Perceptions of Deception: Making Sense of Responses to Employee Deceit

In this research, we examine the effects that customer perceptions of employee deception have on the customers’ attitudes toward an organization. Based on interview, archival, and observational data within the international airline industry, we develop a model to explain the complex effects of perceived dishonesty on observer’s attitudes and intentions toward the airline. The data revealed three types of perceived deceit (about beliefs, intentions, and emotions) and three additional factors that influence customer intentions and attitudes: the players involved, the beneficiaries of the deceit, and the harm done by the perceived lie. We develop a model with specific propositions to guide organizations with respect to apparently deceitful behavior of their employees. Implications and directions for future research are provided, focusing on the question of whether organizations should consistently encourage honesty or train their employees to be effective liars.     

Understanding Insurance Customer Dishonesty: Outline of a Situational Approach

The paper takes a look at insurance customer dishonesty as a special case of consumer ethics, understood as a way of situation handling, as a moral choice between right and wrong, such as between self-interest vs. common-interest, in other words, a “moral temptation”. After briefly raising the question if different schools, of moral philosophy would conceptualize such moral temptations differently, the paper presents ‘moral psychology’ as a frame of reference, with a focus on cognitive moral development, moral attitude and moral neutralization. Conceptualization questions can’t be answered finally without thinking at the same time of empirical research design and instrument design decisions, e.g. choosing between experiment vs. questionnaire studies, designing suitable moral temptation situations as an experiment vs. questionnaires with scenario vignettes. The paper discusses then experiences from a 2004 pilot survey, with a main focus on a few insurance dishonesty scenarios with follow-up questions. The paper has an open end, i.e. outlines desirable future theoretical, empirical and practical work with insurance customer dishonesty.     

Managing Customer Switching Behavior in the Banking Industry

This study aimed to explore the factors that lead to the intention to stay and the intention to switch in the banking industry. The research adopted a qualitative, inductive approach to data collection using a sample of 19 Australians customers who use banking services, and two Australian bank managers. The factors that are important to the customers' decision to change banks or to diversify their accounts include: (a) customer service and customer intimacy; (b) response to service failure; (c) effect of advertising; (d) reputation; (e) ease of banking; and (f) customer value.     

The Influence of Perceived Justice on Recovery Satisfaction in the Airline Industry

This study examines the influence of perceived justice on customer satisfaction with service recovery and on the future behavioral intentions of customers in the airline industry. The study uses an exploratory research design that is quantitative in nature. Questionnaires were used to collect data, and structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing. The study revealed that the three dimensions of perceived justice, namely interactional, distributive and procedural justice, influence satisfaction with service recovery in the South African airline industry. However, only interactional and distributive justice had a positive influence on future behavioral intention.     

服务业顾客忠诚的驱动因素研究

服务业顾客忠诚一直是营销理论界高度关注的热门话题之一,借鉴西方学者对服务业顾客忠诚基本概念的界定,在考察服务产品质量、情境设计等有形利益对顾客忠诚的影响的同时,将无形驱动因素纳入影响服务业顾客忠诚的分析中,通过国内外现有的研究成果分析这些驱动因素对服务业顾客忠诚的影响,阐明服务业顾客忠诚的形成机理,从而为该领域提供新的研究思路,为服务业提升竞争力提供管理决策的参考依据。     

Employee Flow as an Integrated and Qualitative System: Impact on Business-to-Business Service Quality

Purpose: This article develops and tests the effect of a complete model of employee flow on business-to-business (B2B) customer service outcomes.

Methodology: Employee flow in organizations refers to all inflows, outflows, and internal movements of staff, and is a crucial human resources area. However, research rarely deals with employee flow as a whole. Instead, studies generally limit themselves to individual employee flow aspects, such as employee turnover, and limit outcomes to internal organizational issues. This study employs hierarchical regression and structural equation to model the effect of an integrated and qualitative measure on B2B service quality through the INDSERV scale.

Findings: Employee flow, especially net outflows, affects service quality perceptions through various mediated relationships. Employee flow affects outcome quality through potential and soft process quality and impacts hard process quality through potential quality. Relationship frequency, supply chain integration of the customer, and environmental characteristics are significant moderators.

Research implications: The introduction of complete employee flow as a predictor variable is a research advance and can be extended to many research settings. Confirmation that INDSERV scales have an internal progression is new and informs future model building.

Practical implications: Managers, especially in bigger and service-oriented companies, might employ integrated employee flow indices as a practical management metric. The tendency of B2B processes to separate client and customer staff (e.g., through technological bridges and call centers) is discouraged by the finding that employee flow affects outcomes partly through soft process, relational quality. Managers should attend to frequency and customer integration.

Contribution: The use of integrated and qualitative employee flow models in modeling service outcomes, especially in B2B settings, is an original contribution, as is the hitherto untested progression within the subconstructs of the INDSERV B2B service quality scale.     

