Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in February 2017.
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Kranzbühler, A.-M., M. H. P. Kleijnen, R. E. Morgan and M. Teerling (2017): The Multilevel Nature of Customer Experience Research: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda, International Journal of Management Reviews, (), pp.n/a-n/a
Over the last three decades, customer experience (CE) has developed from a burgeoning concept to a widely recognized phenomenon in terms of both research and practice. To account for the complexity of consumption decisions, the CE literature encompasses both the rational information processing approach to consumer decision-making and the experiential approach, which includes emotions, feelings and sub-consciousness. The authors classify and examine CE research on two levels. Studies on static CE analyze experiences during touchpoints at one point in time, while studies on dynamic CE assess how experiences evolve over time. Furthermore, both static and dynamic CE research take place from two distinct theoretical perspectives: the organization and the consumer. As both theoretical perspectives essentially deal with the same phenomenon – the organizational perspective with the creation of CEs and the consumer perspective with the perception of customer experiences – there is potential for a productive symbiosis between them. The authors propose that connecting insights from both perspectives can contribute to a better understanding of what constitutes a CE for consumers and how firms can effectively manage it. First, the authors discuss the development of CE and argue that it has evolved into a broad and fragmented ‘umbrella construct’. Second, after distinguishing and defining static and dynamic CE, they systematically evaluate the state of knowledge in both the organizational and consumer perspectives. Finally, they develop an agenda for future research that integrates the consumer perspective into organizational CE research.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12140 [Google]
Ng, I. C. L. and S. Y. L. Wakenshaw (2017): The Internet-of-Things: Review and research directions, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), pp.3-21
This paper presents a review of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) through four conceptualizations: IoT as liquification and density of information of resources; IoT as digital materiality; IoT as assemblage or service system; and IoT as modules, transactions, and service. From the conceptualizations, we provide a definition of IoT and present its implications and impact on future research in Marketing that interfaces with information systems, design and innovation, data science and cybersecurity, as well as organizational studies and economics. By integrating the implications of IoT with extant literature, we then propose a set of priorities for future research in this area.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.003 [Google]
Vargo, S. L. and R. F. Lusch (2017): Service-dominant logic 2025, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), pp.46-67
During the last decade, service-dominant (S-D) logic (1) has taken a series of significant theoretical turns, (2) has had foundational premises modified and added and (3) has been consolidated into a smaller set of core axioms. S-D logic can continue to advance over the next decade by moving toward further development of a general theory of the market and, even more broadly, to a general theory of value cocreation. To support this theory of the market requires developing more midrange theoretical frameworks and concepts of service exchange, resource integration, value cocreation, value determination, and institutions/ecosystems. These midrange theories can be partially informed by theories outside of marketing, including those under the rubrics of practice, evolutionary, complexity, ecological and structuration theories. Evidence-based research is also needed; opportunities exist in areas such as (1) strategy development and implementation (2) application of complexity economics and (3) the study of the service of cognitive mediators (assistants) as heuristic tools in complex service ecosystems. Additionally, opportunities exist for using S-D logic as a broader framework for the study of macromarketing, including ethics, economic, environmental and social sustainability, as well as public policy. For each of these, the further study of institutions and institutional arrangements, which facilitate coordination among actors in service ecosystems, is needed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.001 [Google]
Grewal, D., A. L. Roggeveen, R. Sisodia and J. Nordfält (2017): Enhancing Customer Engagement Through Consciousness, Journal of Retailing, 93(1), pp.55-64
Firms and academics recognize the importance of creating an engaged customer base, though an in-depth understanding of how to achieve it is limited. This article proposes that firms that use consciousness as a foundational philosophy can create a more engaging and meaningful customer experience. A retailer or service provider with foundations in consciousness has a higher purpose and values that get espoused and fulfilled throughout the organization, working in a way to optimize benefits to its multiple stakeholders (investors, employees, customers, suppliers, the environment, the community). Building on these foundations, retailers can achieve deeper engagement with customers, deliver outstanding customer experiences, create emotional connections with customers, and establish a shared identity based on a clear purpose and values.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2016.12.001 [Google]
Berry Jaeker, J. A. and A. L. Tucker (2017): Past the Point of Speeding Up: The Negative Effects of Workload Saturation on Efficiency and Patient Severity, Management Science, 63(4), pp.1042-1062
