Services and Their New Realities

Companies providing services operate in a dynamic business environments. They require understanding and appreciating the new service realities. They should devise and implement appropriate strategies to sustain the competition. The objective of the study is to analyze the strategies. New service realities include shifting customer relationships, customer empowerment, and customer co-creation. The study aims at a conceptual analysis of the literature. Service companies require satisfying both customers and employees to remain competitive. Companies should aim to prevent service failures from occurring, rectify service failures once they have occurred to the satisfaction of customers, involve employees at each stage, and ensure that employee enthusiasm and motivation are high. Findings of the study suggest that proper understanding of the new service realities will allow companies to develop strategies, implement the strategies, and execute the strategies effectively. All such initiatives provide a direction for service companies to excel, delight their customers, and build long-term customer relationships.

Systematic Evaluation of Toxicity of Aconite Based on Bibliometric Method

Aim. Based on the bibliometric method, the toxicity of aconite is analyzed and evaluated. Methods. Studies on the toxicity of aconite were retrieved from CNKI, CQVIP, Chinese Biomedical Literature Service System, and PubMed, ranging from January 1985 to November 2020. All those studies were formed into the Database of Literature of Toxicity of Aconite (DLTA). Studies on the toxicity of aconite were retrieved from CNKI, CQVIP, SinoMed, and PubMed, respectively. Collecting relevant information in DLTA, we analyzed the hotspots, factors and mechanism of aconite toxicity, and attenuation methods. Results. A total of 445 studies on the toxicity of aconite have been collected. “Compatibility attenuation” and “Processing attenuation” have been the hotspots of aconite toxicity in recent years. Many studies support that the main toxic reactions of aconite are heart damage, liver toxicity, nephrotoxicity, and neurotoxicity. The toxic effect of aconite is related to the effect on the central nervous system. Exciting the vagus nerve reduces the autonomy of the sinus node and damages myocardial cells. The decoction time, dosage, and administration of aconite are the main factors of the toxicity of aconite. There are few studies about the effect of the origin of aconite and the specifications of the medicinal materials on toxicity. Therefore, it is impossible to analyze its relevance. At present, the commonly used methods to reduce the toxicity of aconite mainly include three methods: drug compatibility, processing, and decoction. The most common compatibility with aconite medicines includes licorice, dried ginger, ginseng, and ephedra. Black sliced aconite, steamed slices, and fried slices are less toxic than other processed products. Aconite decoction for more than 60 minutes can basically reach the safe range, and more than 2 hours of decoction may cause the loss of active ingredients. Conclusions. The research on the mechanisms of aconite dosage-efficacy-toxicity, compatibility, processing, liver toxicity, and nephrotoxicity is still not comprehensive and in-depth. Researchers should perfect toxicity studies of aconite, remove the constraints that affect its clinical application, and promote the clinical use of aconite safely and reasonably.

Exploration on the Present Situation and the Way Forward for Chinese and American Smart Libraries

Smart technology and smart services based on Internet, big data and cloud computing have penetrated into every corner of social life. As an essential part of smart library, library smart service has also been widely concerned and practiced. Library smart service can be understood as omni-directional perception, information interconnection and smart management, which is the symbol of the transformation of the library from the traditional literature service mode to the smart service mode. In this context, this work first discussed the basic characteristics of the smart library, then analyzed the advanced nature of the United States in the development of the smart library, and then put forward the way forward for the development of the smart library in China.

Service Sector Growth in Iran: Knowledge-based Economy or Premature Deindustrialization?

In recent decades, most of the national economies have experienced a similar trend of growth in service sector. In economic literature service sector growth can be rooted in two distinct phenomena: knowledge-based economy or premature deindustrialization. This paper seeks to investigate the nature of service sector growth based on its effect on total factor productivity (TFP) in Iran. In particular, Kalman filter approach is used to estimate this effect. Service sector valued added and share of employment are used as the two separate proxies for service sector size in order to improve robustness of the results. Empirical results show that service sector growth did not increase overall productivity over the period of 1975-2015. Consequently, service sector growth in Iran did not root in knowledge-based economy and the whole progress could be considered as premature deindustrialization.

Trade in Services-Economic Growth Nexus: An Analysis of the Growth Impact of Trade in Services in SADC Countries

The article analysed the trade in services led growth in ten selected countries in the Southern African Development Community region using econometric regression models. Panel data obtained from the World Bank and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development databases for the period 1992 to 2015 was analysed. Five variables were used in the econometric analysis. The marginal effects of service and goods exports were positive while those of goods and service imports were negative and highly significant as was expected from literature. Service exports registered an impact that was almost threefold that of service imports and greater than goods exports. Policy-makers are encouraged to, clearly define their trade in service strategy and reduce or remove trade restrictions. The study is of importance to researchers, the private sector and government policymakers.

Scheduling and Planning in Service Systems with Goal Programming: Literature Review

Background: People want to be able to evaluate different kinds of information in a good way. There are various methods that they develop in such situations. Among the optimization methods, the goal programming method is often used when there are multiple objectives that decision makers want to accomplish. Because scheduling and planning problems have multiple objectives that are desired to be achieved, the goal programming method helps the researcher in contradictory situations between these goals. Methods: This study includes, examines, and analyzes recent research on service scheduling and planning. In the literature, service scheduling and planning studies have been examined using goal programming method from past to today. Results: The studies are detailed according to the type of goal programming, according to scheduling types, the purpose used in the studies, and the methods integrated with the goal programming. There are 142 studies in Emerald, Science Direct, Jstor, Springer, Taylor and Francis, Google Scholar, etc. databases that are examined in detail. For readers, diversification has been made to facilitate the identification of these studies and a detailed overview has been presented. Conclusion: As a result of the study, studies with the goal programming in the literature have been seen. The readers’ perspectives for planning and scheduling are discussed.

Corporate brand extensions based on the purchase likelihood: governance implications

This paper is examining the purchase likelihood of hypothetical service brand extensions from product companies focusing on consumer electronics based on sector categorization and perceptions of fit between the existing product category and image of the company. Prior research has recognized that levels of brand knowledge eases the transference of associations and affect to the new products. Similarity to the existing products of the parent company and perceived image also influence the success of brand extensions. However, sector categorization may interfere with this relationship. The purpose of this study is to examine Greek consumers’ attitudes towards hypothetical brand extensions, and how these are affected by consumers’ existing knowledge about the brand, sector categorization and perceptions of image and category fit of cross-sector extensions. This aim is examined in the context of technological categories, where less-known companies exhibited significance in purchase likelihood, and contradictory with the existing literature, service companies did not perform as positively as expected. Additional insights to the existing literature about sector categorization are provided. The effect of both image and category fit is also examined and predictions regarding the effect of each are made.