Developing a process of concept generation for new product-service systems: a QFD and TRIZ-based approach

This research aims at suggesting a novel approach to creating promising product-service system (PSS) concepts by resolving contradictions between product and service components. In order to resolve these interference problems, theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) method is applied and the suitability of this method for PSS is evaluated by applying the 40 inventive principles in TRIZ method to PSS cases among Fortune Global 500 companies. In addition, quality function deployment is adopted to identify the critical features of products and services. By applying the suggested approach to a car sharing service, a representative automobile PSS, its practicability and utility are verified.     

Process completeness: Strategies for aligning service systems with customers’ service needs

Increasingly, customers are expecting more and better service. As such, enterprises need guidelines and frameworks for addressing these expanding requirements. The concept of process completeness helps us to consider service from the customer's viewpoint; arguably, the only perspective to take. Process completeness is achieved when a firm's service delivery system matches the typical customer's breadth of expectations. While customers think in sets of services (e.g., I need a flight, a hotel, airport parking, wireless Internet), firms think in terms of single services (e.g., we can provide a flight). There are four basic service systems: (1) transaction—execute a basic request and nothing else, (2) process—handling all firm-related service requests through one touch point, (3) alliance—handling service requests through a single touch point via stitching together a static firm-selected alliance of service partners, and (4) agility—handling service requests through a single touch point via stitching together a dynamic customer-selected alliance of service partners. In addition to exploring the four service systems, this article guides executives regarding the selection and implementation of the appropriate service strategy that meets their typical customer's process completeness expectations.     

Distinguishing between the impact of social media public and private compliments on customers’ future service recovery expectations

We seek to explore whether customers’ levels of service recovery expectations differ across customers who, prior to the service failure, publicly complimented the firm on social media and customers who, in advance of the service failure, privately complimented the firm on social media. We explore these differences in terms of satisfaction with the service provider and willingness to go back to the service provider. We conduct an experiment to test the research hypotheses. Our study results show that customers who complimented the service provider publicly (relative to privately) on social media in advance of a service failure require a higher level of service recovery to be satisfied with the service provider and go back to the service provider. Further, these effects are partly moderated by customer loyalty and social media usage intensity.     

Self-service innovativeness scale: introduction,development, and validation of scale

Consumer innovativeness is a central variable in innovation diffusion and adoption literature. The foremost challenge confronted by investigators involved in innovation diffusion and adoption research is the problem of measuring the innovativeness construct. Furthermore, a scale measuring innovativeness towards self-service technologies (SSTs) adoption is required as SSTs have grown considerably in the last few decades. To this end, this study develops and validates a self-service innovativeness (SSI) scale applicable across a variety of SSTs. The study presents a series of six distinct phases describing the development and validation of a six-item, self-report scale. The innovativeness scale has been validated in different contexts, allowing comparisons across distinct samples (i.e., student vs. non-student sample) and different industries (i.e., retail and hospitality industries). The SSI scale presented in this paper is short, valid, reliable, and easy to administer in service domains.     

Connected internationalisation processes: the case of internationalising channel intermediaries

Based on a network approach to internationalisation, the paper presents concepts for analysing companies’ processes of internationalising in a moving context of other firms internationalising. The analytical problem and research question of the study is: How are firms internationalising in a continuously moving context of other, connected firms that are internationalising concurrently? The idea of connected and overlapping network processes is introduced as an analytical tool for approaching the problem. The concept spatial overlapping is applied to analyse geographical aspects of overlapping internationalisation processes.These processes are illustrated with an empirical study of the internationalisation processes of channel intermediaries. The empirical aim of the study is to complement earlier research into the internationalisation of manufacturing firms, service firms, retail chains, etc. with a study that puts channel intermediaries in focus. Connected internationalisation processes are illustrated with a case from the electronic component distribution industry.Two issues are brought up in the analysis of the case: various ways of handling concurrent and connected internationalisation processes, and of handling the resulting spatial overlapping processes, including the redefinition of market regions, regionalisation. In the final implications, the handling of network contradictions and tensions emerging from connected internationalisation processes are elaborated on in a model suggesting further research into this line of internationalisation research.     

