Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

smart organisations --- smart society --- product quality --- service quality --- open innovation --- quality management --- Business policy --- Quality control --- Factory management --- Industrial engineering --- Reliability (Engineering) --- Sampling (Statistics) --- Standardization --- Quality assurance --- Quality of products --- Industrial & Management Engineering

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In the digital era where numerous sectors completed their digital transformation, we decided to focus on the evolution of the insurance industry and evaluate the digital maturity of the main actors. Based on the findings of Capgemini researchers (2015) highlighting an unsatisfactory experience for insurance consumers, we sought to understand the source of their dissatisfaction and how to fill it.
This project-thesis is structured into two parts. The first one corresponds to the initial mission that focused on the identification of future needs of insurances’ users. The second one corresponds to the supplementary mission that aimed at elaborating a concrete solution to optimize consumers’ experience. This work corresponds to an anticipation approach and not to the response of a client’s request. 
To complete this initial mission, we conducted two different researches. Firstly, a descriptive research to highlight evolutions in the insurance industry. Secondly, an exploratory research to detect the consumers’ needs. To lead this exploratory research, which represented a substantial part of the mission, we designed a qualitative research based on the method of the “grounded theory” and we used individual face-to-face interviews. Based on the collected data, we mapped the consumer’s decision process. We also used two theoretical models – the gap model and the customer experience mapping – in order to identify the main issues faced by the consumers. The result of this mission was the definition of a vision that gives a clear direction for the actors in the insurance sector to generate an optimized experience for consumers.
Once the initial mission was completed, we decided to go further and develop a minimum viable product (MVP). Based on the different stages of the user experience methodology, we designed a new service based on the mobile technology using the service blueprint tool. To make it more concrete, we also produced a prototype. The developed solution called “InsurMe” represents a mobile application that aims at helping consumers to be aware of their insurance’s needs and help them to reduce their risk-taking by providing the necessary information at the right time and in the appropriate way. The result of this part was the MVP.
We can consider that we reached our objectives and completed our missions. Firstly, we defined a vision. Secondly, we designed a new service and the related minimum viable product. Moreover, we also thought about different recommendations to help the potential investor to launch InsurMe in the market.

Digital transformation --- Insurance industry --- Traditional insurers --- Digital maturity --- Societal changes --- Technological developments --- New generations --- Service profit-chain --- Service gap model of service quality --- Customer expectations --- Customer experience mapping --- Customer satisfaction --- Service design --- Service blueprint --- User experience methodology --- Minimum viable product --- Mobile application --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Marketing

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

July 2001 - If a developing country government is not good at providing public services such as health care, education, and social protection, would NGOs be better at doing so? What advantages do NGOs have over for-profit providers of publicly funded services? And considering the importance of donor funding, which is better for delivering such services, an international NGO or a grassroots NGO? Jack presents two descriptive models of nongovernmental organizations and poses normative questions about public policy toward NGOs. In situations in which optimal government intervention in a distorted or inequitable economy employs an NGO-like body, he considers which kinds of NGO might be used. First, in many developing countries NGOs participate in the delivery of what are essentially private goods-in particular, health care and education. In an economy without NGOs, there may be good redistributive and efficiency reasons for the government to provide these goods in kind. But if direct government provision of such services is ineffective or inefficient, when is contracting out to an NGO-like institution preferable to using a traditional for-profit firm? (Another way to frame this is to ask: What is the optimal taxation and regulation of private providers of publicly financed services?) NGOs also provide useful real and financial links with external donors. They are used to provide services the government favors and donors are willing to fund. In this model, the service provider is chosen to yield the best outcome for both government and donor. In this context, Jack compares an international NGO and a grassroots organization. It may be more efficient to transfer donor funds through an international NGO than through a local NGO, but when donor-government cooperation fails, a project implemented by an international NGO is effectively killed. If a project implemented by a local organization can limp along, this otherwise less efficient organization might be preferred. This paper-a product of Public Service Delivery, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the role of NGOs in delivering basic public services. The author may be contacted at wgj@georgetown.edu.

