Title: Where Service Recovery Meets its Paradox - A search for the level of Service Recovery required for the Service Recovery Paradox to occur in the Hotel Industry  Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration  Author: Beatrice Nylander & Andreas Edström  Supervisor: Patrik Sörqvist  Date: 2021 – June  Aim: The purpose of this study was to, within the hotel industry, investigate at what level of service recovery the service recovery paradox will come into existence.  Method: Two surveys have been conducted where 190 respondents were introduced to a scenario- based service failure in the hotel industry. Survey 1 collected data about the amount of monetary compensation that customers felt they needed post service failure, in order to subsequently feel a little more satisfied than in the case of an error-free service experience (the point for service recovery paradox). In survey 2, customer satisfaction was then measured at three different levels of compensation after service failure. The three levels were the mean from survey 1, mean -1 SD, and mean +1 SD. This with the aim to, in an independent sample, test whether the point for service recovery paradox in survey 1 causes the paradox to arise in survey 2 or not.  Result & Conclusions: In the event of a specific service failure in the hotel industry, the level of service recovery paradox, through monetary compensation, was found. Survey 1 (N = 40) determined the compensation level to be SEK 1204. The same compensation level was confirmed as a sufficient level to achieve the service recovery paradox in survey 2 (N = 150).  Contribution of the thesis: Service failures are often not completely avoidable, especially not in the hotel industry. This study helps to understand the level of monetary compensation that may be required to achieve the service recovery paradox, in the event of a specific service failure in the hotel industry. The results from this study contribute to guidance in service recovery and give hotel managers knowledge of what monetary compensation level they should apply to restore customer satisfaction and also avoid overcompensation, in case of service failures.  Suggestions for future research: Future researchers should assume that service industries and service failures are all unique. Failure scenarios need to be described in detail in order for results to be applicable by managers. Future research may also examine the anchoring effect in order to avoid overcompensation if possible. SRP researchers who examine the hotel industry in particular may investigate the SRP level of additional customer segments that travel; alone, at work, with friends or with children. Although SRP might occur because of service recovery, repurchase intentions might decrease. A major challenge for future researchers will therefore be to measure how customer satisfaction after service failure and recovery stands long term. Another suggestion is to conduct the study again, but with real service failures and with real compensation.  Keywords: service failure, service recovery, service recovery paradox, service recovery hotel industry, customer satisfaction

Title: Measuring customer satisfaction within B2B: The B2B relationship between supplierand distributor in a servitization context.  Authors: Sigrid Aronson & Lejla Cerimagic Supervisor: Ramsin Yakob Background: The importance of relationships has increased along with the servitizationprocess of many manufacturers. The servitization leads companies to include several parties in their network. The specific relationship between manufacturer and distributor is found within many of these networks. Such B2B relationships, are crucial yet complex in its nature. However, limited research has been conducted dealing with this topic. Long term relationships are generally important within the B2B context; Thus, it is important to develop and keep these relationships. Consequently, it is important to keep the B2B customer satisfied. By measuring customer satisfaction, the manufacturer obtains an image of their performance in customer satisfaction. Measuring customer satisfaction within the B2B context tends to be a complex subject yet limited research has been done on this topic.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of the relationalconsequences of servitization for customer satisfaction measurement within B2Brelationships. Methodology: The study is based on a case study of an international manufacturer. Thestudy contains several analysis units which consist of worldwide distributors, both internal and external. The study was conducted through a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews and participatory observations at the case company. Conclusion: The research findings indicate that individuals who are directly involved in the B2B relationship, from both customer and manufacturer side, are an important source of information and insight in how the customer satisfaction measure should be designed, conducted and followed up on. The customer contributes to an insight into the needs and expectations which could contribute to the design of the customer satisfaction measure as well as with information about relevant respondents. The person that works closest to the customer has also turned out to play an important role for the design of the measure as well as for the interpretation of its results. The customer satisfaction measure has also shown to be affected by frequency of the measure, follow-up, actions and anonymity (honesty); which is why these measures should be considered when measuring customer satisfaction within the B2B context. / Titel: Att mäta kundnöjdhet inom B2B kontexten: B2B relationen mellan leverantör & distributör i en tjänstefieringskontext Författare: Sigrid Aronson & Lejla Cerimagic Handledare: Ramsin Yakob Problematisering: Relationers betydelse har ökat till följd av den tjänstefieringen  som  sker hos många tillverkningsföretag. I och med tjänstefieringen inkluderar företag allt  oftare fler parter i dess nätverk. I dessa nätverk kan man återfinna den specifika  relationen mellan leverantör och distributör vilket är en avgörande men komplex B2B-  relation där forskningen tycks vara begränsad. Generellt är det viktigt med långsiktiga  relationer inom B2B där det är viktigt att arbeta för att utveckla och kvarhålla dessa  relationer. Därmed tycks det också vara viktigt att säkerställa att kunden inom B2B  kontexten är nöjd. Genom att mäta kundnöjdheten får leverantören därmed ett svar på  hur väl de presterar inom kundnöjdhet. Mätning av kundnöjdhet inom B2B kontexten  tycks dock vara nedtonad forskningsmässigt och till det hör också att det anses vara ett  komplext område.   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa förståelse för de relationsmässiga konsekvenser som tjänstefieringen medfört i mätning av kundnöjdhet inom B2B relationer. Metod: Denna studie är en enfallsstudie där fallet avser ett internationellt tillverkningsföretag. I studien ingår flertalet analysenheter vilka utgörs av distributörer världen över, både interna och externa. Studien genomförs med en kvalitativ metod och innehåller semistrukturerade intervjuer samt deltagande observationer på fallföretaget.  Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att de personer som är involverade i B2B relationen från både kundens och leverantörens sida utgör en viktig källa till information och insikt i hur kundnöjdhetsmätningen bör utformas, genomföras samt följas upp. Kunden bidrar till insikt i behov och förväntningar som bidrar till utformningen men även information om relevanta deltagare för mätningen. Den person som arbetar närmast kunden är viktig för mätningens utformning likväl tolkning av dess resultat. Kundnöjdhetsmätningens resultat har även visat sig kunna påverkas av sådant som frekvens, uppföljning och åtgärder samt anonymitet (ärlighet) varför även dessa bör tas i beaktande vid mätning av kundnöjdheten inom B2B kontexten.

