Background: In the last decade, digitalisation and globalisation have intensified competition and customer power, making price and quality minimum requirements rather than differentiators. As a result, branding has become crucial in the B2B context for creating competitive advantage and customer loyalty. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the role of branding in a B2B service purchasing decision. More specifically, the research will focus on how buyers of services perceive that they are influenced by the brand when selecting a service provider. Method: A cross-sectional single case study was conducted on the recruitment agency Poolia. Semi-structured interviews with seven customers, two pilot interviews, and one interview with a case representative was the source of the collection of the primary data. A thematic analysis with an inductive approach was used for analysing and collecting data. The analysis focused on identifying relevant themes in the data and resulted in the creation of a conceptual model. Conclusion: It can be concluded from the findings that B2B purchase of a service lacks a defined process due to the highly interactive nature of the environment. Further, it could be seen that service brands have a significant impact on the purchasing decision and that the extent to which branding impacts varies depending on the level of relationship between the entities. Factors of branding were discovered to impact different parts of the purchasing process.

The emergence of new digital financial technologies such as Blockchain technology,  has brought about new challenges and disruptions to the financial service industry. Despite its transformative potential, the problem is that its adoption has been hesitant and sporadic. The perception of blockchain technology plays a crucial role in its potential adoption within the financial service industry. Thus, this thesis delves deeper into these perceptions by employing a qualitative research approach influenced by the Technology Organization Environment (TOE) Model. Multiple interviews were conducted with industry experts in the financial service industry to gather a variety of viewpoints. While the views on specific characteristics of blockchain technology differed among the participants, there was a general view on the positive future possibilities of the technology. An understanding of the perception of blockchain technology was established, where the perception was a mix of optimism and caution. Despite the varied opinions, the study’s conclusion is that blockchain technology has a promising future within the financial service industry. However, the shape and form of its integration within companies is a subject of debate. The paper suggests that to fully harness BT’s potential, financial institutions should take a more proactive approach to adoption where they seek to understand and perceive blockchain technology for what it is without overvaluing the negative stigma that currently revolves around the technology.

by Chow Yiu-tong, Fong Cheung-hoo. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 182-185.

近年來，服務業佔據台灣的 GDP 比例已超過一半以上，成為支撐台灣經濟的重要支柱。隨著服務業競爭越來越激烈，許多企業尋求提高顧客忠誠度以創造並維持其競爭優勢。 從 20 世紀末開始，許多針對轉換成本的研究都證明了轉換成本是影響顧客忠誠度的重要原因之一，轉換成本可分為主構陎和次構陎，主構陎分別是程序性轉換成本、財務類轉換成本與關係類轉換成本，而主構陎之下又可分為八個次構陎。在提高顧客忠誠度上，此八個次構陎可歸納為正向轉換成本與負向轉向成本，而這兩種轉換成本又分別影響著組成顧客忠誠度中不同的因子。本研究運用轉換成本與顧客忠誠度作為研究框架，並選定台灣服務業中具有代表性的企業作為研究對象，透過文獻、深度訪談、線上資料收集等方式收集資料，整理出個案公司執行轉換成本的方式後，透過檢視其執行方法提出參考建議以提高顧客忠誠度。 本研究訪談來自零售業與餐飲業的三家台灣本土龍頭企業，透過訪談了解企業在轉換成本上的實務做法，並經由受訪者了解受訪企業顧客在再購意願、主動推薦和價格容忍度上相較於競爭對手的比較。 在分析企業的轉換成本執行與其顧客忠誠度以後，本研究發現，個案企業在顧客忠誠度上皆有進步的空間。而在影響顧客忠誠度的正負向轉換成本中，個案企業都應以正向轉換成本的執行作為提高顧客忠誠度的方法，因此本研究在給予個案企業的建議上以正向轉換成本為主軸。 最後，本研究也歸納出以下研究發現：1.個案研究企業著重於經濟風險成本的建置 2.個案研究企業認為評估成本非首要考量 3.個案研究企業皆未使用金錢性損失 成本 4.個案研究企業皆認為流動率影響個人關係損失成本的建立 5.關係類轉換成本 與服務-產品連續性有關 6.個案研究企業在三大類轉換成本上皆有著墨。

Background: The importance of brand communities is increasing as managers have understood the benefits such communities which can create competitive advantage. Companies are trying to differentiate from the competitors and customer-based brand equity has been acknowledged as a successful marketing tool. Moreover, the development of social media allowed people from different cultures to come together, interact and share experiences in regards of their favorite brand. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain the effect of relationships on social media based brand communities on customer-based brand equity in the service industry. Methodology: The research proposes a sequential explanatory design which consists of a mixed approach by collecting and analyzing the quantitative data first, followed by the collection and analysis of the qualitative data in the form of interviews based on the quantitative results. Data has been collected from Facebook Groups and Facebook Fan Pages in regards of an airline. Findings: Relationship that customers form with the brand, other customers and the service on social media based brand equity have a positive effect on customer-based brand equity. Furthermore, perceived brand trust represents a significant moderator in this relationship. Additionally, results show that there are differences between different cultures in enhancing brand equity. Keywords: Social Media, Brand Communities, Customer-Based Brand Equity, Service Industry, Perceived Brand Trust, Culture

