Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Customary actors'

Dans les chefferies Bamiléké, la patrimonialisation se traduit depuis plusieurs décennies par l'ouverture de musées. Ils ont la particularité de conserver des collections issues des communautés locales qui en sont les détentrices. Les pièces de musée sont sorties régulièrement pour être utilisées dans la vie sociale. Cette mise en scène du patrimoine implique au moins deux groupes d'acteurs : d'une part, les serviteurs royaux en charge de la gestion coutumière, et d'autre part, les employés des institutions muséales. Le statut ambivalent des objets amène à s'interroger sur la pertinence des choix en matière de conservation, dans la mesure où ils sont calqués sur le modèle occidental. S'il est admis que la perception des patrimoines varie d'une culture à l'autre, il est aussi envisageable que les modes de préservation soient pluriels. Partant de l'étude des projets situés, la thèse explore les approches de gestion et de préservation alternatives qui font dialoguer savoirs communautaires et normes de gestion muséale. Les pistes de solutions proposées tiennent compte des réalités locales, des attentes des chefferies et des typologies d'objets à préserver. Cette recherche part de l'hypothèse que toute entreprise muséale prend sens selon le contexte culturel et s'inscrit nécessairement dans une action politique. La thèse défend l'absence d'une muséographie universelle et montre que la préservation et la valorisation du patrimoine dépendent largement de la société dans laquelle elles s'inscrivent
In the Bamileke chiefdoms, the patrimonialization has been translated for severaldecades by the opening of museums. They have the particularity of preserving collectionsfrom the local communities who are the holders. Museum pieces are regularly taken out to be used in social life. This staging of heritage involves at least two groups of actors: on the one hand, the royal servants in charge of customary management, and on the other, the employees of the museum institutions. The ambivalent status of the objects raises questions about the relevance of conservation choices, insofar as they are modelled on the Western model. If it is accepted that the perception of heritage varies from one culture to another, it is also conceivable that the modes of preservation are plural. Based on the study of situated projects, the thesis explores alternative management and preservation approaches that bring together community knowledge and museum management standards. The proposed solutions take intoaccount local realities, chiefdoms' expectations and the types of objects to be preserved. This research is based on the hypothesis that any museum enterprise takes on meaning according to the cultural context and is necessarily part of a political action. The thesis defends the absence of a universal museography and shows that the preservation and valorisation of heritage depend largely on the society in which they are embedded

From the onset of the colonial era, land reform in Solomon Islands has focused on changing customary landholding arrangements so as to improve productivity and stimulate economic growth. Most land in Melanesia remains under customary tenure, which is broadly communal by nature and cannot be alienated without profound social disruption. Customary land, social relations, livelihoods, power structures, knowledge, identity and place are all inter-related in Melanesian life-worlds. This complexity is still poorly understood by those promoting the view that customary land hinders development, and needs to be reformed in order to establish secure property rights and enhance productivity. Land reform has been on the Solomon Islands development agenda for more than a century. Its implementation has always focused on enacting land laws to facilitate the transition of customary land to private property rights regimes. This is founded on a development model based on economic premises that remain largely unchanged since the colonial period. This thesis draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a frame to extend the analysis of land reform in Solomon Islands over a long historical trajectory. Using ANT as a frame in this thesis draws particular attention to the roles and networks of key actors in land reform. Land reform has often been reduced to questions of land registration and land recording. But in Solomon Islands, as elsewhere in Melanesia, the explicit focus in land reform narratives is on ‘unlocking the potential of land held under customary tenure’, because it is assumed that land is ‘locked up’ under custom. Such narratives are part of the global flow of ideas transmitted and translated by key actors. This thesis seeks to provide insights on the role of particular actors and their networks to explain why land reform has been a persistent challenge in Solomon Islands, from 1893 to the present, and how the challenges of land reform might be addressed in a more equitable and effective manner.

Le transport aérien est fondé sur l'utilisation de l'avion pour transporter des passagers entre deux aéroports, et son développement est allé de pair avec l'amélioration continue de l'efficacité et de la sécurité des avions comme moyens de transport. Cependant, si la pandémie liée au COVID-19 nous a appris une leçon, c'est qu'un problème qui touche les passagers du transport aérien peut avoir bien plus de conséquences sur le système dans son ensemble qu'un problème qui concerne les avions. Partant du principe que les passagers sont omniprésents et nécessaires au transport aérien, cette thèse propose de considérer les passagers comme des capteurs du transport aérien, et d'utiliser les données générées par les passagers pour évaluer la performance du transport aérien en quasi temps réel. Ces données générées par les passagers ont également l'avantage d'offrir un moyen d'évaluer les interactions entre les passagers et les autres acteurs du transport aérien, en particulier les aéroports et les compagnies aériennes. Comme le parcours d'un passager commence et se termine au delà des limites d'un aéroport, les données générées par les passagers tout au long de ce parcours peuvent également être utilisées pour évaluer le trajet porte-à-porte complet d'un passager du transport aérien
Air transportation uses planes to transport passengers efficiently between two airports, and its development has been driven by the continuous improvement of planes as a safe and efficient means of transportation. However, if the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the air transportation system one lesson, it's that a problem affecting passengers can be far more detrimental to the air transportation system than a problem affecting planes. Acknowledging the fact that passengers are omnipresent and necessary to the air transportation system, this study proposes to consider passengers as sensors of the air transportation system and harness data generated by passengers to evaluate in near real time the flight-centric metrics traditionally used to evaluate the air transportation system performance. Data generated by passengers have the additional benefit of offering a means of evaluating the interactions between passengers and the other stakeholders of the air transportation system, such as airlines and airports. The journey of a passenger starting and ending beyond the boundaries of airport facilities, the data generated by passengers throughout their journey can also be used to evaluate the full door-to-door journey of a passenger of the air transportation system

