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Purpose In today’s highly competitive business environment, the main approach of all businesses is to optimally provide customers’ requirements and gain their satisfaction and trust. The process of value creation for customers consists of value chain activities which are concentrated on providing maximum level of customers’ needs. The purpose of this paper is to propose a holistic model by which the quality, the transferred value to customers and the firm’s competitive advantage would be improved simultaneously under budget constraint.Design/methodology/approach This study uses a combination of several quality management (QM) tools including SERVQUAL, Kano’s model, quality function deployment and knapsack problem. Moreover, the triangular fuzzy logic is used throughout the model to address data uncertainty and increase the model flexibility. The proposed model includes five steps which are implemented in the case study of life-insurance services.Findings The lack of coordination and cooperation between the people working in the inherently related sections leads to incorrect decisions and also the failure in implementation of adopted decisions. Hence, the interface between quality and strategic management should be well considered in organizations. The model generates an integrated vision to the process of decision making in this interface. The framework has several significant outcomes which would be used by both researchers and practitioners.Research limitations/implications The study shows that the individual elements of decision-making process in the interface between quality and strategic management are related to each other, recommending the need to coordinated and consistent effort between different parts of a firm. The results are limited by the sample size and geography of the survey.Originality/value This paper is among the few in the literature that have presented a holistic and step-by-step approach to the decisions on the intersection between two areas of quality and strategic management, recommending the managers to not have insular look to the issues and try to make a sufficient and efficient relationship between the different sections. This study is an important step in reflecting these relations and the need to create an integrated decision model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Statistics shows terrifying tendencies in people’ unwillingness to develop themselves by reading books. The situation is even more serious if we look at companies and their employees. People want to be specialists, but in fact reading culture in companies is rare. Many actions which are undertaken to reverse this trend may lead to sales increase of books by collecting them instead of reading them, if the quality of handbooks will not be improved. To enhance people to read, it is essential to offer them a product that would really satisfy their needs. The study presented in the paper contributes to the knowledge about some general practitioners requirements for handbooks on methods, in particular these used in quality and management. It shows also the usefulness of Kano’s model application in the new area. A case study was conducted with the application of Kano’s model to identify potential readers’ expectations of a handbook for practitioners in problem-solving methods. The research was based on sample size equal to 376 different people: managers, specialists, operators, directors, students and professors in Poland. As a result, a book on problem solving method called “5 why” was created to verify if the model really works.Design/methodology/approach It shows the usefulness of Kano’s model application in the new area of education.Findings Potential readers’ expectations of a handbook for practitioners in problem solving methods were identified. The research was based on sample size equal to 376 different people: managers, specialists, operators, directors, students and professors in Poland.Social implications By taking into consideration expectations from customers, authors of books and educational services may improve their works. Both sides would make profits form this: customers – better product, authors – bigger and satisfied audience.Originality/value From many previous researches, it is known that the Kano’s model is a useful, practical tool for industries; however, studies show that it is also well applicable in providing education service. As a result of the research, a book on problem-solving method called “5 why” was created to prove if the model really works in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to classify service quality elements using Kano’s two-way quality model in terms of their instrumentality to customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Service quality attributes as borrowed from the literature are classified into attractive, one dimensional, and must-be quality elements. Combinations of participants’ response to the functional and dysfunctional questions formed around each service quality element in the Kano evaluation table were instrumental in categorizing service quality elements. Customer satisfaction index in the form of satisfaction increment index (SII) and the dissatisfaction decrement index (DDI) is calculated for each of the quality attributes and service quality dimensions. Findings – Out of the 15 service quality elements two are attractive quality, six are one-dimensional quality, and seven are found to be of must-be quality. No attribute can be identified as indifferent quality or reverse quality. The convenience dimension and the operating hours attribute list on top in terms of satisfaction increment index score. The reliability dimension and the courteousness attribute list on top in terms of dissatisfaction decrement index score. Practical implications – The findings help the marketer to prioritize improvement of service quality elements and/or dimensions to satisfy customers. Originality/value – The paper develops an integrated approach to facilitate marketers identify which of the service quality elements and/or dimensions require attention to strategize effectively in order to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address issues of performance optimization through accounting for asymmetric responses of customer satisfaction to different types of product or service attributes: core, facilitating and "green" (eco-friendly). The primary research inquiry was to explore how these attributes affect customer satisfaction and account for interactions among them in order to identify an optimal combination that would maximize customer satisfaction in lodging industry settings. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design and a web-based survey were used to collect data from a convenience sample of faculty and staff of two US universities. Univariate and regression analysis were two primary methods of data analysis. Findings – The findings confirmed non-linear nature of customer satisfaction response and indicated that "green" attributes impact customer satisfaction similarly to facilitating attributes but differently from the core type of attributes in the context of lodging industry. Research limitations/implications – Generalizability of the findings is bounded by convenience sampling technique. Additionally, only limited number of hotel attributes was examined. Practical implications – The current findings help to solve the problem of performance optimization and allow creating hotel offerings that yield maximum levels of customer satisfaction and optimal resource allocation. Originality/value – The study provides additional knowledge about factor structure of customer satisfaction and points on the place and role of "green" attributes in formation of CS in the context of lodging industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to classify and assess the importance levels of the quality attributes of E-S-QUAL measurement scale, aiming to focus on the most important attributes to improve. Design/methodology/approach – E-S-QUAL measurement scale is classified according to Kano's model and the relative importance levels of the E-S-QUAL quality attributes are revealed via analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The data of the study were gathered through a questionnaire, which consisted of four parts and was applied to 202 online shoppers in Izmir/Turkey. Findings – Almost all of the quality attributes are placed under one-dimensional category. Privacy dimension is found to be a high value-added attribute, whereas the least important attributes are found to be within the efficiency dimension. None of the quality attributes of E-S-QUAL are regarded as attractive attributes. Practical implications – This study is expected to attract the attention of practitioners on the most important quality attributes that affect customer satisfaction, which will help them reduce the time-consuming and heavy efforts on improving the e-service quality attributes that would not matter to the customers. The authors hold that the proposed evaluation of e-service quality measurement scales, in general, provides an effective and operational procedure to assess customer perception toward the quality of online service; so that firms can achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction through increasing the level of quality of their online services Originality/value – This study is expected to contribute to the literature, as being the primary study focusing on the classification of E-S-QUAL quality attributes through Kano's Model by determining the relative importance levels via AHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine overall customer satisfaction associated with medical service quality in Taiwan by integrated Kano's model and customer satisfaction index model. Another purpose was to confirmed nonlinear and asymmetric relationship of Customer Satisfaction and Quality Performance by the research outcome. By analyzing 1,100 patients or their family members, this study used the structural equation model (SEM) with AMOS software for data analysis. The results show that must-be attributes, one-dimensional attributes and attractive attributes had a direct effect on overall customer satisfaction, Surprisingly, overall customer satisfaction had positively influenced customer loyalty customer satisfaction had negatively influenced customer complaints. The study also found that customer complaints have direct effect on customer loyalty. Importantly, the study found out the must-be attributes, the attractive attributes and one-dimensional attributes increased, the level of overall customer satisfaction also increased. The customer satisfaction positively influences customer loyalty in medical service quality in Taiwan. The findings might reveal new insights for researchers dealing with quality of medical service and for hospital managers who devote resources exclusively to achieving highest possible levels of patient satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]