Cecilia Silvestri

A systematic literature review on total quality management critical success factors and the identification of new avenues of research

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review to identify new avenues of research in line with the ongoing changes in quality and management required to firms, especially regarding customers.,This study uses a systematic review of the literature contained in the three databases Ebsco, JSTOR, and Springerlink and on the search engine Google Scholar.,An analysis of the literature identifies three different clusters of papers: “identification” papers, which show that customer focus has gained importance in recent times; “implementation” papers, which highlight that a general or shared model or scale to successfully implement total quality management (TQM) does not yet exist; and “impact-on-performance” papers, which show that few studies have considered the relationship between TQM and the issues of both marketing and performance, underlining the most significant gap in the TQM literature.,This study is limited by the small number of databases and search engines used and by the restricted number of keywords used in searching these sources.,This work highlights a gap in the existing research and thus an incomplete consideration of the interplay between management, marketing, and quality issues, all centered on customers and other stakeholders. Researchers and firms are thus advised to adopt a wider view that considers the role of the quality process to support the firm’s engagement of customers in activities that enhance both the customer role and customer satisfaction.,This study uses a systematic literature review to review all critical factors of TQM and identifies new research avenues and different approaches to implementing TQM, focusing on the central role that customers play in achieving firm success.

Public Policy Innovation in Distance and On-Line Learning: Reflections on the Italian Case

The dynamic evolution of competences required by professions has to match ever-evolving contexts, in which the growth of the demand of new professionals, poses the threat of a skill shortage. The role of learning and training is strategic to this regard, also thanks to the use of on-line and distance learning that use Internet based technologies to allow learning to be administered in context different than the traditional face-to-face. Literature highlights that e-learning has to be implemented following specific strategies. Within this perspective, this chapter presents and discusses the recent experiences of the public policies for e-learning in Italy.

Digital Innovation in the Job Market: An Explorative Study on Cloud Working Platforms

The evolution of the web has produced a broad change in partnerships and collaboration worldwide due to the centrality of internet, a virtual place where actors from different countries can easily meet and exchange in-formation. This new agency model represents the basis for the development of a new entrepreneurial organization where companies can redefine their idea of business in order to make the web instrumental in the creation of a global social network of actors. This model of cooperation is now possible thank to the creation of the new cloud working platforms that have brought about a revolution in the job market. Main objective of the present work is therefore 1. to analyze and compare, on one hand, three main communities of crowdsourcing (Knowledge or Gig economy) in order to show such evolution, and on the other; 2. to analyze and compare the main platforms of cooperation at distance, in order to identify critical success factors.

Service quality and customer satisfaction in thermal tourism

Purpose Satisfaction in the tourism sector is a highly sensitive subject, and customer satisfaction (CS) has a significant impact on the choice of destinations made by tourists and on the decision to recommend them to friends or acquaintances. The purpose of this paper is to give empirical evidence of the dimensions of service quality (technical, functional and company image (CI)) and their connections in the sector of thermal tourism. It also aims at investigating the CI, seeking to understand whether some of the technical and functional service quality variables play a role in determining it. Design/methodology/approach An empirical survey was conducted by administering a structured research questionnaire in order to collect all necessary data, which was then elaborated to test the hypotheses using factor and multiple regression analyses. Findings The results of the survey confirm the direct impact of service quality dimensions (technical, functional and CI) on CS also in the thermal sector when considered individually. Moreover, when the CI was analyzed further, relational quality was found to be dependent on thermal employees’ capabilities, abilities, trustworthiness, availability, etc. Finally, when considered together, functional service quality and CI have a stronger effect on CS than technical service quality. Originality/value The originality of the present research relies on the following: a further contribution to the so-called “European perspective” of service quality; the study of service quality dimensions (technical, functional and CI) in the thermal sector; and evidencing the link between thermal employee characteristics and the relational quality factor of the CI, demonstrating that many aspects of this construct need further empirical investigation, in the wellness sector.

Consumer Acceptance of the New Red-Fleshed Apple Variety

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate consumer preference for the novel red-fleshed apple genotypes. The information presented provides us with insight into consumer propensity to accept a new variety with radical visible innovative attributes and societal demand for a more sustainable production. The survey was carried out on the population of a province in central Italy, where there is consumer demand for organic and high-quality foods. The consumers’ opinions contrasted greatly and can be divided into two groups. Over one quarter of the respondents declared that they did not like the innovative fruit. The cluster analysis and CHAID analyses were performed on the consumers’ responses to determine sample groupings. Three clusters were identified among the consumers with positive opinions, enthusiastic, health-conscious, and unmotivated illustrating how the hierarchical level of preferences of the potential consumers of the red-fleshed apple fruit are triggered by various motivations. The surveys also pointed out that most consumers of the sampled population were not biased against research activities producing innovative food products. A large number of consumers, especially women, declared that they were willing to pay a higher price considering the increased nutritional value of red-fleshed apple fruits. By examining the broad context of this study, decision-making researchers and operators of the fruit industry will be able to make informed and realistic predictions concerning possible future scenarios and to determine the possible effects and desirability.

Interactions with Open Source Software: a Pilot Study on End Users' Perception

Interest of scientific research on Open Source software and its development process is frequent. The number of articles available and the number of tracks or workshops on this topic in most relevant IS Conferences is high. The usability of Open Source Software has been scarcely considered until few years ago, probably due to the particular role that the user has in such a development environment. In Open Source software development, users and developers are not so different. Anyhow, the diffusion of the Open Source software outside the development community contributes to sharpen the distinction among these two groups that are no longer equivalent. This circumstance has contributed to increase the interest on usability of Open Source software. Nevertheless, studies on end-users in Open Source contexts are still young. This paper introduces a pilot study on end user’s perception of Open Source software. The aim of this pilot study is to identify how the end user perceives the Open Source software (in terms of Usability, Functionality, Reliability, Efficiency and Quality in Use).

Insights into Congestion Costs and Financial Risk Management: The Electricity Market☆

Abstract “Congestion costs” occur in the electricity market when the power flows, equivalent to a projection mapping of energy injection and withdrawal, established by the “electricity stock exchange” and by “bi-lateral contracts”, are incompatible with the transfer capacity guaranteed by the power grid, in required security conditions. Transfer restrictions in the national and transboundary transmission grid can potentially determine the market segmentation in different geographical areas, preventing the producers to compete freely to satisfy the overall demand in those areas. As a result of power congestions, those producers that have reduced limitations in the power transfer are obviously favored, also if in the presence of high marginal production costs and prices, leading to the constitution of pools of producers that de facto control the local market. In particular this paper aims at describing and discussing the problem of power congestions, electricity price formation and congestion risk management.

Open Design in Advanced Manufacturing Production

The speeding up of the competition context, the ongoing globalization of the markets and the growing supply of technological innovation, sometimes involving a radical change in social attitudes, make it very difficult for a company to understand what a consumer really needs (Bertuzzi, 2003; Weerawardenaa and Mavondo, 2011). The logical consequence is that it becomes more and more complex for the enterprise to stay updated, especially for what concerns technological innovation in those sectors, where it represents a key factor for success in competition. Innovation, therefore, becomes for many companies a strategic imperative (Schilling, 2005; D’Aveni et al., 2010; Soloducho-Pelc; 2014).