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Showing papers on "Service provider published in 2004"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines the experience with alternative mechanisms for service delivery, contracting out to the private and NGO sectors, community participation, co-financing by service beneficiaries and shows that this, as well as the experience of more traditional public sector provision, can be interpreted by looking at three principal-agent relationships in the service-delivery chain: between policymakers and providers, between clients and providers; and between clients (as citizens) and policymakers.
Abstract: The weak link between public spending in health and education, and health and education outcomes can be partially explained by the fact that the delivery of services that are critical to human development -- health, education, water and sanitation -- are widely failing poor people. The money is often spent on private goods or on the non-poor; it often fails to reach the frontline service provider; incentives for service delivery by providers are weak; and poor people sometimes fail to demand these services. This paper examines the experience with alternative mechanisms for service delivery -- contracting out to the private and NGO sectors, community participation, co-financing by service beneficiaries -- and shows that this, as well as the experience of more traditional public sector provision, can be interpreted by looking at three principal-agent relationships in the service-delivery chain: between policymakers and providers; between clients and providers; and between clients (as citizens) and policymakers. Weaknesses in one or more of these relationships can lead to service-delivery failure, while attempts to strengthen one may not always work because of deficiencies in other links in the chain. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

1,099 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
19 May 2004
TL;DR: This paper presented an open, fair and dynamic QoS computation model for web services selection through implementation of and experimentation with a QoS registry in a hypothetical phone service provisioning market place application.
Abstract: The emerging Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) paradigm promises to enable businesses and organizations to collaborate in an unprecedented way by means of standard web services. To support rapid and dynamic composition of services in this paradigm, web services that meet requesters' functional requirements must be able to be located and bounded dynamically from a large and constantly changing number of service providers based on their Quality of Service (QoS). In order to enable quality-driven web service selection, we need an open, fair, dynamic and secure framework to evaluate the QoS of a vast number of web services. The fair computation and enforcing of QoS of web services should have minimal overhead but yet able to achieve sufficient trust by both service requesters and providers. In this paper, we presented our open, fair and dynamic QoS computation model for web services selection through implementation of and experimentation with a QoS registry in a hypothetical phone service provisioning market place application.

969 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the role of consumer commitment on consumers' intentions to switch and develop a switching model that includes a three-component conceptualization of customer commitment, which is used to test the model based on data from a survey of 356 auto repair service customers.
Abstract: Although research into the determinants of service provider switching has grown in recent years, the focus has been predominantly on transactional, not relational, variables. In this research, the authors address the role of consumer commitment on consumers’ intentions to switch. Drawing from the organizational behavior literature, they build on previous service switching research by developing a switching model that includes a three-component conceptualization of customer commitment. Structural equation modeling is used to test the model based on data from a survey of 356 auto repair service customers. The authors’ results support the notion that customer commitment affects intentions to switch service providers and that the psychological states underlying that commitment may differ. As such, future marketing research should consider these different forms of commitment in understanding customer retention. The implications of this model for theory and practice are discussed.

789 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results of the study indicate that while a few design elements directly affect loyalty behavior, the relationship between most design elements and loyalty behavior is strongly mediated by eliciting certain types of emotional behavior.
Abstract: Experience design, an approach to create emotional connection with guests or customers through careful planning of tangible and intangible service elements, has gained popularity in many hospitality and retail businesses. With ever-increasing competition, service providers seek to develop loyalty by aggressively designing, continuously innovating, and managing their customer experiences. This article explores the relationship between different service elements designed to create enhanced experience and customer loyalty. In addition, it looks at emotional responses as mediating factors between the physical and relational elements and loyalty behaviors. A model is proposed and tested with a VIP hospitality tent for an internationally renowned touring circus. Results of the study indicate that while a few design elements directly affect loyalty behavior, the relationship between most design elements and loyalty behavior is strongly mediated by eliciting certain types of emotional behavior. This connection has implications for the focus of service managers' efforts in different environments.

620 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article addresses dynamic service selection via an agent framework coupled with a QoS ontology with the aim of enabling participants to collaborate to determine each other's service quality and trustworthiness.
Abstract: Current Web services standards lack the means for expressing a service's nonfunctional attributes - namely, its quality of service. QoS can be objective (encompassing reliability, availability, and request-to-response time) or subjective (focusing on user experience). QoS attributes are key to dynamically selecting the services that best meet user needs. This article addresses dynamic service selection via an agent framework coupled with a QoS ontology. With this approach, participants can collaborate to determine each other's service quality and trustworthiness.