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 H63 / Master of Science / Horticulture, Forestry, and Recreation Resources

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Computer Science in the School of Computer Science. Faculty of Science November 21, 2016. / There is stiff competition for customers and market share in the South African telecommunications industry amongst the four predominant mobile service providers, namely Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile. The First National Bank (FNB) through one of its entities, FNB Connect, has also joined this intensely competitive environment. These companies face a constant challenge of having to come up with new and innovative ways of attracting new customers and retaining their current ones. Cell C has embarked on a good strategy of claiming solid market share and growing itself against the competition by using the Private Label Promotions (PLP) group, a leading BEE Level 3 company that provides a variety of business solutions, to market GetMore, its value-added service package. A recommender system could be used to suggest and promote the items available in this package to existing and potential clients (users). There are different approaches to recommendation, the most widely used ones being the collaborative and content-based recommendation. The collaborative filtering approach uses the ratings of other users to recommend the items the current (active) user might like. In the content-based approach, items are recommended in terms of their content similarity to items a user has previously liked, or elements that have matched a user’s attributes (features). Hybrid recommendation approaches are used To eliminate the drawbacks individually associated with the CF and CBF approaches and to leverage their advantages. One of the aims of this research was to design and implement a prototype hybrid recommender system that would be used to recommend Cell C’s GetMore package to current and potential subscribers. The system was to implement matrix factorisation (collaborative) and cosine similarity (content-based) techniques. Several experiments were conducted to evaluate its performance and quality. The metrics used included Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC). We expected the proposed hybrid recommender system would leverage the advantages provided by its different components and demonstrate its effectiveness in providing Cell C’s customers with accurate and meaningful recommendations of its GetMore package services. Keywords: Content-based Recommendation, Collaborative Recommendation, Hybrid Recommendation, Cosine Similarity, Matrix Factorisation, Association Rule Mining, J48 Classifier, Decision Table, Naive Bayes, Simple K-means, Expectation Maximization, Farthest First, Predictive Apriori / LG2017

This thesis investigates ego-involvement, a measure focused around the customer satisfaction and service quality assessement concept. It questions whether or not it has the potential to be a better predictor of leisure participation and leisure satisfaction than the measures of service quality that dominate leisure service assessment at present.

隨著資訊科技的發達，加速了各國間的往來機會，除了基於比較利益的觀點促進合作之外，自由貿易的推行往往又因各國或基於國家安全、或保護其國內幼稚產業、或平衡國際收支、或是維護其國家主權，而受到阻礙，因此各種基於政治或經濟目的的合作組織應運而生。而「關稅暨貿易總協定」(GATT)，則以確保關稅談判之成果，並以跨國間合作機構的形象，扮演著衝突的協調角色。 　　由於近年來，中共在國際上刻意孤立台灣，使得台灣和各大工業國幾無任何正式邦交，諮商多靠片面允諾，並造成我國常被要求須遵守GATT的各項規範及協議，但是對於我國業者在國際市場所受到的不公平，或是歧視對待，皆申訴無門。同時，國內許多產業，由於受到政策的保護，一旦面對貿易障礙解除，勢必將面臨進口產品激增及低價傾銷之威脅。此外長期受到政府嚴格管制的金融服務業，更面臨了一場空前的挑戰。因此，如何適時修正不符合GATT的國內法規、如何調整金融服務業發展策略、以及如何運用承諾表的功能以利於我國加入GATT，皆為本研究的研究動機。 　　基於上節研究動機，本論文研究的主要目的如下： 　　1. 探討目前關貿總協（世界貿易組織）及其他相關國際組織對金融服務業有哪些規範。 　　2. 國內現存相關法規對金融服務業之規範以及應如何調整現存政策以符合入關之要求。 　　3. 瞭解目前國內金融服務業的現況以及在調整的過程中，會對國內金融服務業產生何種代價及帶來哪些效益。 　　4. 針對國內金融服務業，詢問對國內修改的法規有何看法、要如何去調整現存的政策，及因應這股巨大的國際化、自由化的趨勢。 　　本研究方法採文獻探討、問卷調查及實地訪談三部分，研究對象為金融服務業，包括了銀行、證券及保險三個次業別。使用統計檢定方法，檢定金融服務業對各開放措施的態度，在不同公司特性上、次業別上是否有無顯著差異；金融服務業對各因應措施的平均重視程度，在不同公司特性上、次業別上是否有無顯著差異；以及國外、國內業者對各開放措施的態度和因應措施的平均重視程度上、是否有無顯著差異。 　　經由本研究結果分析，獲得以下主要八點結論： 　　1. 銀行、證券及保險業對共同五項的開放措施都有相近的看法。 　　2. 三業別平均而言，給予重要性在4.5以上的因應措施有：加強人員專業訓練、服務品質及加強資產負債管理。 　　3. 認為比較不重要的因應措施為：利用增資、購併，朝向多功能企業發展、增設海外據點，以及參照他國先例，加強與主管機關聯繫。 　　4. 三業別中，具統計顯著差異的為建立企業新形象：保險業對於建立新形象，普遍遠高於銀行及證券業。 　　5. 就國內及國外業者統計分析中，有顯著差異的為國外業者較重視「加強資產負債管理」之因應措施。 　　6. 在銀行業的開放措施申，對開放OBU吸收境內外匯存款，贊成比率佔七成以上；對開放基層機構強制性轉存款等措施，有九成贊成比率；開放銀行國外負債餘額及外匯買賣超部位限制，約有六成多贊成；而開放非銀行之金融服務公司之設立：有六成以上是持反對意見；開放OBU之設立及業務限制：有85%以上的贊成比率。 　　7. 證券業中，對開放證券商參與期貨業務：贊成者有77%以上；約有六成的比率贊成今年年初外資開放的措施及開放投信基金的投資範圍；對提高國外對國內證券商持股比率；約有九成贊成；引進國外優良企業來台發行有價證券，並上市上櫃：約有85%以上的贊成；開放國外個人及法人直接投資國內證券市場，則約有九成贊成。 　　8. 保險業中，對開放美國以外之保險公司來台設立：約有八成的業者贊成；對開放保險資金運用範圍之限制，則回答者亦有一致贊成的答案；開放其他組織型態之保險公司，約有八成五回答者贊成此措施；降低國外保險業設立標準；約只有23%的業者贊成；設立專屬保險公司並有較低之限制：亦只有過半數的業者贊成，國外業者有較高的贊成比率。統計上有顯著差異者為：成立年數愈少的業者，愈重視其形象。