In recent years, it has become apparent that the sharing economy has become a major business model that has received considerable attention from scholars in various disciplines, especially marketing. Although previous marketing research has focused mainly on the customer side of the sharing economy, current research is pushing into the platform and business model levels. This upgrading helps researchers study the relationship between customer and service provider and the relationship with the platform in the sharing economy. As the sharing economy is an open business model, customers and service providers enter and exit this platform with a lower level of limitation. Thus, a platform’s long-term success depends on the actor’s (service provider and customer) engagement with the platform. Besides that, the literature on engagement has described the “actor engagement” concept to enable research on study engagement in a triadic context, as found in the sharing economy or B2B business models. While customer engagement is a well-established research area, the notion of actor engagement is new in marketing, especially in the sharing economy, and a lack of empirical research in this area exists. Thus, this research sought to examine the role of actor engagement in the sharing economy and how it can influence platform performance. From a theoretical perspective, these findings provide a better understanding of actor engagement formation process and indicate how customer and service provider engagement with other actors leads to platform sales. From practical implication, it guides service providers and especially platforms to manage actor engagement to enhance their performance effectively. In this regard, four studies were conducted to meet the thesis goal of studying the role of actor engagement on platform performance. The current research used a meta-analysis to review and synthesize findings from customer engagement (first meta-analysis study) and sharing economy literature (second meta-analysis study) to develop a conceptual model of actor engagement formation (first empirical study) and its role on platform performance (second empirical study). The first meta-analysis study presents a comprehensive and generalizable picture of the customer engagement concept. As actor engagement originated from the customer engagement concept, it helps us identify research gaps and develop empirical research frameworks. This study provides a meta-analysis that integrated data of 196 effect sizes of 184 publications with a sample of 146,380. The findings reveal engagement through two pathways: (1) organic as relationship-oriented (perceived quality, perceived value, and relationship quality) and (2) promoted as firm-initiated (functional and experiential initiatives). Moderator analysis indicates that the influence of the two pathways on engagement depends on engagement context (online versus offline), industry and product types (service versus manufacturing and hedonic versus utilitarian, respectively), and cultural context. Findings support an attitudinal engagement–loyalty and behavioral engagement–firm performance linkage. Study results provide new insight into various engagement approaches and their relationships. The authors offer recommendations to help marketers manage their customer engagement process more effectively. In the second meta-analysis, a generalizable picture of the relationship formation process between customer, service provider, and platform is provided. This study integrated 214 effect sizes from 192 studies with 88,154 sample sizes. The findings indicate motivators and inhibitors for individuals to join (not join) a platform as a customer or service provider by influencing their attitudinal and behavioral responses to the platform through a two-level relationship quality pathway. Moderator analysis reveals the impact of customer motivators and inhibitors on customer responses to service providers and platforms depending on country-level moderators, such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and cultural context. These results provide insight into relationship formation among actors in the sharing economy. The study also recommends that platform managers manage their users’ relationships more effectively. The first empirical study examined actor engagement formation and its roles in service provider performance. Research data include text and image from Airbnb in seven countries. Text and image mining and machine learning were used to measure research variables after which partial least squares path modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the research model. Results indicate that for the multidimensional actor engagement concept, actor affective engagement showed a greater impact on actor behavioral engagement than cognitive engagement. Also, service providers’ behavioral engagement influences customer engagement behavior and subsequently, service provider performance. Moderator analysis indicates the complex role of service provider age, gender, and cultural value in actor engagement formation in the sharing economy and highlights differences with findings in the business to customer context. Finally, the second empirical research studied the actor engagement formation among customers and service providers on sharing economy platform performance in seven countries. Research data include structured and unstructured data of 159,662 service providers and 2,087,233 customers from Airbnb in seven countries. Text mining and machine learning techniques were used to measure research variables, and multilevel regression was employed to test the research model. Results indicate that efforts to maximize value for money and accuracy of service provider descriptions among service provider engagement behaviours were the main predictor of customer engagement and platform performance. For customer engagement, customer lifetime value and customer referral value (CLV and CRV, respectively) were shown to be among the behaviors that have the highest impact on platform performance. In addition, Airbnb as a genuinely global platform enables the investigation of a range of country-level factors (such as economic, competitiveness, cultural, technological, social, and political factors) on actor engagement, thus providing more comprehensive understanding of this concept from a global perspective. The theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Dept of Marketing
Griffith Business School
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The purpose with this study is to enhance the understanding of how a companies in the ICT industry can increase customer value in the new environment enabled by 5G. Furthermore, the study concretizes the interactions and experiences between different actors on the market, with focus on the subjective values, or as we call them, the non-functional differentiators. To be able to fulfil the purpose, the study explored the routines regarding the non-functional differentiators in the environment of 5G. In order to conduct this study, an exploratory research with an inductive qualitative approach was used. A single case-study design was chosen on the company of Ericsson. In total 25 interviews were held within five different business areas at Ericsson. The interviews were of semi-structured character and the data was analysed through a thematic analysis. The findings from the study revealed five different themes. The first two represent the new ecosystem with the key actors and the new environment. The next two themes illustrate the most important routines in this new environment. Lastly, the findings present the importance of relationship experience and which of the non-functional differentiators that has the most impact. The study has enhanced the understanding of how customer value could be increased by identifying the routines of the interactions between different actors and how they should be acclimatized in the new environment. This study contributes to the literature regarding the environment of the ecosystem, the routines of the co-creation process and experiences of the relationship in it. Furthermore, the study concretizes the routines in the co-creation process which will assist the managers in their work of generating customer value. However, the study is limited due its single case-study were only one of the key-actors was investigated. A suggestion for future research is to do a multi-case study, which includes the perspectives of not just one key-actor, but the other key-actors as well, i.e. Ericsson’s customers. An approach like this could validate our findings and thereby ensure the findings transferability.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'analyser les interactions entre les agents économiques opérant sur le marché de l'assurance de détail. D'un côté, les assurés souhaitant se couvrir contre un risque de perte doivent explorer le marché afin de souscrire un contrat en ligne avec leur perception du risque. D'un autre côté, les assureurs se font concurrence sur un marché régulé, leur imposant un certain niveau de capital afin de garantir leur solvabilité dans un contexte d'incertitude sur les risques souscrits. D'autre part, des intermédiaires proposent leurs services afin de faciliter l'interaction entre les consommateurs, averses aux risques, et les firmes, preneuses de risques. C'est donc dans ce contexte que nous analysons les comportements des acteurs de l'assurance à travers différentes perspectives. Les Chapitre 1 et 2 de cette thèse résultent d'expérimentations en laboratoire, effectuées à l'aide d'une interface web conçue spécifiquement pour ces études. Les résultats du Chapitre 3, quant à eux, sont basés sur un modèle théorique et des simulations numériques. Le Chapitre 1 se concentre sur la relation entre l'honnêteté et les croyances en l'honnêteté des agents économiques. À l'aide des données collectées en laboratoire, nous montrons comment l'incertitude et le sentiment de se trouver dans des conditions plus ou moins avantageuses impactent à la fois le niveau d'honnêteté mais aussi la croyance en l'honnêteté envers les autres. En règle générale, les consommateurs surestiment l'honnêteté des intermédiaires. Ainsi, ce résultat justifie leur présence sur le marché de l'assurance. D'autre part, nous montrons aussi que les incitations financières proposées aux intermédiaires sont sources de distorsion des croyances en l'honnêteté. Plus le niveau d'incitation est faible, plus les consommateurs anticipent un comportement malhonnête. Dans le Chapitre 2, nous mettons en évidence le dilemme dont fait face le consommateur sur un marché comprenant une multitude de canaux de distribution. Doit-il explorer par lui-même et choisir parmi un large ensemble de contrats ou bien déléguer une partie de sa décision à un intermédiaire plus ou comportant des coûts de recherche, nous montrons que l'obfuscation liée à une importante quantité d'information et les croyances en l'honnêteté des intermédiaires sont les principaux déterminants des décisions de recherche et d'achat. Nous montrons également que l'obfuscation et l'attitude des intermédiaires sont sources d'inefficience dans les prises de décisions, en particulier vis-à-vis des caractéristiques des contrats d'assurance souscrits par les consommateurs. Dans ce sens, l'identification d'un effet de focalisation appuie l'importance du niveau des prix dans les prises de décision au détriment de l'environnement de risque et du niveau de couverture. L'introduction des coûts de recherche dans le processus d'exploration, ainsi que l'hétérogénéité des croyances en l'honnêteté justifient les stratégies de distribution multicanal adoptées par les assureurs. Une analyse d'un jeu non coopératif répété est exposée dans le Chapitre 3 de cette thèse où les pertes et le comportement des consommateurs sont stochastiques et les assureurs se font une concurrence en prix. Afin d'intégrer les contraintes des régulateurs, nous déterminons les équilibres de Nash sous contrainte de solvabilité. Nous analysons également la sensibilité des primes d'équilibre en fonction des paramètres du jeu, en particulier lorsque les firmes ne bénéficient pas des mêmes avantages comparatifs (i.e. réputation conduisant à différents niveaux de rétention des clients, ancienneté des assureurs conduisant à différents stocks en capital)
This thesis aims at explaining interactions among economic agents operating in the retail insurance market. On the one hand, the policyholder is willing to be covered against a risk. To do so, they have to explore the insurance market to purchase a contract in line with their risk perception. On the other hand, insurers compete in a regulated market which imposes capital constraints for shock loss absorption purposes. In between, intermediaries may provide services in order to facilitate interaction between risk-adverse consumers and risk-taker firms. In this context, we analyze economic behaviors of insurance actors through different perspectives. Chapter 1 and 2 both result from original laboratory experiments, conducted through a web-interface especially designed for these studies. Results in Chapter 3 rely on a theoretical model and numerical simulations. Chapter 1 emphasizes on the relationship between honesty and beliefs about honesty of economic agents. According to laboratory results, we show how the uncertainty and the perception of advantageous conditions impact the level of honesty and beliefs about honesty. In general, consumers estimate that intermediaries are more honest than they really are, hence supporting their physical presence in the insurance market. However, intermediary financial incentives are a source of distortion of honesty beliefs: the weaker the level of the incentive, the stronger the deviation anticipations. In Chapter 2, we shed light on the dilemma faced by insurance purchasers under a multichannel distribution. Should the consumer, themselves, choose from a large set of insurance policies, or rather delegate a part of their decision to a more or less honest intermediary? Using experimental approaches, including exogenous search costs, we show that obfuscation and beliefs about intermediary honesty are the main determinants of individual choices. We also find that obfuscation and intermediaries’ deviation are the main sources of inefficiency in decision-making, especially regarding the features of the insurance contracts chosen by consumers. Our identification of the focal point effect supports the importance of the price level on purchasing decisions rather than the risk environment or the coverage level. The introduction of search costs in the exploration process, as well as the heterogeneity of beliefs about honesty, justify multichannel distribution strategies adopted by insurers. An analysis of insurer price competition with a repeated one-period non-cooperative game is conducted in Chapter 3, where both insurer losses and consumer behaviors are stochastic. Because of regulatory obligations, we consider a solvency constraint when computing Nash-Equilibrium. We determine the sensitivity of the premium equilibrium with respect to the parameters, especially when firms do not benefit from same competitive advantages (i.e. reputation effect leading to differences in consumers inertia or market seniority leading to differences in capital stock). We also study insurers’ market share in response to the entry of new insurer undercutting prices but dealing with binding solvency constraints

