Browsing by Author "Pinto, Sofia"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Inherited stories of the Salto – the leap: the clandestine journey of Portuguese migrants to France in the 1960-1970s & José Vieira’s People from the SaltoPublication . Pinto, SofiaIn the 1960-1970s, approximately 900,000 Portuguese people migrated to France, fleeing poverty, colonial war, and dictatorship. Many were clandestine and had to illegally cross the borders between Portugal and Spain, and then between Spain and France, in a voyage known as the salto – the leap. Stories of the salto are present in family circles of remembrance, as memories of migration are transferred to the second and third generations. In a context of postmemory, many descendants of the first generation of migrants inherit these stories imbued with trauma and are currently striving to give them visibility and recognition on a national level in Portugal. This task seeks to forge a collective memory by retrieving personal accounts and can be accomplished through cultural and aesthetic practices such as filmmaking. I consider the latter alternative archives that provide affective, intimate, and affiliative readings of the past countering national and official narratives. To illustrate this process, I analyze José Vieira’s documentary DVD film collection and booklet, People from the Salto.
- Names shredded apart: Banksy, pseudonymity, and famePublication . Pinto, Sofia
- Professional services: a cross country development casePublication . Pinto, Sofia
- Service development – a radical innovation in a cross country development casePublication . Pinto, SofiaThis paper reports a study of a service development process at a multinational level. It describes the inputs of the development process and it aims to further understanding on how the initial stages of the development cycle can influence the final service design. It also analysis the design elements used at the international level to maintain multinational consistency of services. It describes how enablers of the development process are used in each stage of NSD. The findings are contrasted with existing literature.
- Service quality and customer satisfaction in public transportsPublication . Fonseca, Filipa; Pinto, Sofia; Brito, CarlosThe objective of the paper is to identify the determinants of service quality as well as its impact on the satisfaction of public transport commuters. The paper explores the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in a public transport service taking into account both internal and external perspectives. In order to analyse this relationship, the concepts of service quality, consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are assessed. A model of analysis is developed aiming at explaining this relationship and guiding the empirical study. This is based on an exploratory case study of a metro company in Europe. The results of the study put in evidence two key findings. The first is related to the level of service quality in its main dimensions. We conclude that reliability, security, speed, comfort and punctuality are quality dimensions of greater importance for the public transport services. Secondly, the study explores satisfaction and their determinants. Despite literature stipulates the existence of a distinction between the constructs of quality and satisfaction, this study found that the transport company, non-customers and customers clearly do not make such a distinction.
- Service quality in public transportation services aligning the operations perspective with customer expectationsPublication . Fonseca, Filipa; Pinto, Sofia; Brito, CarlosThe main objective of this paper is to explore the alignment between the operations perspective of service quality and the customer expectations. In order to analyse this alignment, the concept and operational dimensions of service quality are revised, as well as the concept of customer expectations. A model is presented, with the purpose of exploring the mentioned relationship and to guide the empirical study. A metro company in Europe was the core of this exploratory case study.
- The object and the nature of service specificationsPublication . Pinto, Sofia; Johnston, RobertSpecifications are an instrument to make service operations reliable, consistent and replicable. In the service context little has been researched regarding the specification of the service experience, its nature and its effective control. This paper summarises the existent literature on service specifications and its control, and then presents the results of case research which explores the object and nature of service specifications in contexts of high intangibility and interaction. It analyses and discusses the empirical findings in face of the existent theory and it highlights some contributions to practitioners, and academics in the service management field.
- The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in public transport servicesPublication . Fonseca, Filipa; Brito, Carlos; Pinto, SofiaThis paper reports on a study that explores the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in a public transport service taking into account both internal and external perspectives. In order to analyse this relationship, the concepts of service quality, consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are assessed. A model of analysis was developed which aimed at explaining this relationship and guide the empirical study. This was based on an exploratory case study of a metro company in Europe.
- The wall is dead, short live graffiti and street art! Graffiti, street art and the Berlin Wall's heritagePublication . Pinto, SofiaThis article addresses some of the challenges faced by heritagization related to graffiti and street art, namely the changes in context and temporality that this process entails. In order to discuss these issues, I will frame the Berlin Wall as a paradigmatic case that presents a trajectory in time: I will follow the transition of the Wall from a deadly frontier to an obsolete structure and, finally, to a historic monument. I will argue that graffiti and street art are context-specific, and deeply affected by the symbolism and/or functions of the surface on which they are inscribed. Moreover, I will recognize graffiti and street art as practices situated in between tangible and intangible heritage. Particularly with the Berlin Wall, and in regard to the preservation of memory and heritage, I will suggest that graffiti and street art do not always enter the institutional circuit, especially when illegal and anonymous.
- Tight versus lose specifications in service operationsPublication . Pinto, Sofia; Johnston, RobertIn this exploratory paper we contend that a service specification is an important mechanism which is needed to plan and control the design and delivery of a service. Despite this importance it is surprising that there is limited coverage of the nature of specifications in both the manufacturing and service operations literatures. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the key differences between a service specification in a mass service and in a professional service. The underlying hypothesis is that mass services will have a tight specification and professional services a loose specification. Based on interviews with senior managers in a UK and a Portuguese bank we found, contrary to expectations, that both mass and professional services made use of tight specifications. Professional services created their customisation from the tightly specified base using skilled staff at the interaction with the customer. We would also seek to challenge the view that mass and professional service processes are distinct, as they both appear to have mass-type tendencies with standardised and tightly controlled cores, and that professional services differ simply through the addition of a degree of customisation.