How situational circumstances modify the effects of frontline employees’ competences on customer satisfaction with the store

This article aims to analyze whether the effectiveness of frontline employees' competences (task and interaction) at managing customer satisfaction with the store differ depending on situational circumstances, specifically, on type of query (consultation vs. assistance) and store crowding. A qualitative study was used to investigate the importance of these two situational circumstances in sales encounters. Subsequently, the hypotheses were tested by a quantitative study based on a survey of 575 customers about their shopping experience. The findings indicate that the effect of frontline employees’ task competence on customer satisfaction increases when the store is crowded, while the effect of interaction competence is stronger in relation to consultation queries than to assistance queries. Important theoretical and practical implications for frontline employees and store managers are outlined.     

Here Today,Gone Tomorrow? Mapping and modeling the pop-up retail customer journey

Pop-up retail and customer journey mapping are widely adopted in the retail industry, yet they have received modest coverage within academic literature to date. Through a qualitative field study of five marketplace-based pop-ups (MBPUs), this research defines and identifies differences and similarities between marketplace-based pop-ups (MBPUs) and brand-based pop-ups (BBPUs), seeks to understand how marketplace-based pop-ups fit within the customer journey and experience, and explores how touchpoint ownership and influence illuminates the understanding of the marketplace-based pop-up customer journey. Further, this research extends an existing conceptual customer journey framework to visually map and model the purchase stages, touchpoint categories and types of marketplace-based pop-up customer journeys. As a result, this research presents and discusses three emerging themes (here today gone tomorrow; high-touch low-tech; and ownership and influence) to further the understanding of MBPUs. Pop-ups are more than a single encounter; they are a complex customer journey process, whereby the customer travels through pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages, and across multiple touchpoints.     

Key drivers of innovation capability in hotels: implications on performance

Innovation capability is critical for the modernization and competitiveness of the hotel industry. This work analyzes the role of hotels' innovative culture, market orientation, and internal marketing as forerunners of innovation capability in hotels, as well as the effect of innovation capability on hotels' performance. The proposed conceptual model is evaluated through structural equation modeling using a sample of 256 Spanish hotels. The results reveal that innovative culture by itself is not a key driver of the hotels' innovation capability. However, internal marketing and market orientation mediate the innovative culture-innovation capability relationship. Innovation capability proves to enhance hotels' market results directly and indirectly through customer equity. Our findings offer hotel managers useful guidance to understand how innovation capability is built within the firm by combining the right organizational culture and practices. Additionally, our study reinforces the financial and non-financial benefits of innovation capability in hotels.     

Engaged,but with what? Objects of engagement in technology-aided B2B customer interactions

ABSTRACT

Using new technologies in customer interactions is a popular way of trying to increase customer engagement. It is, however, unknown how such efforts by marketers’ affect engagement, and particularly to what that engagement relates to. By analysing interview and observation data, the engagement manifestations of customers of a B2B company using virtual-reality technology were studied. The results show that customer engagement can be targeted at not only brands or firms but also the service the firm offers or the technology that enables the service. It is argued that the different objects of engagement can coexist and support each other but engagement with the firm is less susceptible to fluctuations. Marketers should be aware of what triggers customer engagement and what it is targeted at.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Seizing the opportunity of demanding customers by means of frontline service behaviors

Service businesses are increasingly facing more demanding customers as a result of a shift in power from the service providers' side to the customers' side. Related literature predominantly examines the negative side of this ongoing trend, while overlooking the positive side. The major aim of this paper is to examine how frontline employees — investment account managers — deal with the ongoing increase in customer demandingness. To address this, we draw on adaptability performance theory to test the facilitating effect of frontline employees' post-transaction service behaviors (SBs) — diligence, inducements, information communication, sportsmanship, and empathy — as a means of adaptation to higher levels of customer demand. Findings indicate that frontline employees adapt most of their SBs' intensities to match customers' demands. The results show that some SBs actually increase the effectiveness and efficiency of frontline employees' service performance, leading to an increase in customer value and satisfaction. Customer value is found as a mediator in some of the relationships between SBs and customer satisfaction. Contrary to the conception of the negative outcomes of customer demandingness, service firms need to consider taking advantage of customer demandingness by stressing the role of frontline employees in adapting to customers’ demands.     

Non-immersive virtual reality technologies in real estate: How customer experience drives attitudes toward properties and the service provider

Although previous research has highlighted that virtual reality (VR) technologies can enhance customer experience, the efficacy of VR technologies in real estate remains unclear. Therefore, this study examines the effects of offering consumers a non-immersive VR experience via a widely available technology, that allows them to view real estate products. Participants accessed the website of a real estate agency that presented apartments through either static photos or interactive 360° visits. The latter condition was associated with better “visiting” experiences and more positive attitudes toward both the products and the agency. This study highlights the advantages of such technologies in enhancing customer experience and attitudes, particularly in the highly competitive real estate industry.     

Assessing the influence of goal pursuit and emotional attachment on customer engagement behaviors

This study draws on customer-dominant logic and self-expansion theory to examine the drivers of customer engagement behaviors in the context of emerging online interest communities. The engagement behaviors seen in online communities are operationalized into four types: augmenting, co-developing, influencing, and mobilizing. Goal pursuit (gratifying-the-self, enabling-the-self, and enriching-the-self) and emotional attachment to the community are found to be the key antecedent factors of these behaviors. The attainment of gratifying-the-self has a direct influence on these behaviors, whereas the attainment of enabling-the-self and enriching-the-self influences them via emotional attachment to the community.     

培养优秀跟单员提升外贸订单履行品质

由于合成革行业面临国内外市场需求不足,生产成本提高、环保要求高等问题,合成革外贸企业经济下行压力较大,订单量减少,国际市场份额萎缩。针对以上问题,从提高订单履行品质的角度提出了遵循帕累托法则,重视外贸跟单员培养;校企深入合作,定向培养跟单员的措施,来提升订单履行品质,增强外贸企业盈利能力。此外,跟单员应具有专业知识,熟悉产品性能和流程,高效沟通技巧和商务谈判能力,良好的职业道德。     

创业导向对创新绩效的影响:顾客授权与开放式创新视角

开放经济下企业往往利用开放式创新范式进行技术创新。从开放式理论视角探讨创业导向对创新绩效的作用机制,重点探讨顾客授权的调节作用。以开放式创新为中介变量,以顾客授权为调节变量,构建一个被调节的中介作用模型。采用259家制造业企业的调查问卷数据检验研究假设,结果表明:开放式创新部分中介了创业导向与创新绩效间关系,顾客授权正向调节创业导向与开放式创新间关系以及开放式创新与创新绩效间关系,顾客授权与创新绩效呈正相关关系。最后,提出了管理建议和未来研究方向。     

A theory of supplier network-based innovation value

To understand how a supplier helps a buying company create value through innovations, studies have focused on a supplier's internal resources or its relationship with a buying company. Building upon this body of literature, we develop a theory of supplier network-based innovation value in this conceptual paper. This theory explains how a supplier's upstream and downstream value network can be a source of competitive advantage for a buying company. Specifically, it proposes that the levels and types of supplier innovation value is contingent on the configuration of a dual-ego value network, characterized by the locus and degree of buyer-supplier structural equivalence. This theory also explains how a supplier's ties with a buying firm's competitors can pose both opportunity and risk to buying company innovation. This theory contributes to the literature by showing when “seemingly undesirable” suppliers, due to a lack of technical capability or strong relationship with a buying company, might still be valuable to a buying company's innovation.