Quanta Research

The Impact of Customer Loyalty Programs on Consumer Decision-Making: Evidence from Coastal Hotels in Albania

2026-05-23T14:16:34+02:00

This study examines the impact of customer loyalty programs on consumer decision-making in the hotel industry. More specifically, it explores the extent to which loyalty programs influence customers’ choice of hotel, intentions to make repeat bookings, and preferences for specific hotel services. The study uses a quantitative research design. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale and were administered to hotel customers in the coastal cities of Durrës, Vlora, and Saranda, in Albania, during the period from June to September 2025.

The findings show that customer loyalty programs have a positive effect on consumer decision-making in the hotel sector. In particular, incentives offered through loyalty programs play an important role in the hotel selection, by promote repeat reservations, and increase customers’ preference for certain hotels. The results also indicate that loyalty programs help build stronger relationships with customers and improve customer retention. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence from the Albanian hospitality sector, with a focus on coastal hotels in Durrës, Vlora, and Saranda. In addition, it offers practical implications for hotel managers by highlighting the strategic importance of loyalty programs as a useful tool for attracting customers, building long-term relationships, and increasing retention.

Comparative Evaluation of Gesture, Voice, and Mouse Modalities Using ISO 9241-9 in Controlled and Uncontrolled Environments

2026-05-26T10:52:54+02:00

Human-robot interaction requires intuitive, efficient, and affordable interfaces for real-world deployment. This work presents a cost-effective comparative study of three interaction modalities such as gesture, voice, and mouse using the ISO 9241-9 pointing task. Twenty participants performed repeated trials in both controlled indoor and uncontrolled outdoor environments. Movement time was analyzed using Fitts’ Law, while cognitive workload and usability were evaluated using NASA-TLX and the System Usability Score. Results show a significant effect of modality on performance, where mouse achieved the lowest movement time, gesture demonstrated comparable performance with no significant difference, and voice exhibited significantly higher delays. Subjective analysis indicates lower workload for mouse, while usability scores remain high across all modalities. Environmental conditions did not significantly affect performance. The findings highlight gesture as a low-cost and touch-less alternative suitable for human-robot interaction, particularly in accessibility-focused and real-world scenarios where conventional input devices are not feasible.

Messages Coming from Myths and Contemporary Albanian Theatre

2026-10-04T10:24:29+02:00

Albanian dramaturgy and theatre have repeatedly turned to myth, approaching it on two levels: as a perceived reality and as an artistic reality. The universality of their ideas and the metaphors that set life against death, the fantastic against the real, and man against his shadow make these dramas and performances provocative and rich in messages, psychological depth and symbolism, and link them to contemporary time and contemporary man. The method followed in this article is a critical analysis of the meaning of myth in the theatre, combined with a demystifying way of looking at things; its main goal is an aesthetic evaluation of the phenomenon that offers a deeper explanation of several concrete performances. Techniques of transformation and distortion—mutations of characters, settings and times, and the coexistence of the living and the dead, of objects, animals and people, and of virtual and real images—heighten the affective states of spectators and the hypnotic, magical power of the theatre. Mythological material turns esoteric elements into important textual-theatrical units. This trend became visible after 1990, with the fall of communism, but it has not infrequently gone to excess, distorting the meanings of mythological narratives. Nevertheless, the use of mythical material, its decoding and the creation of associations with today’s man and life remain among the modern practices of Albanian theatre, and they demonstrate the value of re-semanticizing myth in line with the messages that theatre conveys.

Machine Learning-Driven Cost Estimation and Resource Allocation Optimization in Industrial Engineering Projects: Evidence from Albania

2026-11-09T00:12:09+01:00

Cost overruns and inefficient resource allocation remain persistent problems in industrial engineering projects, particularly in transition economies where historical data are scarce and price volatility is high. This study develops an integrated predict-then-optimize framework that couples machine learning (ML) cost estimation with risk-aware resource allocation, and demonstrates it on a calibrated case study of 420 industrial projects (manufacturing plants, logistics facilities, agro-food processing, energy, water treatment and mineral processing) in eight Albanian regions over 2015–2025. Five learners’ multiple linear regression, support vector regression, random forest, artificial neural network and gradient boosting were trained in a direct formulation and in a hybrid formulation that learns the deviation from a conventional unit-rate estimate indexed to the national construction cost index. Under a strict temporal hold-out (training 2015–2022, testing 2023–2025), the hybrid gradient boosting model reduced the mean absolute percentage error from 19.1% for the conventional estimate to 8.2% (R² = 0.974), whereas direct tree-based models degraded under post-2021 price escalation. Design completeness at tender, site difficulty and region were the dominant cost-risk drivers. Conformalised quantile regression provided P10–P90 cost intervals that were fed into a mixed-integer linear programme selecting execution modes and start times for a 14-project portfolio under three resource capacities. In Monte-Carlo evaluation the risk-aware schedule lowered expected portfolio cost by 3.1% (≈ EUR 2.4 million), reduced the expected number of late projects by 26% and cut expected delay-months by 67% relative to earliest-due-date practice, with the largest gains when resources were scarce. The framework offers project-based firms and public clients in Albania a transparent, reproducible decision tool.