The role of memorable experience and emotional intelligence in senior customer loyalty to geriatric hotels

Drawing on service encounters and experiential marketing theories, this study examined the relationship between geriatric service, memorable experience, emotional intelligence, and senior customers' attitudinal and behavioural responses. The research was conducted at geriatric hotels in Portugal. The results showed that, compared to impersonal encounters, employee service has a significantly greater effect on customer satisfaction, memorable experience, and customer loyalty. In addition, customers' memorable experiences mediated the relationship between different service encounters and organisational outcomes. However, customers’ emotional intelligence had minimal effects on these relationships. The discussion and implications of these findings are offered to researchers and practitioners.     

从“产品主导逻辑”到“顾客参与的价值共创”——看西方服务范式四十年来的理论演进

服务研究已经成为近四十年来的热点研究问题,从传统经典理论发展出的产品主导逻辑到服务主导逻辑与价值共创,服务范式的研究不断演进,如何认知服务的问题一直是学术界讨论的热点,文章对服务范式研究的发展历史与演进过程进行了梳理和分析,归纳、识别了包括产品主导逻辑、服务特征范式、关系主导范式、顾客接触范式、服务体验范式、服务主导逻辑和统一服务理论等七种不同的服务范式,分析了当前研究中的不足和面临的挑战,并对未来的研究方向进行了展望。     

A Pragmatic View of Perceived Service Quality Measurement

Abstract

Service quality measurement has been a central issue to service quality researchers and practitioners. A review of the service quality literature yields several approaches to the measurement of service quality. These approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses, and each may be appropriate under given circumstances. The present paper seeks to offer guidance to service practitioners interested in the measurement of service quality by suggesting which approach may be appropriate in light of various measurement criteria.     

Understanding Customer Role and its Importance in the Formation of Service Quality Expectations

A search of the Service Quality (SQ) and Customer Satisfaction (CS) literature reveals a gap in knowledge relating to the ‘expectation’ formation aspect of the disconfirmation paradigm.

Little consideration has been given to the ‘role’ of the customer in the service encounter, albeit that the above literature mostly customer that one measure of output performance comprises a customer comparison of the various delivery components with a self-established standard, of which ‘expectations’ appears the most common. A need exists to identify not only how customers define the standards and parameters for evaluation, but also, how the customers’ understanding of their role during service interaction affects the expectations they form.

This paper addresses the above need through the development and subsequent exploratory testing of a conceptual model of expectation formation. In addition to the recognised expectation antecedents of ‘experience’ and ‘familiarity,' two ‘role’ construct dimensions ‘role understanding’ and ‘role benefit’ are introduced in a broader expectation antecedent framework. The relationship between ‘experience’ and ‘familiarity’ with respect to expectations is found to be indirect in nature; with ‘role understanding’ and ‘role benefit’ both performing a mediator function. Managerial and research implications are discussed.     

The authentic service employee: Service employees' language use for authentic service experiences

This study analyzes how service employees' language use influences the authenticity of a service. The extant service literature on language use remains exclusively focused on the customer's perceptions of first language use in direct communication. Shifting the focus to the service employee, this paper posits that language could exert a wider influence, contributing both to how customers perceive the authenticity of the service and the entire service experience. Analyzing language use in service encounters, the paper addresses this research gap in the literature from the perspective of the service employee. In many service settings, authenticity is an important part in customers' construal of their experience. The study analyzes how service employees in British pubs outside the UK may use English with local customers who frequent these pubs to get a taste of Britain and British culture, contributing to the service literature by introducing a typology to align the service employees' language use with authenticity to strengthen the customer experience. The paper further contributes to service theory by extending the understanding of service sabotage by showing how, why, and in which circumstances service employees may use a language switch to sabotage the customer experience. Finally, the study extends the extant human resources literature on the effects of allowing service employees to be themselves to show that this managerial practice not only benefits the service employees also results in a more authentic customer experience.     