The competitive impact of service process improvement: Examining customers’ waiting experiences in retail markets

In this paper, we investigate the impact of a service process improvement in front-end retail operations on the waiting experiences of shared customers, that is, those customers who patronize a retailer as well as its competitors. Our findings from two studies—a field study and a controlled laboratory experiment—suggest that while customers’ waiting time perceptions are independent across competing firms, their waiting time satisfaction is interdependent. As a result, the impact of a retailer's service improvement initiative that reduces waiting times is not merely local to the retailer but propagates to its competitors through its shared customers. Specifically, such an improvement not only raises shared customers’ satisfaction with the focal retailer, it also concurrently lowers their satisfaction with the retailer's competitors. By implication, current approaches that assess the impact of a service process improvement by just measuring the difference in customer satisfaction before and after the improvement may be underestimating the true impact of such improvements.     

Killing two birds with one stone: Cross-selling during service delivery

Operational efficiency is a central goal of service firms. The past decade witnessed the replacement of people with IT systems in service industries, yet the spotlight recently shifted to how frontline employees (FLEs) might perform a dual role by achieving sales and service goals simultaneously. This study examines the predictive ability of three well-established constructs (psychological climate perceptions, leader–member exchange, and employee self-efficacy) to model sales and service performance empirically across a range of service settings. The authors also examine the moderating impacts of environmental dynamism and employee experience, to identify the conditions in which climate, leader–manager exchange, and self-efficacy have greater or weaker impacts on FLEs' ability to meet both sales and service targets. The results indicate the significance of all three main effects in driving sales and service performance and support the moderating effects of environmental dynamism and experience.     

Service encounters,experiences and the customer journey: Defining the field and a call to expand our lens

Service researchers have emphasized the importance of studying the service experience, which encompasses multiple service encounters. Although the reflection on a series of service encounters has increased, the scope of research in this space remains narrow. Service research has traditionally concentrated on understanding, measuring and optimizing the core service delivery. While this focused lens has generated extraordinary knowledge and moved service research and practice forward, it has also resulted in a narrowly focused research field. The authors present a framework to guide comprehensive service experience research. Broadly, they define (1) pre-core service encounter, (2) core service encounter, and (3) post-core service encounter as distinct periods within a service experience. Further, they review the literature and put forward important research questions to be addressed within and across these periods. Finally, they argue that researchers need to consider simultaneously all periods of the service experience to make valuable contributions to the literature.     

Evaluating Facebook brand content popularity for service versus goods offerings

Marketers using social media are struggling with its successful implementation, specifically in engaging their audiences through creation of popular brand content. Yet, creating popular brand content can lead to positive financial and brand outcomes. This research examines Fortune 500 companies' brand content strategies that contribute to Facebook content popularity metrics (i.e., number of likes and comments) for service versus goods offerings. Building on psychological motivation theory and the noted differences in culture and capabilities between goods and service firms, the article analyzes the key differences in service and goods brand content strategies in terms of branding, message appeals, and vividness. The findings from a multivariate multilevel Poisson model show that the use of corporate brand names is more popular for service messages whereas the use of product brand names, images, and videos is more popular for goods messages. Furthermore, service messages generate a higher number of comments than goods messages.     

Managing Service Expectations in Online Markets: A Signaling Theory of E-tailer Pricing and Empirical Tests

Expectations play a significant role in determining customer perceptions and satisfaction. Accordingly, retailers seek to manage customers’ service expectations. However, the tangible signals of service quality that are available to brick-and-mortar retailers (such as location, store appearance, and salespersons’ behavior) may not be available in online markets. Using a signaling model, we obtain conditions when Internet retailers (e-tailers) use price to manage their customers’ service expectations. In contrast to extant theory, we find that it is possible for both low and high service e-tailers to use price in signaling their service levels. Further, we develop an appropriate deductive test of our theory based on price-ending patterns as an artifact of the signaling process. Based on this test, we find evidence that e-tailers indeed manage service expectations using price. Interestingly, we also find preliminary evidence that suggests customers implicitly associate price-ending patterns with a retailer's expected service level. We discuss several other implications of our findings for researchers and managers.     

