Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in the last month.
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Roschk, H. and M. Hosseinpour (2019): Pleasant Ambient Scents: A Meta-Analysis of Customer Responses and Situational Contingencies, Journal of Marketing, 84(1), pp.125-145
To prevail in the fierce competition of in-store experiences, some firms have focused on providing pleasant ambient scents. However, equivocal results on scent effects make generalizations and managerial guidance uncertain. While efforts to consolidate research findings have been conducted, a comprehensive quantitative integration is notably lacking. In this meta-analysis, the authors integrate 671 available effects from ambient scent experiments and show that exposure to pleasant ambient scents on average produces a substantial increase in the level of customer responses (3%?15%). The effects of ambient scent depend on situational contingencies and are, for example, positively related to congruency, unidimensional aroma structure, ascribed familiarity of a scent, service exchange, proportion of female participants in the sample, and imagined (vs. fictitious) offering. Thus, the authors estimate expenditures would increase by 3% and 23% for an average and a most favorable condition, respectively. The authors also examine effect patterns, identifying, for example, ambient scent as more cognitive than affective and nonlinear effects of perceived concentration. Using the insights, they develop a research agenda and provide clear strategic guidance to leverage ambient scent effects.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022242919881137 [Google]
Temerak, M. S. and D. El-Manstrly (2019): The influence of goal attainment and switching costs on customers’ staying intentions, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 51(), pp.51-61
It examines the effectiveness of goal attainment (i.e. a value enhancement strategy) and switching costs (i.e. a defensive retention strategy) in enhancing customers’ staying intentions, where the service type is a key boundary condition. The data was collected using a survey design and analyzed using a multi-group SEM approach. Goal attainment played a stronger role in influencing staying intentions in services with passive customer participation and a low degree of customization (i.e. retail banking) than in services with active customer participation and a high degree of customization (i.e. stock brokerage). Different switching costs varied in importance across the two service industries.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.05.020 [Google]
Kuzu, K., L. Gao and S. H. Xu (2019): To Wait or Not to Wait: The Theory and Practice of Ticket Queues, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(4), pp.853-874
Ticket queues are prevalent in service industries. They enhance customer satisfaction by eliminating physical lines but may compromise efficiency. Existing studies offer mixed results on the cause and magnitude of such inefficiency. These results, however, are based on simplistic customer behaviors. Taking a holistic approach, we examine how realistic customer behaviors drive ticket queue performance. Our empirical studies reveal that (i) customers are capable of adapting their patience to the waiting context and (ii) they use dynamic updating to improve forecasting and decision making over time. Once we model these two behaviors, we find the ticket queue inefficiency is much smaller than the literature predicted. By testing and highlighting the central role of realistic customer behaviors, this paper advances our understanding on ticket queue theory and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0728 [Google]
Béal, M., W. Sabadie and Y. Grégoire (2019): The effects of relationship length on customer profitability after a service recovery, Marketing Letters, 30(3), pp.293-305
Relationship length and its implications for service recovery have rarely been quantified in terms of cross-buying and customer profitability. Based on a sample of 935 customers in the retail banking sector, the current research provides two core contributions. First, the results reveal that change in cross-buying is a crucial mediator to capture how service recovery contributes to a change in customer profitability. Second, this research contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the role of relationship variables on customers’ reactions to service recovery by investigating the moderating role of relationship length. From the use of archival data, the results show that when customers are dissatisfied with a recovery, a favorable protective effect arises, prompting an increased change in cross-buying. However, as the relationship gets longer, the positive effect of a successful service recovery on change in cross-buying keeps decreasing. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-019-09505-8 [Google]
Miao, C., M. J. Barone, S. Qian and R. H. Humphrey (2019): Emotional intelligence and service quality: a meta-analysis with initial evidence on cross-cultural factors and future research directions, Marketing Letters, 30(43894), pp.335-347
In an increasingly competitive market economy, retailers are seeking ways to manage customer perceptions of their service quality. Selecting employees who are high on emotional intelligence (EI), and training employees in emotional competencies, may be ways to improve service quality. This meta-analysis tests the claims that EI improves service quality. The findings indicate that EI is significantly and positively related to service quality and that this relationship is stronger (1) for cultures that are short (versus long) term oriented and that are indulgent (versus restrained), and (2) for professional services and service shops than for mass services. The EI–service quality relationship does not differ between cultures that are masculine versus feminine and high versus low in uncertainty avoidance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-019-09495-7 [Google]