615 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, focus groups were conducted with adult family members of children with and without disabilities and service providers and administrators to identify indicators of professional behavior facilitative of collaborative partnerships, including commitment, commitment, equality, skills, trust, and respect.
Abstract: The development of collaborative partnerships between parents and professionals is too often unsuccessful. One reason for this failure may be the lack of empirical understanding of the components of interpersonal partnerships. Using qualitative inquiry, 33 focus groups were conducted with adult family members of children with and without disabilities and service providers and administrators. In addition, 32 individual interviews were conducted with non-English-speaking parents and their service providers. Indicators of professional behavior facilitative of collaborative partnerships were identified. These indicators were organized into six broad themes: (a) Communication, (b) Commitment, (c) Equality, (d) Skills, (e) Trust, and (f) Respect. The specific meaning of each theme is described, including similarities and differences between professionals and family members. Policy, practice, and future research implications are discussed.

531 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Joon Koh1, Young-Gul Kim1
TL;DR: A virtual community activity framework is developed, integrating community knowledge sharing activity into business activities in the form of an e-business model, finding that the level of community knowledgesharing activity is related to virtual community outcomes and such outcomes are significantly associated with loyalty to the virtual community service provider.
Abstract: Thanks to availability of the Internet, virtual communities are proliferating at an unprecedented rate. In-depth understanding of virtual community dynamics can help us to address critical organizational and information systems issues such as communities-of-practice, virtual collaboration, and knowledge management. In this article, we develop a virtual community activity framework, integrating community knowledge sharing activity into business activities in the form of an e-business model. We examine how the level of community knowledge sharing activity leads to virtual community outcomes and whether such community outcomes are related to loyalty toward the virtual community service provider. Based on a field survey of 77 virtual communities currently operating in Freechal.com , one of Korea's largest Internet community service providers, we found that the level of community knowledge sharing activity is related to virtual community outcomes and such outcomes are significantly associated with loyalty to the virtual community service provider. These results imply that the level of community knowledge sharing activity may be a proper proxy for the state of health of a virtual community. Implications of the findings and future virtual community research directions are discussed.

506 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article defines family-centered service and outlines a conceptual framework of the premises and principles underlying this approach to service delivery, with a focus on community-based rehabilitation or health care services.

420 citations


Proceedings Article
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the security and efficiency aspects of the problem and construct several secure and practical schemes that facilitate the integrity and authenticity of query replies while incurring low computational and communication costs.
Abstract: In the Outsourced Database (ODB) model, entities outsource their data management needs to a third-party service provider. Such a service provider offers mechanisms for its clients to create, store, update, and access (query) their databases. This work provides mechanisms to ensure data integrity and authenticity for outsourced databases. Specifically, this article provides mechanisms that assure the querier that the query results have not been tampered with and are authentic (with respect to the actual data owner). It investigates both the security and efficiency aspects of the problem and constructs several secure and practical schemes that facilitate the integrity and authenticity of query replies while incurring low computational and communication costs.

388 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
15 Nov 2004
TL;DR: This work proposes a multiagent approach that naturally provides a solution to the selection problem of selecting the right service instances and enables applications to be dynamically configured at runtime in a manner that continually adapts to the preferences of the participants.
Abstract: Emerging Web services standards enable the development of large-scale applications in open environments. In particular, they enable services to be dynamically bound. However, current techniques fail to address the critical problem of selecting the right service instances. Service selection should be determined based on user preferences and business policies, and consider the trustworthiness of service instances.We propose a multiagent approach that naturally provides a solution to the selection problem. This approach is based on an architecture and programming model in which agents represent applications and services. The agents support considerations of semantics and quality of service (QoS). They interact and share information, in essence creating an ecosystem of collaborative service providers and consumers. Consequently, our approach enables applications to be dynamically configured at runtime in a manner that continually adapts to the preferences of the participants. Our agents are designed using decision theory and use ontologies. We evaluate our approach through simulation experiments.