Identity,Ethnicity and Gender: Using Narratives to Understand their Meaning in Retail Shopping Encounters

This paper examines the ways in which two women (Sweetie and Desiree) experience a dissatisfying retail encounter. Citing data derived from memory-work methodology, we illustrate how stories can be used to gain a detailed insight into the complexity of consumption experiences and give voice to women consumers. By allowing women to write about, and critically reflect on their experiences, we show how consumers attach meaning to retail encounters and how we, as researchers can offer alternative interpretations of consumer behavior to those commonly reported in the literature. In this paper we use memories of "nasty" retail encounters to illustrate how social constructs related to identity, such as ethnicity and gender, have meaning in shopping experiences. Because of the new understandings possible via this method, we argue for using reflexivity in our research and analyses informed by feminism.     

Strangers in the night: speeddating, CCI and service businesses

Organisations are increasingly realising the importance of customer-to-customer interactions (CCI). From theme parks and shopping malls, to hairdressing and health clubs, interactions between customers are recognised as a key aspect of the service experience. This research examines CCI in the context of the speeddating phenomena, a unique setting in which conversations between strangers are at the very core of the service exchange. Three elements emerge from an in-depth qualitative study to provide new insights for managers who wish to influence CCI and give some structure to future research in the area: planning, roles and performances, and cooperation versus competition.     

Intercultural competencies for emerging markets: A contextualized approach

Emerging markets are increasingly important to researchers and managers focused on helping multinational enterprises to thrive in often attractive yet unfamiliar environments. However, empirical knowledge about emerging markets is relatively under-developed when it comes to managing international talent, particularly with regard to the specific demands placed on human capital in an emerging market context. We review the existing literature about macro-level trends and micro-level characteristics of emerging markets, and we conduct cluster analyses using secondary data in order to identify the individual intercultural competencies required for managers to succeed in this environment. We propose three context-specific competencies that are especially salient in response to the complexities of emerging markets – recognizing perspectives, managing relationships, and navigating uncertainty. Finally, we discuss organizational implications and future research directions for those seeking a more nuanced view of talent management via contextualization.     

The role of design in the future of digital channels: Conceptual insights and future research directions

PurposeIn the past channel literature has looked to other disciplines in developing and refining their theories, models and methods in order to evolve the field. This paper traces such history and highlights the substantial changes caused by the digital age. In light of this, the inclusion of design theory into future channel management is presented to overcome existing concerns.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive review of literature on the history of channels, the emotional experience (people), limitations of digital innovation (technology) and the role of design (business) has been conducted to create a new approach, built upon the theory of the techno-economic innovation model.FindingsThe findings of this study propose design-led channel management as a new research area, providing novel research questions and future research directions. The inclusion of design and emotion theories indicates that the future of digital channel design requires a deeper understanding of customers and needs to go beyond technological advances.Theoretical implicationsThe findings provide an opportunity to explore dynamic theories and methodologies within the field of design that will broaden the horizons and challenge existing notions in channel literature.Originality/valueThis paper is the first paper that introduces the theory of Emotionate, as the next evolution of channel literature. The value of Emotionate lies in providing a new design-led process of integrating emotion to provide advice to practitioners as well as identifies research areas for academia, thereby extending the reach and richness of this emerging research field.     

The effect of service failure types and service recovery on customer satisfaction: a mental accounting perspective

Service failure recoveries play an important role in the service process. Previous research on service recovery has focused on the development of classification schemes, such as service failure types (e.g. outcome- or process-related failure), service recovery attributes (e.g. psychological or tangible recovery), and failure magnitude. Few studies in the literature have developed a theory-driven model of customer satisfaction that considers whether different types of service failure warrant different types of service recovery. This article, which reports the results of two studies, draws on mental accounting theory to examine the effect of the relationship between service failure and service recovery on customer satisfaction. The results of Study 1 show that customer satisfaction is greater when service recovery efforts truly make up for what customers have lost and that prior experience of service failure has a significant influence on the effectiveness of those efforts. The results of Study 2 indicate that the magnitude of a service failure also has an impact on the effectiveness of service recovery efforts.     