Advertising Contribution to a Firm's Profit: Theory and Evidence from the Airline Industry in the United States

The author examined how to make advertising efficiency more effective in achieving the profit objective of a firm. The current study allowed profitability to be influenced by both multiple controllable efficiency factors (e.g., advertising efficiency and operations efficiency) and one uncontrollable environmental factor (i.e., growth timing). The results showed that advertising efficiency was most effective in driving up a publically-traded U.S. airline's profitability when the airline happened to grow its business later than average, whereas advertising efficiency was least effective when the firm ended up growing its business earlier than average. Also shown in the results was that drivers of profitability also included operations efficiency and growth timing.     

Assessing the e-Service Quality of Sellers in an Industrial e-Marketplace

Existing studies of electronic service quality (e-SQ) mainly deal with online shopping mall operators in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, whereas research into the e-SQ of sellers in industrial electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces), characterized by multiple sellers and multiple customers, is lacking. Therefore, this study intends to determine if existing theories developed and tested in the B2C online shopping mall context are directly applicable to measure e-SQ of industrial e-marketplace sellers. By qualitatively analyzing customer feedback obtained in an e-marketplace, this study offers an in-depth exploration of e-SQ dimensions, discovers a tentative causal model of the e-SQ specific to industrial e-marketplace sellers, and compares the tentative model grounded in the qualitative data with existing research tested with quantitative data. This study shows that existing e-SQ scales may not apply, without revision, to measures of the e-SQ of industrial e-marketplace sellers.     

汽车服务业服务质量、顾客满意度与顾客忠诚度的实证分析

为了探讨汽车服务行业服务质量、顾客满意度与顾客认知、情感、意向、行为等四类忠诚度之间的关系,我们对广东省7家汽车4S店进行实证调查,结果发现:服务质量对顾客的认知、情感和意向忠诚度有直接的影响;顾客满意度对顾客四类忠诚度都有直接的影响,且顾客满意度对态度忠诚的影响大于其对行为忠诚的影响;在顾客四类忠诚度中,对顾客行为忠诚有直接影响的是认知忠诚和意向忠诚,其中意向忠诚的影响程度较大。     

Communicating Competency in References: A Qualitative Analysis of the Utilization of References in Mechanical Engineering

ABSTRACT

Purpose: In order to explore the multiplicative interaction between clustering and reach, as well as their effect on members’ knowledge production and patent value, the authors researched university–industry collaboration networks in the emerging interdisciplinary field at a corporate level.

Methodology: The authors based their research on a platform of nano-biopharmaceuticals complex network analysis. Furthermore, they built a network to analyze the influence of small-world properties, as well as the impact of the largest component on the patent value of innovation activities at a corporate level. In this article, the authors conduct an empirical investigation of university–industry patent innovation collaboration in the nano-biopharmaceutical field and propose that their research be considered as new evidence in addition to the previously published literature in this field. Given the pre-existing high skew of patent values in relation to registered patents, they used weighted patent value in the measurement of university–industry innovation performance, rather than simple patent counts.

Results: The results show that small-world structures have a parabolical influence on patent innovation performance at corporate level.

Findings: The findings go beyond previous research results and can contribute to policy formulation and relevant entrepreneurial decisions in the establishment of university–industry collaboration.     

Employee Job Satisfaction following Deregulation in the Bus Industry

This article examines the effect of deregulation on 95 first line managers in the bus industry. The way deregulation was handled by the government was a major source of criticism. On the whole the sample felt perturbed by deregulation as they did not see it as being in the best interest of the public or the bus industry. Feelings regarding the effects on their jobs were mixed although quite a number felt deregulation had led to improvements. Despite concern over the status of the bus industry, the image of the companies in the community and the services they offered, respondents expressed considerable pride in working for their respective companies. It is tentatively suggested that poor communication before and immediately following deregulation was the cause of much of the dissatisfaction.     

An Exploration of Frequent Service Failures in the Brazilian Airline Industry

This study explores how customer evaluations of service failures and failure recurrence impact negative emotions and intent to complain. A survey of 589 Brazilian airline passengers demonstrates the meditational effect of negative emotions such that customers who perceive failures as severe and/or preventable by the airline develop more negative emotions, which subsequently increases intent to complain. We also demonstrate the moderating role of failure recurrence such that failure recurrence reduces the effect of failure severity on negative emotions. Our findings have important implications for managers and airlines in order to mitigate negative outcomes following a service failure.     