Service organizations face a trade-off between high utilization and responsiveness. High utilization can improve financial performance, but causes congestion, which increases throughput time. Employees may manage this trade-off by reducing processing times during periods of high workload, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between utilization and throughput time. Using two years of inpatient data from 203 California hospitals, we find evidence that patient length of stay (LOS) increases as occupancy increases, until a tipping point, after which patients are discharged early to alleviate congestion. More interestingly, we find a second tipping point-at 93% occupancy-beyond which additional occupancy leads to a longer LOS. These results are indicative of a workload-related ‘saturation effect’ where employees can no longer overcome high workload by speeding up. Our data suggest that the saturation effect is due to an increase in the workload requirements of the remaining patients. Collectively, we find that the underlying relationship between occupancy and LOS is N-shaped. Consequently, managers who seek cost efficiencies via a strategy of high utilization in tandem with speeding up may find that their strategy backfires because there is a point at which employees are no longer able to compensate for a high workload by working harder, and throughput time counterproductively increases. We perform a counterfactual analysis and find that an alternate strategy of employing flexible labor when faced with high occupancy levels might be a more productive approach, and could save the hospitals in our sample up to $138 million over 23 months. This paper was accepted by Serguei Netessine, operations management.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2387 [Google]
Campello, F., A. Ingolfsson and R. A. Shumsky (2017): Queueing Models of Case Managers, Management Science, 63(3), pp.882-900
Many service systems use case managers, servers who are assigned multiple customers and have frequent, repeated interactions with each customer until the customer’s service is completed. Examples may be found in healthcare (emergency department physicians), contact centers (agents handling multiple online chats simultaneously) and social welfare agencies (social workers with multiple clients). We propose a stochastic model of a baseline case-manager system, formulate models that provide performance bounds and stability conditions for the baseline system, and develop two approximations, one of which is based on a two-time-scale approach. Numerical experiments and analysis of the approximations show that increasing case throughput by increasing the probability of case completion can lead to much greater waiting-time reductions than increasing service speed. Many systems place an upper limit on the number of customers simultaneously handled by each case manager. We examine the impact of these caseload limits on waiting time and describe effective, heuristic methods for setting these limits. This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2368 [Google]
Greenwood, B. N. and S. Wattal (2017): Show Me The Way To Go Home: An Empirical Investigation Of Ride-Sharing And Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Fatalitie, MIS Quarterly, 41(1), pp.163-188
In this work, we investigate how the entry of ride-sharing services influences the rate of alcohol related motor vehicle fatalities. While significant debate has surrounded ride-sharing, limited empirical work has been devoted to uncovering the societal benefits of such services (or the mechanisms which drive these benefits). Using a difference in difference approach to exploit a natural experiment, the entry of Uber Black and Uber X into California markets between 2009 and 2014, we find a significant drop in the rate of fatalities after the introduction of Uber X. Further, results suggest that not all services have the same effect, insofar as the effect of the Uber Black car service is intermittent and manifests only in selective locations (i.e., large cities). These results underscore the importance of coupling increased availability with cost savings in order to exploit the public welfare gains offered by the sharing economy. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ [Google]
Xu, Y., M. Pinedo and M. Xue (2017): Operational Risk in Financial Services: A Review and New Research Opportunities, Production & Operations Management, 26(3), pp.426-445
We present a framework to describe and analyze operational risk in financial services from an operations management perspective, focusing in particular on process design, process management, and human behavior aspects. The financial services industry differs from other service industries in ways that affect the nature of the operational risks it is subject to. In recent decades, many books and papers have focused on operational risk in financial services; however, this literature has focused mainly on the conceptual and statistical aspects of operational risk management and not on its operational aspects. Operational risk in financial services has not received much attention from the operations management community. The framework presented here is based on the premise that operational risk in financial services can reap significant benefits from research done in the theory and practice of operations management in manufacturing industries as well as in other services industries. The objective of this study is to propose particular challenges and questions raised in the practice of operational risk management that may stimulate future research in this particular area of operations management.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.12652 [Google]
Kreye, M. E. (2017): Relational uncertainty in service dyads, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(3), pp.363-381
