Papers by Gabriela Beirão
Journal of Small Business Strategy
The recent pandemic crisis has greatly impacted startups, and some changes are expected to be lon... more The recent pandemic crisis has greatly impacted startups, and some changes are expected to be long-lasting. Small businesses usually have fewer resources and are more vulnerable to losing customers and investors, especially during crises. This study investigates how startups’ business processes were affected and how entrepreneurs managed this sudden change brought by the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were analyzed using qualitative research methods through in-depth interviews with the co-founders of eighteen startups. Results show that the three core business processes affected by the COVID-19 crisis were marketing and sales, logistics and operations, and organizational support. The way to succeed is to be flexible, agile, and adaptable, with technological knowledge focusing on digital channels to find novel opportunities and innovate. Additionally, resilience, self-improvement, education, technology readiness and adoption, close relationship with customers and other stakeholders, and inc...
fe.up.pt
... Mapa do Campus. Exploring structural and psychological determinants of travel mode choice. Ar... more ... Mapa do Campus. Exploring structural and psychological determinants of travel mode choice. Artigo em Livro de Actas de Conferência Internacional. Autores: Gabriela Beirão José Sarsfield Cabral. Área: 5 Ciências sociais. Idioma: Português. Ano: 2009. Página Inicial: 1. ...
No entanto, a procura de transportes públicos tem diminuído face à crescente concorrência do auto... more No entanto, a procura de transportes públicos tem diminuído face à crescente concorrência do automóvel privado. Perante este problema, os operadores de transportes públicos urbanos estão cada vez mais sensíveis à problemática da qualidade e as autoridades reguladoras ...
Advances in marketing, customer relationship management, and e-services book series, Jun 30, 2023
Public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users to fight the lost in market share... more Public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users to fight the lost in market share, mostly due to the increasing use of private cars. Therefore, the concepts of 'quality ' and 'customer ' must change and the focus must be on meeting people’s needs. At the same time, transport systems should be flexible enough to respond to changes in people’s requirements and needs. Thus, the aim for public transport must be enhancing quality of the service. This requires a clear understanding of travel behaviour and consumer needs and expectations. Accordingly there is an increasing awareness of the importance of including service quality indicators and quality specifications in contracts between operators and public transport authorities. The development of quality measures in the designing of contracts for public transport raises important aspects that must be considered. This paper examines issues concerning the definition of service quality measures for public...
Using attitudes toward travel an exploratory factor analysis was performed followed by a confirma... more Using attitudes toward travel an exploratory factor analysis was performed followed by a confirmatory factor analysis, showing good validity and reliability indices. Cluster analysis was then used to identify similar respondents based on their travel attitudes. Six distinct groups were extracted: transit enthusiasts, status seekers, car addicts, car-less riders, calm riders and obstinate drivers. The segments showed unique combinations of attitudes with distinct travel behaviors and varying degrees of intention to use public transport. The results show evidence that the design of strategies to influence public transport usage should be targeted at the market segments that are most motivated to change and increase their frequency of use. Keywords: Market segmentation, travel attitudes, cluster analysis, mode choice, travel
Um sistema de transporte de passageiros eficiente constitui um elemento fundamental para aqualida... more Um sistema de transporte de passageiros eficiente constitui um elemento fundamental para aqualidade de vida dos cidadaos. Nestas condicoes, e importante que os sistemas detransporte respondam adequadamente as expectativas e necessidades das pessoas e que,simultaneamente se adaptem a evolucao da procura.No entanto, a procura de transportes publicos tem diminuido face a crescente concorrenciado automovel privado. Perante este problema, os operadores de transportes publicosurbanos estao cada vez mais sensiveis a problematica da qualidade e as autoridadesreguladoras procuram introduzir elementos de avaliacao da qualidade do servico, quer nosrequisitos de concursos, quer nos contractos de concessao, prestacao ou exploracao. Com aintroducao de indicadores de qualidade nos contractos e concursos pretende-se aumentar aeficiencia dos transportes publicos e assegurar uma maior qualidade dos servicos oferecidosao publico. Alias, a politica de transportes da Comissao Europeia coloca a qualidade...
