The Evaluation of the Service and Its Impact on Brand Value

For service companies, one of the most difficult challenges to measure is brand value, considering the subjectivity of the service, given by consumer perception. In this way, the objective of this chapter is to know the elements that provide value to the service company's brand. To carry out the study, the authors deepen the concepts of service and brand considering the SERVQUAL and CSI questionnaires, which allow them to obtain indexes of measurement of the quality of services and brand valuation and apply them in the English language teaching institutes in Guayaquil (Ecuador). The results show that five high-importance schools have valuation elements that build their brand with characteristics that differentiate them, but also with others that resemble them. Understanding each of the brands and variables, they propose an initial model that allows analyzing this industry in which elements relevant to the consumer are observed.

From Entrepreneurial Intentions to Entrepreneurial Behavior

Although there is abundant literature on entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial behavior, there is still a lacuna on those factors enabling the pass from intention to action. Motivated by this gap, this study assesses the extent to which the determinants of entrepreneurial intention also have an effect on subsequent entrepreneurial behavior, using an institutional approach as a theoretical framework. With a sample of 2,491 university students from Catalonia (Spanish) through the simultaneous equations, the main findings show that institutions such as opportunity identification, business skills, and entrepreneurs' status encourage students to think of entrepreneurship as a good career choice, which subsequently explains entrepreneurial actions. Theoretical, policy, and practical implications are discussed based on these findings.

The Blue Economy and Its Long-Term Competitive Advantage

This chapter seeks to determine whether China's coastal tourism industry can remain competitive in the long run under the blue economy ideology. Current literature claims that when the ocean becomes over-commercialized by the tourism industry, it can potentially lose its pristine amenities, which tourists are attracted to in the first place. By surveying both coastal tourists and residents regarding their stakeholders, coastal resources, and tourism service characteristics, this chapter concludes that such a threat is not impeding progress because coastal tourists and residents have not only overlapping desires but also have interchangeable identities. By conducting tourism service quality management, China's coastal regions have the potential to satisfy both tourists and residents' needs simultaneously by taking advantage of the blue economy transition.

Enterprise Quality Perception in a Changing Environment

This chapter gives an overview of the importance of the quality as a whole in a company, considering it moves in an environment not only determined by the velocity of change of the technologies but also by the cultural change suffered in recent years. It has been proposed a new framework where new factors have to be analyzed to achieve a company pioneer and leader in the industry. Also, it explains all the benefits of doing it and how it will affect the performance of the staff, in the vision of clients and users, and the financial results of the firm. In conclusion, all these advantages will have a great benefit to society.

Shopping for an English Language Tutor

English is often considered to be the international language of commerce and, more recently, e-commerce. English is also the predominant language of the internet, science, and many, the language of higher education. As a result, English tutoring institutions are thriving in the Chinese Mainland in recent years in a substantial and competitive market. The objective of this chapter is to reveal what are the factors that affect Chinese college students' selection of English tutoring institutions in China so that tutoring institution managers may focus on the most important criteria for their prospective customers. In this chapter, 212 Chinese college students participated in the online survey. The authors analyzed the correlation between purchase intention and price, brand image, service variety, and customer relationship. Through data analysis, they show that price, brand image, service variety, and customer relationships are all positively associated with Chinese college students' purchase intention of English tutoring institutions.

Development of an Organizational Management Improvement Plan in SMEs

SMEs must carry out an analysis of the micro and macro environment that is necessary to counteract threats. Then internal and external factors must be identified to evaluate opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses to establish a correlation between causes and effects, to determine the current situation of the enterprise, and to find areas of improvement. The information analysis is performed using tools applied and tailored to the development of this model, such as PESTEL and Porter's five forces, CAM (competitiveness analysis matrix), EFE and EFI analysis matrix, SWOT analysis, strategic maps, and the balanced scorecard.

Exploring the Impact of Peer Influence on Online Shopping

Commercialization of social media is no longer optional for businesses, especially online businesses. An effective online presence is crucial for creating awareness of new products or services and triggering activity. The objective of this chapter is to investigate peers' influence on Chinese millennial consumers' purchase behavior. To be specific, this study examines the relationship between peers' purchase histories and consumers' purchase decisions among Chinese millennials. Specifically, this study explores whether and to what extent peers' purchase histories affect consumers' purchase perception, such as perceived usefulness, perceived risk, and purchase intention. Analysis of online surveys shows how peer influence affects Chinese millennial's purchase intention and decision in online shopping. Furthermore, perceived usefulness positively also affects purchase intention, while perceived risk has a negative influence. This chapter provides suggestions for online retailers to attach importance to peer influence when advertising their products.

Relationship Between Innovation, Human Capital, Institutions, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth

There is important literature that analyzes the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. But it is also essential to consider the variables that influence entrepreneurship. In this sense, innovations, institutions, and human capital would be the main variables to consider, as they allow the entrepreneur to create new products, make them more competitive, or access new markets. At the same time, entrepreneurs establish the legal framework and the social climate to develop its activity, so innovations are generated and assimilated. But it is also essential to consider the degree of development and economic growth that countries present.

Extended Quality Processes in Internationalized Agro-Industrial. Rural Collaborative Economy

Exploring agricultural production and derived products is one of the challenges that countries like Ecuador have today. The crises in the agrarian economies could find formulas to be reversed if capital is built and distributed so that accumulation is visible in each of the processes that make up the value chains. One formula proposed is the productive strategic partnership in the collaborative line: the little ones must always go together. A perspective of this collaborative model with comprehensive quality processes is proposed in the global market. To this end, two productive attempts in the province of Chimborazo (Ecuador) are studied. The first one from Alausí canton, and the second production and export criterion already developed, is located in Colta Canton of the same province and is called COPROBICH. Based on these elements, the chapter proposes to incorporate theoretical and technical aspects that will make it possible to achieve greater efficiency in the process of internationalization of these business drives

Quality Management Principles for Entrepreneurial Sustainability

Quality definitions have been altered with the transition of time, needs, and demands. But the vitality has more or less been progressed to resolve the issue by compliance to standards approach for customer satisfaction. With management routine getting complicated, attacks to managing quality in operational areas are becoming unmanageable. For TQM to be victorious, all of the elements within the enterprise must be conjointly engaged. While the critical factors are the basis for transformational preference to produce a substantial advancement culture for consistent competitive advantage and be sustainable, basically, the main objective of TQM is to generate an environment in which all the assets are used ingeniously and effectively in order to provide quality service. TQM is a way of managing the efficiency, viscidity, adaptability in general, and in the future would be to ensure entrepreneurial sustainability. Hence adopting an exploratory approach, the aim of this chapter is to critically examine the underlying principles of quality management for entrepreneurial sustainability.