Thesis (M.Sc.)(Consumer Science)--Universiteit van Pretoria, 2006. / Includes summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Prepared in association with the Sloan School of Management and the Dept. of Economics / National Science Foundation Grant no. SIA75-00739, Grant no. SIA74-22773 and U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration Contract no. E(11-1)-3070

Prepared in association with the Sloan School of Management and the Dept. of Economics

This paper represents a collective effort by the Supply Analysis Group of the M.I.T. World Oil Project which is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant no. SIA75-00739. / U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant no. SIA75-00739.

This paper represents a collective effort by the Supply Analysis Group of the M.I.T. World Oil Project and was partly supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant no. SIA75-00739. / U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant no. SIA75-00739.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-233). Also available via the Internet.

The evaluation and understanding of customers’ service quality perception has been a topic of major interest for academics and practitioners since the 1980s. Despite this intense research focus, there is a gap in understanding service quality in multichannel settings. This is surprising, since multichannel service systems have become increasingly important with the rise of E-commerce. The overall aim of this study, therefore, is to contribute to the interpretation of multichannel service quality by explaining it from the perspective of so-called ‘multichannel customers’. The study looks at interactions when purchasing a fashion product at a multichannel retailer with the aim of conceptualising service quality in a multichannel fashion retail context. Therefore, the study considers extant service quality research from traditional, electronic, and multichannel settings. The perspective of the current study is different from mainstream positivist service quality research, which sees service quality as static, objectively measurable and dualistic. This study, however, acknowledges service quality as a dynamic, subjective and pluralistic phenomenon. Following this line of argument, the study postulates the existence of multiple realities as consistent with social constructivism. Therefore, the current study investigates the service quality perceptions of experienced multichannel customers. Perceptions are considered to be the meaning that these customers give to their service experiences. The current study indicates that the customers’ perceptions of service quality in multichannel settings imply some fundamental uniqueness. This study proposes a holistic conceptualisation of multichannel customers’ service quality perception by considering (1) the heterogeneity of multichannel customers and (2) all moments of contact between customer and retailer. The proposed framework contributes to research about service quality with a theoretical interpretation of the phenomenon.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This study selects two segments of American society, church and labor, within which to examine official pronouncements of specific agencies for the purpose of setting forth the image of labor organization contained therein. The study seeks to contribute to the understanding of the nature of labor organization by examining the image of organized labor held by national levels of church and labor organizations, and to test the hypothesis that the disparaties in image between church and labor groups has led to ambiguity in the church-labor relationship and to confusion with respect to church strategy concerning labor organization. The source material for this study is made up of the official pronouncements of the selected groups consisting of the national agencies of the American Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Within each group the study is confined to the highest level of national organization and the verbalizations which issue from that source. The method used in handling the data represents a median between statistical procedures of content analysis and purely qualitative procedures. The investigation is set forth in the form of a preliminary historical survey of labor organization in America and is followed by an analysis of the pronouncements of the agencies selected for study. The images of labor organization which emerge from this study can be summarized as follows: 1) The A. F. of L. sees itself during this period as the defender of the kind of labor organization that protects the basic economic welfare of the workingman by preserving his "freedom" to bargain collectively with the employer without government intervention. Laissez-faire collective bargaining is looked upon as the crucial means by which greater material prosperity can be won and is often identified with the essence of "freedom" itself. 2) The C. I. 0. image of itself relates labor organization more positively to government and shows less tendency to worry about government intervention. C. I. O. pronouncements emphasize collective bargaining as an obligation as well as a right and see it as a contribution to industrial democracy and democracy in general. 3) The image of labor organization revealed in the major Protestant agency during the period under study reveals an increasing tendency to see labor organizations as "big labor" and coordinate in power with management. 4) The image of labor organization revealed in the pronouncements of the National Catholic Welfare Conference displays a more frankly sympathetic acceptance of labor organizations as they are, with some concrete suggestions as to how they might be improved in line with Catholic social policy. Church policy shows a tendency to react to past forms of labor organization rather than to witness to present forms of labor organization. D1e Industry Council Plan promoted by the Roman Catholic church gives a frame of reference and a goal for Catholic policy not apparent in Protestant statements. The social justice ideals of earlier Protestant efforts served to relate the Protestant churches meaningfully to the emerging "labor movementn in the struggle for "rights," but at the same time unwittingly encouraged a materialism within labor organization. The pronouncements of the National Council during the ten year period following the close of World War II fail to disclose either a comparable crusade for the goals of organized labor or a comprehensive framework for the understanding of the nature and role of labor organization. It would seem that both the idea of "community" and the Protestant idea of the "calling" might serve as possible starting points for the development of a meaningful Protestant witness to organized labor.

The modern automobile industry faces an increasing demand on personalized high quality products. In order to stay competitive the automobile manufacturers have to ensure the customers high quality demands. With the increasing amount of applied parts and components manufacturing processes are becoming more complex. The recent quality assurance of the manufacturers considers only the product quality. Furthermore are with the recent quality assurance methods only punctual integrations of quality assurance tools in production chains possible. These limitations cause a large quality control loop. This leads in case of defective parts to an enormous time and money effort to track the cause for the defect. This project presents an innovative measurement strategy of quality assurance within the modern automobile production which will minimize the control loop and identify the tool causing the defect in the part. It highlights the possibility to integrate equipment for quality assurance directly into the production cell itself and analyse the geometrical conditions within the manufacturing processes. The result of this thesis is a fully automated prototype which is installed into the actual production of the Volkswagen Golf assembly. The prototype system consists on the one hand out of different on the market free available hardware and software components. On the other hand there are specifically for this prototype developed hardware components and software tools. For the first time it is possible to inspect the geometrical conditions of one tool continuously during production and identify, if occurring, deviations in the tool in position direction and size. The installation of similar systems in the production will minimize the control loops of the production. The chance of early recognition of errors will reduce the efforts and cost of error backtracking. In ideal conditions this instrument will identify defective tools before a product is manufactured. This innovative quality tool is the ideal addition to the current quality assurance and is the first link between the product quality and the geometrical conditions of the tools.