A predictive investigation of first-time customer retention in online reservation services

This paper reports a predictive investigation of first-time customer retention in an emerging service business—online reservation services. We work with an online platform that enables customers to make reservations for various types of restaurants. With numerous first-time users on the platform, the focal company is eager to effectively identify recurring customers. However, the business problem is challenging due to that each first-time customer has one and only one booking record hinders the use of well-established marketing models that demand multiple booking records for a customer. By analyzing more than 100,000 observations, we extract booking-related features that are useful in predicting first-time customer retention. Our feature extraction is potentially applicable to other service sectors (e.g., hotel, travel) with similar booking information fields (e.g., reservation timing, party size). We further conduct a comparative study in which surprisingly, the seemingly simplistic generalized additive model (GAM) for our test cases consistently outperforms computationally intensive ensemble learning methods, even the cutting-edge XGBoost. Our analysis indicates that there is no silver bullet for applied predictive modeling and GAM should definitely be included in the arsenal of business researchers. We conclude by discussing the implications of our study for online service providers and business data analytics.     

Resource integration optimization of convenience service platforms adopting dynamic service modes in new retail

This paper analyzes the key issues of resource integration, and proposes a method for solving the problem of achieving efficient resource integration for convenience service platforms that adopt dynamic service modes. This method considers both the service level of collaborative resources under dynamic service modes, and collaborative resources’ satisfaction of service modes in the resource integration. In addition, dominant factors needing the most attention during resource integration under dynamic service modes are excavated. Moreover, a model for resource integration optimization is established, and ant colony algorithm is used to solve the problem. Finally, a case is used to verify the feasibility of the method.     

Robust Multi-criteria Service Composition in Information Systems

Service compositions are used to implement business processes in a variety of application domains. A quality of service (QoS)-aware selection of the service to be composed involves multiple, usually conflicting and possibly uncertain QoS attributes. A multi-criteria solution approach is desired to generate a set of alternative service selections. In addition, the uncertainty of QoS-attributes is neglected in existing solution approaches. Hence, the need for service reconfigurations is imposed to avoid the violation of QoS restrictions. The researched problem is NP-hard. This article presents a heuristic multi-criteria service selection approach that is designed to determine a Pareto frontier of alternative service selections in a reasonable amount of time. Taking into account the uncertainty of response times, the obtained service selections are robust with respect to the constrained execution time. The proposed solution approach is based on the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA)-II extended by heuristics that exploit problem specific characteristics of the QoS-aware service selection. The applicability of the solution approach is demonstrated by a simulation study.     

An examination of consumer embarrassment and repatronage intentions in the context of emotional service encounters

Using an experimental repeated-measures design (n=240), this study examines the level of felt embarrassment and repatronage intentions in relation to 13 embarrassing service encounters. The manipulation of two independent variables, i.e. embarrassment source (i.e., service provider, others present and consumer) and embarrassment stimuli (violations of privacy, awkward acts, forgetfulness/error, image appropriateness and criticism) are represented by 13 hypothetical scenarios included in a self-report survey. The findings have relevance for theory and practice and provide direction for future research in this area.     

Retailers’ coalition and quantity discounts under demand uncertainty

Coalition of retailers is a nowadays phenomenon in retailing channels (RCs) that makes it possible for the retailers to enhance their business performance and respond to the consumers' needs more effectively. This paper discusses the retailers' coalition advantages and challenges in a two-echelon retailing channel consist of one wholesaler and two non-competing retailers who serve the consumers. The model is developed under a classic newsvendor problem where an all-unit quantity discount is offered by the wholesaler. Our investigations are conducted for both homogeneous/heterogeneous retailers under three different scenarios. In the developed models, the retailers start to make a coalition and make a joint order in order to gain more from the offered discount by the wholesaler, and then using a heuristic procedure they allocate the received order to serve their individual markets. The main objective of this study is to analyze and resolve challenges of the retailers' coalition when a quantity discount is offered in order to make them capable to meet consumers' needs in the best possible manner. Three models are developed: (1) no-coalition decentralized scheme, (2) decentralized coalition where the retailers coalesce, and (3) centralized coalition where not only the retailers but the wholesaler participate in the coalition scheme. Our paper contributes to the RC management literature by analyzing the benefits of the retail coalition in taking most advantage from an offered quantity discount. Results demonstrate that the optimal configuration of the retailers' coalition increases profits of both the retailers and the RC in comparison with the no-coalition scenario. Our findings help procurement managers to rethink their ordering policy toward forming coalition to gain more profits and enhance their service level to meet consumers’ needs.     