Purpose Relational uncertainty determines how relationships develop because it enables the building of trust and commitment. However, relational uncertainty has not been explored in an inter-organisational setting. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organisations experience relational uncertainty in service dyads and how they resolve it through suitable organisational responses to increase the level of service quality.Design/methodology/approach The author applies the overall logic of organisational information-processing theory and presents empirical insights from two industrial case studies collected via semi-structured interviews and secondary data.Findings The findings suggest that relational uncertainty is caused by the partner’s unresolved organisational uncertainty, i.e. their lacking capabilities to deliver or receive (parts of) the service. Furthermore, the author found that resolving the relational uncertainty increased the functional quality while resolving the partner’s organisational uncertainty increased the technical quality of the delivered service.Originality/value The author makes two contributions: first,the author introduces relational uncertainty to the OM literature as the inability to predict and explain the actions of a partnering organisation due to a lack of knowledge about their abilities and intentions; and second, the author presents suitable organisational responses to relational uncertainty and their effect on service quality.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-11-2015-0670 [Google]
Raddats, C., J. Zolkiewski, V. M. Story, J. Burton, T. Baines and A. Ziaee Bigdeli (2017): Interactively developed capabilities: evidence from dyadic servitization relationships, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(3), pp.382-400
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to challenge the focal firm perspective of much resource/capability research, identifying how a dyadic perspective facilitates identification of capabilities required for servitization.Design/methodology/approach Exploratory study consisting of seven dyadic relationships in five sectors.Findings An additional dimension of capabilities should be recognised; whether they are developed independently or interactively (with another actor). The following examples of interactively developed capabilities are identified: knowledge development, where partners interactively communicate to understand capabilities; service enablement, manufacturers work with suppliers and customers to support delivery of new services; service development, partners interact to optimise performance of existing services; risk management, customers work with manufacturers to manage risks of product acquisition/operation. Six propositions were developed to articulate these findings.Research limitations/implications Interactively developed capabilities are created when two or more actors interact to create value. Interactively developed capabilities do not just reside within one firm and, therefore, cannot be a source of competitive advantage for one firm alone. Many of the capabilities required for servitization are interactive, yet have received little research attention. The study does not provide an exhaustive list of interactively developed capabilities, but demonstrates their existence in manufacturer/supplier and manufacturer/customer dyads.Practical implications Manufacturers need to understand how to develop capabilities interactively to create competitive advantage and value and identify other actors with whom these capabilities can be developed.Originality/value Previous research has focussed on relational capabilities within a focal firm. This study extends existing theories to include interactively developed capabilities. The paper proposes that interactivity is a key dimension of actors’ complementary capabilities.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-08-2015-0512 [Google]
Rouquet, A., K. Goudarzi and T. Henriquez (2017): The company-customer transfer of logistics activities, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(3), pp.321-342
Purpose The starting point of the paper is the fact that customers participate in the logistics activities of the supply chain (SC) (Johnston, 1989; Granzin and Bahn, 1989). Having established that customers can and do participate in logistics, firms can consider transferring some of their logistics activities to/from their customer. The transfer can take two contrasting forms: outsourcing by the company of some logistics activities to its customers or insourcing by the company of some logistics activities from its customers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a theoretical understanding of these company/customer transfers.Design/methodology/approach To address this emerging issue, the authors build on the service management literature and on the study of two contrasting cases of transfer. The first (IKEA) examines the outsourcing of some logistics activities to the consumer. The second (AuchanDrive) examines the reverse process of insourcing.Findings Based on the service management literature and the two case studies, the authors develop a theoretical model for the transfer of logistics activities between a firm and its customers. The findings confirm several elements, such as the importance of managing customer participation and adapting service production during a transfer. Most importantly, the findings show that a key issue for a firm during a transfer is the need to redesign its SC in terms of transport, warehousing and production. The main contribution of the research therefore is showing that customer participation in logistics is a key variable in SC design.Research limitations/implications This research is based on the analysis of two cases. To generalise these results, further research needs to be conducted.Practical implications This research proposes recommendations to help managers and organisations to transfer some logistics activities to or from their customers.Originality/value The originality of the framework is that it considers both the company and its customers. This comprehensive approach establishes a link between supply chain management research and marketing.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-01-2015-0049 [Google]
