Business suppliers' value creation potential : A capability-based analysis

Joint value creation through partnering and networking is a topic of current interest. This paper proposes that the dimensions of the supplier's value creation in a supplier-customer relationship could be classified according to efficiency, effectiveness and network functions. These functions are interrelated, but they are conceptually distinct. The value creation process could be described as a spectrum ranging from core value, to added value, to future value. The value-producing potential of a supplier can be assessed reasonably well only in the case of the core value, where there is sufficient benchmarking information in the form of existing alternative offerings and solutions. A priori evaluation of the costs and benefits of added value and, especially, future value projects is problematic, because the realisation of the value is dependent on the development of multiple partners, technologies and industries. In these cases, we suggest that a customer could use a supplier's capability profile as an indicator of how suitable that particular supplier is for specific value creation projects. A framework connecting specific capabilities to different types of value production is suggested, and its managerial implications are discussed.     

An analysis of e-business adoption and its impact on relational quality in travel agency–supplier relationships

This study analyzes how managers of retail travel agencies perceive the antecedents and consequences of adopting e-business in their supplier relationships. A comprehensive model integrating its antecedents and relational effects is developed and empirically tested using SEM. The study surveyed 101 travel agents in Spain. Research findings indicate that customer pressure has a strong influence on e-communication practices. E-communication with the travel agency's supplier and the pressure exerted by the sector are the main antecedents for e-procurement. Effects of e-business on relational quality are contradictory. E-procurement influences negatively on trust. Conversely, e-communication has a positive impact on trust, thus having a favorable impact on perceived reciprocity and travel agent's commitment to its supplier. Main findings indicate that the use of the Internet is largely driven by normative pressures, and this coercive power has a detrimental impact on trust. To avoid such negative consequences, perceived reciprocity is a prerequisite for committed supplier relationships.     

Gender differences in the intentions to voice complaints across different service failure modes

The present study investigates the joint impact of the service failure mode (interpersonal service versus self-service technology) and gender on consumers’ intention to voice their complaints. Results from a quasi-experiment suggest that female consumers are more likely to voice their dissatisfaction following a self-service technology failure rather than an interpersonal failure. However, the service failure mode fails to influence male consumers’ complaint intentions. Moreover, our findings indicate that motivation to help is the mechanism behind female consumers’ complaint behaviors, thus mediating the effect of service failure mode on complaint intention. Therefore, hospitality practitioners might want to pay attention to the differences in each gender’s complaint behaviors across different service failure modes and provide effective service recovery solutions across the two genders.     

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.     

Value Capture and Policy Design in a Digital Economy

Pervasive information and communication technology (ICT), intertwined with global dispersion of supply chains, is inducing a sizable structural transformation. All the articles in this special issue highlight that even though technology is the key driver, the reactions of businesses and countries to these transformations will depend on economic, political, and social arrangements within each organization and society. The competitive landscape of the ICT industry itself is likely to remain in flux. Also in other industries, both value creation and value capture are becoming increasingly complex—and remain more favorable for the developed countries than some commonly used measures suggest. According to the prevailing economic thinking, public policies should set market-friendly “rules of the game” and then stay out of the way. In the ICT domain, technical standards, spectrum allocations, and market power associated with various types of lock-ins play crucial roles calling for more active public involvement. In particular, the dynamic aspects of competition and anti-trust policies are important yet complex. While there is limited scope for sectoral or horizontal industrial policies, this special issue provides alternative avenues for considering matrix or systemic policies emphasizing education, openness, and national competitiveness.     

Other consumers in service encounters: A script theoretical perspective

Hospitality service consumptions often involve sharing the service environment with other consumers. Drawing upon the Script Theory, this research provides a theoretical perspective of consumer responses to behaviors of other consumers in service encounters. The results from an experimental study provide strong support for the dual-mode consumer responses (felt emotions and displayed emotions) and for the moderating effect of psychological closeness on consumer responses. Managerial implications for training, service management and service design in hospitality businesses are also discussed.     

The impact of mood states and surprise cues on satisfaction

Mood effects have been studied in consumer behavior literature, but prior research investigating the joint impact of mood and surprise on satisfaction is scant. To bridge this gap, this study examines the relationship among these three constructs. We manipulated customers’ pre-consumption mood and provided surprise cues with hypothetical scenarios in a 2 by 2 factorial design in a restaurant setting. The results show that a positive surprise yields high satisfaction without a significant effect from customers’ pre-consumption mood. Conversely, with a negative surprise, customers in a negative pre-consumption mood indicate lower satisfaction than those in a positive mood.     

Diversity at the Workplace: Whom Does it Benefit?

We examine whether firms and their employees benefit from age and educational diversity. At the plant level we explain productivity with workforce characteristics. Age diversity is positively and educational diversity negatively related to total factor productivity. These conclusions are robust to using alternative estimators (fixed effects, GMM, and Olley-Pakes approach). Individual gains are evaluated by estimating earnings equations with job match fixed effects. The explanatory variables include individual demographic variables, plant-level workforce characteristics and variables that describe the individuals’ relative position in the age, education, and gender structure of the plant. Plant-level diversity does not have a significant effect on individual wages. However, being different from others in terms of age, i.e. relational demography, is positively related to wage.     

What is being exchanged? Framing the logic of value creation in financial services

Financial service providers are facing a major paradigm shift. The understanding of what eventually constitutes customer value is being extended; economic value as the sole core of exchange is a far too limited perspective in contemporary competition. To address this emerging shift, the purpose of this study is to reframe the logic of value creation in financial services. As a result, a tentative framework for value creation logic in financial services is developed and discussed. On the basis of the framework, financial service providers should not limit their attention and resources to the exchange process, but identify innovative value-creating mechanisms through which they could contribute to the customer value actualization process. Our tentative framework (i) offers financial service providers guidance on which innovative value-creating mechanisms would enable them to participate in their customers’ value actualization process; (ii) shows how a product becomes a channel for a service, specifically a solution possessing value in the customer’s routine processes; (iii) illustrates that researchers and service providers should develop their understanding of customers beyond the traditional loan, insurance and/or investment product orientation.