Cultures of service: strategies of Scottish grocers, 1915–1965

Studies of retailing have highlighted its long-run evolution, particularly the emergence of multiples. Such developments were a challenge to the market position of independent retailers, especially owners of small shops. Such retailers responded through collective action designed to justify their commercial and social functions and to counteract the competitive threats. Recent studies have emphasised the significance of trade associations and collective action in grocery wholesaling in Britain and Ireland. A substantial literature has documented the activities of trade associations representing English grocers. This paper examines the responses of Scottish grocers to their changing environment between 1915 and 1965. It highlights similarities to associational behaviour in England and Canada in terms of unifying independent traders and articulating their concerns in public and to governments. But it emphasises the limitations of collective action among Scottish grocers, highlighting their subordinate relationship to government and the difficulties of modernising their business methods. Of greater significance was the gradual adjustment of their concept of the service provided by local grocery stores.     

Why does service inclusion matter? The effect of service exclusion on customer indirect misbehavior

In recent years, there has been much conceptual work calling for research on transformative service, and service inclusion in particular. However, quantitative studies focusing on service inclusion are scant, and little is known about customer responses to the opposite of service inclusion, i.e. service exclusion. Taking a transformative research perspective, this study advances the service inclusion literature by focusing on service exclusion and its downstream consequences. We first build the causal link between service exclusion (vs. inclusion) and customer indirect misbehavior, reveal the underlying mechanism, and further identify negative reciprocity beliefs as a boundary condition. The results of three studies suggest that customers who experience service exclusion (vs. inclusion) are more likely to engage in indirect misbehavior (Study 1), and that this effect is mediated by perceived need threat (Study 2). Moreover, the basic effect holds true only for customers with strong negative reciprocity beliefs (Study 3). The findings of this research not only contribute to the literature on transformative services, service inclusion, and social exclusion, but also have managerial implications for marketing practitioners in terms of creating an inclusive service system.     

Artistic intervention,intellectual capital,and service innovation: a case study of a Taiwan’s hotel

This study adopts the perspective of artistic intervention to argue that art is a catalyst. Interdisciplinary cooperation between artists and managers prompts artists to enter the corporate world, intervening in organizational routines and operations and thereby promoting service innovation. This paper, which also adopts the perspective of intellectual capital (IC), explores the characteristics of IC management through an in-depth case study of a successful art-focused Taiwanese hotel that has adopted long-term artistic intervention. The results show the importance of analyzing IC as a stock of resources. Hotel managers must emphasize the importance of managing the physical and the intangible resources, and both embedded in employees and processes of hotels. The relationship of a hotel with its external stakeholders and customers are particularly good sources for improving IC and promoting service innovation. This paper has management implications for the artistic interventions of the studied hotel and recommends future research directions.     

Does service intangibility affect entrepreneurial orientation?

Service firms face a unique set of challenges in their internationalization and foreign market growth. Their services' characteristics, particularly intangibility, constrain the options available to them for growth. When such firms are services International New Ventures (INVs), their challenges are combined with those related to rapid internationalization and growth. This research investigates how service intangibility and the typical challenges of INVs relate to the firms' Entrepreneurial Orientation and their foreign market growth. The findings show that indeed service intangibility has a relationship with firm proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness; and that not all elements of Entrepreneurial Orientation have a positive impact on growth.     

It＇s a special service？

“It’s a special service？”客人睁开朦胧的双眼，望着“破门而入”的我们……此事还要从头说起。     

Web 2.0, social capital and work performance in service companies: the employees’ view

Web 2.0 networks have provoked a revolution in the last years due to their capacity to modify human relationships, particularly in business contexts. Social capital, as a crucial intangible asset embedded in Web 2.0 networks, can be extremely helpful to build and optimize personal and organizational power or resources. This exploratory study empirically analyzes the use of Web 2.0 networks for work-related purposes under a new perspective: the perception of Spanish service companies’ employees. Results show a reasonable employee use of Web 2.0 applications with work-related purposes, and identify the main benefits from them and relevant differences in their use.     

The East India Company's maritime service, 1746–1834: masters of the Eastern Seas

The histories we give to production and consumption affect our present and future business understandings. We question recent works that have ascribed a relatively short history to consumption ethics. Drawing on writers, across a number of academic disciplines, we conclude evidence exists to make the case against understanding consumption ethics as new to the twenty-first century. We argue that acknowledging a long history for consumption ethics challenges contemporary economic stereotypes of consumers as self-interested maximisers. It also modifies our understanding of the relationship between corporate and consumer social responsibility.     

The effect of pre-flight attendants’ emotional intelligence,emotional labor,and emotional exhaustion on commitment to customer service

Previous studies have shown that the success of airlines depends heavily on the quality of in-flight services provided by flight attendants. The performance of flight attendants is primarily based on their emotional intelligence (EI). Thus, airlines endeavor to recruit flight attendants with high EI and also conduct continuous EI training even after their recruitment. To meet the demand of excellent flight attendants, a number of universities and colleges have established airline service programs. This study examines the relationships among EI, emotional labor (EL), emotional exhaustion (EE), and commitment to customer service (CCS) among pre-flight attendants in the undergraduate airline service programs. The results of the study revealed that the better pre-flight attendants understand their emotions and use them appropriately, the more they display their true emotions and modify their bad feelings to desirable emotions required for effective in-flight customer services. Also, the more pre-flight attendants employ EL, the more exhausted they are emotionally. As the first study on pre-flight attendants’ EI, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on EI, EL, EE, and CCS. The findings of the study also provide practical implications that effective assessment and education of EI by university-based airline service programs can contribute to service excellence of airlines.     

Salesperson's listening in buyer–seller service relationships

Research has consistently shown that salesperson's active listening behavior leads to strong sales performance. Yet the influence of management policies on listening has received very limited attention, and prior research linking listening to customer retention has led to mixed findings. This study examines how listening is enhanced through control systems and the influence of listening on customer retention in a service context. Dyadic data from salespeople and their customers show that a behavior-based control system (measured as a second-order construct) positively influences listening and the salesperson's customer orientation totally mediates the influence of listening on customer commitment to the salesperson and loyalty to the service company. Our findings indicate that listening is a necessary but not sufficient condition for assuring relationship development. More specifically, customer orientation is the generative mechanism through which listening is able to influence customer retention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The development of Shanghai＇s service industry

The development of Shanghai‘s service industry should be choreographed in the following steps: (1) Actively promoting for the development of the industry through awareness of the general laws for its developmertt; (2) Speeding up the monopolies existing in some service sectors so as to open to the private some     

China central bank suggests rural financial service improvement

China should further upgrade its rural financial service system to bolster economic development in such areas and improve the lives of farmers, said a People′s Bank of China report released late on September 19. The central bank′s"China rural financial service report"suggested the government provide more low-cost financial services in rural areas;improve the credit-risk management mechanism and encourage innovation in financial products.     

What makes a good citizen in service settings?

As service firms face intense pressure to improve service quality, contact employees have been asked to do more with less. It is important that managers understand the concept of organisational citizenship behaviours and attempt to motivate employees to exhibit such behaviours. This study developed and tested a model of how employees' perception of organisational support affects affective commitment (AC), which contributes to their citizenship behaviours in service settings. Questionnaire data from matched pairs of 318 contact employees and their supervisors demonstrated that both perceived organisational support (POS) and AC play strong, central roles in determining contact employees' exhibition of citizenship behaviours. In addition, AC was found to be an effective mediator linking contact employees' perception of organisational support to their citizenship behaviours.     

Should a lower-price service offer a full-satisfaction guarantee?