Business-to-business customer loyalty management is an essential and long-standing theme in business research and practice. Loyal clients are of great importance within Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as the business model relies strongly on long-term business relationships, e.g. due to subscription models. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study on how to design loyalty initiatives used in business-to-business SaaS relationships yet. Therefore, our thesis asks the question “How can loyalty initiatives be designed to improve the loyalty of SaaS business clients?”. By applying a qualitative research methodology with multi-case studies, we were able to investigate the status-quo of customer loyalty management by looking at the vendor side and then analysing the perception of loyalty initiatives, with respect to the client’s perspective. A broad number of in-depth empirical data was collected in semi-structured interviews conducted with employees of six SaaS vendor firms and seven of their clients. As we used an abductive approach, we were able to compare our findings with the existing literature and extend previous theory. Our interview findings were then clustered into eight dimensions, which were based on the customer lifecycle, and various initiatives have been assigned to them. All initiatives included several actions performed by the vendors, which were then classified into three categories, according to how important it was perceived by their clients. We concluded our research with the ‘Design Guide for Loyalty Initiatives’ that summarises our findings and provides an overview for SaaS vendors to review and adjust their initiatives. Hence, we deliver valuable insights for SaaS vendors to gain a deeper understanding of their clients’ needs and to, in turn, prioritise their performed loyalty actions and allocate their budget accordingly.