Measuring importance, perceived performance and satisfaction with public transport service is cri... more Measuring importance, perceived performance and satisfaction with public transport service is critical to identify priority areas for improvements. A dissatisfaction measure, witch combines measures of importance and performance labeled user disgruntlement (1), was used to ascertain the critical aspects of the service. The analysis was applied on different transport modes used for work and school trips and on two population sub-groups (e.g., women and men). Because attitudes as well as perceptions are important factors, insights into six previously extracted market segments using attitudes towards travel were also analyzed. The results showed that women as well as non-users of public transport seem to be more dissatisfied with service quality attributes. Key areas of improvement include aspects such as: transit cost, waiting time, on-time performance and frequency. With lower rankings of importance but also of great concern are aspects related to the level of crowding, having seats ...
Service organizations increasingly understand the importance of managing the customer experience ... more Service organizations increasingly understand the importance of managing the customer experience to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study aims to develop a better understanding of the customer experience by investigating how the customer’s internal mechanisms influence it. That is, how it is perceived and processed at three different levels (visceral, behavioral and reflective), which determines a person’s cognitive and emotional state. To this purpose an exploratory multi-method ethnographic study was undertaken in a healthcare service. The results showed the emotions provoked by the service experience at each level. These levels are interconnected and impact each other working together to influence a person’s cognitive and emotional state, and thus playing a critical role in the overall evaluation of a service. Results show that elements such as servicescape aesthetics, face-to-face and non-human interactions influence emotions and service evaluations. The service ...
This paper explores measures of importance and performance with public transport. A dissatisfacti... more This paper explores measures of importance and performance with public transport. A dissatisfaction measure, witch combines measures of importance and performance labelled user disgruntlement (Stradling et al., 2007), was used to ascertain which aspects of service need urgent improvement. Because attitudes as well as perceptions are important factors that characterize the underlying travel behaviour, insights into six previously extracted market segments using attitudes towards travel were analysed.
Using attitudes toward travel an exploratory factor analysis was performed followed by a confirma... more Using attitudes toward travel an exploratory factor analysis was performed followed by a confirmatory factor analysis, showing good validity and reliability indices. Cluster analysis was then used to identify similar respondents based on their travel attitudes. Six distinct groups were extracted: transit enthusiasts, status seekers, car addicts, car-less riders, calm riders and obstinate drivers. The segments showed unique combinations of attitudes with distinct travel behaviors and varying degrees of intention to use public transport. The results show evidence that the design of strategies to influence public transport usage should be targeted at the market segments that are most motivated to change and increase their frequency of use.
Public transport faces a continuous decline in market share and increasing competition from priva... more Public transport faces a continuous decline in market share and increasing competition from private car. The challenge for public transport is to find a way of maintaining and attracting clients, which implies improving the quality of the service through a market oriented approach, particularly increasing the responsiveness to the users’ and potential users’ needs and expectations. Accordingly, service quality is becoming more and more important in public transport contracts. Specifying quality raises important questions in designing contracts for public transport. Quality must be unambiguously specified and monitored. To address these issues, a project supported by a large Portuguese urban public transport operator is being developed in order to produce a reliable model for measuring service quality and enabling the inclusion of service quality indicators in future contracts. The first stage of the project was based on qualitative methods to obtain a deeper understanding of the und...
This study builds upon on-going research investigating user acceptance of wearable health technol... more This study builds upon on-going research investigating user acceptance of wearable health technology across different cultures. Wearable technology refers to devices that are external to the body, either attached as an accessory or embedded in clothes. Recently, smart wearables and fitness trackers have provided new opportunities for health care. Furthermore, health insurance companies in different countries have begun to introduce fitness trackers as part of their insurance policies (Tuzovic and Mathews 2017). ...
