This study develops quality evaluation criteria that consider both service provider satisfaction and patient perspective in assessing e-Health services; additionally, it evaluates the impact of these criteria on the performance of e-Health services. Utilizing data from the Tele Care Center in National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), one of the largest hospitals in Taiwan, this research framework extends the service-profit chain by integrating service triangle concept and emphasizing the relationships among three stakeholders: the firm, the customer, and the employee. The results suggest that the positive relationships among hospital’s business value, physicians’ value, and patients’ value can contribute to customer retention. In sum, this study expects to contribute to literature by providing an e-Health service performance assessment framework, which systematically develops a scale to evaluate e-Health service quality that concerns multiple stakeholders’ perspectives.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate key success factors of a business model for digitally enhanced and demand driven manufacturing of personalised apparel products. Through the investigation of a questionnaire and two focus group discussions the research outlines the co-creation of customers and the company when personalising an apparel productafter individual requests. Furthermore, it examines the relationship and impacts of service experiences towards the customer journey of value-adding personalisation. Methodology: This study is based on a mixed-method design. The empirical data weregathered through an online questionnaire, which reached out to 183 participants. Furthermore, the data were collected from two focus group discussions with seven students in total. The  discussions were transcribed, coded and analysed using a comparative analysis approach. The main limitations of the research are the limited amount of questionnaire participants and focus groups as well as the focus on personalisation services regarding apparel products. Findings: The findings of the analysis point out that in order to establish a beneficial demand driven business model for the personalisation of apparel products, a company has to adopt factors such as raising awareness, ensure value-adding integration, ideal information sharing, straightforward operation, incorporate customer’s knowledge, customer satisfaction, enablevaluable personalisation as well as consider customer’s emotion. Additionally, the results illustrate that service experiences have an impact on the customer journey of a personalisation. Contribution: This paper contributes to the academia by investigating a framework for ther elationship between a customer journey and the service experiences while co-designing a product with a company. Practical contributions are made by investigating key success factors for digitally enhanced, demand driven manufacturing of personalised apparel products and by giving new insights in the integration of customers when using the service of personalisation. The generated framework and the key success factors can be principle guidelines for entrepreneurs and established businesses as well as for future investigations.

Effective and reliable delivery of services provides long-term performance to an organization. Inorder to create effective and reliable deliveries, activities that do not create value for the customer,namely the wastes, need to be reduced or eliminated. Value Stream mapping is a Leanmanagement tool that aims to clean processes from the wastes. With this as a starting point, studieshave previously been conducted to customize the tool for use on service processes. The studyresulted in Service value stream management, a model implemented in six steps. When the modelis applied in service processes, there is a wide variety of problems that may occur, it is therefore considered not possible to collect all problems in order to provide suggestions for improvements. This study aims to investigate whether the tool can be modified to better suit an internal serviceprocess in the pulp and paper industry. The literature review that has been conducted, revealedthat the existing model does not contain certain, according to the theory, important elementsadapted for Lean service. Beside the waste and tools that the model already consists of, fourrelevant wastes and twelve tools were found during the literature review. Other interestingcomponents that emerged through the literature review, were the views of what an organizationshould learn about and how successes should be measured. In order to fulfill the purpose of ourstudy, the Lean tool Service value stream management, was tested with the additions found duringthe literature review. The test was conducted at an internal service process at a case company tosee if there is evidence to add or remove some of the new wastes, tools or components to themodel. At the case company, data was collected through interviews and observations as well asthrough a survey. The study resulted in the 5K-model which consists five steps to eliminate andreduce wastes. With this model, organizations in the pulp and paper industry should be able tocreate higher efficiency in their internal service processes. To visualize and measure efficiency, amathematical formula was developed that could be considered useful even outside the 5K model.

