Africa

The authors explore strategic issues in briefing, design and operation of buildings and their services. Feedback from post-occupancy surveys suggests a need for better integration, less complication, and robust rather than optimum performance, with a concentration on ends rather than means. Emphasis must be given to usability, manageability and minimizing downside risks.

Les auteurs examinent des questions stratégiques liées à l'information, la conception et l'exploitation de bâtiments et de leurs services. Les informations extraites d'enquêtes menées auprés d'anciens occupants font ressortir la nécessité d'une meilleure int'gration, d'une simplification et de caractéristiques d'exploitation solides plutôt qu'optimales, avec une concentration sur la fin plutôt que sur les moyens. L'accent doit être mis sur les facilités d'utilisation et de gestion et sur une minimisation des risques.     

Examining users′ intention to continue using social network games: A flow experience perspective

Social network sites games (SNGs) are growing in acceptance for users, but the intention to continue using such games requires further exploration because of the acceptance–discontinuance anomaly phenomenon (i.e., users discontinuing use of SNGs after initially accepting them). The study integrates interaction and value as the antecedents of user satisfaction and flow experience; furthermore affects the SNG continuance. The results reveal the importance of flow experience, which plays a mediation role and produces indirect effects in predicting the SNGs continuance in the model. Based on the results, practical implications for SNG marketing strategies and theoretical implications will be provided.     

Users' intrinsic and extrinsic drivers to use a web-based educational environment

The aim of this study is to gain further insight into the drivers that help in the design of desirable web-based educational environments. The specific objectives are twofold: (1) to explore the main drivers of learners' responses, in terms of their ongoing patronage and recommendation of learning tools to others; and (2) to clarify the significance of exploratory behaviour as a moderator that contributes to users' e-loyalty. Drawing on the fields of design, non-economic satisfaction, and e-loyalty, this quasi-experimental study hinges on analysis of survey data to assess college students' online usage experiences. Aesthetics and usefulness have significant effects on perceptions of the extent to which students' goals and desires are met, and, by extension, extrinsic outcomes and e-loyalty. Making an educational tool simpler to use, however, has hardly any effect on users' perceptions of its usefulness. Furthermore, when usage is more instrumental, expressive issues weaken users' satisfaction-based processes. Our research also indicates that individual differences based on variety-seeking personality traits play an important role in users' decisions to accept e-learning tools. This article may therefore act as a springboard for further empirical research, as well as clarifying and examining the nature of e-learning tools' enduring usage amongst college students.     

Comparative study of pheromone control heuristics in ACO algorithms for solving RCPSP problems

Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) belong to a kind of traditional NP-hard problems with a high impact on both research and industrial domains. The goal of these problems is to find a feasible assignment for a group of variables where a set of imposed restrictions is satisfied. This family of NP-hard problems demands a huge amount of computational resources even for their simplest cases. For this reason, different heuristic methods have been studied so far in order to discover feasible solutions at an affordable complexity level. This paper elaborates on the application of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithms with a novel CSP-graph based model to solve Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problems (RCPSP). The main drawback of this ACO-based model is related to the high number of pheromones created in the system. To overcome this issue we propose two adaptive Oblivion Rate heuristics to control the number of pheromones: the first one, called Dynamic Oblivion Rate, takes into account the overall number of pheromones produced in the system, whereas the second one inspires from the recently contributed Coral Reef Optimization (CRO) solver. A thorough experimental analysis has been carried out using the public PSPLIB library, and the obtained results have been compared to those of the most relevant contributions from the related literature. The performed experiments reveal that the Oblivion Rate heuristic removes at least 79% of the pheromones in the system, whereas the ACO algorithm renders statistically better results than other algorithmic counterparts from the literature.     

Understanding the role of gender in bloggers' switching behavior

Blog has become an increasingly popular form of social networking technology in recent years. Many world famous web sites (e.g., Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google) are providing blog services on the Internet. Bloggers, therefore, can easily establish and maintain their blogs through such services. However, research on blogs' adoption and diffusion is rare. In this study, we attempt to study bloggers' post-adoption behaviors. We examine bloggers' intention to switch their blog services by building upon studies in the marketing and IS literature. Particularly, the role of gender is explored and an online survey is conducted to test the research model. Findings confirm that bloggers' intention to switch their blog services is strongly associated with three factors: satisfaction, sunk costs, and attractive alternatives. Meanwhile, moderating effects are found in gender, but not in sunk costs. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are provided.     

地图编研工作中的技术质量管理

随着社会经济的不断向前发展，城市化进程不断加剧，地图的编辑、生产工作也面临着新的挑战和社会需求，在产品的技术含量和质量上有了更高的要求。本文从地图编研工作面临的形势、技术质量管理的现状和发展方向全面阐述了地图编研工作中的技术质量管理相关问题。     

顾客满意的理解与实施

综述了顾客满意是贯穿GB/T1900O族标准的主线,分析了顾客流失对企业生存发展的影响,浅议了顾客是企业生存和发展的重要资源,通过实例探索性地提出了培养良好的人际关系、实施有效沟通的特色方法.     

Satisfaction and switching intention in mobile services: Comparing lock-in and free contracts in the Spanish market

Switching costs are a relevant issue affecting market competition in the mobile services industry. However, customer switching costs have not disappeared, since numerous leading mobile services companies use lock-in strategies, such as obliged long-term contractual relationships. The present study provides and empirically test a conceptual model in order to analyze the creation of customer satisfaction and switching intention with mobile services, as well as to examine the differences between lock-in and free contracts in a South European mature market – Spain. For this purpose, drawing on a sample of 370 customers, we developed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through a multi-group analysis. Our findings suggest that service quality is one of the key determinants of satisfaction, while the availability of attractive alternatives is the main switching barrier. Moreover, some interesting differences were found between the two type of contracts analyzed. Consequently, we suggest shifting resources to customer retention through improved service quality for reducing customer churn rate.     

A computerized team approach for concurrent product and process design optimization

Concurrent product and process design (CPPD) can be handled by developing a computerized team approach. In the team approach, CPPD at the top-level abstraction is treated as a two-objective optimization problem with a view to two teams: design and manufacture. The design team aims to optimize the overall product functionality (or performance) and the manufacture team to minimize the total manufacturing cost. Satisfaction metrics are used to characterize the degree of how each team prefers a design in seeking the most favorite that best fulfills the goal of a team. Using min and geometric mean operators as a baseline, the satisfaction levels of two teams can be aggregated with respect to strategic team paradigms derived from game theory. With satisfaction metrics, three dual-team based CPPD models are developed, along with the computational algorithms, in an attempt to reveal team activities in the context of design. The procedures to simulate and implement various team design models are demonstrated through a design example.     

The human element: Its impact on the productivity of advanced batch manufacturing systems

Introducing highly automated machinery combining direct numerical control capabilities with automated material handling could potentially revolutionize batch production. However, experience suggests that projected uptime or utilization is not being achieved. Increased attention must be paid to employee satisfaction, motivation, incentive programs, and work group design.