消费情感对顾客服务经历评价的作用机理研究

日常管理实践可以注意到,顾客在消费过程中的情感状态会影响他们在服务完成后对服务的评价水平.但是这一管理事实在学术研究上长期未能引起足够的重视:以往关于服务质量和顾客满意度的研究本质上几乎都是基于认知的,情感的作用被忽视或低估.以商业银行服务为背景,本研究以问卷调查为实证工具,同时考察认知和情感因素在顾客服务后评价形成过程中的作用.研究结果显示,顾客消费情感与顾客认知显著相关,并且与顾客认知共同显著影响着整体服务质量评价和顾客满意.同时,顾客的情感状态可以划分为积极情感与消极情感,二者对顾客的服务经历评价也表现出了不同的影响作用.文章最后给出了该领域进一步研究的方向.     

服务质量构成要素对顾客满意影响力差异研究--现有顾客同潜在顾客间的比较

本研究通过对银行服务业现有顾客样本和潜在顾客样本的比较分析发现:两种不同类型的顾客样本分析结果都显示服务互动质量和结果质量要素对顾客满意都有显著正影响,顾客满意对(重复)购买或口头传播等行为意向有积极效应。物理环境质量对顾客满意的显著影响效应只是在潜在顾客样本中发现,而在现有顾客样本中并不显著。现有顾客样本的分析结果显示三方面服务质量要素对顾客满意的影响力是有显著差异的,而对于潜在顾客样本,三方面的服务质量要素对顾客满意的形成所起的作用没有显著差别。     

The Effects of the Perceived Behavioral Integrity of Managers on Employee Attitudes: A Meta-analysis

Perceived behavioral integrity involves the employee’s perception of the alignment of the manager’s words and deeds. This meta-analysis examined the relationship between perceived behavioral integrity of managers and the employee attitudes of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, satisfaction with the leader and affect toward the organization. Results indicate a strong positive relationship overall (average r = 0.48, p<0.01). With only 12 studies included, exploration of moderators was limited, but preliminary analysis suggested that the gender of the employees and the number of levels between the employee and the manager are potential moderators of the relationship. In the current sample of studies, country where the research was conducted did not seem to have any moderating effects. In addition to suggesting further investigation of potential moderators, we call for research that examines the relationship between behavioral integrity and outcomes that include individual behavior and organizational performance.     

顾客参与影响品牌关系质量研究

随着顾客知识的增长及其对独特性需求体验的追求,顾客不仅要求有更大程度的自主性,更把参与过程的主导性体验视为服务体验质量的重要源泉。本文以美发业为研究情境,将顾客心理感知因素作为过程变量,构建顾客参与影响品牌关系质量的研究框架,结果表明顾客参与对顾客感知价值和顾客服务体验均有显著正向影响,而对顾客正面情感的影响则需通过服务体验实现;顾客感知价值、顾客服务体验和顾客正面情感之间均有密切正向关系;顾客感知价值、顾客正面情感均对品牌关系质量有显著正向影响,而服务体验则需通过顾客正面情感和感知价值对品牌关系质量产生作用。     

基于服务公平性的顾客满意感与忠诚感关系—面向武汉酒店业的实证研究

在高度竞争的市场环境中,赢得顾客并与顾客维持长久关系是非常重要的,而这种长久关系的建立在很大程度上是以顾客满意为基础的。因此,如何提高顾客满意度、培育和维系忠诚的顾客群体是现代企业生存和发展亟待解决的重要课题。本论文提出了一个包含服务公平性、顾客感知质量、顾客感知价值、顾客满意感和顾客忠诚感概念模型及18项相关研究假设,并在武汉市20家酒店展开了问卷调查．最后采用规范的、科学的实证研究方法对此概念模型和研究假设进行了检验。     

Ethical Codes of Conduct and Organizational Context: A Study of the Relationship Between Codes of Conduct, Employee Behavior and Organizational Values

Codes of ethics are being increasingly adopted in organizations worldwide, yet their effects on employee perceptions and behavior have not been thoroughly addressed. This study used a sample of 613 management accountants drawn from the United States to study the relationship between corporate and professional codes of ethics and employee attitudes and behaviors. The presence of corporate codes of ethics was associated with less perceived wrongdoing in organizations, but not with an increased propensity to report observed unethical behavior. Further, organizations that adopted formal codes of ethics exhibited value orientations that went beyond financial performance to include responsibility to the commonweal. In contrast to corporate codes of ethics, professional codes of ethical conduct had no influence on perceived wrongdoing in organization nor these codes affect the propensity to report observed unethical activities.     

Investigating the Effect of Employee Empathy on Service Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Trust in and Satisfaction with a Service Employee

Abstract

This study examines the indirect effect of employee empathy on service loyalty through the intervening effect of trust in and satisfaction with service employees during service interactions. Data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire from university students. A total of 410 useable responses were used to perform data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping for indirect effects were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show a significant effect of employee empathy on trust in service employee and satisfaction with service employee during customer–employee interactions. Also, satisfaction with a service employee showed a significant effect on service loyalty during service interactions. The study enhances the understanding of empathy within banking services during interactions between service employees and customers. It also provides insights for service managers and frontline service employees on how empathy develops customer’s trust and satisfaction with service employee.