In der vorliegenden Masterarbeit wird die Thematik eines Service-Level-Modells für das Kunden-Reporting eines hochtechnologisierten Unternehmens analysiert. Die stetig kürzer werdenden Technologiezyklen, der zunehmende Druck von anderen Wettbewerbern sowie die Flut an aufkommenden Kleinkunden, durch Technologien des Internet der Dinge, verlangen nach einer konsequenten Report-Standardisierung. Aufgrund der unterschiedlichen Ansätze im Kunden-Reporting des Unternehmens wurde untersucht, inwiefern die Erfahrungen mit Großkunden auf Kleinkunden nachhaltig und zielgerichtet adaptiert werden können. Die Analyse der theoretischen Grundlagen unterstreicht die Relevanz dieser Thematik und verdeutlicht die Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen dem unternehmensinternen Management-Reporting sowie dem Reporting für B2B-Kunden. Im Anschluss daran erfolgt eine Bestandsaufnahme des Customer-Reportings in Bezug auf das Foundry-Unternehmen. Dabei wurden alle kundenrelevanten Berichte der Fachabteilungen begutachtet. Im Nachgang dazu konnten entsprechende Optimierungsansätze herausgearbeitet sowie ein nachhaltiges Reporting-Konzept für Kleinkunden aufgezeigt werden. Das erarbeitete Konzept soll zukünftig seitens der Foundry als Grundlage für aufkommende Neukunden mit niedrigem Produkt-Volumina dienen. Betrachtet man nun das Resultat dieser Untersuchung bleibt festzuhalten, dass durch dieses Instrument dem Effekt der Informationsüberflutung auf Kundenseite deutlich entgegengewirkt wird. Überdies wird erreicht, dass auf Seiten der Foundry sowie dem B2B-Kunden ein homogenes Verständnis, in Bezug auf die technischen Inhalte, generiert wird. Insgesamt betrachtet, liefert diese Arbeit einen wertvollen Beitrag zum Thema Customer-Reporting im hochtechnologisierten Umfeld. Man kann daher den Schluss ziehen, dass es gelingen kann, den vielfältigen Anforderungen der aufkommenden Kleinkunden mit einem generellen Reporting-Standard zu begegnen.

The objectives of this research are to explore the relationships among service chains of electronic government services. This research proposes models (1) to explore the linkages among internal marketing, internal service quality, and internal customer satisfaction in electronic government services, i.e. the internal service chain; (2) to explore the linkage between external service quality and external customer satisfaction, i.e. the external service chain; and (3) to employ the concept of the service profit chain model and the public sector service value chain model to explore the linkage between internal and external service chains. Two kinds of surveys, employee and citizen surveys, were conducted to collect data for this research on two cases including the Kaohsiung Citizen Electronic Complaint System and the National Science and Technology Museum Collection Management System. Internal and external customer data was matched through individual-level instead of group-level used in most studies. Structural equation modeling and Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis were used to test proposed models. The research results support the proposed hypotheses, including (1) internal marketing positively influences internal service quality; (2) internal marketing positively influences internal customer satisfaction; (3) internal service quality has positive influence on internal customer satisfaction; (4) external customer satisfaction is influenced by external service quality; with the exception of (5) the relationship between internal customer satisfaction and external service quality receiving no significant support. Managerial implications are presented for public managers to better serve internal and external customers. Further studies are encouraged to include service-specific variables and technology-specific variables to examine the internal-external link of customer perceptions.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3614.pdf: 4128707 bytes, checksum: e5c053faca805f08c256f5c1086ad0f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-12 / Value creation for society and gains in efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness has been reason of concerning in public sector. Based on a broad literature about service operations management, service value and public service value, this thesis has taken for granted that to know the value which a service must deliver to its main stakeholders is prior to organize it. According to literature, value might be created since designing public institutions until managing them. To integrate the different perspectives, it was used an approach that evaluates service value creation from the consequences on to its customers and the necessary resources to deliver them. These consequences were analyzed under four dimensions: utility, justice, solidarity, and aesthetic. Recourses analyzed were competences and technology. Thus, this thesis s purpose was to define the value of Forensic Science Service (FSS) to its main stakeholders. The specific objectives, which generated propositions, were: to find out the role played by FSS in its interorganizational network, to find out the main FSS characteristics, to identify critical factors for value delivery, and to propose some guides to design FSS. To achieve these objectives, a five-year qualitative, longitudinal and exploratory case study was carried out in a FSS federation unity. Subsidiary information was collected in six other FSS. Data also were collected from FSS stakeholders, using multiple methods. Results were analyzed and