Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in the last month.
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Dose, D. B., G. Walsh, S. E. Beatty and R. Elsner (2019): Unintended reward costs: the effectiveness of customer referral reward programs for innovative products and services, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(3), pp.438-459
To encourage customers’ referral behavior and expand their customer base, providers of innovative products and services often use customer referral reward programs (CRPs), though not all CRPs deliver on their initial promise. With one field experiment and four online experiments, this research investigates the effectiveness of rewarded referrals for recruiting new customers for more innovative (versus less innovative) offerings and outlines the conditions in which public referral rewards have unintended ramifications and decrease customers’ referral likelihood. In addition to establishing these effects for more innovative offerings, this research identifies some moderating consequences, such that the detrimental effect of referral rewards on referral behavior can be attenuated by not disclosing referral rewards (for recommenders) to referral recipients, increasing the referral reward size, and rewarding both recommenders and referral recipients. These findings have theoretical and managerial implications.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00635-z [Google]
Grandey, A. A., L. Houston Iii and D. R. Avery (2019): Fake It to Make It? Emotional Labor Reduces the Racial Disparity in Service Performance Judgments, Journal of Management, 45(5), pp.2163-2192
Service providers who are Black tend to be evaluated less favorably than those who are White, hindering opportunities for advancement. We propose that the Black-White racial disparity in service performance evaluations is due to occupational-racial stereotype incongruence for interpersonal warmth and that more emotional labor is necessary from Blacks to reduce this incongruence. A pilot study manipulating employee race and occupation confirmed warmth and person-occupation fit judgments are lower for an otherwise equal Black than White service provider. We then demonstrate the racial disparity in service performance is due to interpersonal warmth differences in an experimental study with participants evaluating videos of retail clerks (Study 1) and a multisource field study of grocery clerks with supervisor-rated judgments (Study 2). Furthermore, White service providers are rated highly regardless of emotional labor, but performing more emotional labor (i.e., amplifying positive expressions) is necessary for Black providers to increase warmth judgments and reduce the racial disparity. In other words, Black providers are held to a higher standard where they must “fake it to make it” in service roles. We discuss implications for stereotype fit and expectation states theory, emotional labor, and service management.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206318757019 [Google]
Dong, Y., M. Chung, C. Zhou and S. Venkataraman (2019): Banking on “Mobile Money”: The Implications of Mobile Money Services on the Value Chain, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(2), pp.N.PAG-N.PAG
Problem definition: This study examines the effects of mobile money on the value chain, that is, mobile network operators (MNOs), banks, and end users. Mobile money is an innovative technology that is bundled with related services and is designed to provide cost-efficient financial inclusion for underserved populations in the developing world. Academic/practical relevance: By studying the interaction between mobile money value chain structures and service bundle compositions, we expand our understanding on value chain revenue allocation mechanisms in developing economies. This study provides a valuable foundation for practitioners to better coordinate the value chain and facilitate sustainable growth of mobile money services. Methodology: By combining proprietary and public data, we assess the impact of launching mobile money and the potential asymmetric effects of credit payments on the performance of the value chain. We identify control groups by using propensity score matching and estimate a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference regression. Results: We find that the launch of mobile money has had a positive effect on the performance of the value chain, consisting of old, poor, and undereducated populations. However, although some bundled, complementary services, such as credit payments, benefit participating banks, they may be associated with lower MNO profits. Moreover, the effects of mobile money on the value chain remain positive and stable over time, whereas the effects of credit payments are stronger over time. Managerial Implications: Findings suggest that MNOs and banks should be encouraged to launch mobile money and expand the customer base to old, poor, and less-educated members of the population. Certain services such as credit payment may yield asymmetric benefits such that banks could consider compensation mechanisms for the MNOs. Policy makers in developing countries should encourage coordination and promote a fair distribution of benefits between the two partners to sustain the growth of mobile money services. The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0717. This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Issue on Value Chain Innovations in Developing Economies.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0717 [Google]
