"Critical Incident Technique" Workshop at Aston Research Camp, Birmingham, England

The final "working" day of this trip (some would say I didn't really work at all on the trip) was to conduct a workshop on the Critical Incident Technique as part of the 6th Aston Business School Research Camp.  I was honored to be asked by my good friend, Christof Backhaus, to be a part of the event, which also included speakers Rajesh Chandy (London Business School) and Russell Belk (York University).

The workshop included some coding of sample incidents using the Bitner, Booms, and Mohr (1994) coding rules...which I had done as a doctoral research assistant at ASU back in 1990.

CIT Seminar participants.

"Publishing Scholarly Research" (One-day) Seminar at Aston Business School, Birmingham, England

Today I had another opportunity to spend time with PhD students and new Assistant Professors from around England in giving an abbreviated version of the Publishing seminar.

An eager group with many GREAT questions!

And, at the end of the day, we discussed (and worked on) the final part of the publishing process...celebrating success...my favorite part of the seminar...

Wrap-up of Publishing Seminar in Toulouse, France

We finished the two-day seminar today.  Just before lunch we went outside our meeting room and posed for a picture

The Toulouse Crew!

And, as is generally my practice, I treated the students to a drink after the seminar ended so that we could work on the most important skill...celebrating our (research) accomplishments!!!  Turns out, they really didn't need much practice with developing THIS skill.

"Publishing Scholarly Research" Seminar in Toulouse, France

I was invited by Lars Meyer-Waarden to conduct my publishing seminar at IAE Toulouse School of Management.  Although we were in a very warm classroom (it was about 95 degrees outside), there were about a dozen attendees who asked many good questions!

The next generation of business scholars!

Not sure why I wore black on such a hot day!

After a full day of discussing the publication process, Lars (and the University of Toulouse) treated me to a nice dinner at a restaurant along the Place du Capitole.

A Weekend of Work in Toulouse, France

After what seems like nonstop teaching, travel, and a conference over the past 5 weeks, I needed the weekend to catch up on things and to get ready for the upcoming (busy) week.  So, once I arrived at my (hot) apartment in Toulouse I spent most of Saturday and Sunday inside (or, on the balcony).  I worked a bit on tweaking the Publishing Scholarly Research seminar, preparing for my upcoming Critical Incident Technique workshop, and working on a research paper.

My luxurious apartment balcony in Toulouse!

The temperature over the weekend climbed into the mid 90s each day, but I did explore Toulouse a bit in the evenings.  Below is the Fountaine de Wilson, about 1/2 mile from my apartment.

Fountaine de Wilson in Toulouse

QUIS 15 Conference in Porto, Portugal

The next few days were spend attending (and making two presentations at) the Quality in Services Conference in Porto, Portugal.  I first attended this conference (QUIS 4?) in 1996 in Karlstad, Sweden, as a young assistant professor at the University of Idaho.

The first afternoon of the conference I presented a research project on Customer Relational Benefits. My co-authors are Yves Van Vaerenbergh (Belgium), Lisa Bruggen (The Netherlands), and Kevin Gwinner (Kansas State).

The next day I presented a different project, entitled "Delivering Bad News to Customers in Service Encounters: An Employee Perspective."  Unfortunately, I accidentally hit the computer restart button during the presentation and, as a result, I had to conduct the last third of the presentation without any PowerPoint slides. Now THAT is "bad news!"

Exploring the Steps, Churches, and Restaurants in Porto, Portugal

Mallory and I continued to explore Porto.  There are MANY steps!

For someone who enjoys taking pictures of steps, Porto is awesome!

We began our day at the Porto Cathedral...building began in the 11th century and finished in the 13th century.  The view from the plaza is excellent!

Not quite the selfie expert, but I keep on trying anyway.

We had lunch at the famous Majestic Cafe before going on an excellent walking tour of Porto...