criticized based on theory. The findings showed that FSS takes part in a Public Safety and Criminal Justice interorganizational network and provide it with a service: the production of forensic evidence. FSS operations present exams variety, process variability, layout by fixed position in front office, and stakeholders diversity. FSS association with science highlights its intangibility. FSS utility dimension is to link the suspect to crime scene (or innocent someone wrongly accused) using science and technology, that is, it helps to build a narrative, in which defendants behaviors are trialed according to the law. There are obstacles on delivering this value dimension, like miscoordination among network members on crime scene preservation, for instance. The justice dimension assumes that every citizen must have access to FSS, independent of any pre-existing condition. Although, FSS hasn t been universalized yet. The solidarity dimension has a deeply conexion with Human Rights, both in avoiding constraining suspects during criminal investigations, and contributing to fair trials, in the sense that either prosecution or defense have access to the service in equal terms. However, FSS subordination to the Police jeopardizes its impartiality. The aesthetic dimension consists on helping Police solve crimes without constraining suspects. Besides the technical competence, FSS personnel need a communicational competence to a full client s knowledge. The technological resources are part of production process and critical for value delivery. Concluding, FSS should be redesigned as an independent agency in order to increase Criminal Justice impartiality. Finally, the study encourages reflections about the difficulties of applying service operations management concepts to a public organization that is changing, and it´s characterized by the diversity of stakeholders and by its fluid and poorly defined, although important value. / A criação de valor para a sociedade e ganhos em eficiência, eficácia e efetividade são motivos de preocupação no setor público. Baseada em uma ampla literatura sobre gestão de operações de serviços e valor de serviço, incluindo serviços públicos, esta tese partiu do pressuposto de que saber o valor de um serviço para os seus principais stakeholders é prioritário para organizá-lo. Segundo a literatura, valor pode ser criado desde o desenho até a gestão de instituições. Para integrar as perspectivas, abordou-se a criação de valor a partir das consequências para os destinatários do serviço e dos recursos necessários para produzi-las. Estas consequências são analisadas sob quatro dimensões: utilidade, justiça, solidariedade e estética. E os recursos analisados foram competências e tecnologias. Assim, o propósito dessa tese foi definir o valor do serviço de perícia criminal para os seus principais stakeholders. Os objetivos específicos, que geraram proposições, foram: investigar o papel desempenhado pelo serviço em sua rede interorganizacional; abordar suas principais características; identificar fatores críticos para a entrega de valor e propor algumas diretrizes a fim de projetar o serviço. Com o propósito de atingir esses objetivos, um estudo de caso qualitativo, exploratório e longitudinal de cinco anos foi realizado em um órgão pericial. Subsidiariamente, coletaram-se informações em seis outros órgãos periciais. Foram coletados, também, dados de stakeholders do serviço, utilizando-se múltiplos métodos. Os resultados foram analisados e discutidos com base na teoria. Esses resultados mostraram que a perícia criminal integra uma rede interorganizacional de segurança pública e justiça criminal e produz um serviço: a prova pericial. O serviço apresenta variedade de exames, variabilidade de processos, arranjo posicional na linha de frente e diversidade de stakeholders. A associação entre o serviço e a ciência realça sua intangibilidade. A dimensão de utilidade do serviço é vincular o suspeito ao local do crime (ou inocentar alguém erroneamente acusado), utilizando a ciência e a tecnologia, ou seja, auxiliar a construção de uma narrativa, para que as condutas dos réus sejam julgadas de acordo com a lei. Há obstáculos na entrega desta dimensão, como, por exemplo, as dificuldades de coordenação entre os atores da rede na preservação do local de crime. A dimensão de justiça presume que todo cidadão tenha acesso ao serviço, independente de qualquer condição pré-existente. Entretanto, este acesso ainda não foi universalizado. A dimensão de solidariedade tem relação profunda com os Direitos Humanos, tanto para evitar que suspeitos sofram constrangimentos durante investigações criminais, quanto contribuindo para julgamentos justos, de forma que acusação e defesa tenham igual acesso ao serviço. Porém, a subordinação do serviço a Polícia compromete sua imparcialidade. A dimensão estética consiste em auxiliar a Polícia a desvendar crimes sem constranger suspeitos. Além da competência técnica, os peritos precisam ter competências comunicativas, para conhecerem os clientes. Os recursos tecnológicos são parte do processo de produção do serviço e críticos para a entrega de valor. Concluindo, o serviço de perícia criminal deveria ser redesenhado institucionalmente como um órgão independente, para incrementar a imparcialidade da Justiça. Finalmente, o estudo encoraja reflexões sobre as dificuldades em aplicar os conceitos de gestão de operações a um serviço público em mudança, que é caracterizado pela diversidade de stakeholders e por seu valor fluido e pouco definido, porém relevante.

