The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of importance and performance matrix in assessing the quality of services provided by incubators. It is a descriptive research and it uses a qualitative approach. The research design is a case study, based on interviews with four entrepreneurs from the same incubator. It also uses a documental analysis from the public notice selection of the incubates used by this incubator. The dimensions of the services provided by incubators (infrastructure, professional services and network) and the attributes of these dimensions were selected based on previous studies. These attributes were used in the construction of the interview script and results analysis, aided by qualitative data analysis software for researchers, called NVivo® from QSR International Pty Ltd. The coding was developed based on 146 citations from interviews. High importance was attached to the infrastructure, which was evaluated as excellent. The professional services have received less importance, but they need to be improved. Despite the importance attached to the network, no robust actions were reported by the incubator. The analysis of clusters (or groupings) resulted in a group with hardware companies and another with software companies, resulting in two importance and performance matrixes being built. These matrices suggest the improvement of incubator performance in promotional activities to internal and external network. For hardware developers, access to laboratories is added. The study contributes to investigate the quality of services offered by incubators, especially when using importance and performance matrix.

<p>O objetivo deste artigo foi apresentar um modelo de avaliação das relações franqueador-franqueado com base no modelo das lacunas entre expectativas e percepções do serviço prestado por franqueador e franqueado e avaliar os resultados de sua aplicação a uma rede de franquias do setor Farmacêutico. Os modelos de avaliação do <em>franchising </em>foram descritos e analisados criticamente com o objetivo de conhecer seus elementos básicos. Com fundamento na literatura e em entrevistas com grupos focais, ajustes foram incorporados ao modelo desenvolvido para avaliar o relacionamento franqueador-franqueado. Divergências importantes foram constatadas no relacionamento de curto prazo. No entanto, franqueador e franqueados demonstraram que suas prioridades estão alinhadas nos sete atributos que compõem o relacionamento de longo prazo. O modelo das lacunas de qualidade mostrou-se adequado ao processo de avaliação do relacionamento entre franqueados e franqueador em curto e longo prazos.</p><p>Palavras-chave: Franquias. Relacionamento franqueador-franqueado. Qualidade de serviço.</p>

No abstract

1Artigo submetido em maio/2013 e aceito em outubro/2013 RESUMO O presente estudo tem como objetivos: a) propor uma escala para mensurar a qualidade dos serviços ofertados por academias de ginástica; b) avaliar a dimensionalidade do construto qualidade do serviço; e c) identificar, com base na matriz importância-desempenho, em quais dimensões os gestores devem focar sua atenção. Obedecendo a critérios de similaridade, completude, justaposição, aglutinação, especificidade e presença em trabalhos empíricos, 31 atributos foram selecionados para compor a escala proposta. Posteriormente, os atributos que integravam a escala foram submetidos ao crivo de especialistas e clientes. Estes analisaram os níveis de clareza e representatividade das sentenças definidoras de cada um dos atributos. Ao final deste processo, um teste piloto com 30 clientes foi desenvolvido, com intuito de realizar os últimos ajustes. Foram entrevistados 986 clientes de seis dentre as maiores academias do mercado de Natal/RN. Os resultados revelaram que a escala proposta, intitulada QSAG, apresentou uma consistência interna significativa (alfa de Cronbach foi 0,940). Da análise fatorial, seis fatores emergiram os quais explicam 61,82% da variância dos dados. Isto ratifica a multidimensionalidade do construto qualidade dos serviços. A utilização da matriz importância-desempenho permitiu extrair um conjunto de ações que podem ser usadas para dar suporte às decisões gerenciais de aperfeiçoamento das estratégias de qualidade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE:qualidade dos serviços, academias de ginástica, matriz importância-desempenho. MEASUREMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY IN HEALTH CLUBS: OF STANDARD SCALES TO DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECIFIC SCALE ABSTRACTThe present study aims to: a) propose a scale to measure the service quality offered by health clubs; b) evaluate the dimensionality of the service quality construct; and c) identify, based on importanceperformance matrix, in which dimensions managers should focus their attention. Obeying similarity criteria, completeness, juxtaposition, agglutination, specificity and presence in empirical studies, 31 attributes were selected for compose the scale proposed. Subsequently, the attributes that formed the scale were analyzed by specialists and customers. These analyzed the levels of clarity and representativeness of sentences defining each attribute. Finalized this process, a pilot test with 30 customers was developed, in order to make the last adjustments. We interviewed 986 customers of six among the major health clubs of Natal/RN. The results revealed that the proposed scale, titled QSAG, showed a significant internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha was 0.940). The factor analysis, six factors emerged which explain 61.82% of data variance. This confirms the multidimensionality of the service quality construct. The use of importance-performance matrix allowed to extract a set of actions that can be used to support management decisions for improvement of quality strategies.

Understand how the strategist formulates the organizational strategy is a key part to better understand how organizations achieve and maintain their competitive advantage. The aim of this study is to identify how the process of formulating the strategy from the individual's perspective is on a pharmaceutical industry franchises. Therefore, was considered the three dimensions of the strategy formulation process of De Witt and Meyer. The results confirm the existence of paradoxes in the strategic process, and suggest, for this sample, that executives formulate predominantly creative strategies, emerging and that there is a balance between evolutionary and revolutionary changes strategies. This article may, by identifying how franchisor and franchisees formulate their strategies, help to determining the appropriate strategies in the context of franchise networks.