1. Google is one of the best examples of a company that relies on innovation and entrepreneurship as key drivers of their growth and development. The company understands that in order to create superior value for their clients, they have to remain innovative and continue to deliver new products, which reflect and anticipate the rapidly changing customer needs. Google strongly believes that company entrepreneurship cannot be separated from that of individual employees. That is why the company allows its people to dedicate 20 percent of their working time to developing own projects. In this way, Google is able to foster new ideas generation and to offer new products to customers. In fact, it has been estimated that almost half of all Google’s new products were developed during the employee personal time (Llopis, 2011). Some Google products that later became Google Hangouts were developed by Google employees during their personal time. Furthermore, Google Hangouts now significantly contributes to further entrepreneurship and idea generation within the company, by fostering communication between Google employees.
2. The service quality model developed by Gronroos (2001) views service quality in terms of three dimensions: technical parameters (what service is delivered), its functional aspect (how it is provided), and the image (the perception of the service based on previous experiences with the company). A cell phone can be viewed by the customers in terms of these three parameters. The technical aspect represents phone characteristics, its capabilities and features. The functional aspect relates more to the quality of the service received by the customers, and depends on whether this service meets their expectations. Thus, if a phone supports 3G connection, how reliable and strong it is. The image dimension relates to the corporate image and to the consumers’ previous encounters with the brand. A favourable image is a valuable asset for the company and indicates a positive trend in the relationship of the client and the service provider. Thus, customers expect Apple phones to be innovative and stylish, therefore every new version of the phone is received with great enthusiasm.
References
Gronroos, C. (2001), “The perceived service quality concept – a mistake?” Managing Service Quality, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 150-2.
Llopis, G. (2011, February 14). How google refined the entrepreneurial spirit by applying strategic focus to invent a new industry. Forbes, Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2011/02/14/how-google-refined-the- entrepreneurial-spirit-by-applying-strategic-focus-to-invent-a-new-industry/