Valentine, M. A., T. F. Tan, B. R. Staats and A. C. Edmondson (2019): Fluid Teams and Knowledge Retrieval: Scaling Service Operations, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(2), pp.346-360
To scale service operations requires retrieving knowledge across the organization. However, prior work highlights that individuals on the periphery of organizational knowledge networks may struggle to access useful knowledge at work. A knowledge repository has the potential to help peripheral individuals gain access to valuable knowledge because it is universally available and can be used without social interaction. However, for it to successfully serve this equalizing function, those on the periphery of the organizational knowledge networks must actually use it, possibly overcoming barriers to doing so. In this paper, we develop a multilevel model of knowledge retrieval in teams to explore how individuals on the periphery of knowledge networks—because of their inexperience, location, lack of social capital, gender, or role—access knowledge from such a knowledge repository. Unexpectedly, we find that individuals whose experience and position already provide access to vital knowledge use a knowledge repository more frequently than individuals on the organizational periphery. We argue that this occurs because the knowledge repository—despite its appearance of equivalent accessibility—is actually more accessible to central than to peripheral players. Thus, knowledge retrieval is not driven primarily by the need to overcome limited access to other knowledge sources. Rather knowledge retrieval is facilitated when actors know how to reap value from the knowledge repository, which ironically improves with increasing access to other sources of knowledge. We conclude that a knowledge repository is unlikely to scale service operations without additional intervention. This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Issue on Value Chain Innovations in Developing Economies.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2017.0704 [Google]
Cho, D. D., K. M. Bretthauer, K. D. Cattani and A. F. Mills (2019): Behavior Aware Service Staffing, Production & Operations Management, 28(5), pp.1285-1304
Empirical studies of service systems have shown that workers exhibit different service rates depending on their assigned workload. In contrast, staffing models typically assume a constant service rate. To address this issue, we model two commonly observed behavioral effects, speedup and slowdown, in a general way that allows us to study their joint impact on service staffing. We fit our behavioral model to a hospital dataset and show that both effects are present across a variety of departments. Given these findings, we incorporate speedup and slowdown behavior into a multiperiod workforce staffing model and show that a workload (defined as the number of jobs assigned to each worker) that maximizes the service rate is typically not optimal. As expected, the effectiveness of the widely practiced single‐ratio workload staffing policy depends on the strength of the speedup and slowdown effects. Interestingly, we find that in the presence of slowdown, weak behavioral effects (where workers work at a relatively constant rate) are the cases where the single‐ratio policy performs the worst; the optimal workload instead varies the most as system demand changes. This result differs from practice in many services such as healthcare, where fixed patient‐to‐nurse ratio workloads are commonly used. We show that the strength of behavioral effects modulates the trade‐off between a steady workload and the number of schedule adjustments.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.12988 [Google]
Deo, S. and A. Jain (2019): Slow First, Fast Later: Temporal Speed‐Up in Service Episodes of Finite Duration, Production & Operations Management, 28(5), pp.1061-1081
Many service environments such as outpatient departments comprise repeated episodes of finite duration wherein customers arriving during an episode must be served before the end of that episode. Scheduling resources and customer arrivals in such settings involves trading off customer wait against resources’ time and effort. We hypothesize that this trade‐off leads to a “slow first, fast later” pattern of system speed, which allows build‐up of inventory earlier for more efficient utilization of faster system speed later. As a natural corollary, we also hypothesize that greater anticipated workload, which causes faster inventory build‐up, leads to a larger increase in system speed earlier in the service episode than later. We empirically validate these hypotheses using operational data from a high volume tertiary care outpatient department. Our estimation results suggest that due to hypothesized system speed pattern, patients arriving around the middle (later) part of the episode experience 20% (63%) shorter length of stay compared to those arriving at the beginning. Further, additional anticipated workload of 1 patient per hour leads to 14%, 4%, and negligible reduction in the average length of stay during the earlier, middle, and later part of the service episode, respectively. Counterfactual simulations based on our model estimates show that “slow first, fast later” system speed pattern yields faster completion of work as compared to an equivalent constant system speed pattern.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.12972 [Google]
