Armando Calabrese

Using Fuzzy AHP to manage Intellectual Capital assets: An application to the ICT service industry

In todays competitive business environment, Intellectual Capital (IC) management is ever more recognized as a fundamental factor in gaining competitive advantage. Actually, most firms have only a vague idea of how to manage investments in IC and what they should obtain from these investments. As a result, many companies overlook to balance IC investments, overinvesting in some IC components and neglecting other ones. Following this lead, the aim of the paper is to assess the relative importance of IC components, with respect to their contribution to the company value creation, in order to obtain guidelines for IC management and investments. We propose a model for IC evaluation by integrating Fuzzy Logic and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This Fuzzy AHP approach allows to capture and foster IC dynamics: experts and managers are greatly supported by the use of linguistic variables in the evaluation process of the company intangible assets. Finally, the application of the Fuzzy AHP methodology to a group of ICT service companies is presented.

Reframing the past: A new approach in service quality assessment

The development of new approaches for assessing service quality is a priority for both managers and scholars. Until now, the most widely used tool for evaluating service quality is the SERVQUAL. It is based on a disconfirmation pattern, according to which service quality depends on measures of gaps between customer expected and perceived quality; the gaps come from the answers provided to a questionnaire representing fixed quality dimensions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy). Notwithstanding its widespread application, the SERVQUAL has been theoretically and operationally criticised for the invariance of its dimensions across contexts. In contrast to the SERVQUAL and to other unchangeable techniques proposed in previous quality management researches, in this article, we propose a methodology able to assess service quality by means of firm-specific quality dimensions. Particularly, employees’ knowledge is exploited to collect the critical success factors (CSFs) of a company; subsequently, the measurement and management of a company service quality is performed by gathering customer expectations and perceptions, according to the collected CSFs. Total quality management (TQM) has, from long ago, established procedures for managing customer perceived quality but, in this study, an application for overcoming the lack of a systematical implementation of employee knowledge in TQM practices is proposed. This research is explorative in nature and a statistical support for our methodology is provided by an exploratory factor analysis. The results confirm that employees are able to gather quality dimensions customers value and that these dimensions can be successfully employed into a flexible tool for assessing and managing service quality. Moreover, according to the proposed methodology, the evaluation of service quality may change as well as CSFs of a company change; finally, managers may support TQM of a company by monitoring its provided quality on the basis of CSFs.

Real option's model to evaluate infrastructure flexibility: an application to photovoltaic technology

The high level of uncertainty characterising the future market demand in many industrial sectors makes it necessary to use strategic investment evaluation models that foresee the possibility of determining and managing uncertainty in order to be able to fully take the potentials for creating the value associated with it. By using the approach of real options in this work, a mathematical model is provided for choosing a strategic investment in the photovoltaic industry; this model allows management to handle the uncertainty of the demand that cannot otherwise be dealt with by using the Net Present Value (NPV) as a tool to support decisions. Moreover, it will be shown how this evaluation model is able to reduce the risk of a strategic investment, if compared to the NPV, and point out the hidden value drivers of a managerial decision.

A New Approach for Assessing Dealership Performance: An Application for the Automotive Industry

The competitive nature of the contemporary business scenario requires productivity-driven organizations to be aware of the efficiency level of their dealers. The recent economic and financial crisis has highlighted the need for effective evaluation methods going beyond the limits of traditional performance assessment methodologies in the retail industry. The automotive industry is no exception to this logic. In this sector, traditional methods are often based only on market share performances, ignoring the key role of input-output ratios on the overall productivity of the parent company. Following this lead, in this paper we propose a method to evaluate the performance of dealerships taking into account both their market share performances and their efficiency. In order to assess dealership efficiency we use the DEA technique, and apply the proposed methodology to a multinational automotive company considering its Italian dealer network.

Design and blueprinting for total quality management implementation in service organisations

In service companies, the implementation of total quality management (TQM) is hindered by several barriers. Nevertheless, this study shows that it is possible to overcome these barriers by means of a technique for graphically designing or representing service processes, namely service blueprinting (SB). Particularly, a user-friendly methodological approach, which employs SB, is designed for implementing TQM in service organisations. Finally, an action research is performed for testing the effectiveness of the proposed methodological approach.

Combining modelling and simulation approaches: How to measure performance of business processes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for analysing and improving the operational performance of business processes (BPs). Design/methodology/approach – The method employs two standards, Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN 2.0) and Business Processes Simulation (BPSim 1.0), to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) of BPs and test for potential improvements. The BP is first modelled in BPMN 2.0. Operational performance can then be measured using BPSim 1.0. The process simulation also enables execution of reliable “what-if” analysis, allowing improvements of the actual processes under study. To confirm the validity of the method the authors provide an application to the healthcare domain, in which the authors conduct several simulation experiments. The case study examines a standardised patient arrival and treatment process in an orthopaedic-emergency room of a public hospital. Findings – The method permits detection of process criticalities, as well as identifying the best co...

A feedback-based model for CSR assessment and materiality analysis

Abstract Current CSR literature offers little insight into how to engage customers and other stakeholders about their CSR expectations and perceptions. The aim of this paper is to propose a model for CSR evaluation and planning based on the classification of customer CSR feedback through the comparison of three aspects of CSR commitment (disclosed, perceived and expected). Although the paper is focused on customers, the model can be applied indifferently to any stakeholder group, thus providing a valuable instrument for materiality analysis and stakeholder engagement. In effect, the model allows identifying material CSR issues regarding all stakeholder perceptions and expectations.

Competiveness and Innovation in High-tech Companies: an Application to the Italian Biotech and Aerospace Industries

Innovation activities are a critical factor in national and regional development. The innovative behaviour of companies is one of the main sources of competitiveness, business survival, economic growth and employment in a territory. It is therefore important to identify and understand the factors that determine innovation behaviour among enterprises. In line with this, the aim of this study is to analyse the relations between innovation-related variables and the impact that they have on company performance. The research model proposed is applied to two high-tech sectors of the Italian region of Lazio to verify its validity. The examination concerns the aerospace and biotech sectors, which are characterized by strong innovative activity.

Cultural adaptation of web design services as critical success factor for business excellence : A cross-cultural study of Portuguese, Brazilian, Angolan and Macanese web sites

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultural backgrounds of nations are expressed through the web design of their companies. Actually, it investigates whether, in countries characterized by the same cultural matrix and language but by different national backgrounds, the cultural specificities of a country are a critical success factor for web design and enablers of business excellence. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from a deep literature review, four research hypotheses on the relationship between cultural background and web design are formulated. By employing both the content analysis and the cross-tabulation methodology, these hypotheses are tested. Findings – Brazilian, Portuguese, Angolan and Macanese web sites show that companies operating in these countries are aware that cultural background is a necessary success factor to consider for improving cross-cultural management of computer-mediated communication. Indeed, the findings confirm that the internet is not a cultur...

Innovation and competition in two-sided markets: the case of payment systems

This paper proposes a model which analyses the role of technological innovation in the competitiveness and efficiency of the payment system industry. The performance of this industry is described through the use of a mathematical model and the strategies of platforms are analysed considering the role of technological innovation. The paper shows how technological development is the most common competitive strategy in an oligopolistic market of payment platforms. Moreover, the paper shows that these platforms can develop product/service innovations or price differentiations in order to deal with market competition effectively.