The purpose of the study is to understand the satisfaction of young customers living in Sweden for a long time with the packaging of chips and the impact of packaging on their chip purchase and to discuss corporate social responsibility in connection with environmental sustainability. In this study, theoretical analysis, interviews, and focus groups are used as the research methods. Through the analysis of collected data and combined with the theory to carry out a comprehensive analysis. Through the analysis, it is found that the color, picture, and shape of packaging in the chips market in Sweden are the main factors affecting customers' purchase. It is also found that young customers still attach great importance to the sustainable development of the environment and think that the company should be responsible for this. The findings of this study can be considered to provide customers with real ideas for companies who want to understand the Swedish chip market and help them develop the Swedish market. Due to the lack of research on the packaging market in Sweden, the researchers hope that this study can be helpful to the relevant research.

Do customers in rural and urban markets want the same thing from a restaurant server? While researchers have stressed the importance of sub-culture and made the call for empirical research, few studies have incorporated sub-culture into their research, especially within the hospitality industry. Empirically measuring the differences in sub-culture, may be especially important for restaurant operators as they serve and employ a myriad of different customers in different markets. One under researched yet critical way is through a better understanding of the importance of customer contact employees' behavior. Understanding the importance customers place on standard restaurant wait staff behaviors and time standards may be critical to earning customers satisfaction and patronage, yet few studies have empirically examined this. Developing enhanced ways of understanding how to adapt service delivery behavior to the values of major cultural groups can be extremely beneficial to hospitality managers. This study attempts to close these gaps by investigating the influence of sub-culture on consumer perceptions of behavioral and timing dimensions in a casual, full-service restaurant setting, through methodological sampling concentrating on two main sub-cultural groups: rural and urban restaurant patrons. Results indicated that sanitation and accommodation were the most important behavioral dimensions for both groups. The level of server responsiveness, friendliness, and knowledge were statistically different for the rural and urban samples. Results suggest that casual restaurant wait staff need to tailor service behavior by accommodating and customizing to the cultural and sub-cultural based guest needs in order to maintain a competitive advantage in satisfying customers. This study also demonstrates theoretical and managerial implications and suggests that further research is needed to investigate differences across other hospitality settings. / Master of Science

