Purpose To achieve higher customer satisfaction (CS), companies implement continuous improvement (CI) programs, regardless of the growing evidence of their failure to achieve declared goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify whether companies are able to improve CS through the application of CI; and, second, to identify what organizational practices are able to facilitate the impact of CI on CS. Design/methodology/approach To test the developed assumptions, the study uses the structural equation modeling technique. The data for analysis were collected from 304 service companies via a custom web-survey. Findings The research confirms the direct positive impact of CI on CS. Further, the study demonstrates that management commitment and rewards system that encourages employees to participate in CI play the major facilitating role in improving CS through CI. These practices accompanied by quality-oriented culture and employee training in the improvement tools provide necessary infrastructure to sustain CI in the companies over time. Additionally, regardless of the vital role of goal setting for CI established in previous research, the proposed study finds a limited ability of goal setting, as compared to other organizational practices, to facilitate CI–CS relationship. Originality/value The study contributes to the scarce field of research on CI implementation in the services environment. Further, the research assesses CS as a variable of interest, as opposite to the previous studies, considering CS as a part of the composite variable. The research assesses the impact of the training in CI methodology on the CI–CS relationship, while previous research focuses on the general, work-related training. The findings provide an important basis for further academic work in the area of quality management. The identified practices can serve as guidance for managers, implementing CI in their companies due to the high fit of the proposed model.
In the last few years, the management literature has become noisy with Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Although several concepts and typologies intend to make the phenomenon more understandable, these endeavours generally focus on technological aspects or specific issues. Therefore, integrated approaches of the I4.0 transformation on the business side and a comprehensive investigation of this phenomenon on the academic side are still needed. This paper synthetizes the lessons of 15 case studies from five sectors (automotive, FMCG, logistics services, retail, and business services) and places them in a triadic framework of technology, strategy, and organization. The case studies are based on interviews, internal documents and public information. This paper reveals that the analysed companies focus on I4.0 technologies that are substantially related to the development of core activities. Companies in a highly competitive global environment (e.g., automotive industry and business services) are more prepared and progress faster with I4.0 technology implementation.
Cooperation between physicians in hospitals in rural areas can be assisted by desktop-conferencing using a satellite link. For six weeks, medical desktop-conferencing was tested during daily clinical conferences between the Virchow-Klinikum, Berlin, and the Medical Academy, Wroclaw. The communications link was provided by the German Telekom satellite system MCS, which allowed temporary connections to be established on demand by manual dialling. Standard hardware and software were used for videoconferencing, as well as software for medical communication developed in the BERMED project. Digital data, such as computed tomography or magnetic resonance images, were transmitted by a digital data channel in parallel to the transmission of analogue video and audio signals. For conferences involving large groups of people, hardware modifications were required. These included the installation of a video projector, adaptation of the audio system with improved echo cancellation, and installation of extra microphones. Learning to use an unfamiliar communication medium proved to be uncomplicated for the participating physicians.
In the last ten years, the Hungarian business services sector has showed steady growth in these years of both crisis and prosperity and thus has become an essential segment of the national economy. Business services centres, mostly internationally owned key players of the industry, have already been affected by the imminent technological revolution. These companies are pioneers many times over in using advanced technologies to meet the double requirements of low operational costs and high service standards. In this paper, the authors explore digital transformation to see how the use of advanced technologies changes the operational processes of business services centres. Based on their empirical research, they present the digital transformation projects of a Hungary-based business services centre in their case study. The authors introduce the main motives of digital transformation, as well as technologies and aspects of organizational culture that promote this change. Lessons learned from the case study may be extended to other actors of the industry and raise new questions for scholars and practitioners interested in digital transformation.
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