Choi, L., C. A. Lawry and M. Kim (2019): Contextualizing customer organizational citizenship behaviors: The changing nature of value cocreation and customer satisfaction across service settings, Psychology & Marketing, 36(5), pp.455-472
This study identified economic, emotional, and relational value as outcomes of customer organizational citizenship behaviors (COCBs; Study 1: in‐depth interviews). Study 2 (filed survey) found that COCBs have the strongest impact on emotional value compared with economic and relational value. Economic, emotional, and relational value also lead to customer satisfaction. Specifically, the findings supported that emotional value asymmetrically influences customer satisfaction, whereas economic and relational value symmetrically and positively influence customer satisfaction. Study 3 (filed survey) demonstrated that emotional value through COCBs has a greater and symmetrical influence on satisfaction in hedonic rather than utilitarian service contexts. However, economic value through COCBs is negatively associated with satisfaction in hedonic contexts, and there is no significant difference in the impact of relational value on satisfaction between service contexts. This study furnishes empirical evidence for the associations among COCBs, value perceptions, and customer satisfaction, along with their dynamic relationship patterns across service contexts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21190 [Google]
Johansson, A. E., C. Raddats and L. Witell (2019): The role of customer knowledge development for incremental and radical service innovation in servitized manufacturers, Journal of Business Research, 98(), pp.328-338
Service innovation is a key driver of service infusion for manufacturers. Although service innovation is widely researched for service firms, it is less explored for service infusion in manufacturers. Existing research about service infusion considers developing customer knowledge in sales and service delivery, but there is scarce research about how manufacturers develop customer knowledge during new service development (NSD). This study investigates customer knowledge development within manufacturers and considers how it differs between the development of incremental and radical service innovations. A study was undertaken with 239 European manufacturers which revealed multiple drivers of customer knowledge development, service innovation performance, and firm performance. Developing incremental service innovations are more successful when customers participate in NSD teams while developing radical service innovations leads manufacturers to higher firm performance. Highlights • Service innovation is a key for succeeding with service infusion in manufacturers. • Manufacturers undertaking incremental service innovations have most to gain when involving customers in new service development. • A focus on radical service innovation drives manufacturers firm performance, while a focus on incremental service innovation defends the present market position.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.019 [Google]
Obeng, E., C. Nakhata and H.-C. Kuo (2019): “Paying it forward: The reciprocal effect of superior service on charity at checkout”, Journal of Business Research, 98(), pp.250-260
Although donation requests at checkout have become commonplace, much remains to be learned about the store-level factors that impact shoppers’ donation behaviors. This research, in part, fills this gap by studying the relationship between superior retail service and shoppers’ willingness to donate at checkout. Drawing from social exchange theory, we hypothesize and show that shoppers who believe that they experienced superior service are grateful to retailers and reciprocate their gratitude by being more willing to donate at checkout than are other shoppers. We also identify two important boundary conditions by showing that the impact of superior service is weakened significantly when shoppers doubt the authenticity of the superior service or when they are asked to donate to victims of tragedies (e.g., a mass shooting).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.003 [Google]
Pemer, F. and T. Skjølsvik (2019): The cues that matter: Screening for quality signals in the ex ante phase of buying professional services, Journal of Business Research, 98(), pp.352-365
Service quality has become a central driver of competitive advantage and value creation. However, due to information asymmetries, many clients find it difficult to assess the service providers’ quality ex ante. Nonetheless, this assessment is important to understand, as it affects service provider selection and, thereby, the service delivery. In this paper, we aim to reduce the opacity of service quality by interviewing 51 clients of professional services. Building on an in-depth analysis and a framework of signaling and screening theory, we develop a taxonomy of the dimensions on which professional service quality builds and of the signals clients use to assess quality in the ex ante phase. We also identify two types of signals, qualifying signals and signals of excellence, and develop a conceptual model of the screening process. We conclude the paper by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our results.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.005 [Google]
