Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in October 2016.
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Suggested articles by the community
Macdonald, E. K., M. Kleinaltenkamp and H. N. Wilson (2016): How Business Customers Judge Solutions: Solution Quality and Value in Use, Journal of Marketing, 80(3), pp. 96-120
Many manufacturers look to business solutions to provide growth; however, success is far from guaranteed, and it is unclear how such solutions can create superior perceived value. This article explores what constitutes value for customers from solutions over time–conceptualized as “value in use”–and how this arises from quality perceptions of the solution’s components. The authors develop a framework for solution quality and value in use through 36 interviews combining repertory grid technique and means-end chains. The findings significantly extend the extant view of quality as a function of the supplier’s products and services, and show that customers also assess the quality of their own resources and processes, as well as the quality of the joint resource integration process. The authors report that value in use corresponds not just to collective, organizational goals but also to individuals’ goals, a finding that strongly contrasts with prior research. Four moderators of the quality-value relationship demonstrate customer heterogeneity across both firms and roles within what the authors term the “usage center.” When shifting toward solutions, manufacturers require very different approaches to market research; account management; solution design; and quality control, including the need for value-auditing processes.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1509/jm.15.0109 [Google]
Koehl, M., J. F. Poujol and J. F. Tanner (2016): The impact of sales contests on customer listening: an empirical study in a telesales context, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 36(3), pp. 281-293
Companies often use sales contests to achieve short-term objectives to motivate salespeople and to boost sales. However, sales contests also may encourage salespeople to adopt less relational behaviors and limit their ability to manage customer relationships, as manifested in their customer listening practices. Therefore, this study, based on a natural field experiment, examines the effects of a sales contest on customer listening. In so doing, four dimensions of customer listening (passive, active, adaptive, and assertive listening), associated with a process of listening (Hearing,Processing, andResponding), were identified. The study helps clarify the effect of a sales contest on these four dimensions of customer listening by telesales agents. The results reveal that this sales contest exerts negative effects only on the active and passive customer listening, not on the adaptive and assertive customer listening. The study sheds light on how sales contests influence important behaviors such as customer listening, as well as on the nature of customer listening itself.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/08853134.2016.1186556 [Google]
Sungwook, M. I. N., Z. Xubing, K. I. M. Namwoon and R. K. Srivastava (2016): Customer Acquisition and Retention Spending: An Analytical Model and Empirical Investigation in Wireless Telecommunications Markets, Journal of Marketing Research, 53(5), pp. 728-744
Strategic resource allocation in growth markets is always a challenging task. This is especially true when it comes to determining the level of investments and expenditures for customer acquisition and retention in competitive and dynamic market environments. This study develops an analytical model to examine firms’ investments in customer acquisition and retention for a new service; it develops hypotheses drawing on analytical findings and tests them with firm-level operating data of wireless telecommunications markets from 41 countries during 1999-2007. The empirical investigation shows that a firm’s acquisition cost per customer is more sensitive to market position and competition than retention cost per customer. Furthermore, whereas firms leading in market share, on average, do not have a cost advantage over other firms in retaining customers, they have a substantial cost advantage in acquiring customers, and this advantage tends to increase with market penetration. The study results provide guidelines for firms’ strategic resource allocation for customer acquisition and retention in competitive service markets.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1509/jmr.14.0170 [Google]
D’Antone, S. and J. B. Santos (2016): When purchasing professional services supports innovation, Industrial Marketing Management, 58(), pp. 172-186
This paper explores the potential contribution that purchasing KIBS may have on innovation at the buying firm. It integrates the results of a systematic literature review on purchasing KIBS with literatures respectively on purchasing and KIBS contribution to innovation. Based on the outcomes of an extensive study of the literature, a theoretical framework is proposed in order to understand what could boost innovation outcomes of purchasing KIBS, especially for the buying firms. The framework suggests observing the KIBS triad configuration, i.e. the relationship between KIBS providers, the purchasing function and the user area within the buying firm, and its contingencies and characteristics. Overall, the paper suggests that the way KIBS are purchased can influence their effect on the innovation they generate, offers insights on aspects that need to be considered to increase potential innovation outcomes, and draws attention to the strategic role that purchasing can play in this context. In this way, it moves beyond the debate on purchasing involvement in NPD (new product development) and shows another domain (KIBS services) in which purchasing can contribute to the development of innovation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.05.024 [Google]
Hedvall, K., A. Dubois and F. Lind (2016): Analysing an activity in context: A case study of the conditions for vehicle maintenance, Industrial Marketing Management, 58(), pp. 69-82
The IMP approach is concerned with analysis of complex industrial networks. How to design case studies relying on these theoretical assumptions poses a challenge. In this paper we address this challenge by discussing a case study, focusing on the conditions for maintenance of heavy vehicles. The aim of the paper is to suggest an approach for analysis of embedded activities in industrial networks. The case study takes its starting point in the perspective of an actor considering how to develop vehicle maintenance services for its customers and points at the need to enable understanding of the conditions for vehicle maintenance, which necessitates identification and analysis of the variety across transport service settings.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.05.016 [Google]
Torvinen, H. and P. Ulkuniemi (2016): End-user engagement within innovative public procurement practices: A case study on public–private partnership procurement, Industrial Marketing Management, 58(), pp. 58-68
