Papers by Gabriela Beirão
Journal of Small Business Strategy
The recent pandemic crisis has greatly impacted startups, and some changes are expected to be lon... more The recent pandemic crisis has greatly impacted startups, and some changes are expected to be long-lasting. Small businesses usually have fewer resources and are more vulnerable to losing customers and investors, especially during crises. This study investigates how startups’ business processes were affected and how entrepreneurs managed this sudden change brought by the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were analyzed using qualitative research methods through in-depth interviews with the co-founders of eighteen startups. Results show that the three core business processes affected by the COVID-19 crisis were marketing and sales, logistics and operations, and organizational support. The way to succeed is to be flexible, agile, and adaptable, with technological knowledge focusing on digital channels to find novel opportunities and innovate. Additionally, resilience, self-improvement, education, technology readiness and adoption, close relationship with customers and other stakeholders, and inc...
Service organizations increasingly understand the importance of managing the customer experience ... more Service organizations increasingly understand the importance of managing the customer experience to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study aims to develop a better understanding of the customer experience by investigating how the customer’s internal mechanisms influence it. That is, how it is perceived and processed at three different levels (visceral, behavioral and reflective), which determines a person’s cognitive and emotional state. To this purpose an exploratory multi-method ethnographic study was undertaken in a healthcare service. The results showed the emotions provoked by the service experience at each level. These levels are interconnected and impact each other working together to influence a person’s cognitive and emotional state, and thus playing a critical role in the overall evaluation of a service. Results show that elements such as servicescape aesthetics, face-to-face and non-human interactions influence emotions and service evaluations. The service ...
Healthcare is a key sector in society as it affects everyone’s life at some point in time. At the... more Healthcare is a key sector in society as it affects everyone’s life at some point in time. At the same time, the Western world is entering a profound ‘age wave’, leading to increased demand for healthcare service and alternative living arrangements for those in need of assistance in their daily lives. As a result of the challenges in this ageing society, healthcare – particularly service providers in elderly care – have to undertake transformational changes in their core concepts, structures, strategies, and policies in order to effectively serve this customer group. Recent market research suggests that innovation and technology will play a major role enabling healthcare organizations to successfully manage the care of ageing population. Health informatics, telemedicine technologies and remote monitoring systems may provide effective means to help the elderly manage illness. In unison, such technologies potentially ease the strain that the latter put on families in particular and th...
This study builds upon on-going research investigating user acceptance of wearable health technol... more This study builds upon on-going research investigating user acceptance of wearable health technology across different cultures. Wearable technology refers to devices that are external to the body, either attached as an accessory or embedded in clothes. Recently, smart wearables and fitness trackers have provided new opportunities for health care. Furthermore, health insurance companies in different countries have begun to introduce fitness trackers as part of their insurance policies (Tuzovic and Mathews 2017). ...
Gerontology, 2019
Background: Over the past few years, various new types of technologies have been introduced, whic... more Background: Over the past few years, various new types of technologies have been introduced, which have been tailored to meet the specific needs of older adults by incorporating gerontological design principles (i.e., “gerontechnologies“). However, it has been difficult to motivate older adults to adopt and use these new technologies. Therefore, it is crucial to better understand not only the role of personal drivers but also the family influences on older adults. Objective: This research goes beyond traditional technology acceptance theories by investigating the role of personal (e.g., inherent novelty seeking) and interpersonal drivers (e.g., influence of family) in stimulating older adults to use gerontechnologies. Nine hypotheses, building on traditional and new technology acceptance theories, were developed and tested. Methods: This research applies a cross-sectional study design. Therefore, a face-to-face survey instrument was developed building on a qualitative pilot study an...
Journal of Service Management, 2017
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand value cocreation in service ecosystems from a ... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand value cocreation in service ecosystems from a multilevel perspective, uncovering value cocreation factors and outcomes at the micro, meso, and macro levels. Design/methodology/approach A Grounded Theory approach based on semi-structured interviews is adopted. The sample design was defined to enable the ecosystem analysis at its different levels. At the macro level was the Portuguese Health Information ecosystem. Embedded meso level units of analysis comprised eight health care organizations. A total of 48 interviews with citizens and health care practitioners were conducted at the micro level. Findings Study results enable a detailed understanding of the nature and dynamics of value cocreation in service ecosystems from a multilevel perspective. First, value cocreation factors are identified (resource access, resource sharing, resource recombination, resource monitoring, and governance/institutions generation). These factors enable ...
Public transport faces a continuous decline in market share and increasing competition from priva... more Public transport faces a continuous decline in market share and increasing competition from private car. The challenge for public transport is to find a way of maintaining and attracting clients, which implies improving the quality of the service through a market oriented approach, particularly increasing the responsiveness to the users’ and potential users’ needs and expectations. Accordingly, service quality is becoming more and more important in public transport contracts. Specifying quality raises important questions in designing contracts for public transport. Quality must be unambiguously specified and monitored. To address these issues, a project supported by a large Portuguese urban public transport operator is being developed in order to produce a reliable model for measuring service quality and enabling the inclusion of service quality indicators in future contracts. The first stage of the project was based on qualitative methods to obtain a deeper understanding of the underlying individual’s perceptions of the service and attitudes towards public transport. Namely, to figure out how and why do people use or not use public transport, what factors influence these decisions, and how do customers evaluate the service offered. To grasp these questions, a series of in-depth interviews of both public transport users and car users as well as to the transport operator staff were conducted. This paper presents the results of the qualitative study.
