Evaluating the economic value of a public service—the case of the Municipal Library of Prague

Stejskal, Jan; Hájek, Petr

doi:10.1080/09540962.2015.1007711

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Complications connected to the library's unavailability were important in the WTP model (Hájek and Stejskal, 2015). Our results confirm the same finding.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarkssupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Our results confirm the same finding. Likewise, we confirmed that alternative costs were important factors for the library's value in all of the models proposed (this is consistent with Hájek and Stejskal, 2015). Aabø (2005b) used distance from the library, which was also an important factor of WTP.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarkssupporting

confidence: 84%

“…In the study by Lee et al (2010), academic background correlated significantly with WTP; on the other hand, studies by Aabø (2005b) and Lee and Chung (2012) found educational level to be insignificant. A higher income and more frequent visits and use of library services were connected to placing a higher value on the library in all of the models (Hájek and Stejskal, 2015).…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Economic Value of Book Loans – The Case of the Municipal Library of Prague

Stejskal

Hájek

Řehák

2016

Libri

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In recent years, the value of public library services has tended to be evaluated using the contingent valuation method. This is able to reveal readers’ hidden preferences. However, it appears that the total value of a public library as expressed by one number leads to a methodological bias related to the difficulty of assessing the value of one standard book loan. Moreover, this approach does not reflect the needs of public libraries’ management. Therefore, this study focuses on a detailed investigation of the most important public library service, book loans. For this purpose, we have employed statistical models to identify the significant determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for book loans and WTP for purchasing books, respectively. The results suggest that loan services have the greatest perceived value for students, people who are economically active. Management who are interested in increasing the success of their institution across society must also know the perceived value of individual books so that they can adjust their library's acquisition policy. It was found that novels had the highest perceived value, followed by educational literature in the fields of economics and education as well as information science. This entirely new analytical method of measuring WTP for public services raises many new implications that could change the strategies of individual libraries – as well as the public policy strategies of donors and library ownership.

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“…Complications connected to the library's unavailability were important in the WTP model (Hájek and Stejskal, 2015). Our results confirm the same finding.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarkssupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarkssupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Economic Value of Book Loans – The Case of the Municipal Library of Prague

Stejskal

Hájek

Řehák

2016

Libri

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“…However, the management of the library (and often its donors) must also aim to change services from other points of view such as public interest and economic sustainability (Kerslake & Kinnell, 1998). For the first, it is necessary to define the main functions of the libraries, while for the latter donors (often municipalities) have limited budgets each year and must know what they are financing (Stejskal & Hájek, 2015a). The example of the UK shows that not only theoretical considerations must be considered.…”

Section: Problem Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

The economic value of library services for children: The case of the Czech public libraries

Stejskal

Hájek

Řehák

2019

Library & Information Science Research

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Public support of library services must be targeted towards children because these services play a key role in their development. However, no prior research has investigated the value of public library services for children. Specifically, earlier studies evaluated the value of public libraries as a whole, without considering library services for different stakeholders. The fact that children are not autonomous economic agents is another problem to address. These barriers can be overcome by using the contingent valuation method with parents/caregivers as the subjects queried and children used as the objects in this study. Thus, the economic value of library services for children can be obtained to support managerial decisions on services specifically designed for children. More precisely, this study is unique in that it develops a contingent valuation methodology for estimating the value of children's library services based on adults' willingness to allocate a proportion of municipal budgets. Both users and non-users were surveyed to verify the proposed methodology empirically. The results show that the perceived effectiveness (ratio between perceived benefits and costs) of children's library services is 11.2 (11.2 units of benefits for each unit invested) in Czech public libraries compared with 4.3 for a library as a whole. This finding confirms the essential role of children's library services, implying that public libraries should offer a broader selection of children's books and other services. The study also shows that the value of children's library services depends on the age, education and economic structure of the adults queried. In addition, their satisfaction with library services is another important determinant, indicating that public libraries can influence the perceived benefits of children's library services.

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“…Consumer willingness to pay (WTP) is used as an analysis tool to assess the time cost of consumers' WTW in line, unlike previous studies, in which WTP research was commonly formulated on the amount consumers are willing to pay of the overall value for one year; this is difficult for the individual to do and can lead to erroneous responses caused (Arrow et al 1993). Stejskal and Hájek (2015) highlighted that if the respondents are asked about the value of individual services without having to remember the frequency of their use for the entire year, then they give accurate results. In this study, we focus on consumers' willingness to wait for the concept, which is given as a description of the evaluated good and the expected change of the restaurants' service quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Consumers’ WTP for Service Recovery in Restaurants: Waiting Time Perspective

Ting

Huang

Lin

et al. 2019

Administrative Sciences

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Restaurant service quality assessment has generally focused on the dining service. However, restaurant service begins with waiting for the meal. When service failure occurs due to a long waiting time, restaurant managers should adopt appropriate service recovery measures to retain consumers and reduce loss. This approach would allow them to mitigate customer dissatisfaction and negative impressions. In this study, we explore the importance of pre-processing service in the context of possible restaurant service crises and construct a restaurant service recovery model for willingness to pay (WTP) through the contingent valuation method (CVM) to measure the effects before and after implementing service recovery. Overall, several psychological and tangible service recovery measures are provided to enhance people’s willingness to extend their waiting time. Within our study group, relatively young participants showed a high willingness to extend their waiting time. Furthermore, the opportunity cost of high-income people in the waiting process was relatively high. Compared with psychological service recovery programs, our results show that tangible service recovery programs prompt respondents to wait for an additional ~10 min. This paper offers support for restaurant managers to manage consumer relationships.

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Evaluating the economic value of a public service—the case of the Municipal Library of Prague

Cited by 16 publications

References 18 publications

The Economic Value of Book Loans – The Case of the Municipal Library of Prague

The Economic Value of Book Loans – The Case of the Municipal Library of Prague

The economic value of library services for children: The case of the Czech public libraries

Evaluation of Consumers’ WTP for Service Recovery in Restaurants: Waiting Time Perspective

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