Purpose – This paper aims to present an applied research effort aimed at reengineering the utilization practices of operating rooms for a public Portuguese hospital. This reengineering effort is motivated by the desire to enhance the patientorientation of the hospital. The role of information systems in facilitating such organizational change is also to be examined. Design/methodology/approach – Actual data are used to simulate outcomes of three different operational scenarios related to the utilization of operating rooms and surgical teams. As such, the critical constraint related to surgical capacity is relaxed under different utilization scenarios. Findings – Based on the findings of the study, it appears that there is no conflict between operational efficiency and patient satisfaction. Welldesigned operational changes can lead to both efficiency and patient satisfaction benefits. This, in turn, can translate into competitive strategic advantage for the hospital. Research limitations/implications – The simulation results derived from this applied research are positive. In general, they tend to point to potential operational and strategic benefits to the hospital and its patients. Although the simulation model used in this study was validated using actual data, more research is needed to test its general applicability. Such research should shed more light on the interrelationships which exist within the hospital operating system. Practical implications – The approach advocated in this research has operational and strategic relevance to healthcare policy makers and hospitals' administrators. In this context, the role of the information systems in providing information relevant to tracking and improving a hospital's performance is emphasized. Originality/value – The paper presents a practical, applied, systematic approach toward enhancing operational effectiveness in healthcare organizations. It draws on bodies of knowledge pretending to system theory, simulation and operations management in order to improve the shortterm performance of hospitals.

Purpose: Using the basic framework of the service profit chain, this study aims to develop an integrated model that explains the relationships among role overload (RO), customer orientation (CO), service interaction quality (IQ), customer satisfaction (CS) and sales performance. Design/methodology/approach: A large-scale survey of 872 customers and 530 frontline employees across 50 branches of a major retail bank in New Zealand serves as the study setting. Findings: The results indicate that RO has a significant negative effect on IQ. Nevertheless, CO mitigates the negative outcome of RO on IQ. IQ fully mediates the relationship between RO and CS. Additionally, the effect of IQ on branch sales is fully mediated by CS. Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional nature of the current survey does not permit causal inferences. Thus, future studies should adopt longitudinal designs. Also, future studies should explore the roles of other variables (e.g. job crafting, work-related self-efficacy) as possible moderators. Practical implications: Results suggest that service managers should create a balance between the role requirements and organizational resources to mitigate the adverse effects of employee RO. To enhance IQ and CS, bank managers should coach employees about work overload and train them in CO while prioritizing the tasks. Originality/value: Empirical research pertaining to employee–customer interaction through a nested framework accommodating data from customers, employees and firm performance is scarce. This study fills in the void.

Thesis (M. Com. (Business Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The trend towards healthy eating has been gradually growing in South Africa. Health consciousness has become more apparent with customers not only wanting to consume quick and convenient meals, but also meals that are nutritionally beneficial. Although fast-food outlets have risen to the occasion by providing for this demand, there are few studies in South Africa that focus on strategic guidelines for fast-food outlets to enable strategic planning for achieving customer satisfaction and the increase in profits with healthier food options on the menu. The purpose of this study was to explore strategic guidelines for customer satisfaction with healthier diet menu items in fast-food franchising outlets in South Africa. An extensive literature review was conducted on the South African fast-food industry and customer satisfaction. The study followed a quantitative method approach, and 400 respondents were selected using the convenience sampling method. An empirical study was conducted in which data was collected from 329 customers of fast-food outlets within the Capricorn Municipality, South Africa by means of self-administered questionnaires. The findings of this study reveal that there is a general level of satisfaction amongst South African customers with the healthier food options available at fast-food outlets with areas of improvement for price, convenience and atmosphere pertaining to healthier diet meals. The study made recommendations on a variety of healthy menu items, interaction between managers and customers, price and value, extended service hours, safe parking and walking distance, cleanliness, staff appearance and dining-in feeling and provided a model on Strategic Sustainable Growth as a guideline to increasing customer satisfaction with healthier diet menu items.

User inertia is a real innovation adoption problem that cannot be seen or grasped. How to overcome user inertia while introducing innovation has become a key factor in today's society. Based on the background of requirements engineering, the goal of this thesis is to study and understand the relationship between user inertia and innovation adoption, including whether the type of innovation has an impact on user adoption and how to use strategies to reduce this impact. Through an online survey of 60 users and a systematic literature review of a series of articles, we have concluded the following points: RI has a greater impact on user inertia, while II has almost no impact; neither RI nor II has a significant impact on user satisfaction. Not only that, but through literature review, we have also concluded a comprehensive strategy to deal with the adoption problem caused by user inertia.