Interrupted anticipation after a service failure: The role of olfactory sensation on expected pleasure, taste enjoyment, consumption, and repatronage intentions

When consumers are highly charged with the anticipation of indulging in a pleasurable eating experience, a service failure that threatens to deny them the opportunity to satisfy their appetitive goals produces an “interrupted anticipation.” This study demonstrated that among those whose eager anticipation was interrupted by an unexpected service failure, food aroma tended to reinforce unpleasant feelings and generally negate the positive emotional boost normally expected from a positive olfactory cue. This resulted in significantly lower levels of expected pleasure, taste enjoyment, quantity of food consumed, and repatronage intentions. In contrast, for those whose anticipation was not interrupted, the food aroma exposure significantly enhanced the positivity of the consumer's service experience. When service failures lead to interrupted anticipation, service recovery efforts may sometimes prove to be ineffective in restoring the positive feelings of customers. Implications for theory development and managerial practice are also discussed.     

The happy versus unhappy service worker in the service encounter:Assessing the impact on customer satisfaction

This paper assesses the impact of the service worker's display of emotions (i.e., one aspect of functional service quality) on customer satisfaction under the conditions of different levels of technical service quality by means of an experimental approach (N=600), in which display of emotions (unhappiness vs. happiness) and technical service quality (poor vs. good) were manipulated. The results indicate that the impact of the service worker's emotional display behavior on customer satisfaction is contingent on the level of technical service quality, in the sense that customer satisfaction is affected only when technical service quality is good rather than poor. Encouraging a positive display (e.g., by a smile policy), which many service firms do, is thus not a panacea for improved customer satisfaction. The moderating effect is explained in terms of service encounter congruency, which influences the mediated process by which emotional displays by service workers come to affect customer satisfaction.     

Understanding the dynamics behind bank branch service quality in Portugal: pursuing a holistic view using fuzzy cognitive mapping

Using fuzzy cognitive mapping, this study aims to create a holistic framework whereby the determinants of bank branch service quality and their cause-and-effect relationships can be identified and dynamically analyzed. The methodology is applied using a group of experts from the banking industry in Portugal. Our results not only indicate the applicability and usefulness of the proposed approach, but identify human resource characteristics (which include collaborators’ personal and professional training) and management team technical skills as particularly relevant driving forces of bank branch service quality. The proposal holds great potential for the operational planning and improvement of bank branch service quality, which is a prime concern for bank administrators, bank branch collaborators, and society at large. Advantages and shortcomings of the framework are also reported.     

Co-creation of service recovery: Utilitarian and hedonic value and post-recovery responses

Based on the literature on customer value and service dominant (S-D) logic, this study suggests that hedonic and utilitarian value derived from co-creation of a service recovery contribute to perceived equity and affect toward the service recovery, which, in turn, enhance customers’ repurchase intentions. A scenario-based survey approach was used to collect data from U.S. consumers (N=330). Results show that utilitarian value enhances both equity and affect toward the service recovery while hedonic value contributes only to equity. In addition, the findings reveal that both equity and affect toward the recovery are positively associated with repurchase intentions.     

Consumer response to service brand physical elements: Using a semantic priming task to explore implicit understanding of service brand meaning

Consumers' responses to design features involve both conscious and non-conscious information processing. The current research therefore argues that a combination of explicit and implicit measures should be used to assess consumer understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements. However, most methods traditionally used to evaluate design meaning are explicit methods, based on conscious cognitive processes. The current research addresses this gap by documenting how understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements can be tapped by an implicit measure. More specifically, it aims to investigate the extent to which a greater ability to decode meaning conveyed by design features results in differences in implicit understanding of service brand meaning. This research uses a Semantic Priming Task to assess associative strength between brand meaning and a service brand's physical elements. Results (N = 157) show that command of the design language, captured by design acumen and involvement in the product category, results in greater ability to implicitly understand brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements, and moderates the implicit-explicit relationship. Results suggest that combining implicit and explicit measures may help practitioners in charge of creating brand's physical elements, especially when associations between design types and brand impressions are not constant across product categories.