服務業對我國而言，是一個極為重要的產業，服務業的持續增加，使得服務業對我國的經濟成長有著舉足輕重的影響。然而對我國而言，對服務業國濟化的研究相形之下卻較為稀少，目前大部份的研究都針對製造業所做，所討論的策略及理論大多只適用於製造業。因此本研究的目的就是在於歸納已有之有關進入策略之文獻，建構較完整之服務業進入策略理論模型，並以之驗證於海運業探討其進入策略為何﹔以及就海運業之所採行之策略，分析其背後影響因素以尋求策略上的涵義。研究對象為我國有定期航線的國際輪船公司為主，以郵寄問卷法進行資料的蒐集，並以主成份分析、Logistic迴歸分析、複迴歸分析、t檢定等統計方法進行資料分析。 　　就研究之結果發現，市場大小、文化差距、勞工成本、基礎設施、經驗、快速進入市場等因素較顯著，也就是當地主國基礎設施愈健全、國外經營的經驗愈多、愈穩健成長時，海運公司會採取分公司進入模式進入海外市場。而其他通路狀況、競爭狀況、政府政策、國家風險、公司模式、知識、跟隨顧客等因素則不顯著，在進入國外市場時並不會詳加考慮，並不影響分公司或代理行的選擇，其理由可能在於海運業的特性。研究結果顯示，大多數海運公司認為國內海運市場的大小及全球策略的採用不會影響到國外分公司或國外代理行的選擇。而當對國外分公司的控制程度愈高時，為了成為區域營運中心時，海運公司會傾向成立分公司。而大部份的海運公司都認為設立分公司並不是為了給內部員工的升遷管道。 　　本研究的建議為，在政府暢導「亞太營運中心」的今天，如何將各公司的營運中心留在台灣成為極重要的一件事，而海運業又是在「亞太營運中心」中極為重要的角色。而海運公司在國外設立分公司一部分理由是為了成立區域營運中心，因此如何使其他國家的海運公司在我國設立分公司。做為亞太地區的營運中心，是政府必須要努力的。由於市場的大小和分公司的設立有密切關係，如果政府能有效規畫境外航運中心，或開放和中國大陸直接通航，使台灣能夠能直接接觸中國大陸的業務，則能夠使台灣變成重要的轉運港，而使得業務量增加，吸引國外海運公司來台設立分公司。而基礎設施良善與否亦會影響國外海運公司設立分公司的意願，因此政府必須致力於改善國內的各項基礎設施，如交通建設、港埠設備、通關流程及基本資訊建設等，才能有效地吸引分公司的設立。而是否獎勵外國輪船公司來台設營運中心，由分析結果顯示，亦無太大效果，重要的是要有龐大的業務量才能有效吸引海運業者來台設立營運中心。