancy problems that hinder their effectiveness and efficiency. Soekarno-Hatta airport rail link’s operation in 2018-2022 has been marked by low occupancy. This study aims to assess the realisations of several critical attributes of a successful airport rail link service according to TRB studies in the context of the Soekarno-Hatta airport rail link. In this context, it was shown that only four of the seven key attributes have met the minimal level to attain such goals. Despite numerous strategies undertaken during the period, which coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic, most fall under the operating or service adjustments category. The minimal realisations of the seven key attributes confirm the low occupancy levels, yet efforts to increase the ridership were limited during the pandemic. These findings provide avenues for a more successful transfer of operations from PT Railink to PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia with the clear intention of boosting the rail link’s ridership. Alongside several expansion plans by the Directorate General of Railways, the findings shall help public policymakers promote a modal shift and pave the way towards a broader integration with other modes of public transportation in the Jabodetabek region.

ЗМІНА МОДЕЛІ РОБОТИ ЧАТ-БОТІВ У СФЕРІ ОБСЛУГОВУВАННЯ КЛІЄНТІВ

In modern business, customer support stands as a pivotal element for successful client servicing. The operation of customer support involves providing assistance and resolving client issues regarding company products or services. In the current simplified model, the efficacy of technical support agent searches generally surpasses that of chatbots or human assistance. Filtering internal staff-only articles from those intended for clients poses a challenge, necessitating complex implementations that not all companies may afford. Previous-generation chatbots have shown limited effectiveness in replacing humans due to varying client articulations, necessitating human intervention. Conventional chatbots offer limited options: information retrieval based on client queries, problem narrowing through additional inquiries, and sending tailored instructions. However, maintaining and updating knowledge for both internal staff and clients poses resource-intensive challenges for large companies. An alternative emerges with LLM-based chatbots, automating communication with users via chat interfaces. LLM chatbots enhance speed and efficiency, reduce personnel costs, and ensure 24/7 client service. Yet, they require con- stant knowledge updating and careful handling to address a spectrum of issues effectively. Notably, LLM chatbots can handle complex articles, gathering step-by-step instructions from various sources. Still, undocumented issues or incorrect solutions may necessitate human assistance. The primary functional difference between LLM chatbots and conventional ones lies in their contextual and linguistic processing capabilities, making communication with LLM chatbots akin to human interaction. Despite advancements, the nuances of context and language remain pivotal for effective client servicing, particularly in technical support scenarios. Future exploration in this direction should focus on optimizing knowledge management and enhancing LLM chatbot capabilities for improved client satisfac- tion and operational efficiency."

Emotion, Cultural Valuation of Being Human and AI Services

This study alerts that successful AI services depend not only on the improvement of the ability of AI to understand customers’ emotions but also on whether the utility function of the customer allows for the perfect substitution between an AI-delivered service and a human-delivered service. We argue that the utility function of customers includes the subjective valuation of being human, which AI services cannot meet by nature. A culture-based development (CBD) model for the transformation of emotions into feelings and order of preferences is offered to explain the cultural valuation of being human as a component of customers’ utility function. Using primary data from an experimental survey and employing two alternative machine learning algorithms (Lasso and Random Forest), we operationalize our CBD model to show that the estimation efficiency of the AI algorithms cannot compensate for the omission of the cultural valuation of being human from the modeling of the utility function of the customer.

Emotional Alchemy in Hospitality: Transforming Discontent to Delight through Servant Leadership and Strategic Emotional Labor in Hotel Service Recovery Performance

Hotel service dissatisfaction necessitates recovery for sustainable operations. Frontline employees, crucial for customer interactions, ensure quality service delivery and bear responsibility for rectifying service failures. Swift service complaint resolution is customer’s priority, with leader support impacting emotional labor and performance outcomes. This study explores servant leadership's vital role in fostering an environment where employees feel valued, contributing to successful service recovery. Employing SPSS, AMOS, and SEM, this study empirically extends existing leadership literature by exploring the uncharted relationship between servant leadership and service recovery performance within an underdeveloped nation's hotel industry, significantly contributing to the conservation of resource theory. Using a comprehensive survey of 625 frontline employees, findings of the study reveal servant leadership's positive impact on deep acting and negative effect on surface acting. The study confirms servant leadership fosters deep acting, positively influencing service recovery. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, it proves hotels with servant leadership exhibit effective service recovery. This research contributes theoretically by linking emotional labor to the servant leadership and service recovery performance relationship, demonstrating its impact on genuine customer interaction restoration.

Profitability of Transplanted Aman rice cultivation in some selected areas of the southern part of Bangladesh

The research aimed to assess the profitability of Transplanted Aman (T. Aman) rice cultivation in the southern region of Bangladesh. Specifically, it sought to identify the most successful service providers and evaluate the financial viability of T. Aman rice cultivation in the study area. Data collection involved 118 randomly selected respondents, including farmers, dealers, and marketers. The overall cost of production per hectare, as determined by primary data analysis, came to Tk. 34,869.76. Furthermore, 2,149.00 kg of T. Aman rice were produced on average per acre. The resultant Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 1.26 means that for every taka invested in T. Aman production yielded Tk. 1.26 in return. Gross returns were determined to be Tk. 43,882.58, resulting in net returns of Tk. 9,013.58. The findings underscored the profitability of T. Aman rice cultivation in the southern region of Bangladesh, as evidenced by the favorable results of the cost-benefit analysis. It is recommended to utilize contemporary inputs such as high-quality seeds, fertilizers, efficient labor, power tillers, pesticides, and timely irrigation to enhance output and profitability. Timely and effective utilization of these inputs is crucial for maximizing output and profitability in T. Aman rice cultivation.

Capacity Building Efforts on Viral Hepatitis under National Viral Hepatitis Control Program

The “National Viral Hepatitis Control Program” (NVHCP) was launched in India as a stepping stone towards combating viral hepatitis as a public health threat. The program was launched on the occasion of world hepatitis day 2018 with the target of eliminating viral hepatitis by the year 2030. The program has provisions for developing infrastructure, nominating human resources, and building their capacity for successful service delivery. A time-bound cascade of training approaches is being adopted by the program to orient the designated healthcare workers on the standard operating protocols. The training is being conducted following a top-to-bottom approach, where master trainers are first identified and sensitized at the national level under the mentorship of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), the master trainers then sensitize the designated healthcare workers at the state level in collaboration with the state National Health Mission (NHM). Here is an outline of the Capacity-building efforts on Viral Hepatitis under NVHCP in Uttarakhand State.