Guerin, R., K. Hosanagar, L. Xinxin and S. Soumya (2019): SHARED OR DEDICATED INFRASTRUCTURES: ON THE IMPACT OF REPROVISIONING ABILITY, MIS Quarterly, 43(4), pp.1-21
New technologies, such as virtualization, are transforming the way in which software and services are deployed and delivered to their users. They are behind the emergence of IT offerings such as cloud computing and converged networks, and manifest themselves through two important trends: (1) lower the cost of sharing a common infrastructure across multiple services with disparate resource requirements, and (2) dynamic provisioning of capacity in response to demand. Conventional wisdom is that both of these capabilities are synergistic, with greater provisioning flexibility improving the benefits derived from sharing computing or network resources. Consequently, a service operator should now always favor the use of a shared infrastructure over dedicated solutions when hosting multiple services. In this paper, we ask whether this is indeed the case, and investigate the dual impact of lower costs of sharing and provisioning flexibility on shared and dedicated infrastructures. The investigation reveals that while lower costs are always expected to favor infrastructure sharing, dynamic provisioning plays an ambiguous role. Reprovisioning improves both shared and dedicated solutions, but can do so differently and can sometimes favor a dedicated infrastructure. Our findings help illustrate that the technology trends, such as virtualization, behind cloud computing need not always favor the deployment of services on a shared infrastructure.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2019/14857 [Google]
Huang, F., P. Guo and Y. Wang (2019): Cyclic Pricing When Customers Queue with Rating Information, Production & Operations Management, 28(10), pp.2471-2485
Consider a situation where a service provider serves two types of customers, sophisticated and naive. Sophisticated customers are well‐informed of service‐related information and make their joining‐or‐balking decisions strategically, whereas naive customers do not have such information and rely on online rating information to make such decisions. We demonstrate that under certain conditions a service provider can increase its profitability by simply “dancing” its price, that is, replacing the static pricing strategy with a high‐low cyclic pricing strategy. The success of this strategy relies on two key conditions: the potential market size is large enough so that congestion is a key concern in the service system, and the rating provides the average price and average utility information. Finally, we show that the cyclic pricing strategy is not socially optimal.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13052 [Google]
Kwon, Y. and Y. Yi (2019): The effect of perceived economic mobility on customer aggression toward service employees: A darker aspect of customer behavior, Psychology & Marketing, 36(11), pp.1120-1132
The current research illuminates perceived economic mobility (PEM) as a causal antecedent of customer aggression. Study 1 with large‐scale panel data shows that PEM is positively related to attribution of poverty to personal characteristics and self‐centered intention to change jobs. Study 2 based on an experimental design shows that PEM causally induces customer aggression. Study 3 reveals that the effect of PEM on customer aggression varies depending on income; PEM increases customer aggression among low‐income earners, but the effect disappears among high‐income earners. Study 4 examines control over service employees to get self‐beneficial outcomes as a mechanism for the interaction effect of PEM and income on customer aggression. A moderated mediation analysis shows that the indirect effect of PEM on customer aggression through the proposed mechanism is significant among low‐income earners but not among high‐income earners. In sum, main findings of the present article are threefold: (a) PEM induces customer aggression, (b) income moderates the causal relationship, and (c) control to get benefits explains the joint effect of PEM and income on customer aggression. By delineating the dark side of PEM in consumer behavior, this study provides useful marketing implications for lessening side effects.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21261 [Google]
Guzmán, F., A. K. Paswan and E. Kennedy (2019): Consumer Brand Value Co-creation Typology, Journal of Creating Value, 5(1), pp.40-52
Abstract: Co-creation is said to take place in a variety of domains when two or more actors interact to create value. The topic of brand co-creation has been in the literature for 15 years. During this time, a multitude of concepts, constructs and behaviours about co-creation have been presented in the marketing literature. The result is a fragmented research area with little underlying consensus about how co-creation occurs between consumers and brands. The purpose of this article is to propose a brand co-creation typology, with the goal of consolidating existing work into a unified framework and providing a roadmap for practitioners to use co-creation in a more informed fashion. This typology creates avenues for future research through empirical testing.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2394964318804712 [Google]
Jabłoński, M. (2019): The Critical Aspects of Value Migration from Volatile Business Models in the Digital Economy, Journal of Creating Value, 5(1), pp.84-97
