服務業的重要性在過去的三十年間變得越來越為突出，因為服務幾乎佔據了多數發達經濟體國內生產總值的絶大部分，而傳統上以製造業為主的國家現在也開始在服務行業有突飛猛進的增長。與此同時，服務創新被看作是“下一個重大事件“，但是目前關於創新的研究卻仍集中于製造業的創新，而缺乏對比服務創新和製造業創新並且聚焦于服務創新和新服務開發活動的實證研究。本篇論文致力於消減這樣的不足，以實證的方式通過三個不同的研究探討了若干關於服務創新的研究問題，其資料來源於組織層面686家服務企業及1646家製造企業的資料、專案層面從一個大型多部門的中國服務企業獲得的關於多個新服務開發專案的資料。 / 研究1從服務主導邏輯和資源基礎觀出發，以實證研究方式探討並比較了顧客導向對於服務創新和製造業創新的不同影響。該研究主要涉及兩個研究問題：1）顧客導向是否正向影響服務創新性和產品創新性，而這樣的影響在服務企業和製造企業中有何不同表現？2）供應商合作和技術能力是否作為仲介變數影響了顧客導向和服務/產品創新性之間的關係，而這種影響是否在服務企業和製造企業中表現的不同？通過對於這兩個問題的實證研究，本文對服務創新對比製造業創新、以及服務主導邏輯方面的文獻和理論做出了貢獻，並且也為製造企業和服務企業的決策者提供了一些管理啟示。 / 研究2通過分析來自於中國一家大型移動電訊運營商的70個新服務開發專案，借鑒並擴展了現有服務創新研究。該研究首先試圖證實一個現有的關於服務創新的分類法，接著又通過實證研究的結果延伸了該分類法，最後提出了一些關於不同種類服務創新的假設並初步驗證了這些假設。該研究的結果對於服務創新分類有理論貢獻，也對如何在網路環境下管理新服務開發活動有著啟示。 / 研究3 是建立在研究2基礎上的跟進研究。通過使用多案例研究方法，探討了服務創新如何在大型組織中進行推廣。該研究關注三個問題：1）哪些組織因素影響了服務創新的成功推廣？2）服務創新的種類如何影響其推廣，而不同種類的服務創新又該如何相應地推廣？3）開發和推廣團隊的轉變如何影響服務創新的推廣？本研究從研究2涉及的70個服務創新專案中挑選了10個作為案例，每個均採取了有時間跨度的縱向案例研究。本研究對服務創新推廣相關文獻和理論做出了貢獻，亦為服務企業尤其是具有多個業務部門及分公司的大型服務企業的經理人們提供了管理啟示。 / The importance of service sector has grown significantly over the past three decades as services dominate the majority of GDP in most advanced economies and even countries that historically focused on manufacturing are now growing rapidly in services. Meanwhile, service innovation has been regarded as “the next big thing, but the majority of innovation research still focuses on innovation in manufacturing. There is a scarcity of empirical studies to address the differences between service innovation and manufacturing innovation and to focus on service innovation and new service development activities. This thesis is an effort to remedy that deficiency by empirically addressing several major issues about service innovation with three studies, based on organizational-level data collected from 686 service companies and 1646 manufacturing companies and project-level data of new service development projects collected from a large multi-units service company in China. / In Study 1, the impact of customer orientation on service innovation and manufacturing innovation has been empirically investigated and compared through the theoretical lens of service-dominant logic and resource-based view. This study mainly addresses two research questions: 1) Does customer orientation positively relate to both service and product innovativeness and how does this effect differ between service and manufacturing firms? 2) Do supplier collaboration and technological capability mediate the relationship between customer orientation and service/product innovativeness differently in service firms and manufacturing firms? By empirically addressing these two research questions, this study contributes to the literature on service versus manufacturing innovation and service-dominant logic, and provides some managerial implications for decision makers in both manufacturing firms and service firms. / Study 2 builds on and extends extant service innovation research by investigating 70 new service development (NSD) projects of a large mobile telecom firm in China. This study first seeks to validate an existing taxonomy of service innovation, and then seeks to extend the taxonomy, grounded on the empirical research findings. Finally this study develops propositions concerning service innovation types and provides preliminary empirical investigation. Results from the analyses contribute to the literature on the taxonomy of service innovation and provide insightful implications as how to manage the NSD activities in the network environment. / Study 3 is a follow-up study of the second study. This study uses a multiple-cases research design to study the deployment of service innovations in a large organization. Three important research questions are addressed: 1) what are the organizational factors leading to successful deployment of innovations? 2) How does the type of service innovation influence the deployment and how should different types of innovation be deployed accordingly? 3) How does the change of development and/or deployment team influence the deployment of innovations? 10 cases out of the 70 service innovations covered in Study 2 are selected and a longitudinal case-study approach is employed. This study contributes to literature of service innovation deployment and provides managerial implications for managers in service firms, especially those large service firms with multiple units or subsidiaries. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Wang, Qiang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-128). / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.I / ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.IV / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.VI / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.VIII / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.XI / LIST OF TABLES --- p.XII / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- The Definition and Characteristics of Service --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Service Innovation and New Service Development --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Structure of the Thesis --- p.4 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- Service Innovation versus Manufacturing Innovation --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Taxonomy of Service Innovation --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3 --- Mainstream Theories Being Used in Service Innovation --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Service-dominant logic (SDL) --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Resource-based view (RBV) --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Dynamic capabilities view (DCV) --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Other theories or perspectives --- p.19 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- THE EFFECTS OF CUSTOMER ORIENTATION ON PRODUCT/SERVICE INNOVATIVENESS AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE FIRMS --- p.24 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2 --- Theoretical Background and Literature Review --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Service versus manufacturing innovation --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Customer orientation --- p.31 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Service-dominant logic --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3 --- Research Framework and Hypotheses --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- The effect of customer orientation on innovation performance --- p.36 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- A customer-centric model of firm resources --- p.32 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- A comparison of the model in service versus manufacturing firms --- p.42 / Chapter 3.4 --- Research Methodology --- p.45 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Measures --- p.45 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Sampling and data collection --- p.49 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Respondent profile --- p.50 / Chapter 3.5 --- Analysis and Results --- p.52 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Non-response bias and common method bias --- p.52 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Reliability and validity --- p.53 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Hypotheses testing results --- p.55 / Chapter 3.6 --- Discussion and implications --- p.57 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Theoretical implications --- p.57 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Managerial implications --- p.60 / Chapter 3.6.3 --- Limitations and avenues for future research --- p.61 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- A TAXONOMY OF SERVICE INNOVATION BASED ON ANALYSES OF NEW SERVICE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN A MOBILE TELECOM FIRM --- p.63 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2 --- Theoretical Background and Research Propositions --- p.65 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Service innovation and its typology --- p.65 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- The relationship between different service innovation types --- p.68 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Service innovation type and collaboration --- p.69 / Chapter 4.3 --- Methodology --- p.70 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Research design and level of analysis --- p.70 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Data collection --- p.72 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Data analysis method --- p.74 / Chapter 4.4 --- Results --- p.77 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- The taxonomy of service innovation --- p.77 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- A refined taxonomy of service innovation --- p.79 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- External collaborations and duration of projects --- p.81 / Chapter 4.5 --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.83 / Chapter 4.6 --- Limitations and Future Research --- p.86 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF SERVICE INNOVATIONS: A LONGITUDINAL CASE STUDY --- p.89 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.89 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Deployment of Service Innovation --- p.90 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- The locus of service innovation --- p.93 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- The deployment of different types of service innovation --- p.94 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- The organization for deployment --- p.96 / Chapter 5.3 --- Research Method --- p.98 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Empirical case research --- p.98 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- The deployment of service innovations studied --- p.100 / Chapter 5.4 --- Results --- p.102 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- An overview of the deployment outcomes --- p.102 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- The locus of the service innovations --- p.103 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- The three types of service innovation --- p.105 / Chapter 5.4.4 --- The organization for the deployments --- p.106 / Chapter 5.5 --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.110 / Chapter 5.6 --- Limitations and Future Research --- p.113 / Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- CONCLUSION --- p.115 / Chapter REFERENCES --- p.118 / Chapter APPENDIX A. --- MEASUREMENT ITEMS FOR STUDY 1 --- p.129 / Chapter APPENDIX B. --- THE CASE RESEARCH PROTOCOL FOR STUDY 3 --- p.131