342 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors empirically examined if there exist different types of logistics service providers and whether the types differ in service performance, and found that there are four discernable types of LSP according to the service capability displayed by each type.
Abstract: Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, this study empirically examines if there exist different types of logistics service providers (LSPs), and whether the types differ in service performance. The study results suggest that there are four discernable types of LSP, according to the service capability displayed by each type, and that differences in service performance exist between the types. The implications of the results are discussed and suggestions for further research in LSPs are offered.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In previous columns, I've examined how quality of service (QoS) comes into play for service providers, consumers, and parallel transactions, and here, I'll show how it fits into composite Web services.
Abstract: An Internet application can invoke several services--a stock-trading Web service, for example, could invoke a payment service, which could then invoke an authentication service. Such a scenario is called a composite Web service, and it can be specified statically or established dynamically. Dynamic composition of Web services requires service consumers to discover service providers that satisfy given functional and nonfunctional requirements including cost and QoS requirements such as performance and availability. In previous columns, I've examined how quality of service (QoS) comes into play for service providers, consumers, and parallel transactions. Here, I'll show how it fits into composite Web services.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present empirical information regarding the types and magnitude of corrupt behaviors documented in water supply and sanitation service provision in several South Asian localities and examine the strengths and weaknesses of current strategies to reduce corruption among several public water and sanitation bureaucracies in South Asia, drawing on interviews and focus group discussions with more than 1,400 staff, customers and key informants.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The research presented in this paper applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reveal and analyse transhipment port selection by global carriers, revealing that both global container carriers and port service providers had a similar perception of the most important service attributes for transhipMENT port selection.
Abstract: The research presented in this paper applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reveal and analyse transhipment port selection by global carriers. In all, 47 relevant service attributes were recorded from a literature review. Two rounds of Delphi surveys – followed by brainstorming sessions – were conducted among experts in industry and academia, in order to narrow their number to four main service attributes|[sol]|criteria comprising 12 sub-criteria. An AHP designed questionnaire survey was distributed to 20 port users, which covered the total population of global ocean container operators, and to 20 transhipment service providers (port operators|[sol]|authorities). The results of the AHP analysis revealed that both global container carriers and port service providers had a similar perception of the most important service attributes for transhipment port selection. However, the AHP weight ranking of the sub-criteria involved was not identical between the two surveys, providing scope for further adaptation of service providers to users' priorities. Differences in the performance ranking of six major container ports by global carriers, as revealed in the AHP survey, were then combined with the calculated weights for the 12 transhipment port selection sub-criteria to explore critical attributes where transhipment market strategy could focus. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2004) 6, 70–91.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptualization of health care services in which customer compliance outside of the service organization is necessary for successful health outcomes is provided and empirically tested, using data from service providers and customers in a weight-loss clinic.
Abstract: This research provides and empirically tests a conceptualization of health care services in which customer compliance outside of the service organization is necessary for successful health outcomes. Using data from service providers and customers in a weight-loss clinic, the authors examine the provider’s role in gaining customer compliance. They find that provider expertise and attitudinal homophily play a role in bringing about customer role clarity, ability, and motivation. This study demonstrates that compliance leads to goal attainment, which results in satisfaction. More important, compliance also leads to satisfaction directly; consumers who comply with program requirements have greater satisfaction with the program.

Patent
28 May 2004
TL;DR: In this article, a gateway is used to collect user information, such as physiological, audio, video, and proximity information, and send the user information to remote service providers through one or more head-end servers.
Abstract: A system, device, and method for remote monitoring and servicing uses a gateway to collect user information, such as physiological, audio, video, and proximity information. The gateway processes the user information locally, and may send the user information or other information, such as alarms, to remote service providers through one or more head-end servers. The gateway also allows service provider information, such as audio and video information, to be conveyed from the service providers to the users. The gateway may output video information on a predetermined television channel, and may output audio information on the predetermined television channel or to a wireless remote controller with in-built speaker. The gateway may receive audio information from the user via a wireless remote controller with in-built microphone. The gateway provide for videoconferencing between the user and one or more remote service providers.

Patent
02 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the server determines if a virtual machine already exists that offers the service, and if so, the server returns an identifier of the virtual machine to the requesting client so that the client may access the service from the VM.
Abstract: A server receives a request for a service. The server determines if a virtual machine already exists that offers the service. If so, the server returns an identifier of the virtual machine to the requesting client so that the client may access the service from the virtual machine. Otherwise, the server attempts to create an image of a virtual machine offering the service. If successful in creating the image, the image is installed as a new virtual machine in a host machine, and the server returns an identifier of the newly created virtual machine to the client.