[pt] Com a modificação estrutural do setor de produção, transmissão e distribuição de energia elétrica em vários países do mundo, inclusive no Brasil, serviços caracterizados como ancilares, que sempre foram oferecidos de forma integrada com o fornecimento de energia elétrica, sem que fossem remunerados especificamente, devem hoje ser tratados e remunerados de forma independente. A necessidade de otimizar custos, em função dos novos ambientes comerciais, muitas vezes competitivos, tem feito com que os agentes geradores vejam o fornecimento de reserva de potência operativa e a regulação de freqüência como novas oportunidades de prestação de serviços. Com isto, novos custos e responsabilidades foram criadas, o que reforça a necessidade de remuneração desses serviços ancilares. Devem-se valorizar os benefícios por eles agregados ao sistema elétrico, representados pelo aumento da confiabilidade e da qualidade da energia. Assim, questões que merecem ser tratadas cuidadosamente são a determinação dos preços a serem pagos pelos consumidores pelos serviços, a determinação correta da participação de cada agente e a necessidade de mecanismos justos de distribuição dos recursos financeiros recebidos por estes serviços entre os agentes que realmente os forneceram. Neste trabalho desenvolve-se uma estrutura de remuneração dos serviços de reservas operativas e regulação de freqüência, baseada no benefício por eles determinado, premiando-se a eficiência e permitindo-se a recuperação dos custos incorridos. Através de estudos de casos com dados reais verifica-se a consistência da proposta de remuneração, comparando os seus resultados com valores já praticados, e analisando o seu impacto sobre as atuais tarifas de energia elétrica. / [en] Nowadays, with the structural modification of the electric energy industry around the world, including in Brazil, services characterised as ancillary, that always were offered bundled with energy supply, without specific remuneration, should be dealt with independently. The need for cost optimisation, caused by the new commercial environment, sometimes competitive, has made the generating agents to understand operating reserves and frequency regulation as a new opportunity of providing services. Furthermore, new costs and obligations have been created, thus reinforcing the need for these ancillary services to be remunerated. It is necessary to recognise the benefits aggregated to the electric system by ancillary services, represented by improvement of reliability and energy quality. In this way, issues that deserve to be carefully treated are i) the prices to be paid by consumers, ii) the participation of each agent that really provided the service, and iii) the fairness of the mechanism for distribution of the financial resources among the providers. In this work it is developed a structure for the remuneration of operating reserves and frequency regulation, based on the benefit of this services, awarding efficiency and allowing the recuperation of incurred costs. Through study-cases with actual data, it is verified the consistency of the proposal, by comparing its results with values in practice, and by analysing its impact over current electric energy tariffs.