Abstract not available

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the difference between front-line employees' perception of service versus the customer's perception of the service delivery within the New Zealand Real Estate Industry. This research examines the service perception of the service delivery within the real estate industry using an exploratory study, pre-test and a survey. The lack of knowledge within real estate particularly around the importance of services has been a major motivator for this research. In reviewing the literature, a substantial amount of literature was available on service delivery however there was a gap in the literature on the service delivery in the real estate industry. This research addresses this gap through analysing the real estate industry, focusing on the Auckland market. Four dimensions of service were identified using SERVQUAL. Findings from the factor analysis showed that employees and clients have different perceptions of service. The management implications are wide and will positively impact the industry. For the industry, increasing service delivery will ensure the industry gains a more professional image and standing within New Zealand business.

It is now well recognised that an effective service recovery program is an essential part of firms??? service quality programs and critical to generating customer satisfaction and loyalty. A number of studies have investigated the impact of service recovery efforts (compensation, speed of response, etc.) on post-recovery satisfaction, mostly in Western countries. However, despite the importance of global markets, very few have examined how Eastern consumers react to service recovery efforts. Furthermore, none have examined the impact of cultural value orientation (cultural values measured at the individual level) in implementing effective service recovery programs. This is one of the few studies that have attempted to avoid the ecological fallacy, i.e., assume all consumers within a country are culturally homogeneous. Based on Justice Theory, this research conducted in Thailand, employed an experimental design to investigate how customer evaluations of service recovery efforts are influenced by interplay of the consumer???s cultural value orientation and service recovery attributes (apology, compensation, cognitive control, recovery initiation, and formality). The results reveal that cultural values of power distance, uncertainty avoidance and collectivism do indeed interact with a firm???s recovery tactics to influence perceptions of justice. In other words, the impact of a firm???s tactics is culturally dependent, and consumer expectations and perceptions of service recovery efforts vary, depending on customers??? cultural value orientation. Finally, all three forms of justice (distributive, procedural, interactional) along with disconfirmation of expectations, positively impact on overall service recovery satisfaction. Unlike previous studies, we found evidence to indicate that there is a temporal sequence associated with the three justice dimensions i.e., interactional and procedural justice precede and thus impact perception of distributive (outcome) justice. The results have implication for marketing theory as well as managerial action.

Process-based composition of Web services is emerging as a promising technology for the effective automation of integrated and collaborative applications. As Web services are often autonomous and heterogeneous entities, coordinating their interactions to build complex processes is a difficult, error prone, and time-consuming task. In addition, since Web services usually operate in dynamic and highly evolving environments, there is a need for supporting flexible and correct execution of integrated processes. In this thesis, we propose a Petri net-based framework for formal composition and recovery policies in service-based business processes. We first propose an algebra for composing Web services. The formal semantics of this algebra is expressed in terms of Petri nets. The use of a formal model allows the effective verification and analysis of properties, both within a service, such as termination and absence of deadlock, and between services, such as behavioral equivalences. We also develop a top down approach for the correct (e.g., absence of deadlock and termination) composition of complex business processes. The approach defines a set of refinement operators that guarantee correctness of the resulting business process nets at design time. We then introduce Self-Adaptive Recovery Net (SARN), an extended Petri net model for specifying exceptional behavior in business processes. SARN adapts the structure of the underlying Petri net at run time to handle exceptions while keeping the Petri net design simple and easy. The proposed framework caters for the specification of high-level recovery policies that are incorporated either with a single task or a set of tasks, called a recovery region. Finally, we propose a pattern-based approach to dynamically restructure SARN. These patterns capture the ways past exceptions have been dealt with. The objective is to continuously restructure recovery regions within the SARN model to minimize the impact of exception handling. To illustrate the viability of the proposed composition and exception handling techniques, we have developed HiWorD (HIerarchical WORkflow Designer), a hierarchical Petri net-based business process modeling and simulation tool.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205). Also available on the Internet.

With the increasingly fierce competition in the business environment of Hong Kong, customer satisfaction is a critical success factor for servicing industries. This factor is especially important in the rapidly growth of shopping centres. However, there is a lack of in-depth research on the factor structure of customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the shopping behavior of customers and the critical factor affecting their overall satisfaction are still unclear. Without these kinds of information, the operators of the shopping centres may be incapable to satisfy all customers with unique marketing and management programs. As a result, the utilization of resources and the maximization of profit may not be complete. In this research, factors for measuring customer satisfaction are identified. The relationship between the demographic profiles of customers and their decision criteria in centre choice is investigated. The critical factors of overall customer satisfaction are compared across different groups of shoppers. The literatures have been reviewed to identify the factors affecting the customer satisfaction of shoppers in the industry of shopping centre. In order to further investigate the customers' opinions on the factors which will affect their customer satisfaction in the shopping centres, a survey was carried out in the multi-function shopping centers in Hong Kong with a sample size of 300. The shoppers are asked to rank the importance of these factors in affecting their customer satisfaction in these shopping centres. The results indicate that five factors are significant in affecting the customer satisfaction of the shoppers in these two multi-function shopping centres which are "Transportation", "Shopping Center Design, "Management Service", "Promotion Activities" and "Tenant and Trade Mix" as the way affecting the customer satisfaction of the shoppers in the shopping centres."Promotion Activities" is found to be significant in affecting the customer satisfaction of the shoppers in "East Point City" but not in "Park Central". No unilateral conclusion is drawn on their significance in influencing the patronage. This findings imply that "Tenant and Trade Mix" could affect the customer satisfaction of the shoppers in shopping centres in number of ways even though the location of the shopping centre is determined. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