Abstract: Value is interdisciplinary and, in a broader context, is responsible for forming and bonding the expected configuration of the business model. A business model may allow for capturing value or losing it through inconsistency. It can capture value from customers and other stakeholders, such as investors. If a business model is consistent, then stakeholders believe in it and it attracts value. In practice, many business models are volatile, that is, unstable and highly susceptible to many factors, which make them incapable of ensuring success. This issue is an important area of scientific exploration, inasmuch as the issue of the volatility of business models and the associated negative consequences, in particular the migration of value, have been discussed to a limited extent. The article discusses the volatility of business models and its impact on value migration. Research into the volatility of companies operating in the digital economy listed on the alternative market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange has been presented. Key factors responsible for the volatility of business models of the companies surveyed have been shown in the context of value migration.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2394964318817409 [Google]
Kennedy, E. L. (2019): Firm Motivations for Shareholder Co-creation, Journal of Creating Value, 5(1), pp.53-67
Abstract: The present article, from corporate leader’s points of view, explores and provides a framework for the reasons a firm will engage and co-create with shareholders. Although the practice of firms engaging in value creation with shareholders takes place with regular occurrence, little is known about the motivations behind this co-creation. Gaining an understanding into this behaviour can benefit practitioners who wish to develop a value creation relationship with some of their shareholders. Therefore, reason for this undertaking is to develop a conceptual foundation to understand the relationships firms form with their shareholders, where co-creation of value is concerned. Five corporate leader interviews enlighten the research itinerary. The potential reasons for a firm to engage in the co-creation of organizational goals serve as broad themes by which the study is created, analysis is directed and arguments are formatted. The results of the informant interviews provide a cohesive foundation on which to further explore shareholder brand co-creation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2394964318814923 [Google]
Milkau, U. (2019): Value Creation within AI-enabled Data Platforms, Journal of Creating Value, 5(1), pp.25-39
Abstract: With digitalization, new type of firms—the so-called business platforms—emerged as a central hub in two-sided markets. As business platforms do not ‘produce’ products or services, they represent a new model of value creation that raises the question about the core nature of a firm in the twenty-first century, when ‘data is the new oil’. At the end of the twentieth century, the concept of ‘value chains, value shops and value networks’ represented the latest development about internal value creation in a firm, but lacked any discussion about information technology (IT) or even ‘data as raw material’. This digital approach to monetarize aggregated data sets as internal core function of a firm needs more clarification, as value creation ‘without production’ is a shift of paradigm. This article starts with the concept of ‘value chains, value shops and value networks’, extends this to current IT and includes business platforms within an integrated framework of internal value creation in a firm. Based on this framework and the current development of leading-edge artificial intelligence (AI), this framework is applied to forecast the development towards ‘AI-enabled data platforms’, which are not covered by traditional economic theories. This article calls for more research to clarify the impact of such data-based business models compared to production-based models.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2394964318803244 [Google]
Olarewaju, T. I. A. (2019): Can Equalizing Educational Endowments Between Men and Women Create More Female Self-employed Value in Nigeria?, Journal of Creating Value, 5(1), pp.68-83
Abstract: This article empirically investigates if women would be able to create more self-employed value if they had the same educational endowments as men in the unique gender disparity context of Nigeria. The article uses probit and Blinder–Oaxaca multivariate decomposition models to empirically conduct this analysis in a developing country taking advantage of two rounds of survey data. The analysis confirms that women would be able to create more self-employed value, particularly higher education self-employed value, if they had the same educational endowments as men. The article also highlights why gender parity does not exist in Nigeria and emphasizes the benefits of gender parity in this context.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2394964318815313 [Google]
Russo-Spena, T., C. Mele and M. Marzullo (2019): Practising Value Innovation through Artificial Intelligence: The IBM Watson Case, Journal of Creating Value, 5(1), pp.11-24
Abstract: This article focuses on the value innovation prompted by Artificial Intelligence (AI). By shifting the attention from innovation as a new outcome to innovating as something that people do (i.e., a practice) to co-create value, this article addresses how IBM Watson prompts new service provisions and the emergence of new interactions between humans and non-humans. The research allows for detecting how multiple actors connect, interact, learn and discover new ways to do things, serve others better and co-create value through AI. A fresh approach is offered to explore the role of AI to foster networking and knowing practices for value creating and innovating.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2394964318805839 [Google]