The thesis introduces a framework for analysing market monitoring and surveillance systems in order to provide a common foundation for researchers and practitioners to specify, design, implement, compare and evaluate such systems. The proposed framework serves as a reference map for researchers and practitioners to position their work in the context of market monitoring and surveillance, resulting in a useful instrument for the analysis, testing and management of such systems. More specifically, the thesis examines the new requirements for the operation of financial markets, the role of technologies, the recent consultations on the structure and governance of EU and US markets, as well as, future usage scenarios and emerging technologies. It examines the context in which market monitoring and market surveillance systems are currently been used. It reports on their processes, performance, and on the organisational and regulatory environments in which they exist. Furthermore, it develops a set of taxonomies which cover the majority of the concepts of market manipulation, market monitoring, market surveillance, entities, technologies and actors that are relevant for the work in this thesis. Building on the gaps and limitations of the current systems, it proposes a new framework following the Design Science methodology. The usefulness of the framework is evaluated through four critical case studies, which not only help to understand with practical exercises the way how markets monitoring and surveillance systems work, but also to investigate their weaknesses, potential evolution and ways to improve them. For each case study, the thesis develops a fully working prototype tested using a sample prosecution case and evaluated in terms of the appropriateness and suitability of the proposed framework. Finally, implications relating to policies, procedures and future market structures are discussed followed by suggestions for future research.

One of the single biggest challenges for start-ups is to find the necessary funding to achieve growth. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies are no different and rely on seed stage investments to build and develop a service in order to acquire paying customers. Given the need of external investments, SaaS companies heavily depend on their valuation for each given investor. The purpose of this study was to investigate the main value determinants for seed stage SaaS company valuations. Hence, the research question at issue was “What are the main value determinants for seed stage SaaS company valuations?”. This study was delimited to seed stage SaaS companies with a business to business (B2B) service offering in Sweden. This qualitative research was carried out through semi-structured in-depth interviews with seed stage SaaS B2B founders and investors operating in Sweden. The primary results of the qualitative research show that the main value determinants can be divided into three main factors. Firstly, external factors, such as the region, industry, and market that the company is operating within. Secondly, company factors include team and founder characteristics, firm characteristics, SaaS metrics and financials, and partnership and alliances. Thirdly, investor factors, including investor type as well as reputation and value-add. Following the findings, similarities and differences with literature were discussed. Based on the results, a revised framework including the main value determinants for seed stage SaaS company valuation was developed. The conclusion of this study is that seed stage SaaS company valuations vary among investor types. The valuation tends to not be bound to a specific valuation method, but rather a process where an overall evaluation is made from a set of criteria, which leads up to the valuation process where the final valuation is set. / En av de största utmaningarna för nystartade företag är att genomföra extern kapitalanskaffning för att uppnå tillväxt. Det gäller även för SaaS-företag (Software-as-a-service) vilka är beroende av investeringar i seed stage (fröstadiet) för att bygga upp och utveckla tjänster för att erhålla betalande kunder. Givet behovet av externa investeringar är SaaS-företag starkt beroende av dess värdering från investerare. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna för värdering av SaaS-bolag i seed stage. Forskningsfrågan var således "Vilka är de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna för värderingar av SaaS-företag i seed stage?". Studien avgränsades till SaaS-företag som erbjuder B2B-tjänster i Sverige. Denna kvalitativa studie genomfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med seed stage SaaS B2B-grundare och investerare som är verksamma i Sverige. De övergripande resultaten visar att de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna kan delas in i tre huvudfaktorer: externa faktorer, företagsfaktorer, och investerarfaktorer. Externa faktorer avser region, bransch, och marknad inom vilka företaget är verksamt. Företagsfaktorer inkluderar teamet och grundarnas egenskaper, företagets egenskaper, SaaS-mått och finansiella data, samt partnerskap och allianser. Investerarfaktorer avser typen av investerare samt investerarens rykte och mervärde. Utfallet från intervjuerna jämfördes med resultat från tidigare litteratur. Baserat på intervjuresultaten utvecklades ett reviderat ramverk med de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna för värdering av SaaS-bolag i seed stage. Slutsatsen av denna studie är att värdering av SaaS-företag i seed stage varierar mellan olika investerartyper. Värderingen tenderar att inte vara bunden till en specifik värderingsmetod, utan en process där en övergripande utvärdering görs baserat på en uppsättning av kriterier, vilket resulterar i en slutgiltig värdering.