The progress in the field of technology is often described as massive and its development has had a great impact on the social development (Vetenskapsrådet, 2012). As a result of the digital evolution, there has been a change in the way customer and company interact (Normann, 2011). The traditional way for players to interact with each other required an interaction human to human (ibid), a mode of interaction that now can be replaced or supplemented by todays technology and often Internet-based solutions (Salomonson et al., 2013). These technological solutions, the technical interaction, are often referred to as self-service systems. These systems enables the customer to carry out the tasks previously performed by the company (Hilton and Hughes, 2013). A growing number of Swedish companies are implementing these self-service solutions, particularly in matters relating to telephony and mobility, in order to complement or replace existing support (Gustafsson, 2012). Earlier research shows that both companies and customers can benefit from the implementation of self-service systems, however there are other contributions to the field of research that paradoxically advocates that the meeting in person, the human interaction is important for the competitiveness of a company (Normann, 2011). The purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding about how customer value is created in the interaction between customers and companies in both human and technological interaction. As data collection method, this study has applied qualitative interviews in order to enhance understanding of existing phenomena. In order to help analyse the study’s results the thesis theoretical framework consists of theories concerning services, interaction, value creation, service logic and service quality linked to the discipline service management. The results of the study indicate that the creation of customer value in the interaction between customer and company occurs in the same way in human interaction and technological interaction. The factors that create customer value are expressed in different ways by human and technological interaction.

Alors que les outils de gestion envahissent les organisations, nous en savons encore très peu sur la manière dont ils agissent sur les habitudes de penser, sur les façons de faire et sur les comportements.Cette thèse s'intéresse au rôle des progiciels CRM dans la construction des représentations et des pratiques de la relation client. Ces progiciels sont étudiés à deux niveaux: celui de l'espace professionnel des Directeurs commerciaux et celui d'une organisation. Tout d'abord, à partir de l'analyse, entre 1990 et 2009, d'une revue professionnelle destinée aux Directeurs commerciaux, nous montrons l'institutionnalisation des progiciels CRM et que cette institutionnalisation s'est accompagnée d'un déplacement des représentations relatives à ce qui est considéré comme une "bonne" gestion de la relation client. Parallèlement, nous avons mené une étude de cas en profondeur sur dix ans, rendant compte de la mise en oeuvre et de l'utilisation d'un progiciel CRM particulier. Nous montrons que la mise en oeuvre d'un progiciel CRM requiert un processus de traduction continu. Puis, nous mettons en évidence plusieurs transformations des pratiques dont certaines n'étaient pas attendues. Les transformations touchent la connaissance client et son partage, ainsi que les modes de contrôle à l'oeuvre dans l'organisation. Au-delà des transformations des pratiques en matière de contrôle hiérarchique, le progiciel CRM a notamment favorisé la mise en place de deux nouveaux modes de contrôle: un contrôle latéral (entre pairs) et un contrôle transversal (entre fonctions). Notre recherche s'inscrit dans la lignée des travaux qui considèrent que les outils de gestion, et plus globalement les artefacts, méritent qu'on leur accorde une attention plus grande. Nous illustrons plus largement dans ce travail l'intérêt d'aborder les processus organisationnels en prenant au sérieux les objets techniques indissociables de l'action. En les prenant comme points d'entrée, il est possible de documenter des phénomènes jusqu'alors peu explorés
Though management tools are more and more present in organizations, little is known on how they act on mindsets, on habits and on behaviours.This dissertation focuses on the role of CRM software packages in the construction of customer relationship representations and practices. These software packages were studied at two different levels: the sales director community and an organization. First of all, a professional journal analysis between 1990 and 2009 was conducted. The results show that CRM software packages were institutionalized and that this institutionalization comes with a shift in the representations of what is considered as "good" customer relationship management. Then, a ten year in-depth case study of the implementation and the use of a CRM software package was conducted.The results show that the implementation of a CRM software package requires a continuous translation process. They also highlight some changes in practices, of which some are unintended. The changes are related to customer knowledge, its sharing and the modes of control inside the firm. Beyond changes in hierarchical control, the CRM software package leads to the implementation of two new modes of control: a lateral control(between peers) and a transversal control (between functions). This research is in line with the literature that considers that more attention has to be paid to management tools, and more generally to artefacts. We illustrate more broadly in this dissertation the interest of addressing organizational processes by taking seriously the technical objects indissociable from action. Taking them as a starting point for research could be a mean to inform currently underexplored phenomena

This diploma work targets the processional exist business management and helps to keep high quality of the manufacturing process. I find out strenghts and weaknesses with the analysis of the company. Further I will solve concrete claim, which has to be solved effectively and flexifly, in order that the firm fulfils the requirements of their customers and creates new opportunities to sustain the long term economic growth.

This study examines how people compensate for their inability to accommodate the needs of others in service encounters. Being unable to meet others' needs violates the positive face of one of the participants in a discourse. Many previous studies on speech acts demonstrate how people control their utterances to avoid causing a face-threatening act. However, the language behavior that follows a face-threatening act has not yet received much focus. This paper looks at two different kinds of data in Japan and the United State (hereafter "U.S.") using two different approaches: observation and role-play. In the first, the observational phase, the author acted as a customer in several convenience stores in Japan and asked for an item that they did not carry. In the U.S., a native English speaker interacted with the salesclerk as the customer. (No recording device was used in either situation.) All exchanges were immediately recorded by hand and later coded by semantic formulas. In the second, the role-play phase, native speakers were asked to role-play a parallel situation in which they acted as a salesclerk and had to react to not being able to satisfy customers' requests. The results demonstrate that Japanese sales clerks compensate in the face of their inability to meet another's need (they avoid a direct face-threatening act) whereas most U.S. sales clerks do not attempt to compensate for their inability. These behaviors correlate with social expectations of the participants within both respective service encounters. Moreover, the results also suggest a re-thinking of speech acts and emphasize the importance of natural data.