Patent
31 Aug 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, a load balancing service for a plurality of customers performs load balancing among customers' requests for Web content across the customer Web servers. But, the load balancing is not considered in this paper.
Abstract: A load balancing service for a plurality of customers performs load balancing among a plurality of customer Web servers. Requests for Web content are load balanced across the customer Web servers. The load balancing service provider charges a fee to the customers for the load balancing service. A caching service is also provided that comprises a plurality of caching servers connected to a network. The caching servers host customer content that can be cached and stored, e.g., images, video, text, and/or software. The caching servers respond to requests for Web content from clients. The load balancing service provider charges a fee to the customers for the Web caching service.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how service quality of the service providers and perceived value affect customer satisfaction and how customer satisfaction will affect their behavioural intention to continue to use SMS which in turn affects the extent of SMS usage in the local context.
Abstract: SMS, being an almost instantaneous communication medium that connects people, is now a phenomenon that has grown and spread around the globe at an amazing speed. Given the current trend of SMS usage and its potential growth, this paper will provide an insight of the extent to which how service quality and the value perceived by the SMS users have an impact on their extent of the SMS usage in the post SMS adoption phase. Specifically, this article will examine how service quality of the service providers and perceived value affect customer satisfaction and how customer satisfaction will affect their behavioural intention to continue to use SMS which in turn affects the extent of SMS usage in the local context. Using partial-least-squares, an analysis was conducted based on the 150 surveys collected to test for the proposed relationships. The results showed that the tangibles, empathy and assurance dimensions of service quality are antecedents of customer satisfaction and a positive relationship exists between customer satisfaction and customers' behavioural intentions to continue to use SMS. Additionally, the positive relationship between customers' behavioural intentions to continue to use SMS and the extent of SMS usage is also significant. These results were similar to the results shown by Cronin and Taylor (1992) studies. The perceived value/customer satisfaction relationship investigated in this research was in line with Fornell et al.(1996) and Cronin et al.(2000) where perceived value was one of the determinants of customer satisfaction. Specially, the results revealed that perceived value, together with tangibles, empathy and assurance aspects of the service quality, played an important role in determining customer satisfaction for SMS. Implications of the above results for research and practice are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a battery of measures that can be used to measure customer service quality in e-banking services, including access, website interface, trust, attention and credibility.
Abstract: Service quality measurement in Internet banking services is an area of growing interest to researchers and managers. Building on a synthesis of the extant literature on service quality in traditional services and that of Internet delivered services, this study develops a battery of measures that can be used to measure customer service quality in e-banking services. The study shows that service quality in e-banking can be measured using twenty-one parsimonious measures spread across five dimensions, namely, access, Website interface, trust, attention and credibility. The article discusses the importance of these findings for practitioners and for future research on service quality in Internet delivered services.

Patent
08 Nov 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, a hosted service provider for the Internet is operated so as to provide dynamic management of hosted services across disparate customer accounts and/or geographically distinct sites, such as Amazon EC2.
Abstract: A hosted service provider for the Internet is operated so as to provide dynamic management of hosted services across disparate customer accounts and/or geographically distinct sites.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the importance that customers place on the product and service attributes that drive their satisfaction with, and loyalty to, service providers is determined, and the importance of attributes is evaluated.
Abstract: Determining the importance that customers place on the product and service attributes that drive their satisfaction with, and loyalty to, service providers is an essential part of a firm’s resource...

Proceedings ArticleDOI
05 Jan 2004
TL;DR: This paper discusses the design principles, functionality, and application of the proposed GridAnt workflow manager, an extensible client-side workflow management system, called GridAnt, developed.
Abstract: Process management is an extremely important concept in both business and scientific communities. Several workflow management tools have been proposed in recent years offering advanced functionality in various domains. In the business world, workflow vendors offer commercial and customized solutions targeting specific users. In the scientific world, several open-source workflow management tools are freely available. However they are directed toward service aggregation rather than distributed process management. Little consideration is given to the needs of the client in terms of mapping the process flow of the client. In the grid community it is essential that the grid users have such a tool available enabling them to orchestrate complex work-flows on the fly without substantial help from the service providers. At the same time it is important that the grid user not be burdened with the intricacies of the workflow system. With the perspective of the grid user in mind, an extensible client-side workflow management system, called GridAnt, has been developed. This paper discusses the design principles, functionality, and application of the proposed GridAnt workflow manager.