M. Tech. Business Administration / In April 2014, ICASA, South Africa's communications regulator, reduced mobile termination rates (i.e. tariffs mobile service providers can charge for terminating calls on each other's networks) from 40 cents to 20 cents per minute. Furthermore, mobile number portability has enhanced mobility of subscribers across networks. Mobile number portability means that subscribers can switch mobile network service providers without changing their mobile number despite it being issued by the network they are leaving. The price war amongst service providers means that all mobile network operators offer mobile voice calls and access to mobile data at comparable rates. There is now little differentiation between mobile network service providers, and mobile network service providers have to seek other sources of sustainable competitive advantage. It is against this background that the purpose of this research is to measure South African mobile phone consumers' perceptions and expectations of the service provided by mobile network service providers.

Since the birth of a new democracy in the Republic of South Africa in 1994, municipalities across the country have embarked on several service-oriented programmes primarily to improve the quality of life of ordinary citizens within their areas of jurisdiction. Subsequently, these programmes which include Land Use Management System (LUMS), Integrated Development Planning (IDP), Integrated Sustainable Rural Development, Local Economic Development (LED), Urban Renewal Strategy, Property Rate Implementation and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) have been tailored to fast track service delivery in municipalities by building capacity and promoting small, medium and micro enterprises in local communities as a means of alleviating poverty (Local Government Programmes, 2004, paragraph 4). In order to speed up the development planning processes in the Province with regards to Integrated Development Planning, Spatial Development Framework and Land Use Management, Integrated Sustainable Rural Development, Local Economic Development (LED) and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), it has been identified that local authorities require a GIS application to integrate spatially related municipal information with other business information (Sarkar, 2004, paragraph 1). In view of this, the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs (DLGTA) has for the past six years, provided financial and technical support to the ten (10) District Municipalities and about thirty (30) Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal to facilitate the establishment of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in these municipalities (DLGTA Municipal GIS Capacity Building Manual, 2004). It is further noted that although a substantial amount of grant funding and technical support has been provided to the 10 District Municipalities and thirty Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, the full utilization of GIS as a decision-making support tool has not, as yet, been realised in some of these municipalities. This scenario thus calls for the need to ascertain municipalities' expectation and perception of the quality of GIS support services rendered to them by the Department and also to measure the gap thereof. To do so, the researcher employed SERVQUAL scale methodology to measure the service quality gap between municipalities' expectation and perception of the quality of GIS support services. A selfadministered questionnaire, which covers the five (5) dimensions of service quality, namely; tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, was compiled and forwarded to the 10 District municipalities and 20 Local Municipalities in the Province to complete and return to the researcher within a specified time period. Fourteen (14) of the thirty (30) questionnaires sent out to these municipalities were returned to the researcher. The data was then analysed and conclusions were drawn. The research discovered that responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangible dimensions are significant to municipalities in that they all had average expectation statement scores above 6 on the Likert 7-point scale. This means that respondents strongly agree to the expectation statements relating to these dimensions. On the other hand, the average expectation statement score relating to reliability dimension is below 6. The research result has shown that DLGTA is perceived by municipalities for rendering a desirable level of services to municipalities with respect to aspects relating to reliability, assurance, empathy and tangible dimensions. However, DLGTA seems not to provide prompt service to most of these municipalities and not showing signs of readiness to respond to their requests on GIS matters. It is also noted that there is a wide gap between municipalities' perception and expectation for responsiveness (-1.19), empathy (-0.90) and assurance (-0.98), and this seems to confirm the view that responsiveness and assurance dimensions are the most significant variables out of the five determinants of service quality, and thus require service improvement attention. The outcome of the survey reflects that the GIS concept is relatively new to some of these municipalities, and thus municipal officials want to feel safe in their transactions with DLGTA on GIS matters. As a result, they expect DLGTA officials to attend to them promptly and must have the knowledge to answer their GIS related questions. They strongly require DLGTA staff to give them individual attention and possibly have their best interest at heart. In this study, the responsiveness dimension is classified as having a poor service quality whiles the reliability dimension (with a narrow gap) has the superior service quality. To minimise or eliminate these gaps, it has been mentioned that DLGTA should be guided by the eight principles of Batho Pele which seem to take care of the key requirements of the five service quality dimensions as discussed in this dissertation. Based on this outcome, recommendations were made and a future research proposal outlined. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.