Background: This study examines online shopping in different cultures and technologies in relation to customer satisfaction in Stockholm and Accra; a developed city with a developing city respectively. In recent times, the use of the internet has rapidly increased around the globe and with it emerged online shopping as a means employed by which business organizations and individual sellers and service providers to maximize growth. Customer satisfaction is an essential element for attaining stability and growth in the business world and online shopping is no exception. Even though customer satisfaction is a universal phenomenon, it can be controlled by culture and technology.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to compare a developed city with a developing one and the interplay of culture and technology in achieving customer satisfaction in online shopping. This thesis therefore seeks to investigate the different cultures and technologies on satisfaction by ascertaining the degree to which factors relating to culture and technology affect customer satisfaction in online shopping. Methodology: Quantitative research method is employed to conduct this thesis. By the use of the snowball sampling method, residents of both Stockholm and Accra were sampled and data collection was done by administering survey questionnaire. SPSS software package was used to analyse research data. The Spearman rank correlation and Mann-Whitney U test were performed using the SPSS software package to arrive at the research results and draw conclusions. Results & Conclusions: This research demonstrates the existence of differences in the culture and technology of Stockholm and Accra. It also demonstrates the impact of selected factors for independent variables (culture and technology) on customer satisfaction in online by showing their inter-relationship. It also reveals the factors which most affected customer satisfaction in online shopping in this thesis. In general, the correlations demonstrated that culture had more impacts on customer satisfaction in online shopping as compared to technology. A good relationship was found between customer satisfaction and culture, and technology provided by the participants from Accra. For Stockholm participants, customer satisfaction in online shopping had a relationship with cultural factors. It was shown in the findings that all four factors measuring culture such as trust, moral, law, and knowledge, and only two factors measuring technology such as internet speed and tools affected customer satisfaction in online shopping in Accra with the most affected factors being trust and moral. In the case of Stockholm, only two factors measuring culture, such as moral and trust affected customer satisfaction in online shopping and moral most affected customer satisfaction. None of the four factors measuring technology affected customer satisfaction. All in all, considering both independent variables, we argued that culture (factors) affected most customer satisfaction in online shopping. Recommendations for future research: Further research can be done by employing both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques to know how these factors affect customer satisfaction in online shopping. In addition, to better generalize the results, further research could be done with the same concepts but with more factors used to measure the independent and dependent variables. Moreover, similar research could also be done by considering only one group of products or items bought online. Furthermore, the same or similar research can be done using more than one question to describe the factors or sub-variables. Last but not least, further research can deploy a larger sample size to facilitate generalization.

El Outsourcing se ha convertido hoy en día en una herramienta muy eficaz que permite focalizar los recursos de la empresa en el giro de su negocio sin distracciones; así como alcanzar la modernidad, eficiencia y competitividad que exige el mercado actual. Esto permite al negocio mejorar sus procesos internos, direccionando recursos valiosos hacia las iniciativas estratégicas y las actividades que agregan valor. El servicio de Mesa de Ayuda está comprendido y forma parte del Outsourcing. Se muestra los argumentos considerados para poder identificar una oportunidad de mejora y plantear una propuesta eficiente para mejorar los procesos de una Mesa de Ayuda incrementando la satisfacción del cliente y la rentabilidad de la empresa. El documento sintetiza el marco teórico que describe la naturaleza de una Mesa de Ayuda, su entorno, las tecnologías usadas y por último las herramientas y técnicas para la mejora de los procesos; luego se describe la situación actual, el análisis del proceso y el método actual donde se logra identificar el problema y las causas para posteriormente proponer un plan de mejora a los procesos de una mesa de ayuda incrementando la satisfacción de los clientes con lo que se busca lograr beneficios de mejora en la satisfacción del cliente e incrementar la rentabilidad de la empresa, asegurando el cumplimiento de los niveles de acuerdo de servicios con procesos alineados a las mejores prácticas de la industria. / Outsourcing has nowadays become a very effective tool that allows focusing the company's resources on the turn of your business without distractions; as well as achieving the modernity, efficiency and competitiveness that the current market demands. This allows the business to improve its internal processes, directing valuable resources towards strategic initiatives and activities that agree on value. The Help Desk service is complete and is part of the Outsourcing. It shows the arguments identified to identify an opportunity for improvement and propose an efficient proposal to improve the processes of a Help Desk increasing customer satisfaction and profitability of the company. The document synthesizes the theoretical framework that describes the nature of a Help Desk, its environment, the technologies used and finally the tools and techniques for process improvement; Then describe the current situation, the analysis of the process and the current method where the problem and causes can be identified and subsequently propose a plan to improve the processes of a help desk, increasing customer satisfaction with what it seeks to achieve benefits to improve customer satisfaction and increase the profitability of the company, ensuring compliance with the levels of service agreement with processes aligned to the best practices in the industry. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional