The evaluation factors of adopting SoLoMo services: the hybrid fuzzy MCDM approach

SoLoMo services are emerging mobile services, which combine different software and hardware techniques, enabling users to obtain location-based information at any time and place as well as exchange, interact, and communicate messages with other people in real time. Since SoLoMo services contain two types of the most widely used mobile applications, different users might have different needs for and expectations on these services. This study proposed a three-stage hybrid fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model and applied fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to analyze, from an angle of integral SoLoMo services, the critical factors evaluated by users in adopting SoLoMo services. In addition, this study also discussed how the users make their choices after they have weighed between the privacy consideration and the use of complete SoLoMo services. The analysis results reported that popularity degree of service, information accuracy of service, privacy risk, maintaining affection and friendship with others, and location-based store information search are the top five ones among these critical positive and negative factors considered by users while adopting SoLoMo services. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that for achieving information accuracy of service, location-based store information search, and maintaining affection and friendship with others, SoLoMo service users would tolerate more privacy risk.     

Key service drivers for high-tech service brand equity: The mediating role of overall service quality and perceived value

Abstract

This study investigates how different aspects of service quality could have effects on overall perception of service quality, perceived value, and service brand equity. Based on a survey of active users of mobile telecommunications services in Taiwan, we obtained the following findings. First, we found that empathy, network quality, reliability, and assurance, but not tangibles and responsiveness, have a significant effect on service quality and value perception. Second, the effect of overall service quality on brand equity is partially mediated by perceived value. Third, overall service quality has differential mediation effects on the relationships between specific service quality dimensions and perceived value. Finally, empathy and network quality have direct effects on brand equity. For managers, our study suggests the importance of identifying key service drivers for building strong service brand for high-tech service firms. The identification of key service drivers could then enable these firms to make strategic decisions on services investments. It also demonstrates the importance of the humanisation of technology for services firms. This study is original in that it explores the path from specific services qualities to service brand equity.     

Value network dynamics in 3G–4G wireless communications: A systems thinking approach to strategic value assessment

This article develops a map to analyze the dynamic forces that influence the structure and development of 3G (third generation) wireless communications value networks. The analysis builds on the Strategic Value Assessment Model (Fine, et al. [Fine, Charles H., Vardan, Roger, Pethick, Robert, El Hout, Jamal. Rapid-Response Capability in value chain Design. MIT Sloan Manage Rev 2002, 43(Winter): 69–75.]) and utilizes a qualitative System Dynamics mapping approach. The map focuses on the driving forces affecting user adoption of 3G services, focusing on customer dynamics, competitive dynamics, and technology dynamics. To analyze adoption of 3G services by customers, the articles maps the dynamics of (1) network investment and user population, (2) entry of service innovators as well as price competitors, (3) the effects of positive network externalities arising from a larger user population, (4) price compression as lower willingness-to-pay users adopt 3G services, (5) scale economies in terminal costs and prices, and (6) new content development as a draw to new users. Applying inductive systems diagrams hypotheses are integrated into a causal loop map and tested with data collected at 15 communications-industry workshops attended by 190 participants in Europe. The map aims to deepen the understanding of the possible evolutionary paths of the 3G wireless value network. The article seeks also to assess which future scenarios are plausible and what dynamic triggers might make them likely.     

A Public Sector Marketing Model to Measure the Social and Environmental Values of Public Strategies: An Empirical Study on a Green Public Service

This article develops a public sector marketing model to measure the social and environmental values of public strategies. Applying partial least squares path modeling, the authors empirically test the model by conducting a quantitative survey (N = 603) among users of a green public service in the form of a public bike-sharing system. The findings reveal that users simultaneously perceive public outcomes on the social value and environmental value dimensions. The effect estimated on the perceived social value dimension of the green public service was slightly stronger than the effect on the environmental value dimension. Thus, users primarily perceive self-centered values, before considering values generated for the environment. The findings also show that engaging citizens now in the actual usage of green public services can foster green consumption intentions in the future.     

Managing Corporate Portal Usage with Recommender Systems

Corporate portals are supposed to support a company’s business model and to increase productivity of the employees. However, the productivity gain that can be achieved by corporate portals is often undermined because the users of the portal are not sufficiently informed about the portal’s capabilities. This is of particular concern for large corporate portals whose service portfolio is constantly evolving and to which new users are added frequently. In the article, we propose a recommender system for corporate portals in order to increase service awareness and usage. Following the design science methodology, a suitable recommender concept is developed and several implementation options are evaluated in a field experiment at one of Germany’s largest companies. It is found that the recommender system increases the number of newly visited services as well as the number of newly used services in the corporate portal by about 20 %.     

How to Coordinate Value Generation in Service Networks

The fundamental paradigm shift from traditional value chains to agile service value networks implies new economic and organizational challenges. As coordination mechanisms, auctions have proven to perform quite well in situations where intangible and heterogeneous goods are traded. Nevertheless, traditional approaches in the area of multidimensional combinatorial auctions are not quite suitable to enable the trade of composite services. A flawless service execution and therefore the requester’s valuation highly depends on the accurate sequence of the functional parts of the composition, meaning that in contrary to service bundles, composite services only generate value through a valid order of their components. The authors present an abstract model as a formalization of service value networks. The model comprehends a graph-based mechanism implementation to allocate multidimensional service offers within the network, to impose penalties for non-performance and to determine prices for complex services. The mechanism and the bidding language support various types of QoS attributes and their (semantic) aggregation. It is analytically shown that this variant is incentive compatible with respect to all dimensions of the service offer (quality and price). Based on these results, the authors numerically analyze strategic behavior of participating service providers regarding possible collusion strategies.     

Key drivers of services website loyalty

The ease of website comparison and strong price competition encourage users to constantly switch tourism service providers. The present work analyses how satisfaction, trust, and commitment can help to strengthen loyalty towards websites selling accommodation services. Moreover, special attention is paid here to evaluate the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between these variables. Structural equation models were used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 230 Mexican Internet users, online purchasers of tourist accommodation services. The results show significant differences between men and women's post-purchase behaviour with a higher influence in women of trust on commitment and of commitment on loyalty towards accommodation services websites. Managerial implications for accommodation websites are provided.     

Retail in my pocket– replicating and extending the construct of service quality into the mobile commerce context

Nowadays, retailers are interested in how customer preferences regarding service quality are changing due to the adoption of different devices for shopping purposes in both the desktop and mobile contexts. To answer this question, this paper first replicates, in the mobile commerce (m-commerce) context, the results from Blut et al. (2015), who conducted a meta-analytic review of electronic service quality. Replication results question the robustness and generalizability of the conceptualization in the mobile service quality context. Thereby, practitioners and academics are encouraged to adapt a customer-centric approach in organizing marketing practices. The replication extends the conceptualization of electronic service quality by considering a unique dimension named ubiquity of services, defined as the retailer's ability to provide offers based on location and time. To reveal psychological mechanisms explaining the results of the replication study, a follow-up study draws on these contextual factors. In this context, this study uses a quasi-experimental approach by utilizing propensity score matching to account for self-selection effects to examine differences between desktop and mobile device users. As a result, this research contributes to the literature by identifying contextual boundary conditions regarding the shopping trip intentions and risk perceptions of mobile device users and desktop device users. Based on the results, major implications for retailers and further research are given.     

Is it all about consumer engagement? Explaining continuance intention for utilitarian and hedonic service consumption

This paper compares the explanatory power of consumer engagement (CE) regarding service continuance intention with the variables of attitude (utilitarian and hedonic) and satisfaction. Survey data were collected from users of mobile music (n = 596) and mobile parking (n = 297) services. The partial least squares method was applied to analyze the data. In line with expectations, the findings show that attitude and satisfaction are superior drivers of service continuance intention compared to CE when service is used for utilitarian reasons. In contrast, when service consumption is driven by hedonic reasons, CE is a stronger driver than satisfaction. However, no evidence for the superiority of CE over attitude was found in the hedonic context.     

Applying latent trait analysis in the evaluation of prospects for cross-selling of financial services

Identification of the order in which households acquire financial services has important implications for market segmentation and cross-selling strategies. This study illustrates a procedure by which financial institutions, based on internal records, can estimate the likelihood that a customer will purchase/use additional services. The methodology discussed in this study positions financial services and investors along the same continuum according to the particular ownership pattern. The location of an investor indicates his financial expertise and resources, while the location of a financial service measures the level of expertise/resources needed for ownership of that service.A key feature of the methodology is its ability to predict the probability of ownership of some financial services given information on (non-)ownership of other services. This study concludes with an illustration applying the methodology for targeting customers for cross-selling efforts.     

Cost-efficient co-creation of knowledge intensive business services

The most significant difference between industrialization-driven product marketing and digitalization-driven service marketing can be seen in the definition of value creation, and the exchange (integration) of resources. Industrialization created efficiency in scale, whereas digitalization requires customer-oriented business models and value co-creational service processes. This research follows the value co-creational and system integrational views of service-dominant logic. We have explored how relative profitability can be increased through efficient service productization. Our approach is twofold, we have explored the commercialization of co-created services (the servitization of product-service systems) and the enhancement of service production by service processes. We have created service management framework for modular service delivery where company resources be linked to cost-efficient co-creation services.     

服务扩展对公司价值影响研究

制造业服务扩展与公司价值之间存在U型关系。本文通过对我国159家制造业上市公司2003—2008年的面板数据分析,发现我国制造业服务扩展对公司价值具有负面影响。笔者以资源基础观为基础,从公司和行业两个层面进行分析,发现公司层面的资源充足率和市场份额影响为负或者不显著,在行业层面的行业增长率呈正相关,行业竞争程度呈负相关,最后结合中国市场特征与上市公司财务特征对此进行解读。     

Fitness Apps's purchase behaviour: Amalgamation of Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence framework (S–O–B–C) and the innovation resistance theory (IRT)

With the rise in popularity and use of fitness apps, more research is needed to learn more about how people use the apps so that they keep using them. Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence framework (S–O–B–C) and the Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT) together in this study to learn more about how people make decisions about how to use apps for fitness. Eight hundred and fifty-eight users of various fitness apps have responded to the questionnaire. Results show that people who are open to changing their fitness systems from traditional to app-based services enjoy new experiences and new product behaviours. For them, the perceived functional barriers to service adoption don't hold them back. At the same time the users of fitness apps try to get health and fitness information from as many sources as possible, like friends, peer groups, the newspaper and social networking apps. Users with a high level of health consciousness are more likely to be active in their health and fitness. People who use apps make decisions based on new information from the integrated model. App providers should think about how to get and keep users interested in their apps, personalise their experience, and design features that make users invested in the apps.     

Perceived values,platform attachment and repurchase intention in on-demand service platforms: A cognition-affection-conation perspective

The rapid growth of on-demand services and the increasing competition among platforms make the repurchase behaviors of experienced clients an urgent and important problem. Drawing on the cognition-affection-connation framework, this study proposes a research model to examine how clients' repurchase intentions are shaped in the context of on-demand services by focusing on the service client-platform relationship. The model was tested with a sample of 519 respondents collected from experienced clients of the largest on-demand service platform in China, Meituan, via the questionnaire survey method. Our findings suggest that the three value constructs (i.e., cognition) derived from the service consuming experience, including utilitarian value, hedonic value and interactivity value, significantly contribute to the establishment of platform attachment (i.e., affection), which in turn drives repurchase intention (i.e., conation) toward on-demand services. This research outlines an attachment-based framework to gain an insightful understanding of client loyalty behaviors in the on-demand service context. It also makes contributions to the existing research by extending the cognition-affection-connation framework to online contexts and by illustrating the essential role of platform attachment derived from the client-platform relationship in driving clients' repurchase behaviors in platform-based businesses.     

Development of new technology-based services

In an environment where customers can hardly describe new technology-based services (TBSs) of the future and technological engineers are unlikely to understand how a new technology can work for new services, a guideline to generate ideas for TBS can be utilized to achieve successful service innovation. Thus, this paper aims to develop an ideation framework for TBS. Two methods – the technology tree and the function analysis systems technique – are employed to identify core utilities expected from a new technology. Then a new method, the service encounter value matrix, which is based on morphology analysis and is used for generating potential service ideas, is suggested. Finally, these ideas are evaluated, and only those that are of a high priority according to customers’ expectations of future society are selected. In this study, the framework is applied to telecommunication technology, which is timely and useful for designing future services.     

Electronic and in-person service quality of hybrid services

The service industries have experienced dramatic changes in service delivery format because of fast-paced innovation in information technology. Hybrid services involve service deliveries through conventional and technology-enabled environments, each of which is complementary and non-interchangeable. However, limited research has examined consumer behavior in response to a series of relevant service episodes in different channels at different points in time. In other words, how customers perceive service quality at each service encounter and how the cumulative effect of these perceptions influences customers’ overall service value assessment and satisfaction remain unclear. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the sequential influence of e-service quality on in-person service quality in a hybrid service format in which interpersonal and computer-mediated services coexist but at different points in time. Empirical analysis shows that e-service quality directly and positively affects in-person service quality, which fully mediates the effects of e-service quality on perceived value and customer satisfaction. The sequence of service encounters matters because in-person service quality perception has a stronger effect than e-service quality on customer metrics. Cumulative quality perceptions significantly influence perceived value and overall customer satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented in the discussion.     

Exploiting ICT potential in service firms in transition economies

Service industries are the most intensive users of information-communication technology (ICT) and some developed countries have already displayed noticeable productivity gains due to ICT use in services. The pattern of intensive use of ICT in services tends to be replicated in transition economies, however the evidence of ICT impacts on growth and productivity is lacking at the aggregate and industry level owing to deficient data and methodological problems. To overcome some of the problems in estimating the effects of ICT use we pursue firm-level analysis and apply production function approach to estimate the impact of ICT on the performance of service firms in Slovenia. The results suggest that service firms are more intensive ICT users than manufacturing firms and that ICT use significantly influences the productivity of service firms. The positive impact of ICT use on productivity applies to all service firms irrespective of their size. The links are stronger for service firms with above average ICT use. Due to the absence of data on complementary expenditures for training and organisational change related to ICT adoption the results might overemphasise the effects of ICT investment.     

Establishing a system for innovation in a professional services firm

Professional service firms are facing new competitive challenges in a global market with more value-focused clients, service commoditization, regulatory changes, and new Internet-enabled business models. They increasingly need to improve competitiveness through sustained innovation of the value they provide and the efficiency with which they provide it. But how can firms establish an effective and sustainable innovation system? This Executive Digest shares a best practice model for innovation based on academic research and honed by a decade of practical experience in application across professional service firms in consulting projects. This work covers how to develop innovation strategies by establishing processes and organization to support innovation, providing innovation training, developing new services, and re-engineering existing services. The author, Alastair Ross, details the practices required and shares some of the challenges encountered in realizing them. This article draws heavily on his latest book, Innovating professional services: Transforming value and efficiency.     

A novel framework for customer complaint management

Complaining is one option available to customers to express their dissatisfaction with inadequate services. Their complaints contain valuable information for service providers to improve customer relationships and operational quality, which can ultimately enhance business profitability. Customer complaints are frequently handled at the individual level, however, which addresses the symptoms rather than the causes of customer dissatisfaction. This paper presents a framework integrating a decision tree approach, a common data mining tool, into Six Sigma methodology to analyze customer complaints in aggregate and improve service quality by identifying and addressing the underlying causes of failed service. A case study of a restaurant chain was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The results indicated a significant (60%) decrease in the number of customer complaints received. Subsequent long-term benefits can be expected.     

“Deal of the Day” Platforms: What Drives Consumer Loyalty?

“Deal of the Day” (DoD) platforms have quickly become popular by offering savings on local services, products and vacations. For merchants, these platforms represent a new marketing channel to advertise their products and services and attract new customers. DoD platform providers, however, struggle to maintaining a stable market share and profitability, because entry and switching costs are low. To sustain a competitive market position, DoD providers are looking for ways to build a loyal customer base. However, research examining the determinants of user loyalty in this novel context is scarce. To fill this gap, this study employs Grounded Theory methodology to develop a conceptual model of customer loyalty to a DoD provider. In the next step, qualitative insights are enriched and validated using quantitative data from a survey of 202 DoD users. The authors find that customer loyalty is in large part driven by monetary incentives, but can be eroded if impressions from merchant encounters are below expectations. In addition, enhancing the share of deals relevant for consumers, i.e. signal-to-noise ratio, and mitigating perceived risks of a transaction emerge as challenges. Beyond theoretical value, the results offer practical insights into how customer loyalty to a DoD provider can be promoted.