Dans un environnement économique toujours plus compétitif, tendu et incertain, les entreprises doivent faire preuve d’adaptabilité, de précaution et d’anticipation. Ce manuscrit aborde ainsi plusieurs thématiques liées à ce constat, qui touchent de près la notion de gestion de trésorerie. Le premier essai de cette thèse montre que la distribution d’un dividende en actions permet aux entreprises de temporairement réduire la rémunération de leurs actionnaires, sans être sanctionnées par ces derniers. Ce mécanisme permet aux entreprises de conserver liquidités et flexibilité en période de contraction de l’économie. Le second essai traite du lien entre risque client et politique de gestion des liquidités. Un risque client accru semble alors pousser les entreprises à détenir plus de trésorerie et à moins recourir aux lignes de crédit. Enfin, le troisième essai justifie de l’intérêt d’établir des relations clients-fournisseurs de long terme. Ces partenariats apparaissent alors comme une source d’efficience et de profitabilité accrues du cycle opérationnel des entreprises
The increasingly competitive and uncertain economic environment requires firms to show caution and to anticipate their needs. Based on this observation, this thesis discusses several topics that are closely related to corporate cash management choices. The first chapter of this thesis show that offering an optional stock dividend enables firms to temporarily reduce cash outflows to shareholders without being penalized by the market. This peculiar type of payout then allows firms to maintain their levels of liquidity and flexibility during economic downturns. The second chapter focuses on the link between customer risk and corporate liquidity management choices. High customer risk then appears to firms holding higher cash reserves compared to credit lines. Finally, the third chapter highlights the benefits of maintaining long-term buyer-supplier relationships. These partnerships then arises as sources of increased operating efficiency and profitability for firms

The thesis is focused on the evaluation of business performance using the Balanced Scorecard concept. The theoretical part defines the concept of business performance and describes the method of Balanced Scorecard. In the analytical part is being assessed the current state of the company DINA-HITEX, spol. s.r.o. through selected analytical methods. Subsequently, as a conclusion of the thesis, is drafted implementation of the Balanced Scorecard concept to this company. In this section are draw up strategic goals of selected perspectives, strategic map, budget, time schedule of the project implemen-tation and evaluation of the benefits of adopting this method to the enterprise.

Si les réflexions menées sur la notion de subvention foisonnent en droit public et en science financière, le droit privé fait preuve à son égard d’une certaine indifférence. Celle-ci est d’autant plus préjudiciable que le phénomène des subventions consenties aux et par les entreprises privées ne peut qu’imparfaitement être appréhendé à travers le prisme de l’analyse classique de ces matières, à savoir que la subvention est une aide financière accordée sans contrepartie par une personne publique. L’étude des subventions aux entreprises privées permet donc d’apprécier la pertinence de cette analyse classique et propose un renouvellement de la notion de subvention à un triple titre.Tout d’abord, à rebours de l’analyse de droit public, la subvention doit être qualifiée non pas d’acte unilatéral, mais de contrat unilatéral. Il ne faut pas, en effet, confondre l’expression du consentement de la personne morale, résultant d’un acte unilatéral, avec l’acte de subvention, ayant une nature contractuelle. Ensuite, la subvention n’est qu’une variété d’aide financière. Elle se caractérise par un transfert direct de valeurs du patrimoine de l’auteur de la subvention à celui de son bénéficiaire, les valeurs étant toujours affectées à la réalisation d’un but déterminé. Ces deux éléments sont essentiels, car ils permettent de distinguer la subvention d’autres aides aux entreprises (telles qu’un abandon de créance, un prêt ou une opération pour un prix minoré ou majoré) et de mettre en évidence que l’affectation de la subvention n’engage pas son bénéficiaire à l’exécution d’une obligation, mais plus justement au respect de cette finalité en raison de la force obligatoire du contrat. En cas de méconnaissance, l’entreprise subventionnée s’expose alors à la résolution du contrat pour inexécution, toute exécution forcée étant impossible au regard de l’atteinte qu’elle porterait à sa liberté de gestion. Enfin, la subvention n’est pas exactement une aide sans contrepartie, mais plutôt une aide sans contrepartie directe. Si son auteur recherche alors souvent une contrepartie indirecte de l’attribution de la subvention, il n’en retire parfois aucune. Cette alternative fait apparaître toute la spécificité de la subvention, puisqu’elle peut être consentie soit à titre gratuit soit à titre onéreux. En d’autres termes, la subvention est un acte neutre, d’où les nombreuses difficultés pratiques qu’elle suscite. Plus précisément, en tant que contrat neutre, la subvention ne trahit pas sa cause et il faut alors déterminer dans chaque cas si le but de son débiteur est intéressé ou désintéressé. Cette recherche est indispensable, car la subvention consentie à titre gratuit, notamment par une entreprise privée, entraîne une réaction du droit des sociétés – violation du principe de spécialité – du droit fiscal – acte anormal de gestion – et du droit pénal. La mise en évidence de telles limites à la liberté de subventionner les entreprises privées contribue alors à révéler l’identité civile et fiscale de l’acte neutre
While the notion of subsidy is widely discussed within public law and financial science, private law remains relatively indifferent to this subject. This is particularly detrimental given that the concept of subsidies for and by private companies can only be imperfectly assessed via the classical analysis of these subjects where a subsidy is viewed as an unconditioned financial support. Studying subsidies to private companies thus enables us to assess the appropriateness of this classical analysis and to suggest a renewed understanding of subsidies on three aspects.Firstly, unlike in public law, a subsidy must be viewed as a unilateral contract, not a unilateral act. It is important indeed not to confuse the expression of consent by a legal entity, which results from a unilateral act, with the act of granting a subsidy, which is contractual in nature. A subsidy is also just a type of financial support. It is characterized by a direct wealth transfer from the grantor of the subsidy to its beneficiary, valued on the achievement of a specific goal. These two elements are essential as they differentiate a subsidy from other types of private companies’ support mechanisms (such as debt relief, loans, underpriced or overpriced transactions) and show that being goal-oriented does not commit the beneficiary to realizing the stated objective, rather it is the binding nature of a contract that enforces this obligation. In case of non-compliance, the subsidized entity will be subject to the contract’s termination clauses for being in default of its contractual obligations, a forced contractual compliance being not possible as it remains a management decision. Finally, a subsidy is not exactly an unconditioned financial support, rather it is a support without direct obligations. If its grantor often aims to obtain a direct benefit against the issuance of a subsidy, it often obtains nothing. This alternative reflects the specificity of a subsidy as it can be given for free or not. In other words, a subsidy is a neutral act which explains its numerous practical difficulties. More precisely, as a neutral contract, a subsidy does not express a specific reason, in each case it must thus be assessed if the issuer has a vested interest in the granting of the said subsidy. This research is of great interest, as a subsidy granted for free, in particular by a private enterprise, has consequences in terms of company law – breach of the “specialty” principle – tax law – customary managerial decisions – and criminal law. Showing the limits of the freedom to subsidize private companies contributes to reveal the civil and tax identity of a neutral act