Bank --- Civil Society --- Debt Markets --- E-Government --- Economic Theory and Research --- Education --- Education for the Knowledge Economy --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Governance --- Government --- Income --- Intervention --- Labor Policies --- Learning --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microfinance --- NGO --- Organizations --- Outcomes --- Participation --- Policies --- Policy --- Poverty --- Poverty Alleviation --- Poverty Monitoring and Analysis --- Poverty Reduction --- Programs --- Projects --- Public Sector Corruption and Anticorruption Measures --- Quality --- Research --- Service --- Service Quality --- Services --- Social Development --- Social Protections and Labor

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Special Issue on Advances in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) explores four important topics of research in the framework of WDNs, namely simulation and optimization modelling, topology and partitioning, water quality, and service effectiveness. With regard to the first topic, the following aspects are addressed: pressure-driven formulations, algorithms for the optimal location of control valves to minimize leakage, the benefits of water discharge prediction for the remote real time control of valves, and transients generated by pumps operating as turbines. In the context of the second topic, a topological taxonomy of WDNs is presented, and partitioning methods for the creation of district metered areas are compared. In relation to the third topic, the vulnerability to trihalomethane is assessed, and a statistical optimization model to minimize heavy metal releases is presented. Finally, the fourth topic focusses on the estimation of non-revenue water, including leakage and unauthorized consumption, and on the assessment of service under intermittent supply conditions.

water distribution system --- artificial neural network --- 24 --- non-revenue water --- runaway conditions --- water quality (WQ) --- release of heavy metals (HMR) --- water service quality --- district metered areas --- modularity --- water distribution network --- optimization --- multiple source waters blending optimization (MSWBO) --- disinfection by-products --- multiple regression analysis --- snapshot simulation --- blending --- pump --- graph partitioning --- dual response surface optimization (DRSO) --- pressure-driven --- topological analysis --- pressure --- unsteady flow --- vulnerability --- water quality --- water distribution modelling --- real time control --- mathematical model --- water distribution network management --- energy recovery systems --- valve --- water hammer --- intermittent water supply --- leakage --- complex network theory

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Today, new technologies bring with them an everchanging panorama, forcing us to constantly update our knowledge. For this reason, quality education is necessary in all areas of knowledge and at all educational levels. The quality of our educational systems and the questions raised by reviewing whether our educational institutions offer quality education or not are some of the main reasons why quality education is a topic that, in recent years, has captured the interest of governments, researchers and lecturers, among others. This issue brings together different socioeducational actors with their concerns for and commitments to higher education, in order to achieve the aim of providing people with the competencies necessary to adapt to a changing and competitive world, in which the individual needs to engage in lifelong learning and where education must align with sustainable development goals, such as democracy, justice and equality. All of this provides us with a scenario for reflecting on and researching fundamental questions, such as how to prevent school absenteeism, how to deal with students leaving school early, how to prevent or alleviate the phenomenon of dropping out in higher education, etc. In other words, can we assume that student failure is partly due to the failure of our educational systems? Are we educating self-regulated, critical, learning-motivated and competent students? These and other questions lead us to search for measures with which we can improve the quality of our educational systems by proposing strategies and developing tools to enhance the lecturing–learning processes in our classrooms.

Research & information: general --- higher education --- inclusive education --- disability --- technological platforms --- faculty members --- international students --- service quality evaluation --- perceived satisfaction --- sustainable higher education system --- China --- active learning --- career adaptability --- Hong Kong --- human resources management --- university students --- university teaching --- mobile-assisted language learning --- foreign language learning --- productive-receptive skills --- technology acceptance model --- WhatsApp --- Line App --- VET --- European --- validation principles --- Spain --- virtual meeting platform --- technology readiness --- social presence --- course satisfaction --- sustained use intention --- serial mediation --- science scenario --- collaborative problem solving --- behavioral transition patterns --- lag sequential analysis --- disadvantaged students --- higher education SPROUT project --- learning effects --- qualitative changes --- distance learning --- university authorities --- lecturers --- students --- cross-cultural pragmatic competence --- social context --- communicative dynamics in classroom situations --- EFL context --- online instruction --- students’ perceptions --- education quality --- online learning --- socioemotional competence --- models --- emotional intelligence --- social intelligence --- TAM Model --- learning analytics --- academic performance --- COVID-19