Advanced information technology: transforming service innovation and design

This research explores the role of advanced information technologies at the ‘fuzzy’ front-end of service innovation and design. Service researchers have been exploring the application of technology to services for a while, however there has been little attention paid to the use of technology at the front-end of service innovation and design. Research suggests that advanced information technologies should be useful in research and development for services; but how this may occur has not been explored. Bringing together design thinking and the technology–organization–environment framework for technology adoption this research develops propositions for research to expose how technology can advance and transform service innovation and design. Theoretical and practical research questions are offered to guide inquiry in this emerging research space.     

Transformative green marketing: Impediments and opportunities

Green marketing is not achieving its potential for improving the quality of life of consumers, while improving the natural ecosystem. The failure is the result of the inability of consumers, firms and governments to adopt systems thinking, in which macro-marketing perspectives are integrated into their respective micro-decisions, that is, the anthropocentric view of the natural world is disregarded. The paper discusses why the three groups above have had difficulties in embracing environmental issues, thus impeding real transformative green marketing from occurring. To address the difficulties three proposed actions need to be undertaken: (1) Marketers need to look for new ways of calculating and communicating value that integrates environmental value, thereby moving away from financial measures which have no real environmental meaning. (2) Change the discourse regarding the environment, highlighting the importance of action and inaction, which needs to be based on increased education about the human–environment interface. (3) Marketing needs to refocus its emphasis on want satisfaction, shifting away from the acquisition of goods, thereby enhancing how marketers create value. Making these changes will allow marketers to operationalize transformative green marketing so the human condition and the natural system that humans operate within are both improved and bring about transformative green marketing.     

An integrated model of service experience design improvement

Service experience design, addressing an overall experience problem with user-centered design thinking is a critical issue. This study proposes an integrated model of service experience assessment that addresses the relationship between user value and experience based on the importance and satisfaction concept. Refined improvement index of this study was developed for the determination of improvement priority. The paper then presents an empirical study of 3C (computer, communication, consumer-electronics) retail stores in which the proposed model was used to identify the critical servicescape items requiring improvement, and ranked on the strategies of improvement. The model requires a systematic approach to (i) examine the performance of these retail service processes; (ii) determine the items to be improved; and (iii) select appropriate and feasible strategies to improve these items. This integrated model is valuable for practical implementation in service firms to investigate and prioritize service design actions based on user experience data gathered from service sites.     

物流服务设计要素决策方法研究

应用QFD与分析型Kano模型集成方法,在准确获取顾客需求、考虑企业资源限制的基础上,提出了物流服务设计要素决策流程框架和模型,并用算例验证了该集成方法的有效性。研究结果表明:基于QFD与分析型Kano模型集成的物流服务设计要素决策方法,可以兼顾企业和顾客两方面利益,为物流服务设计提供定量分析方法和决策过程指导。     

Nine issues for Internet-based survey research in service industries

Internet-based surveys have recently become a popular means of data collection among researchers in the service industries. However, there has been little discussion regarding the validation of Internet-based surveys in this services discipline. From the perspective of positivist and quantitative research, failure to organise a scientific and rigorous research design will damage the validity, reliability, and generalisability of a study's findings and, in turn, its contributions. This paper identifies nine key issues from theoretical discussions and accordingly examines the Internet-based survey studies published in The Service Industries Journal between 2001 and 2008 to demonstrate the current status of the Internet-based survey development in this field. Further, an empirical study with a carefully designed methodology is presented to serve as a useful guide in planning and executing Internet-based surveys.     

Operations in banking: the service quality and effects on satisfaction and loyalty

This paper studies the service quality provided by the banks. The objectives are (i) to identify which aspects of the transactions carried out by the banks are important for the service quality perceived by the customers, taking into account some aspects that are sometimes ignored (online channels) and (ii) to observe how service quality influences customer satisfaction and how customer satisfaction affects the loyalty towards the bank. Using a factor analysis, the research identifies the operative, physical, new technologies and human factors. Next, using structural equations models with AMOS, the results show an influence of the operative aspects and the new technologies on service quality, as well as the confirmation of quality as a precedent to customer satisfaction, and how such satisfaction influences on customer's loyalty towards the bank.     

The service triad: modelling dialectic tensions in service encounters

Models of service encounters are often fraught with reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Simmel's depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is a more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories.     

Public service quality and customer satisfaction: exploring the attributes of service quality in the public sector

Beyond the existing SERVQUAL-based research, the authors develop an alternative model of public service quality. The various sources of public service quality are explored and a new classification scheme formulated by using critical incidents technique. Four main qualities of public service are identified: process quality, outcome quality, design quality, and relationship quality. The findings suggest that the critical attributes of public service quality for customer satisfaction differ according to the types of customers in the public sector. Final customers (beneficiaries) give priority to the process and outcome qualities, whereas intermediary customers (social workers) have high regard for the design and relationship qualities.     

Comparing the generalizability of online and mail surveys in cross-national service quality research

To compare the generalizability of online and mail surveys in a cross-national service quality study, the authors use G-theory and find a comparable level of generalizability, though online surveys benefited from considerably lower costs. This article contributes to the current comparison of the response quality between online and mail surveys. Furthermore, the authors illustrate how G-theory can be used to compare online and mail surveys and take data collection costs into account. Important implications include the process and results of comparing two survey modes and the effects for service research. Martin Wetzels now also works at Maastricht University     

Review and future directions of cross-cultural consumer services research

It is widely recognized that an increasing number of service firms are expanding into international markets. Many studies in the services marketing literature have focused on the identification and discussion of similarities and/or differences in consumer service experiences across nations and cultures. In this paper we review the relevant literature, address conceptual and methodological issues associated with extant cross-cultural consumer services research and suggest theories and approaches in regards to future research in the area. In addition, we introduce and discuss the concept of “cultural service personality” as a potential new theoretical perspective.     