Managing a Global Retail Brand in Different Markets: Meta-Analyses of Customer Responses to Service Encounters

This study investigates how retailers can leverage their brand to shape customers’ satisfaction with service encounters. It develops and tests hypotheses about how brand, store, and consumer factors moderate customer responses to experience clues during retail service encounters. Six meta-regression analyses synthesize and compare results from 842 satisfaction equations describing customers’ encounters with a global retailer operating 400 stores in 32 countries. The results show how customers weigh their perceptions of service encounters differently depending on brand, store, and consumer factors. In markets where customers believe the retailer has high holistic brand quality, they place less weight on experience clues within the store. In markets where customers believe the retailer’s service brand promise, they place more weight on in-store experience clues. In markets where the retailer promises utilitarian value, customers weigh functional experience clues more heavily. In markets with an online purchasing channel, the effect of experience clues common to offline and online store environments is magnified, and unique clues are diminished. In addition, customers heavily weigh experience clues that fit their goals. In general, retail success factors include high brand quality (which makes customers more forgiving), a service brand promise that is mirrored in the store image (which makes customers attend to the experience clues aligned with them), and the careful monitoring and managing of retail touchpoints (to customize experience clues to each market). In this way, retailers can use customer-based strategies to effectively design and manage their global retail brand in different markets.     

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.     

Role conflict and changing heritage practice: ancestral tourism in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Developing mutually beneficial outcomes in service encounters can be challenging due to resource asymmetry within co-created experiences. Such encounters can result in role conflict for service providers. Limited attention has been paid to the effect on service providers of highly collaborative exchanges which require specific customisation. An example of this is ancestral tourism, a dimension of heritage consumption, in which visitors actively participate in the co-creation of experience at museums, archives and related heritage sites. These institutions, previously seen as repositories of historical information, now act as conduits for visitors to investigate their ancestral past. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between changing professional discourse in the cultural heritage sector, specifically ancestral tourism, and role conflict amongst staff. Through interviews conducted with professionals, the extent and outcomes of role conflict in complex and collaborative exchanges are explored.     

Panel studies of new venture creation: a methods-focused review and suggestions for future research

Longitudinal panel studies of large, random samples of business start-ups captured at the pre-operational stage allow researchers to address core issues for entrepreneurship research, namely, the processes of creation of new business ventures as well as their antecedents and outcomes. Here, we perform a methods-orientated review of all 83 journal articles that have used this type of data set, our purpose being to assist users of current data sets as well as designers of new projects in making the best use of this innovative research approach. Our review reveals a number of methods issues that are largely particular to this type of research. We conclude that amidst exemplary contributions, much of the reviewed research has not adequately managed these methods challenges, nor has it made use of the full potential of this new research approach. Specifically, we identify and suggest remedies for context-specific and interrelated methods challenges relating to sample definition, choice of level of analysis, operationalization and conceptualization, use of longitudinal data and dealing with various types of problematic heterogeneity. In addition, we note that future research can make further strides towards full utilization of the advantages of the research approach through better matching (from either direction) between theories and the phenomena captured in the data, and by addressing some under-explored research questions for which the approach may be particularly fruitful.     

基于苹果公司的服务品牌与消费体验关系研究

本文以苹果公司产品和服务为调查对象,对苹果公司服务品牌建设进行分析,从消费体验入手进行多维度着手,构建一个消费体验与服务品牌建设关系的理论分析框架。将服务品牌分为外在展示和内涵感知,对消费体验进行分析,并通过问卷调查的形式对苹果公司产品用户进行调研和数据研究,引入实证分析的模式对框架进行分析。通过实证发现:服务品牌的外在展示对思考体验没有正向影响,内涵感知对感官体验没有正向影响。     

The happy virtual agent and its impact on the human customer in the service encounter

Few existing virtual agents (VAs) that customers interact with in service encounters can experience emotions, but they can be (and often are) designed so that they appear to have this capability. The purpose of this study was to assess VAs' display of happiness in service encounters when the only means they have to express themselves is the text that they transmit. Linguistic elements that influence the perceived happiness of a (human) sender of text messages were identified in a pilot study, and they were used to manipulate VA display of happiness in two experiments. In addition, a field study was carried out to capitalize on customers’ existing experience of service encounters with VAs in bona fide commercial settings. The experiments showed that VA text manipulated to signal VA happiness boosts overall VA evaluations, and the field study showed that perceived VA happiness is positively associated with overall VA evaluations. Taken together, the findings indicate that we humans are so hardwired for interactions with other humans that we react to VA display of happiness in ways that resemble our reactions when we are exposed to happy humans. The findings also provide designers of VAs and service marketers with a set of easily implemented linguistic elements that can be employed to make VAs appear happy in service encounters.     