Tese de Doutoramento em Marketing and Strategy
This research seeks to study customer engagement and value co-creation from the guest perspective in the hospitality (hotel) industry in Ghana. It centres on customer’s perspective in the hotel setting as the guest is critical to the efficient provision and delivery of hospitality services since s/he buy memories, meal experience and service experience but not just service delivery, service quality or food and drink. Customers participating and engaging in value co-creation in the hotel sector bring on-board their personal resources (operand and operant) in the form of competencies and experiences to bear on the firm’s resources to co-create value. Customer engagement and value co-creation have been studied extensively in recent times. However, the current literature is silent in the examination of the actors and factors (f/actors) that foster/hinder customer engagement and value co-creation in the hospitality industry and the analysis of the customer's awareness about their contribution to value co-creation. It is also evident that an in-depth knowledge on how guests engage to co-create value and establish their multiple points of interactions are limited. Thus, the purpose of this study is to respond to these literature gaps through an empirical study. The object of study is the guests’ engagement experiences and co-creation practices within/beyond the hospitality industry. We addressed this purpose through five specific objectives as to (1) explore customer engagement and the f/actors that foster or hinder value co-creation within/beyond the hotel; (2) ascertain whether customers are aware/unaware that their competencies aid value co-creation; (3) identify and understand the relevant resource-envelop that customers use to engage in value co-creation; (4) discover value co-creation/destruction practices within/beyond the hotel; and (5) ascertain the consequences of ignoring/involving the customer in the co-creation processes. We established the foundations of our research in an in-depth literature review on Service Dominant Logic (SDL), Value Co-creation (VCC), Service Logic (SL), Customer Dominant Logic (CDL), Awareness, Practices and Customer Engagement (CE) among others. To understand the nature and dynamics of customer engagement, value co-creation or destruction, we designed a qualitative study. We gathered and analysed documents from the internet (hotel websites) related to guests’ experiences and conversations. We conducted four participant observation sessions and 35 in-depth interviews from customers to obtain a qualitative in-depth appreciation of their experiences. To safeguard the trustworthiness of the study, we adopt triangulation of literature, methods, data and researchers. Data was analysed using a thematic analysis framework, designed to ascertain, explore, and describe patterns found in the data with the support of NVivo 11 pro version. The study discovered that guests’ engagement within and beyond the hotel environment with multiple f/actors have an influence on their value co-creation/destruction process. We found that positive engagement like receptive, interactive and honest employees, responsible, helpful and friendly staff/front-office staff, meeting reliable friends/family members, good health services, reliable financial agents and visiting historical sites, safe, secured, serene environment and functional facilities/services bring memorable experiences and foster value co-creation. However, negative acts and situations, such as negligence, un-hospitable staff, deceptive/distrusted employees, police irresponsibility/harassment, distrusted actors, delays at airport, scary news items from televisions and radio stations, dishonest transport owners and robbery cases, frustrate guests, decrease their engagement levels and destroy value. We found that some customers’ level of awareness of their contributions in some cases has an influence on their decisions to deploy more resources. Some customers are aware of their contributions whiles others are unaware. Those aware are willing to deploy and integrate more resources and demand for better services than those who are unaware. We discovered that during the consumption journey, the customers/guests use a variety of resources such as, physical resources (physical features, attitude, time); mental/psychological/emotional/intellectual resources (i.e. competencies, skills, deep thinking, self-generative ideas/activities/practices); social resources (i.e. peers, friends, family, associations like political, religious, old boys/girls) and financial/material resources (i.e. smartphones, laptops, cars, money and bank cards). Guests engaged themselves at different levels via self-engagement; guest-toguest- engagement; and engagement with other f/actors, institutions, individuals and groups. The study also found that customers are willing to share their operant resources with firms for service improvements. They are also prepared to share their experiences and discuss both the strengths and challenges of service providers and go the extra mile to promote the services of firms to their family, friends and co-workers, through positive word-of-mouth (WOM), both personally and through social media. This study offers several contributions grounded on its empirical foundation. It suggests theoretical and managerial implications on how actors’ practices promote or impede customer engagement and value co-creation within/beyond the hotel. It generates a framework of customer engagement and cocreation/ destruction and explain how customer engagement experiences beyond and within the hotel positive/negative can facilitate/inhibit value co-creation or lead to value destruction. It thus extends customer engagement, value co-creation, value destruction and service-dominant Logic literature. The study also allows drawing managerial implications, which shift the focus of value co-creation from the firm circles to the customer domain, urging stakeholders about the growing consciousness of customers since conscious customers will demand for better service delivery. Finally, the study brought to the forefront, the influencing role of the external f/actors which are outside the control of the firm, but influence the way customers engage, co-create/destroy and determine value, suggesting the need for service providers to collaborate with other stakeholders in enhancing customer engagement and value co-creation.
Esta investigação analisa o envolvimento do cliente e a cocriação de valor do ponto de vista dos hóspedes na indústria hoteleira no Gana. Centra-se na perspetiva do cliente, uma vez que o hóspede é um ator crítico na prestação eficiente do serviço, sendo que ele compra memórias, experiências de refeições e experiências de serviços e não serviços por si só, qualidade dos serviços ou alimentos e bebidas. Os clientes que participam na cocriação de valor no setor hoteleiro trazem consigo os seus recursos pessoais (operandos e operantes), na forma de competências e experiências, para sustentar os recursos da empresa e, desta forma, para cocriar valor. O envolvimento do cliente e a cocriação de valor têm sido estudados extensivamente nos últimos anos. No entanto, a literatura é omissa na análise do nível de consciência dos clientes sobre sua contribuição para a cocriação de valor e na análise dos atores e fatores (f/atores) que promovem/dificultam o envolvimento do cliente e a cocriação de valor, em particular na indústria da hoteleira. Também é evidente que existe uma limitação no conhecimento aprofundado sobre a forma como os hóspedes se envolvem na cocriação de valor e como estabelecem os múltiplos pontos de interação que promovem essa cocriação. Neste sentido, o principal objetivo desta investigação é responder a essas lacunas através da realização de uma investigação empírica. O objeto de estudo são as experiências de envolvimento dos clientes e as práticas de cocriação dentro e fora do hotel. Abordamos esse objeto de estudo através de cinco objetivos específicos: (1) explorar o envolvimento do cliente e os f/atores que estimulam ou dificultam a cocriação de valor dentro e fora do hotel; (2) verificar se os clientes estão conscientes ou não da contribuição das suas competências para a cocriação de valor; (3) identificar e compreender o conjunto de recursos (envelope de recursos) relevantes que os clientes usam para participar na cocriação de valor; (4) descobrir práticas de cocriação /destruição de valor dentro/fora do hotel; e (5) analisar as consequências de se ignorar ou envolver o cliente nos processos de cocriação. A fundamentação teórica e conceptual desta investigação é feita através de uma revisão de literatura sobre os temas: Lógica Dominante de Serviços (SDL), Cocriação de Valor (VCC), Lógica de Serviço (SL), Lógica Dominante do Cliente (CDL), Consciência do consumidor, Práticas e Envolvimento do Cliente (CE), entre outros. Para compreender a natureza e a dinâmica do envolvimento do cliente e a cocriação e a destruição de valor, desenvolveu-se uma investigação qualitativa. Analisaram-se documentos da internet (sites de hotéis) relacionados com as experiências e as conversas dos hóspedes. Realizam-se quatro sessões de observação participante e 35 entrevistas aprofundadas a clientes, para obter uma compreensão qualitativa e aprofundada sobre as suas experiências. Para salvaguardar a confiabilidade da investigação, adotou-se a triangulação de literatura, métodos, dados e pesquisadores. Os dados foram analisados com o apoio do software NVivo pro, versão 11, utilizando uma estrutura de análise temática, projetada para averiguar, explorar e descrever os padrões encontrados nos dados. Os resultados da investigação indicam que o envolvimento dos hóspedes dentro e fora do ambiente do hotel com vários f/atores influencia o processo de cocriação/destruição de valor. Descobriu-se que f/atores positivos, como funcionários recetivos, interativos e honestos, pessoal de receção responsável, prestável e amigável, encontros com amigos/familiares confiáveis, bons serviços de saúde, agentes financeiros confiáveis, visita a locais históricos, ambiente seguro e sereno e instalações/serviços funcionais, trazem experiências memoráveis e fomentam a cocriação de valor. No entanto, atos e situações negativas, tais como negligência, funcionários não hospitaleiros, funcionários enganadores/desconfiados, irresponsabilidade e assédio policial, outros atores não confiáveis, atrasos no aeroporto, notícias de televisão e rádio assustadoras, proprietários de transportes desonestos e casos de roubo, frustram os hóspedes, diminuem os seus níveis de envolvimento e destroem o valor da experiência. Descobriu-se que o nível de consciência de alguns clientes acerca da sua contribuição para o processo de cocriação influencia, em certos casos, as suas decisões de integrar mais recursos. Alguns clientes estão conscientes das suas contribuições enquanto outros não o estão sendo que os que estão conscientes estão dispostos a integrar mais recursos na procura de melhores serviços. Observou-se que durante a jornada de consumo, os consumidores/hóspedes usam múltiplos recursos, como recursos físicos (características físicas, atitude, tempo); recursos mentais/psicológicos/emocionais/intelectuais (ou seja, competências, habilidades, pensamento profundo, ideias, atividades, práticas); recursos sociais (ou seja, colegas, amigos, família, associações políticas, religiosas, e antigos colegas) e recursos financeiros/materiais (ou seja, telefones, computadores, automóveis, dinheiro e cartões bancários). Os hóspedes envolveram-se a diferentes níveis através de auto-envolvimento; envolvimento hóspedehóspede; e envolvimento com outros f/atores e instituições, a nível individual e de grupo. A investigação também constatou que os clientes estão dispostos a compartilhar seus recursos operantes (operant resources) com as empresas para melhorias dos seus serviços. Os clientes estão também dispostos a partilhar as suas experiências e a discutir os pontos fortes e os desafios dos serviços oferecidos pelas empresas/hotéis e esforçam-se para promover os serviços das empresas às suas famílias, amigos e colegas de trabalho, por meio de passa-a-palavra positivo, tanto por via pessoal como através do meios digitais (social media). Esta investigação oferece várias contribuições baseadas em dados empíricos. Ela sugere implicações teóricas e de gestão acerca da forma como as práticas dos atores promovem ou impedem o envolvimento do cliente e a cocriação de valor dentro e fora do hotel. Apresenta uma estrutura sobre o envolvimento do cliente e a cocriação/destruição e explica como as experiências positivas e negativas de envolvimento do cliente dentro e fora do hotel podem facilitar/inibir a cocriação de valor ou levar à destruição de valor. Contribui, desta forma, para a literatura sobre o envolvimento do cliente, a cocriação de valor, a destruição de valor e a lógica dominante de serviço. A investigação permite também desenhar implicações práticas, sugerindo a mudança do foco da criação de valor do âmbito da empresa para o domínio do cliente, informando as partes interessadas sobre a crescente conscientização dos clientes para o seu papel no processo de cocriação de valor, já que clientes mais conscientes exigirão uma melhor prestação de serviços. Por fim, a investigação realçou também a influência e o papel dos f/atores externos na cocriação de valor, os quais estando fora do controle da empresa influenciam a forma como o cliente se envolve, cocria/destrói valor e o determina. Esta constatação sugere a necessidade de os prestadores de serviços colaborarem com diversas outras partes interessadas na criação de condições favoráveis ao envolvimento positivo do consumidor e à cocriação de valor.