ASP effects in the small-sized enterprise: the case of the Bizmeka service from Korea Telecom

An application service provider (ASP) is a business model providing information technology (IT)-enabled solutions to customers over the Internet. Utilizing an ASP model, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can acquire affordable IT solutions. Korea Telecom (KT), a leading IT company in Korea, provides an ASP service called Bizmeka to SMEs. In this study, we identify factors influencing the perceived benefits of Bizmeka usage. We also examine the relationship between the perceived benefits of Bizmeka usage and customer satisfaction. Based on the results of our survey, we found the following factors to be important in determining customer satisfaction with ASPs: cost and time impact, maintenance impact, and security risks.     

The role of job design and mechanism in motivating feedback-seeking behaviour in transportation service

Employee feedback-seeking behaviour is important to improve job performance and organizational effectiveness. This study investigates the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness on job design and feedback-seeking behaviour. The study draws on empirical data gathered from 681 employees in a transportation service company in Taiwan, and uses structural equation modelling to test our proposed model. Empirical results suggest that psychological meaningfulness plays a crucial and mediating role in the relationships between job enrichment, work-role fit and feedback-seeking behaviour. The implications for practitioners are to stress the role of job design and its mediating process for feedback-seeking behaviour.     

Examining Public Hospital Service Failure: The Influence of Service Failure Type,Service Expectations,and Attribution on Consumer Response

This study investigates three independent variables; types of service failure, service expectations, and attribution on postfailure responses in healthcare. A between-subjects 3?×?2?×?2 experimental design using written scenarios was used. The findings demonstrate that customer responses to service failures in hospitals are extensively influenced by the type of service failure, the level of service expectation of the provider, and, to a lesser extent, the controllability of the cause of the failure. Core service failures lead to greater increases in negative responses for satisfaction, emotional, and behavioral responses than supplementary service failure with high service expectations protecting the provider against overall dissatisfaction, negative word-of-mouth, and switching behaviors. Interestingly, perceived high controllability leads to greater dissatisfaction but not to increased negative emotional or behavioral responses. The study applies attribution theory to explain the results. The article concludes with managerial implications.     

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.     

The effects of management succession in retail service banking

It is a fundamental tenet of modern management theory and practice that managers matter, and that a management change involving a transfer of authority will improve performance. In fact, there are two other possibilities, the management change may have no or even a negative effect. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a management change (succession) in the retail service branch banking context. The study is based on historical operational data and is longitudinal in nature. Specifically, the inter-relationships between pre-succession performance, predecessor tenure, reason for succession, origin of successor and organisational change were evaluated in 38 branches of a bank during a two-year period. The results indicated a strong association between pre- and post-succession performance, and that pre-succession performance is a predictor of successor origin, as is predecessor tenure which in turn influence post-succession performance.     

The role of emotions in utilitarian service settings: The effects of emotional satisfaction on product perception and behavioral intentions

The role of emotions in hedonic service settings is well established, but their role in utilitarian service settings has received scant attention. This research attempts to fill this gap by investigating the effects of customers’ perceptions of service quality and servicescape on their emotional reactions, and their perceptions of product quality and subsequent behavioral intentions. Data are collected from 189 clients/patients who visited an optometry clinic. The study reports that perceived service quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) and service environment (atmosphere and layout) both increase positive emotional satisfaction. In turn, positive emotional satisfaction leads to a high perception of product quality, high recommendation, patronage intention, and likelihood of purchase. Additionally, product quality perceptions have a significant positive impact on behavioral intentions.     

GDSS research: An overview and historical analysis

Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) is a relatively new area of Information Systems research, but some patterns have begun to emerge in the focus of this research and in the approaches to conducting it. This article represents a substantial review of a large body of GDSS literature and an analysis of that literature according to a specific classification scheme. The dimensions of the classification scheme include the age of the research publication, the general research approach, the philosophy underlying the data collection, the type of GDSS support, whether the research is longitudinal, and the primary focus of the research, as well as a few demographic variables such as author and source. The results of the literature analysis lead to recommendations to GDSS researchers by the authors of a need for greater use of the available research approaches and other data analysis philosophies, a greater emphasis on field work, more longitudinal research, and some changes in the focus of the research.     

Combined effects of franchise management strategies and employee service performance on customer loyalty: a multilevel perspective

Although franchisee performance is likely to be influenced by franchisors’ management strategies, little is known about whether and how franchisors’ strategies affect franchisee employees’ performance. This study examines the combined effects of three franchisor management strategies, namely innovative culture, support services and autonomy on service performance of the franchisee store employees and the loyalty of their customers. Data were collected from a total of 38 employees and 679 customers of 25 franchisee stores. The study employs multilevel analysis on a nested data-set created by matching customer data with employee data for each store. The results reveal that customer loyalty of a franchisee store is positively influenced by the service performance of its employees and the support services received by the employees of the store from its franchisor. On the other hand, it has been found that franchisor management strategy such as innovative culture and autonomy negatively influence customer loyalty of the franchisee store. The paper discusses relevant theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.     

Entrepreneurial failure and discrimination: lessons for small service firms

This paper draws lessons from a case decided by the USA Supreme Court, wherein the firm failure was perceived by the minority entrepreneur as an outcome of racial discrimination. Implications of this case are significant because the failure rate of minority-owned US businesses has been consistently higher than the average failure rate of US business. We argue that the impact of discrimination by a customer is greater for small service firms. Through the Domino's Pizza case, we assert that issues relating to equal employment, inter-company contracting and choice of business organisation must be managed by the owner of a service firm.