C. Miguel

Collaborative relationship bundling: a new angle on services marketing

This article proposes a new approach to bundling for both the marketing of services and relationship marketing. Reviews the literature on both bundling and relationship marketing and puts forward a new theoretical approach. Uses the case method as a means of defending the argument and justifies its use in this specific research project. Demonstrates that collaborative relationship bundling can constitute the strategic core of a company; at least, if the firms primary goal is to maximise the opportunities of attracting valuable customers within competitive markets. Research bears out some results from previous studies, while it finds other results to be questionable. Shows that the strategic implications of bundling are only partially explained in terms of a price or product focus, which was what previous research had concentrated on. A specific price bundle can have more strategic implications than a different specific product bundle, due to the associative power of bundling and its interactive capacity. As an essential part of this approach, a company must define bundling through an in‐depth appraisal of the actual contextual experience of the customer, rather than focusing solely on reservation prices, which is where previous literature had laid its main emphasis. Calculates the lifetime value of the average customer attracted through bundling as compared to that of the average customer in the sector studied, and thus is able to demonstrate that the customer attracted through bundling is of greater value. The case method provides an in‐depth explanation but the results it provides may not necessarily be generalised into other contexts. Develops therefore a model to identify the factors that explain the success registered in the case selected for analysis. Puts forward 11 propositions suitable for comparative application in other contexts.

Effect of stress and/or field annealing on the magnetic behavior of the (Co77Si13.5B9.5)90Fe7Nb3 amorphous alloy

Variations of coercive field, induced magnetic anisotropy, and saturation magnetostriction constant in (Co77Si13.5B9.5)90Fe7Nb3 amorphous ribbons submitted to stress and/or axial magnetic-field annealing are reported. The annealing was carried out by using the Joule-heating effect (average temperature values of the sample corresponding to the intensity of the electrical current were 273, 378, 409, and 445°C) and the applied stress and axial magnetic field during the thermal treatments were 500MPa and 750A∕m, respectively. As a result of these treatments, a uniaxial in-plane magnetic anisotropy, which affects drastically the soft magnetic character of the samples, was developed.

Study of the Decrystallization Process Induced by Mechanical Alloying in the Fe100-xBx System

Mechanical alloying (MA) technique is used for the decrystallization of Fe100-xBx samples. Wide Angle X-ray Scattering has been used to monitor the decrystallization kinetics, whose time dependence can be fitted by a stretched exponential function for Fe-rich samples and by a single exponential for B-rich ones. In all samples, milling times of around 500 h lead to very low crystallinity percentages (around 5%). This residual crystalline phase corresponds to a mixture of FeB and Fe2B phases, being the αFe phase almost disappeared at the same time. During the decrystallization, the grain size of the αFe phase changes appreciably from 40 nm down to 15 nm. Characterization of the samples in their final state with Vibrating Sample Magnetometer showed soft magnetic character in all the cases. The obtained values for the coercitive field revealed high internal stresses induced by MA. Introduction Different techniques (ultrarapid quenching, vapor deposition, sputtering and solid state amorphization reactions (SSAR)) have been used to produce “transition metal metalloid” amorphous materials. The first methods show problems of segregation when the components present very different melting points. Mechanical alloying (MA) (one of the SSAR) in a planetary mill avoids this inconvenience because the collisions of the balls (with the other balls and with the walls of the containing vessel) provide the necessary energy for the blending. The process is complex and involves deformation, fragmentation, cold welding and microdiffusion processes. As a consequence, the optimization of the parameters (type of mill, materials of the vessel and the balls, ball to powder ratio, quantity of the ductile element in the materials, etc...) and monitoring of the technique are very difficult. Therefore it is difficult to get the same type of materials for a given initial mixture under different conditions and we can find in the literature that different phases are obtained [1-3]. In the present work, a systematic study of the decrystallization process by MA of Fe100-xBx samples has been developed in order to determine the final phases resulting from the process. Even though Fe and B atoms show similar diffusion coefficients and the amorphization is not totally completed [4], it has been shown that the alloying is achieved by interdiffusion of both elements [5]. It is interesting to determine the final phases existing after the milling process because it exists some controversy in this question: some papers [2] point out that, after 600 hours of milling time, α-Fe, Fe2B, FeB and amorphous phase are obtained although others [3] does not signal FeB phase to be present in the resulting material. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) technique has been used to follow the decrystallization kinetics. Moreover, the characteristical crystallite size has been obtained for each resulting phase. Magnetic characterization of the resulting samples in their final state after the milling process has been performed in order to describe their soft magnetic properties. Journal of Metastable and Nanocrystalline Materials Online: 2004-07-07 ISSN: 2297-6620, Vols. 20-21, pp 449-454 doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/JMNM.20-21.449

Phase distribution and magnetic properties of mechanically alloyed Fe/sub x/B/sub (1-x)/ (25/spl les/x/spl les/75)

In this paper, our aim is to explore the potential as soft materials of mechanically alloyed samples of the FeB system. To that purpose we have followed the evolution with the milling time of their phase distribution and examined the magnetic properties of the final products of the milling process. The phase distributions of samples milled for different times were analyzed using wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and their thermal stability was investigated from calorimetric results. The study of the hysteretic properties was carried out by using a vibrating sample magnetometer working in the temperature range from 4.2 up to 300 K under applied fields of up to 2 T.