Purpose: The customer contact approach to service has been at the core of service theory since the 1970s. It suggests that the potential operating efficiency of a service is inversely related to the extent of customer contact with the provider's operations and that various service design issues...

The impact of business operations on the natural environment has been a public concern for decades and a research concern for years. To date, the focus of environmental impact research has been almost exclusively on manufacturing industries. Environmental research specific to service industries...

This paper describes the results of a research project where respondents from a variety of disciplines were questioned about how they perceive quality improvement. Structured interviews were held with top managers from the fields of engineering, operations, strategic planning, marketing,...