1,720,970 research outputs found
Developing Customer-Employee Rapport in Multichannel Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Service Settings
No full textThis thesis investigates rapport development in multichannel business-to-consumer (B2C) service settings. Previous studies on rapport have adopted a unidirectional, single perspective (mostly the customer’s), although rapport is dyadic in nature and converges the behaviours of and outcomes for both customers and service employees. Moreover, research in recent years has focused on how rapport develops predominantly in the face-to-face channel of interaction and disregards other channels (i.e., voice-to-voice, online), despite contextual differences among the interaction channels that might influence the way rapport is built in each. In addition, with online service encounters growing rapidly, it is surprising that research around rapport development in the online channel of interaction is scarce. These are the three gaps in the literature that the thesis aims to address, which led to three research questions (RQs) being identified: 1) What are the shared rapport-building behaviours and outcomes for customers and service employees?, 2) How does rapport development vary across the different channels of interaction?, and 3) How does rapport develop in the online channel of interaction?
Drawing on social exchange theory and following a Service Logic perspective, the thesis seeks to answer the three RQs by adopting an interpretive approach using two interlinked qualitative empirical studies. In study one (addressing RQ1 and RQ2), semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 45 participants from the telecom (11 customers and 10 employees) and banking (11 customers and 13 employees) sectors. Thematic analysis revealed four rapport-building behaviours (i.e., emotional oscillation, homophily, mutual attentiveness, benevolent acts beyond the ‘call of duty’), and two outcomes (i.e., commercial friendships, mutual satisfaction with the service encounter) of rapport that are shared between customers and employees during service interactions. Moreover, four differences between the channels of interaction were uncovered (i.e., interaction space, speed of rapport development, emotional display, degree of friendliness). Study two (addressing RQ3) used netnography to examine 600 exchanges (four tweets per exchange on average) from Twitter, which were collected from 12 companies in six service sectors (two companies per sector who are leading exponents of building rapport using Twitter). Thematic analysis of the exchanges uncovered two sets of rapport-building behaviours (one used by service employees and the other by customers) that are characteristic of the online channel, as well as three potential outcomes of rapport. Six employee-initiated (i.e., emojional contagion, interjections, tools of wider engagement, netspeak ‘lingo’, use of humour, expressive speech acts), and four customer-initiated (i.e., capturing the moment, graphics interchange formats, anthropomorphism, proactive self-disclosure) rapport-building behaviours were identified. In addition, one employee- (i.e., job satisfaction) and two customer-related (i.e., customer satisfaction, future loyalty intentions) outcomes of rapport in the online interaction channel were revealed.
This research adds to the growing body of literature on rapport development and contributes to our understanding of value co-creation and Service Logic online. More specifically, the study is the first to look at rapport as a holistic process that accounts for the interaction channel as well as the behaviours and outcomes of both interacting parties at the same time, thereby accounting for the reciprocal, dyadic nature of the concept. From a theoretical standpoint, this thesis makes three contributions to the service marketing literature. First, it takes a bidirectional approach to investigating shared rapport-building behaviours and outcomes. By looking at the perspectives of both customers and service employees in line with the principles of social exchange theory, a more accurate assessment of rapport development is made. Second, this is the first study to compare between the different channels of interaction regarding rapport development. This gives service companies insights into those rapport-building behaviours that are most appropriate for each channel of interaction so that customers enjoy a seamless service experience across the different touchpoints. Third, the study introduces the online rapport framework (ORF), which portrays two sets of online rapport-building behaviours (one initiated by service employees and the other by customers), as well as three possible outcomes of rapport (one for service employees and two for customers). The ORF is the first comprehensive assessment of rapport development as a holistic process that accounts for the reciprocal, dyadic nature of the concept in the online channel of interaction. The framework demonstrates how rapport can still develop successfully in online service encounters between customers and employees despite the absence of key social cues (e.g., facial expression, voice tone). Managerial implications and study limitations are discussed at the end of the thesis
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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