Doan T. Nguyen

The paper investigates how digital technology interacts with service quality dimensions to influence customer perceived value in a B2B service context. Based on a sample of 547 corporate customers in the insurance sector in Vietnam, our research contributes to services marketing literature by examining customer perceived value when digital technology is utilized to enhance service quality. Contrary to existing research findings, our results suggest that applying digital technology in the B2B context have varying outcomes depending on the dimensions of service quality. Our findings indicate that digital technology enhances customer perceived value when firms provide outcome quality and environment quality for their clients. Indeed, utilizing digital technology could create a flipped effect on customer perceived value if firms do not balance their service quality provision with the application of technology. Our study thus calls for caution in the application of digital technology in the B2B professional service context.

The microalga Haematococcus pluvialis is mainly cultivated in suspended systems for astaxanthin production. Immobilized cultivation on a Twin-Layer porous substrate photobioreactor (TL-PSBR) has recently shown promise as an alternative approach. In Vietnam, a TL-PSBR was constructed as a low-angle (15 °) horizontal system to study the cultivation of H. pluvialis for astaxanthin production. In this study, the biomass and astaxanthin productivities and astaxanthin content in the dry biomass were determined using different initial biomass (inoculum) densities (from 2.5 to 10 g dry weight m⁻²), different storage times of the initial biomass at 4 °C (24, 72, 120 and 168 h) and different light intensities (300–1000 µmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹). The optimal initial biomass density at light intensities between 400–600 µmol photons⁻² s⁻¹ was 5–7.5 g m⁻². Algae stored for 24 h after harvest from suspension for immobilization on the TL-PSBR yielded the highest biomass and astaxanthin productivities, 8.7 g m⁻² d⁻¹ and 170 mg m⁻² d⁻¹, respectively; longer storage periods decreased productivity. Biomass and astaxanthin productivities were largely independent of light intensity between 300–1000 µmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹ but the efficiency of light use per mole photons was highest between 300–500 µmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹. The astaxanthin content in the dry biomass varied between 2–3% (w/w). Efficient supply of CO₂ to the culture medium remains a task for future improvements of angled TL-PSBRs.