Although service guarantees have enjoyed wide popularity as marketing tools and brought impressive results for firms, it is still not clear whether different types of service guarantees have similar effects on consumers' pre-purchase evaluations of differently priced services. To answer this question, several hypotheses were formulated and then tested with a 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial design consisting of two price levels (low and high) and three types of service guarantees (none, attribute-specific, and full-satisfaction) in the context of hotel industry in Taiwan. The results indicated that it is beneficial for a higher-price service to employ a full-satisfaction guarantee, due to consumers' higher expected service quality and willingness to buy, and the lower perceived performance risk. In contrast, for lower-price services, an attribute-specific guarantee is recommended because of consumers' higher expected service quality and willingness to buy, and the lower perceived financial risk. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Workplace gossip and frontline employees’ proactive service performance

Managers are interested in promoting frontline employees’ proactive behavior because proactivity is crucial for organizational success. This study examined the link between perceived workplace gossip and employees’ (targets’) proactive service performance by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ harmonious passion and the moderating role of perceived job social support. Using time-lagged survey data from 218 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a commercial bank in China, we found that perceived workplace gossip negatively influences employees’ proactive service performance, and that this relationship is mediated by reduced harmonious passion. In addition, perceived job social support attenuates the negative relationship between perceived workplace gossip and harmonious passion, with harmonious passion having a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived workplace gossip and proactive service performance. These results provide new directions for understanding workplace gossip, harmonious passion, proactive service performance, and job social support. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

How transformational leadership fuels employees’ service innovation behavior

Although there is a consensus that transformational leadership (TFL) is critical to successful service innovation behavior, the relationship between the two remains inconclusive. This study adopts a dual perspective approach that considers both motivational and social-political perspectives to further elicit the influence of TFL on the service innovation behavior of frontline employees. Using multiphase and multisource data from 269 employees and 1396 customers of hair salons, the results show that the perceived organizational climate for innovation, creative self-efficacy, and expected image gains fully mediate the relationship between TFL and employees’ service innovation behavior. TFL positively influences employees’ perceived organizational climate for innovation, which in turn enhances the service innovation behavior of employees through both motivational (i.e. creative self-efficacy) and social-political (i.e. expected image gains) mediating mechanisms. Surprisingly, expected image risks are found to have a non-significant relationship with service innovation behavior. We discuss implications of these findings with respect to innovation literature and management practice, as well as offer suggestions for further research.     

The service industry in China—Problems and prospects

For nearly thirty years China viewed the service sector as a nonproductive remnant of capitalism. But times have changed. Case studies of three selected service industries—supermarkets, hotels, and banks—pinpoint the problems and prospects for firms that want to play a role in revolutionizing the service sector in China.     

Shanghai has China＇s longest metro line in service

Daqin Railway Co said on April 5, its unaudited net profit was expected to rise about 50 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter as the country＇s economic recovery pushed up demand for coal transportation：     

Core service versus relational benefits: what matters most?

Services literature has extensively examined the effects of core service and relational benefits on behavioral outcomes arguing that both components, studied separately, contribute significantly to customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, an integrative examination of the relative importance of both core service and relational benefits is missing. This study examines the combined impact of an extended typology of core service and relational benefits on satisfaction and relational outcomes. One qualitative and one quantitative study are conducted within a banking context. Findings confirm a more extensive typology of relational benefits and reveal that competence (part of the trust benefit) and convenience significantly affect satisfaction; however, when core service is introduced to the model, the effect of relational benefits ceases to be significant. Several future research opportunities for an integrated service benefits approach are identified; and implications for managers on how to allocate their efforts across the various types of service benefits are discussed.     

Approach to service design based on customer behavior data: a case study on eco-driving service design using bus drivers’ behavior data

Various types and massive amounts of customer behavior data are collected in various industries, such as transportation, healthcare, hospitality, and logistics. The use of customer behavior data can improve the design activities of service firms. Despite the applicability of customer behavior data to service design, only a few studies have examined an approach to utilize customer behavior data in service design. This study proposes an approach for designing services with customer behavior data. The approach is based on a case study on eco-driving service design with the behavior data of bus drivers. This study extends the research on service design by demonstrating how customer behavior data are utilized for service design and assisting service designers in designing services with customer behavior data.