This thesis contributes to the emerging debate in the financial services literature on digital technology, consumer engagement, and service actor ecosystems. Comprising of one systematic literature review and two empirical papers, the overall aim of this thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of digital technology on the financial services industry and the effects on both service providers and consumers. Using artificial intelligence and mobile apps as suitable exemplars of digital technology, the focus of this thesis is the Australian retirement context. The first paper is titled ‘Artificial Intelligence in Customer-Facing Financial Services - A Systematic Literature Review and Agenda for Future Research’. Through the application of a systematic literature review methodology guided by the TCCM (Theory, Context, Characteristics, Methodology) framework, this study provides an overview of academic research to date while simultaneously identifying gaps in the existing literature and offering a comprehensive agenda for future research. The findings of the review suggest that select financial services have experienced greater academic research interest (e.g., banking) than others (i.e., retirement planning). Additionally, more than half of the sampled studies adopt a data-driven approach, as opposed to a theory-driven approach, thus rendering the calls for future research to refocus on developing relevant theory and conceptualizations. The second paper is titled ‘The Role of Digital Technology in Communication and Information Flow in the Australian Superannuation Industry: A Multi-Actor Service Ecosystem Perspective’ and empirically examines the impact of digital technology on the Australian retirement ecosystem. Accordingly, the study adopts a qualitative research methodology using 21 semi-structured interviews to investigate the impact of digital technology on both actor communication as well as information search and avoidance behaviours related to Superannuation. The findings highlight a need for ecosystem actors to improve their resource and knowledge sharing capabilities to enable a seamless information flow and consequently improve consumer experience and foster retirement planning. The third and final paper included in the thesis is titled ‘Which consumers are more likely to adopt a retirement app and how does it explain mobile technology-enabled retirement engagement?’ This study focuses on mobile technology-enabled retirement planning. That is, it empirically examines the drivers of consumer’s intention to and anticipated engagement with a mobile retirement planning app. Data is collected from 440 Australian consumers, and analysed using PLS-SEM. Results highlight that consumers’ perceived skills (i.e., financial self-efficacy), information/ usage avoidance (i.e., perceived financial security), and perceived relevance (i.e., consideration of future consequences, retirement planning involvement, and perceived usefulness) have direct effects on their anticipated engagement with a mobile retirement app as well as indirect effects through their intention to adopt the app. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that the closer the consumer is to retirement, the more likely they are to use a mobile retirement app. Overall, the research of this thesis contributes to the understanding of the importance of digital technology in fostering financial behaviours such as retirement planning, and service provider and consumer relationships, as well as its impact on the broader financial services industry.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 2022

