The L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Colloquium Series



HOME October 20, 2005, at 4:45 p.m. University Events Room Glickman Family Library, 7th floor Portland USM Campus (map) Click here to watch the video clip of the colloquium (205.43 MB)		Statistical tools found in the service quality assessment literature – the T² (T-square) statistic combined with factor analysis – can enhance the feedback that managers receive from customer evaluations. In this presentation, end-of- semester course evaluations are used as an example of raw customer satisfaction data from which fresh insights are extracted. Specifically, six phenomena underlying the structure of the data are exposed using exploratory factor analysis. These six “factors” provide faculty with a deeper look into the aspects of their courses that students find particularly satisfying or dissatisfying. Next, we construct a T-squarestatistic to examine variability across rating sets in order to isolate individual evaluations with aberrant response patterns (i.e., outliers). In the teaching context, we learn that analyzing student responses that are outside the "normal" range of responses can identify aspects of the course that cause pockets of students to be dissatisfied. The procedure and methodologies should be useful to any manager who must extract meaningful information from customer evaluations. This presentation will demonstrate how the recommended procedure minimizes data overload, allows for valid longitudinal comparisons of correlated survey responses, and helps managers and instructors identify priority areas for improvement. _________________________________________________________ Professor Jensen received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1994. Before beginning his doctoral studies, Professor Jensen worked as a computer programmer in municipal government and as a manufacturing project supervisor for Fairchild Semiconductor. He is a research associate for the Center of Business and Economic Research and a member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Operations Management. He consults with public and private-sector organizations, such as Hannaford, UNUM, and the Center for Technology Transfer on capacity management, planning, and manufacturing technology issues. Dr. Jensen has been published in Decision Sciences, the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Services Marketing, European Journal of Operations Research, International Journal of Production Research and Maine Business Indicators. He has presented his work on quality and shop floor control systems before national meetings of major organizations in his field.
The colloquium is sponsored by the L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Endowed Chair in Accounting. ________________________________________________ USM Professor Jeffrey Gramlich was appointed the first L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Chair in Accounting in the USM School of Business in 2003. His appointment was made possible by a $1 million gift from L.L. Bean, Inc., its board chair, Leon Gorman, his wife Lisa, Jim and Maureen Gorman, and Tom Gorman, who established the chair in memory of L.L. Bean CFO Lee Surace '73, '81, who died in March of 2001. Surace was chair of the USM School of Business' Advisory Council and was a frequent guest lecturer. The USM School of Business is accredited by the prestigious AACSB International. For students seeking the finest education and companies seeking the highest caliber talent, partnership, and educational opportunities, AACSB International accreditation is one of the most important affirmations of sustained quality in the word. For more information about School of Business programs, call 780-4020.