Patent
27 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the analysis engine configures a filter router to advertise new routing information to the border and edge routers of the ISP network to reroute attack traffic and non-attack traffic destined for the customer network to the filter router.
Abstract: Service attacks, such as denial of service and distributed denial of service attacks, of a customer network are detected and subsequently mitigated by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that services the customer network. A sensor examines the traffic entering the customer network for attack traffic. When an attack is detected, the sensor notifies an analysis engine within the ISP network to mitigate the attack. The analysis engine configures a filter router to advertise new routing information to the border and edge routers of the ISP network. The new routing information instructs the border and edge routers to reroute attack traffic and non-attack traffic destined for the customer network to the filter router. At the filter router, the attack traffic and non-attack traffic are automatically filtered to remove the attack traffic. The non-attack traffic is passed back onto the ISP network for routing towards the customer network.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Why optimal design of depot and hub transportation networks for parcel service providers makes it necessary to develop a generalized hub location and vehicle routing model (VRM) is described.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the negative impact of service failures on customer loyalty was investigated and the moderating role of affective commitment on post-failure attitudes and loyalty intentions under two service failure conditions: a successful and poor service recovery.
Abstract: This purpose of this study was to investigate the negative impact of service failures on customer loyalty. More specifically, we examined the moderating role of affective commitment on post‐failure attitudes and loyalty intentions under two service failure conditions: a successful and poor service recovery. Our findings indicate that emotionally‐bonded customers might feel “betrayed” when a service failure occurs, thus resulting in sharp decrease in post‐recovery attitudes. Conversely, this negativity effect was limited to poor service recovery among consumers with low affective commitment. Customers with lower levels of emotional bonding with the service provider were more “forgiving” when the service recovery was effectively handled. Poor service recovery led to more ambivalent post‐failure attitudes irrespective of the degree of affective commitment between the customer and the service provider. Finally, the results suggest that affective commitment might reduce the spill‐over effects of service failures to future loyalty behaviors. The implications for retention management strategies are briefly discussed.

01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore relative importance of service quality dimensions across a'select' service context and suggest that all the service quality dimension are equally important as no proper order of their importance could be established, the service performance in relation to the 'expectations' is poor in respect of nearly all the dimensions and in all the select services, and the nature of service does not seem to have a role in establishing an order of importance of the dimensions.
Abstract: Three forces dominate the prevailing marketing environment in the service sector: increasing competition from private players, changing and improving technologies, and continuous shifts in the regulatory environment, which has led to the growing customer sophistication. Customers have become more and more aware of their requirements and demand higher standards of services. Their perceptions and expectations are continually evolving, making it difficult for the service providers to measure and manage services effectively. The key lies in improving the service selectively, paying attention to more critical service attributes/dimensions as a part of customer service management. It is an imperative to understand how sensitive the customers are to various service attributes or dimensions. Allocating resources in the fashion that is consistent with customer priorities can enhance the effectiveness in the service operations. In addition, customer service attribute priorities need to be fully explored in service specific contexts. This paper is an attempt to explore relative importance of service quality dimensions across a ‘select’ service context. The results suggest that (1) all the service quality dimensions are equally important as no proper order of their importance could be established, (2) the service performance in relation to the ‘expectations’ is poor in respect of nearly all the dimensions and in all the select services, and (3) the nature of service does not seem to have a role in establishing an order of importance of the dimensions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A conceptual model of customer perceived value is proposed and empirically investigated in this article, where the authors argue that time and location are explicit value dimensions and contrast them to traditional value dimensions.
Abstract: Considering the empowered customer interacting with technology‐based self‐services, temporal and spatial access can be argued to influence service delivery. However, service management models have not considered the value of the service delivery at various locations and time frames not controlled by the service provider. Consequently, by arguing that time and location are explicit value dimensions, this paper investigates the importance of time and location and contrasts them to traditional value dimensions. A conceptual model of customer perceived value is proposed and empirically investigated. By linking value and quality models, customer perceived value is conceptualized as a function of benefit and sacrifice of technical, functional, temporal and spatial value dimensions. The empirical findings indicate that time and location are perceived as important value dimensions and that they are even more important dimensions than outcome and process elements. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the relationship between customer participation and service providers' perceived workload and found that customer participation is positively related to service providers's perceived workload, which implies that it is inappropriate to decrease the number of service employees based on service designs that include customer participation.
Abstract: For service providers, whether customers can act the role of partial employees when participating in the service production and delivery process is a subject that has been receiving conflicting explanations and has not been analysed empirically. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between customer participation and service providers' perceived workload. Empirical results of survey data collected from 293 customer‐contact employees at 64 restaurants in Taiwan indicate that customer participation is positively related to service providers' perceived workload, which implies that it is inappropriate to decrease the number of service employees based on service designs that include customer participation. Implications of these findings for managing customer participation, as well as future research directions, are subsequently discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A model of library success that shows how information service quality relates to other variables associated with success is proposed and tested and indicates that service quality is best measured with a performance-based version of SERVQUAL.