Service Science Management Engineering and Design (SSMED): a semiautomatic literature review

ABSTRACT

SSMED (Service Science, Management Engineering and Design) is multidisciplinary by nature. However, some authors stated that SSMED publications remain focused on single scientific domains. This paper proposes a Semiautomatic Literature Review (SALR) using integrated techniques for knowledge extraction –‘Time Aware Knowledge Extraction’ (TAKE) – to analyse the interdisciplinarity of SSMED publications and the potential for transdisciplinarity based on the actual adoption of Service-Dominant Logic as the foundation of SSMED research. Findings reveal that: 1) most SSMED publications are not interdisciplinary and are mainly related to Management; 2) Service-Dominant Logic has been adopted very often in SSMED publications, paving the way for SSMED transdisciplinarity.

This paper offers theoretical and practical insights by enhancing the knowledge about SSMED literature and enriching the state of the art related to techniques to perform literature reviews. Furthermore, it stimulates the expansion of scholars’ and managers’ views of holistic approaches to service systems while fostering SSMED viability.     

A SELECTION FROM THE RESER CONGRESS IN GRANADA—Growth,Employment and Location of Services: New Trends in a Global World

RESER is an interdisciplinary European network of social scientists linked by a common interest in service industries, occupations and geographies. The annual RESER research conference has become the annual platform and meeting place for European researchers and policy makers working on service providers. It offers an opportunity for the exchange of ideas concerning the cutting edge of service research and is open to all researchers interested in the topic. The RESER 20051 1. The 2005 RESER congress was held in Granada (Spain). The congress theme was ‘Growth, employment and location of services: new trends in a global world’. View all notes conference was focused on the theme ‘Growth, Employment and Location of Services: New Trends in a Global World’. The conference dealt with three main issues: i) service competitiveness, ii) outsourcing, off shoring and delocalisation: implications for services and iii), challenges for public services in a global world.     

All's well that ends well: Effective recovery from failures during the delivery phase of e-retailing process

E-commerce retail has been on an exponential growth since late-1990s and now with COVID-19 crisis it is more popular and prevalent than ever before. But failures during the e-retailing process, specially when the business is under pressure, is a severe challenge with deteriorative impacts on customers' attitude and behavioral intention. While the majority of failures during e-retail process takes place at the ‘product delivery phase’ (the last phase of e-commerce process), little attention has been paid towards investigating how e-retailers can effectively recover from service failure encounters during the delivery phase. Seeking to address this gap, the present study draws on cognitive dissonance theory to examine the determinants of effective recovery from service failure encounters during the delivery phase of e-retailing. In doing so, a scenario-based experiment was conducted to collect data from 320 online customers. The findings provide empirical insights on how perceived recovery endeavor interacts with criticality of situation and brand equity to mitigate the negative consequences of service failure at delivery phase. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed along with avenues for future research.     

Living in the Gray: Lessons on Ethics from Prison

Often overlooked once they are remanded to custody, incarcerated former business executives can provide valuable insight into the inner workings of organizations while also contributing to the dialogue on of business ethics within the undergraduate business curricula. This paper summarizes experiences of white collar offenders obtained through a questionnaire-based research method to elicit lessons on ethics from prisoners and to provide a unique learning experience for undergraduate business students. Data was collected from 12 questionnaire responses (n = 12) which resulted in four major themes involving business ethics: core values, ethical responsibility, ethics training, and ethical culture. Narrative responses, integration of ethical decision-making research and student discoveries are included for each theme.