The purpose of this paper is to establish a model for an end-user engagement process within innovative public procurement practices. Even though the importance of the public service end-user has been recognized by researchers and policy makers for some time, there’s a genuine lack of commonly acknowledged user engagement tools for both procurer’s and supplier’s practical implementation. We focus on the way value creation can be enhanced through actively engaging end-users as co-creators of value in public procurement. The study employs an intensive single-case methodology, where the findings are based on qualitative data gathered on a Public–Private Partnership (PPP) -based school property procurement in Finland. The end-user’s value potential does not rest only with creating individual user value but also with increasing e.g. the public service’s social, environmental and political value. Our findings support the existing theoretical understanding according to which the most significant end-user value is achieved through interactive dialogue in the design phase of the public procurement project. The most significant advantages of active end-user engagement are especially seen in the usability of the provided public service. Study results also indicate positive effects of end-user’s independent value creation and the sensation of involvement in the user’s individual value experience.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.05.015 [Google]
Buell, R. W., D. Campbell and F. X. Frei (2016): How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 18(4), pp. 585-607
When does increased service quality competition lead to customer defection? And, which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide retail bank conducted business over a five-year period. We find that customers defect at a higher rate from the incumbent following increased service quality (price) competition only when the incumbent offers high (low) quality service relative to existing competitors in a local market. We provide evidence that these results are due to a sorting effect, whereby firms trade off service quality and price, and, in turn, the incumbent attracts service (price) sensitive customers in markets where it has supplied relatively high (low) levels of service quality in the past. Furthermore, we show that it is the high quality incumbent’s most profitable customers who are the most attracted by superior quality alternatives. Our results appear to have long-run implications whereby sustaining a high level of service quality is associated with the incumbent attracting and retaining more profitable customers over time.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1287/msom.2016.0589 [Google]
Craig, N., N. DeHoratius and A. Raman (2016): The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 18(4), pp. 461-474
To set inventory service levels, suppliers must understand how changes in inventory service level affect demand. We build on prior research, which uses analytical models and laboratory experiments to study the impact of a supplier’s service level on demand from retailers, by testing this relationship in the field. We analyze a field experiment at the supplier Hugo Boss to determine how the supplier’s inventory service level affects demand from its retailer customers. We find increases in historical fill rate to be associated with statistically significant and managerially substantial increases in current retailer orders (i.e., demand, not just sales). Specifically, a one percentage point increase in fill rate, measured over the prior year, is associated with a statistically significant 11% increase in current retailer demand, controlling for other factors that might affect retailer demand. We explore the drivers of this demand increase, including changes in retailer assortment and order frequency. We discuss features of a retail buyer’s decision context identified through our field work that may explain the magnitude of the relationship we observe.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1287/msom.2016.0582 [Google]
Nicolae, M. L., M. E. Ferguson and L. A. Garrow (2016): Measuring the Benefit of Offering Auxiliary Services: Do Bag-Checkers Differ in Their Sensitivities to Airline Itinerary Attributes?, Production & Operations Management, 25(10), pp. 1689-1708
When firms evaluate their service system design choices, there is typically more uncertainty surrounding the value that a particular auxiliary service provides than there is on the cost of providing that service. To help inform this decision, we propose an approach where we compare the relative value of the segment of passengers who use an auxiliary service to the relative value of the segment that does not use it. We demonstrate this approach for a typical auxiliary service common to the airline industry. In 2008, most US airlines implemented checked baggage fee policies to decrease their costs by reducing the number of customer service agents needed in the check-in and baggage handling processes. The success of this change has led to a current debate at many of these airlines on whether to make further staffing cuts in these areas, essentially making it even less attractive for passengers to check their baggage. Our proposed methodology helps answer whether passengers who continue to check bags in today’s baggage-fee era are more or less valuable than passengers who do not check bags. We explore this question empirically by examining, through a stated preference survey, if a history of checking or not checking bags can be used to segment passengers based on how their itinerary choices are influenced by common airline service attributes (on-time performance, itinerary time, number of connections, airfare, and schedule delay). Contrary to the opinions of some top airline executives, we find that the passengers who continue to check bags at airlines that charge baggage fees are generally less sensitive to differences in three of these important service attributes and are less likely to switch airlines when a competing airline improves its offerings along these dimensions. Thus, airlines that charge for checked bags should consider improving the customer experience for their bag-checking passengers, as they represent a potentially more valuable segment class to the airline.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/poms.12569 [Google]
Kavadias, S., K. Ladas and C. Loch (2016): The Transformative Business Model, Harvard Business Review, 94(10), pp. 90-98
A business model that can link a new technology to an emerging market need is the key to industry transformation. When Apple coupled the iPod with iTunes, it revolutionized the audio devices market. But most attempts to introduce a new model fail. The authors did an in-depth analysis of 40 companies that had launched new business models in a variety of industries, and here they present the key takeaways from their research. They looked for recurring features in the models and found six: personalization, a closed-loop process, asset sharing, usage-based pricing, a collaborative ecosystem, and an agile and adaptive organization. No model displayed all of them, but having a higher number of features usually correlated with a greater chance of success at transformation. (The taxi service Uber can claim five of the six.) Companies that are thinking about changing their business model or entering an industry with a new model can rate themselves on the six features to assess the likelihood that they’ll be transformative.
Link: [Google]
