Homogeneous National Management Policies or Autonomous Choices by Administrative Units? Inter- and Intra-Country Management Tools Use Variations in European Central Government Administrations

ABSTRACT

This article presents an original research on the use of management tools in central government departments and agencies in 16 European countries. It is based on a survey conducted among senior managers (n?=?5,998). The analysis shows that the use of management tools results from a combination of top-down implementation of a list of management tools at the national level, combined with a bottom-up independent selection of tools by administrative units. The variation in management tool use depends on the type of tool. While the uses of a HRM tool, such as performance-related pay, or a financial tool, such as risk management, are heavily influenced by national public management policies, service quality-type tools, such as user surveys or quality management systems, tend to be chosen in a more autonomous manner by different administrative units, especially agencies.     

电子商务中的消费者权益保护问题研究

电子商务以因特网为交易平台,而网络空间开放性、无国界的特点突破了传统商务在时间和空间上的限制,使电子商务获得了空前发展。但是电子商务发展过程中出现的种种损害消费者权益的情形给现行消费者权益保护法律带来了严峻挑战,也阻碍了电子商务的发展。在对电子商务背景下消费者权益保护中出现的问题进行深入分析的基础上,试图构建电子商务中的消费者权益保护体系,以期对相关立法有所裨益。     

人才流动中的商业秘密保护——由一起跳槽案引发的思考

员工的跳槽行为,是企业商业秘密流失的最主要渠道。如何使商业秘密不因人才流动而流失是企业不容忽视的重大问题。企业应当采取适当的保密措施,加强诚信建设。在侵犯商业秘密案件中,客户档案是否构成商业秘密的认定非常复杂,争议也较大。同时,针对商业秘密的侵权行为既复杂又隐蔽的特点,在商业秘密侵权案件的审理中应当适用举证责任倒置方法。     

The Rights-Asserting Contemporary Public Service Customer in Botswana

This article discusses an often-ignored subject in Botswana-specific literature: the emergence of rights-asserting contemporary public service customers. These customers unflinchingly demand their rights. Given this situation, this article argues that there is a need for a paradigm shift on the part of public servants. Among other things, this will entail the crafting of a new internally created customer service charter which puts a high premium on service delivery. Thus, the charter should beget a public service that respects customers' inviolate right to quality public service. Although the case study is about Botswana, there are general lessons — e.g., an internally created public service charter.     

Strategies moulding brand reputation building in the early 21st century

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, the changing political, economic and social environment and globalisation have contributed to change business behaviour in South Africa. Nowadays, business strategies are built alongside sustainable business goals, with renewed emphasis on quality and brand reputation management. Business intelligence (BI) systems and research demand show clear emphasis on customer brand franchising and brand citizenship in particular. Brands are no longer used only as marketing communication tools. Nowadays, brand companies seem well aware of stakeholders’ concerns with non-financial business aspects and are responding through re-branding, improved customer relations and good corporate citizenship behaviour. Consequently, direct customer feedback via customer satisfaction and franchise-building research, as well as corporate citizenship image and perception surveys have emerged as key research tools that generate business intelligence used to build and protect company reputation. The way in which contemporary research designs are constructed to guide reputation building and protection, and how these inputs are used to guide business reputation strategies form the core of this article. The discussion reveals that corporate reputation and brand management functions are increasingly being synchronised in support of customer-based brand equity, customer franchise and reputation building. This suggests substantial communality between the management functions relating to corporate reputation and branding. Corporate branding and reputation are anticipated to evolve as a core business strategy aimed at building and protecting corporate identity and image. To meet this endeavour, companies will continue to brand their identity and image and create brand awareness and customer relations to enable stakeholders to differentiate company products, services and features from competitor offerings, but will simultaneously strive to enhance customer loyalty. Customer care and ethical behaviour will probably lead the thrust in creating positive corporate reputation. As long as corporate reputation building and branding are pursued, the demand for business intelligence information related to these topics will remain a priority and will guide future marketing and communication strategies in building and protecting corporate reputation.     

Determinants of e-government maturity： Do organizational specific factors matter？

E-government is said to be an efficient and effective way of delivering government services to its customers. Web information accessibility and online transactional services increase transparency, openness of bureaucratic institutions and reduce cost of transactions. Global e-government surveys which portray the trend in countries＇ e-government readiness and stage of e-government maturity rank developing countries at the bottom. Based on the benefits reaped from e-government and the fact that some countries can progress than others; it is evident that e-government has become a development phenomenon to researchers and policy makers. Accordingly, the basic empirical question to researchers has been on what determines e-government maturity？ To answer this question, it is important first to distinguish between e-readiness and e-government maturity in order to understand the intuition behind this question. E-readiness comprises of all prerequisite necessary to implement e-government while e-government maturity refers to the actual level of e-government progress a country has attained based on websites assessment. While macro factors such as level of Gross Domestic Product, human capital and ICT （information and communication technology） infrastructure are important in determining e-government maturity at the national level; they may not necessarily explain differences of e-government maturity among government agencies within the same country. In other words, why there are differences in e-government maturity among governmental agencies even in those countries which are ranked at the top. In this paper authors argue that organizational specific factors play a vital role in determining the stage of organizational e-government maturity. To accentuate the argument, authors provide one of the possible frameworks and respective propositions to indicate the influence of organizational specific characteristics on e-government maturity.     

顾客感知对城乡居民公共教育服务满意度“倒挂”的一个解释框架——基于CGSS2015的实证研究

运用CGSS2015年调查数据,通过多元有序Probit回归分析我国城乡居民公共教育服务满意度,对比发现:农村居民对公共教育服务的总体满意度略高于城市居民,与现实城乡公共教育服务供给情况形成反差,出现"倒挂"现象。基于顾客感知价值原理,城乡居民对公共教育服务资源充足性、普惠性和便利性的感知由高到低地影响公共教育服务体验,"不患贫而患不均"可以解释城乡满意度"倒挂"现象。此外,城市和农村实际上客观存在两个相对分割的基础教育市场,农村教育投入的增速较快,有利于缩小城乡的差距,但城市的组内差距仍然巨大,城乡居民皆"患不均",这为未来公共服务供给提供了新的思路。     

日本金融ADR制度的创新及其对我国的借鉴

日本的金融ADR在实质上为金融申诉专员制度(FOS),主要是在借鉴英国、澳大利亚FOS制度的基础上,创新性地采取阶段式推进的方式建立的.我国可以借鉴日本经验,分阶段分步骤实现从分业到统合的金融ADR制度:即我国一行三①会各自设立金融消费者保护局,分别设置金融调解制度,条件成熟后导入FOS制度,并逐步建立起统一的FOS制度,以构建金融纠纷一体化机制.     

诚信经营 顾客至上 崇尚品位——天津伊势丹有限公司企业文化指要

伊势丹是日本首屈一指的以百货为业务中心的零售业集团,在全世界有多家百货公司。作为津门第一家外资百货商店,天津伊势丹已发展成一家多元化国际企业。其成功秘诀,一是坚守诚信服务、共存共赢共荣的经营品质;二是将＂顾客第一主义＂渗进各个经营环节;三是以＂日日为新＂引领服装时尚品位,并将其融入员工的行为准则和工作目标之中。