Gerontology
Background: Over the past few years, various new types of technologies have been introduced, whic... more Background: Over the past few years, various new types of technologies have been introduced, which have been tailored to meet the specific needs of older adults by incorporating gerontological design principles (i.e., “gerontechnologies“). However, it has been difficult to motivate older adults to adopt and use these new technologies. Therefore, it is crucial to better understand not only the role of personal drivers but also the family influences on older adults. Objective: This research goes beyond traditional technology acceptance theories by investigating the role of personal (e.g., inherent novelty seeking) and interpersonal drivers (e.g., influence of family) in stimulating older adults to use gerontechnologies. Nine hypotheses, building on traditional and new technology acceptance theories, were developed and tested. Methods: This research applies a cross-sectional study design. Therefore, a face-to-face survey instrument was developed building on a qualitative pilot study and validated scales. Three hundred and four older adults (minimum age = 70 years) were willing to participate as well as one of their family members. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the hypothesized conceptual model. Results: Our results extend the seminal technology acceptance theories by adding personal (i.e., inherent novelty seeking p = 0.017) and interpersonal drivers. More specifically, it was found that the attitude toward gerontechnologies was influenced by family tech savviness (i.e., people who often use technology), as this relationship is fully mediated through the social norms of older adults (p = 0.014). The same was found for older adults’ trust in the family member’s technology knowledge (p ≤ 0.001). Here, the relationship with older adults’ attitude toward gerontechnologies was partially mediated by the older adults’ trust in technology. Conclusion: This study identified important personal and interpersonal drivers that influence attitudes toward and intentions to use gerontechnologies. To foster technology acceptance among older adults, it was found that it is important to strengthen the trust in and the attitude toward gerontechnologies. Furthermore, family members’ knowledge and beliefs in technology were the keys to promoting the actual use of gerontechnologies among older adults. Furthermore, the families’ trust in gerontechnologies and the provision of access to technology can improve their attitudes toward technology and usage intentions for the older relative.
Journal of Service Management, 2014
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of value co-creation in complex val... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of value co-creation in complex value networks with many actors. Electronic health records (EHRs) are innovations that warrant deep study to properly introduce such a complex system. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes a qualitative study based on Grounded Theory to understand value co-creation from multiple actors’ perspectives in a National EHR Service Project: the Portuguese Health Data Platform. Findings – Study results enabled further development of the value co-creation concept in complex environments with multiple actors. More specifically they allowed: operationalizing the value co-creation concept by identifying its factors and outcomes, understanding how value co-creation factors and outcomes are interconnected, and understanding of how value co-creation for each actor depends on his/her own actions and the actions of other actors, in a complex set of interactions and interdependencies. Practical i...
Public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users to fight the lost in market share... more Public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users to fight the lost in market share, mostly due to the increasing use of private cars. Therefore, the concepts of 'quality' and 'customer' must change and the focus must be on meeting people's needs. At the same time, transport systems should be flexible enough to respond to changes in people's requirements and needs. Thus, the aim for public transport must be enhancing quality of the service. This requires a clear understanding of travel behaviour and consumer needs and expectations. Accordingly there is an increasing awareness of the importance of including service quality indicators and quality specifications in contracts between operators and public transport authorities. The development of quality measures in the designing of contracts for public transport raises important aspects that must be considered. This paper examines issues concerning the definition of service quality measures for public transport. This will give a better understanding of pertinent questions and of improvement strategies open to public transport management. Next, it outlines some critical aspects that must be considered when including such measures in contracts between operators and public transport authorities.
Traveler attitudes and preferences as well as demographic variables are important components in t... more Traveler attitudes and preferences as well as demographic variables are important components in the travel behavior process. Using travel attitudes a factor and cluster analysis were conducted to segment the sample. Six distinct groups were extracted: Transit Enthusiasts, Anxious Status Seekers, Car-less Riders, Green Cruisers, Frugal Travelers, and Obstinate Drivers. The segments showed unique combinations of attitudes with distinct travel behaviors and varying degrees of intention to use public transport. Gender differences were then investigated and the results suggest that women and men exhibit differences on attitudes, preferences and behavior. The design of strategies to promote alternatives to car use should target the market segments that are most motivated to change, focusing on the attitudes that can induce a change, such as pro transit or sensibility to the environment.
Uploads
Papers by Gabriela Beirão