Why and How to Use Customer Opinions: A Quality-of-Life and Customer Satisfaction-Oriented Foundation for Performance-Based Decision-Making

Abstract

The concepts of ‘customer satisfaction’ (CS) and ‘quality of life’ (QOL) have both been used, on a limited basis, in strategic planning and performance measurement at state departments of transportation. However, the meanings and usefulness of these concepts are still unclear or evolving to many practitioners. Based on a review of the literature and customer opinion data collected for various transportation studies in the USA and Europe, this paper offers two important contributions to the transportation literature. The paper clarifies the relationship between the CS and QOL concepts, placing CS in the broader context of customer opinions and subjective well-being. The paper then identifies six categories of survey tools for collecting customer opinions, describing how each can be used within a performance management framework to reveal the QOL impacts of transportation decisions. Agencies can use the definitions, conceptual relationships, performance measures, and decision-making processes discussed in this paper to refine their performance management programs, to better understand customer and public perceptions, and to make systematic progress toward their QOL oriented goals.     

Advancing Coastal Habitat Resiliency Through Landscape-Scale Assessment

Coastal areas are among the most biologically rich regions in the world. They provide tremendous benefit to people through ecological services like pollution filtration, carbon sequestration, and storm protection. However, human activity has decreased the ability of ecosystems to provide these services, and in many coastal areas, restoration is not as effective as it could be. Limited success is largely attributed to vague goals and a lack of holistic, science-informed planning. Quantifying coastal habitat health can aid in setting better restoration goals and lead to greater restoration success. The Long Island Sound Study National Estuary Program conducted the first comprehensive look at coastal habitat health for the Long Island Sound Estuary. In this study we also reviewed landscape-scale habitat assessment progress within other coastal programs. Results can be applied to establish ecosystem health-oriented goals that improve habitat function and resilience across coastal areas.     

Adjusting the service? Understanding the factors affecting bus ridership over time at the route level in Montréal,Canada

Transportation - Like many cities across North America, Montréal has experienced shrinking bus ridership over recent years. Most literature has focused on the broader causes for ridership...     

Interpretation of cruise industry in a two-sided market context: An exploration on Japan

Two-sided markets are characterised by the presence of an intermediary and two groups of end-users. In the cruise market, cruise lines may play the role of intermediaries to connect the two end-users, viz. cruise passengers and cruise ports. Our research explored whether the cruise industry can be regarded as a two-sided market, starting with a theoretical modelling. The findings show that cruise lines might be hybrid intermediaries, selling their own ship-based products and services, while offering also a platform to enable the transaction between cruise passengers and cruise ports. This particular business model of a quasi-two-sided market is also reflected in the pricing scheme of cruise industry, whereby cruise ports charge an entry fee from cruise lines and port dues from cruise passengers. We illustrate an empirical analysis on the basis of the cruise market in Japan, and it provides a preliminary clue that the behaviours of cruise ports and cruise lines are consistent with our theoretical framework. The results are not convincingly significant due to data limitations, hence, the concept of a ‘two-sided market’ in the cruise industry call for further empirical research.