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
企業管理系
94
In the highly customer-oriented service industry, most companies claim that they care for their customers. However, any unmentioned details or inadequate communication may cause the misunderstanding of the caring program. In such situation, service failure occurs and companies would try to recover it. During the process of recovery, companies face the dilemma of giving up or persisting in the caring program. Do they give up the initial caring mind to compensate customers by following their desires or persist in it to provide adequate explanation without tangible compensation? And what kind of explanation brings the higher satisfaction toward the recovery? In the past, few researches talked about the topic of service recovery and caring programs. Our research focused on the caring program and two experiments were designed to investigate the relationship between the different recovery actions and satisfaction toward recovery. Study 1 examined the influence of satisfaction toward three different service recovery actions. The result revealed that“action without explanation” would bring the lowest satisfaction. However, among the discussion of giving up or persisting in the caring program, it discovered that consumers still want to be compensated by following their original desire. Even the companies indeed care them and offer the reasonable explanation; it would not bring the higher satisfaction. In study 2, we join the effect of “regulatory fit” during the recovery to discover the best strategy for companies to deal with the service failure without abandoning the caring program. The result exposed that while making customers get regulatory fit, “action with counterfactual reasoning explanation” would bring the satisfaction as good as “action that follows customers’ desire.” This research provided some suggestions for companies to recover the service occurred in the caring program. We find that if the companies make customers feel “regulatory fit”, it is not necessary to follow customers’ intention but bring as good as satisfaction. Therefore, companies can look after both sides of caring program and satisfaction.

碩士
中原大學
工業與系統工程研究所
99
The government in Taiwan has always emphasized the tourism industries, the aim is to help the tourism industry to enhance their competitive advantage and future development. Hotel industries play the critical roles in the development of tourism industry. During the provision process of hotel service, both customers and employees involve in the process, therefore, the customer variability and employee variability are the key factors that affact the service quality significantly. It is thus that these kinds of variability determine the customer satisfaction, and hence the customer loyalty. Regard to this critical view, the issues of customer variability and employee variability in hotel service are worthy to study. Based on the related studies, we first discuss the typologies of customer variability and employee variability in the hotel service, and study the strategic actions used to decrease these variability. After these conceptural frameworks are developed, this study use questionnaire survey to investigate the actual situations of these typologies of customer variability and employee variability for hotel industry, and the implementation levels of the strategic actions used to decrease the customer variability and employee variability. In the final, we use statistical analysis and I-P analysis model to find out the critically strategic actions. The result of this study can offer the hotel industries as a reference when they want to plan the strategies and control actions to reduce the variability of service, and enhance the customer satisfaction.

The use of Machine Learning techniques is increasingly commonplace in multiple practical applications. Nowadays, the results of the application of these techniques are already routinely influencing our life and day-to-day tasks. Suggestions of videos to visualize; which route to take to a destination; facial recognition in biometric and security systems; all are practical examples of the advances made in this area. Many Machine Learning models are black box, given the complexity of the problems addressed and their algorithmic nature and, sometimes, do not offer a perception of their decision-making processes or are not directly interpretable when it comes to the reasons that originate their forecasts and results. The use of Explanatory Methods highlights patterns in the data, allowing a more assertive interpretation of results. Thus, this dissertation intends to develop a prototype that combines Machine Learning techniques with Explanatory Methods in order to improve the evaluation and validation of indicators, making the process of obtaining results by the algorithm and how it is affected more consistent and assertive. From a commercial point of view, based on the results of the models applied to the data, the consequent definition or reengineering of strategies obtains better operational results and the continuous improvement of indicators. With this prototype I intend to demonstrate that, from a practical point of view, obtaining representative indicators of customer permanence/loyalty in an organization, applying Machine Learning techniques on real data, and using explanatory methods, once the influence and weight of the characteristics are interpreted from the data on the model/s, it will be possible to redefine and fine-tune operational strategies. Specifically, as a practical case of this dissertation, it is expected that corporate systems such as Customer Relationship Management systems can benefit from the results of this dissertation through the application of Machine Learning techniques and the interpretation of Explanatory Methods.