A presente pesquisa tem como objeto de estudo o conceito de Turismo pedagógico, focalizado em relações conceituais que possam emergir da análise desse binômio, tendo em conta particularmente o fato de “Turismo” configurar-se como termo nuclear da expressão. Assim tendo por suposto que, na constituição do binômio, cada um de seus elementos constitutivos encerra amplo e dinâmico espectro conceitual tecido por diferentes vieses teóricos, construídos igualmente em diversos percursos históricos, a investigação busca responder às questões: Na adjetivação do turismo como pedagógico, que concepções de turismo e que pressupostos epistemológico-pedagógicos estariam aí presentes? Essas concepções e esses pressupostos estariam sendo discutidos na literatura científica acessada em cujo foco está o binômio “Turismo pedagógico”? Sob esse prisma, o trabalho tem como objetivo identificar/explicitar configurações conceituais que assume a denominação “Turismo pedagógico” em proposições teóricas ou teórico-práticas presentes (e acessadas) na literatura científica (em que é tematizado o Turismo pedagógico), considerando, de um lado, abordagens conceituais de turismo e, de outro, relações que se estabelecem entre modelos epistemológicos e pedagógicos e, nesse sentido, proporcionar uma sistematização, no recorte temporal e bibliográfico metodologicamente estabelecido, da produção, no Brasil, do conhecimento a respeito – ou, mais especificamente, uma visão analítico-conceitual do entendimento que estudiosos do turismo mostram ter acerca do tema. De caráter qualitativo e de cunho exploratório bibliográfico, a pesquisa, mediante uma abordagem hermenêutica e recortes metodológicos operacionais, analisa doze artigos publicados no arco temporal de 2005 a 2012, em periódicos científicos brasileiros e/ou apresentados em eventos científicos consolidados na área do Turismo, de cujo título consta o binômio “Turismo pedagógico”. A análise realizou-se com base no processo de elaboração de definição, como o apresenta Garcia (2006), segundo o qual essa corresponde a uma proposição predicativa constituída de: Termo (definiendum), Cópula, Gênero (genus) e Diferenças (differentiae). Realizado o processo, chegou-se à formulação de uma definição de Turismo pedagógico para a qual convergiram o conjunto de autorias, a partir do que se procedeu à síntese interpretativa, sendo identificadas configurações conceituais de turismo, como também pressupostos epistemológico-pedagógicos que lhe estariam subjacentes. O estudo levou à proposição de discussão da própria denominação da atividade no âmbito escolar, assim como evidenciou recorrentes “deslizamentos conceituais” na abordagem do binômio, aportando, assim, sinalizadores da importância de que configurações conceituais relativas ao Turismo pedagógico sejam postas em discussão, principalmente face à constatação da permanência, ao longo do tempo, de concepções teóricas acompanhadas de algumas incongruências em relação às suas bases epistemológico-pedagógicas e aos vínculos estabelecidos com a prática escolar. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2014-11-18T15:28:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Francielle de Lima.pdf: 7847818 bytes, checksum: 7ffa92e986096a4ba4afe0b2e3be3de4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-18T15:28:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Francielle de Lima.pdf: 7847818 bytes, checksum: 7ffa92e986096a4ba4afe0b2e3be3de4 (MD5) / Universidade de Caxias do Sul / The aim of this work is to study the concept of pedagogic Tourism, focusing on conceptual relations that may arise from the analysis of this combination, considering the term “Tourism” as the nuclear one of the expression. Thus, supposing that in the constitution of this binomial, each of its constitutive elements contains a wide and dynamic conceptual spectrum, woven by different theoretical biases, which were built in diverse historical contexts, the research aims at answering the following questions: Which would be the concepts of tourism, and the epistemological-pedagogical presuppositions contained in the adjective “pedagogic”? Would these concepts and presuppositions be discussed on scientific literature with focus on “pedagogic Tourism”? From this viewpoint, this work has the aim of identifying/explaining conceptual configurations of the expression “pedagogic Tourism” in theoretical or theoretical-practical assumptions which are present (and accessed) in scientific literature (in which pedagogic Tourism is studied), considering, on one hand,conceptual approaches of tourism, and, on the other hand, relations which are established between epistemological and pedagogical models. In this sense, systematization will be provided, in time and bibliography, considering methodology of production in Brazil, as well as knowledge about it – or, more specifically, an analytical-conceptual vision of those who study tourism. This qualitative and bibliographic explorative research analyzes, through an hermeneutical approach and methodological operational cuts, twelve articles published between the years of 2005 and 2012, in scientific Brazilian journals and/or those which were presented in scientific events consolidated in the area of Tourism, in which title appears the expression “pedagogic Tourism”. This analysis was done based on the process of elaboration of a definition, as Garcia (2006) presents it. According to it, this is a predicative proposition composed of: Term (definiendum), Copula, Gender (genus), and Differences (differentiae). After the process was followed, it was arrived to a definition of pedagogical Tourism, to which a number of authors converged. From this, it was done an interpretative synthesis, identifying conceptual configurations of tourism, as well as pedagogical-epistemological assumptions which would be adjacent to them. This study led to the discussion of the name of the activity at school. It also evidenced repeated “conceptual errors” in this combination’s approach. This leads to signs of the importance of discussing conceptual configurations related to pedagogical Tourism, mainly those which remain in time, as well as theoretical conceptions followed by some incongruence related to their epistemological-pedagogical bases, and links established by school practice.