WIT Transactions on the Built Environment, 2006
Public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users to fight the lost in market share... more Public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users to fight the lost in market share, mostly due to the increasing use of private cars. Therefore, the concepts of 'quality' and 'customer' must change and the focus must be on meeting people's needs. At the same time, transport systems should be flexible enough to respond to changes in people's requirements and needs. Thus, the aim for public transport must be enhancing quality of the service. This requires a clear understanding of travel behaviour and consumer needs and expectations. Accordingly, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of including service quality indicators and quality specifications in contracts between operators and public transport authorities. The development of quality measures in the designing of contracts for public transport raises important aspects that must be considered. This paper examines issues concerning the definition of service quality measures for public transport. This will give a better understanding of pertinent questions and of improvement strategies open to public transport management. Next, it outlines some critical aspects that must be considered when including such measures in contracts between operators and public transport authorities.
Transport Policy, 2007
This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of public transport users and car users in... more This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of public transport users and car users in order to obtain a deeper understanding of travellers' attitudes towards transport and to explore perceptions of public transport service quality. The key findings indicate that in order to increase public transport usage, the service should be designed in a way that accommodates the levels of service required by customers and by doing so, attract potential users. Furthermore, the choice of transport is influenced by several factors, such as individual characteristics and lifestyle, the type of journey, the perceived service performance of each transport mode and situational variables. This suggests the need for segmentation taking into account travel attitudes and behaviours. Policies which aim to influence car usage should be targeted at the market segments that are most motivated to change and willing to reduce frequency of car use.
Journal of Service Management, 2014
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of value co-creation in complex val... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of value co-creation in complex value networks with many actors. Electronic health records (EHRs) are innovations that warrant deep study to properly introduce such a complex system. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes a qualitative study based on Grounded Theory to understand value co-creation from multiple actors’ perspectives in a National EHR Service Project: the Portuguese Health Data Platform. Findings – Study results enabled further development of the value co-creation concept in complex environments with multiple actors. More specifically they allowed: operationalizing the value co-creation concept by identifying its factors and outcomes, understanding how value co-creation factors and outcomes are interconnected, and understanding of how value co-creation for each actor depends on his/her own actions and the actions of other actors, in a complex set of interactions and interdependencies. Practical i...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2008
Traveler attitudes and preferences as well as demographic variables are important components of t... more Traveler attitudes and preferences as well as demographic variables are important components of travel behavior. By using travel attitudes, factor and cluster analyses were conducted to segment the sample. Six distinct groups were extracted: transit enthusiasts, anxious status seekers, carless riders, green cruisers, frugal travelers, and obstinate drivers. The segments showed unique combinations of attitudes with distinct travel behaviors and various degrees of intention to use public transportation. Gender differences were then investigated, and the results suggest that women and men exhibit differences in attitudes, preferences, and behaviors. The design of strategies to promote alternatives to car use should target the market segments that are most motivated to change, focusing on the attitudes that can induce a change, such as pro transit or sensibility to the environment.
Total Quality Management, 2002
In the recent years the ISO 9000 standards has experienced an extraordinary success. The number o... more In the recent years the ISO 9000 standards has experienced an extraordinary success. The number of certifications is still increasing worldwide and it is expected that this trend will last. In fact, ISO 9000 certification has become an important factor for doing business in the global market. However, there are many contradictory opinions regarding the real benefits of the ISO registration. This paper contributes to this debate by empirically investigating the impact on the Portuguese stock market of achieving ISO 9000 certification. The analysis is based on the event study methodology. The findings suggest that the market positively anticipate the event. It is also detected a favourable effect in achieving an early registration within the sector or industry. A financial performance analysis covering a 5-year period centred on the year of the ISO 9000 certification was also carried out. The results suggest that the ISO 9000 certification have a powerful cost effect, decreasing the operating performance and the profitability in the year following the certification. Apparently, companies need one more year to recover those costs.
fe.up.pt
This paper explores measures of importance and performance with public transport. A dissatisfacti... more This paper explores measures of importance and performance with public transport. A dissatisfaction measure, witch combines measures of importance and performance labelled user disgruntlement (Stradling et al., 2007), was used to ascertain which aspects of service need urgent improvement. Because attitudes as well as perceptions are important factors that characterize the underlying travel behaviour, insights into six previously extracted market segments using attitudes towards travel were analysed.
Measuring importance, perceived performance and satisfaction with public transport service is cri... more Measuring importance, perceived performance and satisfaction with public transport service is critical to identify priority areas for improvements. A dissatisfaction measure, witch combines measures of importance and performance labeled user disgruntlement (1), was used to ascertain the critical aspects of the service. The analysis was applied on different transport modes used for work and school trips and on two population subgroups (e.g., women and men). Because attitudes as well as perceptions are important factors, insights into six previously extracted market segments using attitudes towards travel were also analyzed. The results showed that women as well as non-users of public transport seem to be more dissatisfied with service quality attributes. Key areas of improvement include aspects such as: transit cost, waiting time, on-time performance and frequency. With lower rankings of importance but also of great concern are aspects related to the level of crowding, having seats available, stops comfort and interchange.
This paper examines the effect and relative contribution of attitudinal factors and demographic v... more This paper examines the effect and relative contribution of attitudinal factors and demographic variables in explaining mode choice behavior and to test for differences in journeys for work or for leisure/ shopping. Results show that for work journeys all respondents evaluate the ...
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Papers by Gabriela Beirão