Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in the last months.
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Sampson, S. E. and R. B. Chase (2022): Optimizing Customer Involvement: How Close Should You Be to Your Customers?, California Management Review, 65(3099), pp.119-146
Two strategic factors of any business are customer interaction (how close you are to your customers) and customer participation (how involved customers are in producing the offering). In recent years, we have seen companies increase interaction through servitization and increase customer participation through self-service technologies. Yet, more is not necessarily better. Too much customer interaction can destroy operating efficiencies. Too much customer participation can compromise quality and depersonalize service relationships. This article provides a framework for analyzing customer interaction and participation, including an outline of decision factors, with the goal of identifying optimal and sustainable positioning for any given offering.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00081256221118117 [Google]
Gal-Or, E. and Q. Shi (2022): Designing Entry Strategies for Subscription Platforms, Management Science, 68(3100), pp.7597-7613
We consider a subscription platform that offers services to variety-seeking consumers who incorporate transportation costs in their decision of how many and which vendor services to consume. ClassPass in fitness and MoviePass in entertainment are examples of such platforms. We find that for the platform to be successful, it should enter markets where consumers’ added benefit from patronizing more than one vendor is relatively high, thus strengthening the position of the platform in negotiations with the vendors. As well, managers should consider entering markets where competition between the vendors is relatively weak and in particular, where vendors benefit from local monopoly positions because of high transportation costs incurred by consumers. When entering such markets, offering the subscription contract is likely to attract new customers who are not active when the platform does not exist. Moreover, appropriate crafting of the agreement with the vendors in this case allows the parties to fully extract the surplus derived by platform customers. Last, the platform’s managers should be cognizant of the need to identify tools that facilitate alleviated price competition with vendors. Negotiating over an appropriate transfer fee per customer to pay the vendor or imposing restrictions on the level of service that their customers can use may be such tools. Offering customers lower-quality services when using the vendor in comparison with the quality they could obtain by buying directly from him may not be a successful tool to alleviate price competition. This paper was accepted by Duncan Simester, marketing.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4251 [Google]
Ülkü, S., C. Hydock and S. Cui (2022): Social Queues (Cues): Impact of Others’ Waiting in Line on One’s Service Time, Management Science, 68(3101), pp.7958-7976
The traditional queueing literature assumes that service time is largely independent of social influences. However, queues are social systems; and social considerations are therefore likely to impact customers’ service time decision to the extent they have control. Through a series of experiments, we show that when others are waiting in line, customers tend to accelerate their own service time, and in doing so, sacrifice their own consumption utility. This behavior is driven by concern for others. Notably, the effect is diminished when they themselves have waited, as it is perceived as fair to let others wait if one also had to wait. We further show that obscuring the visibility between customers in service and those waiting in line diminishes the negative effect of others queueing on one’s own service time. This paper was accepted by Jay Swaminathan, operations management. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4282.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4282 [Google]
Antonetti, P. and B. Crisafulli (2022): Revisiting power messaging in service failures: Pitfalls and proposed solutions, Psychology & Marketing, 39(3102), pp.2072-2095
Past research shows that company messaging can inflate consumers’ feelings of power, which in turn alleviate the negative effects of service failures. Extant research, however, has not examined how various types of power messaging can have a differential effect on consumers, with some leading to counterproductive consequences for companies. Across five experiments, we show that power messaging stressing that consumers have power over the company can backfire by increasing manipulative intent. Power messaging communicating that consumers will obtain a power boost from the service is more acceptable and less likely to be perceived as manipulative. Furthermore, we demonstrate that messaging eliciting power from the service is most effective when (1) targeted at consumers with low levels of skepticism, (2) delivered by an underdog brand, and (3) paired with co‐created recovery. Following a service failure, messaging communicating how customers will gain a power boost from the service experience increases identification with underdog brands. Our examination of power messaging as an overt communication strategy contributes to the literature on service failure and recovery. The research advances knowledge of the potential pitfalls of power messaging while proposing strategies to overcome risks associated with this communication strategy.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21712 [Google]
Sands, S., C. Campbell, K. Plangger and L. Pitt (2022): Buffer bots: The role of virtual service agents in mitigating negative effects when service fails, Psychology & Marketing, 39(3103), pp.2039-2054
In recent years, marketers have placed increased reliance upon artificial intelligence (AI) and, subsequently, the use of virtual agents in customer service contexts is on the rise. Despite such service digitalization, service can still fail. While there is an increasing literature on the effect of virtual agents in service settings, questions remain as to how customers react to service failure that results from interactions with virtual service agents. To this end, we deconstruct the effect of virtual agent service failure across two studies: one involving a process service failure and another involving an outcome service failure. We specifically manipulate the type of service agent that causes the service failure (human vs. virtual agent) and the magnitude of the failure (small vs. large). Results show that firms can leverage virtual service agents to mitigate or buffer the negative effects of service failure. From a managerial perspective, our findings suggest that firms could engage virtual service agents in situations where there may be a risk of outcome service failure—particularly in settings where relatively large magnitude failures may be experienced. In such a setting, we find that virtual service agents can mitigate the negative effects of service failure, more so than when the failure results from an interaction with a human service agent.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21723 [Google]
Agyei-Boapeah, H., R. Evans and T. M. Nisar (2022): Disruptive innovation: Designing business platforms for new financial services, Journal of Business Research, 150(3104), pp.134-146
• Business platform models achieve industry disruption by capturing, analyzing and exchanging huge volumes of data. • This study improves existing understanding about the strategies that financial platforms implement. • We explore if the measures incumbents are taking are sufficient to achieve survival. • Whether customer-focused strategies provide the best solution for financial service firms. • Firms need to integrate technologies that personalize and customize customer experiences. Business platform models often achieve industry disruption through the elimination of barriers such as time and space by implementing smart and sophisticated software that captures, analyzes, and exchanges huge volumes of data. Central to business platforms is their online participative infrastructure that facilitates interaction between many external producers and consumers where the exchange of goods, services or social currency enables value creation for all involved. This study adopts an exploratory approach to improve existing understanding about the strategies that financial platforms implement. In addition, we explore what incumbents are doing to ‘survive’ and if the measures they are taking are sufficient to achieve survival. Further, we examine whether customer-focused strategies, such as Experience-Based Offerings (EBOs), provide the best solution for financial service firms to gain competitive advantage. The findings show that strategies can be implemented successfully by integrating technology to improve, personalize, and customize customer experiences, while managers and employees can add quality to experiences. This study contributes to our understanding of business platforms by identifying how they are designed and managed, and how incumbents can learn from them to respond to the challenges presented by today’s rapidly changing consumer behavior. Based on our findings, we extend existing conceptual models that can be used to achieve platform-based financial service goals.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.066 [Google]
Benoit, S., Y. Wang, L. Teng, D. P. Hampson and X. Li (2022): Innovation in the sharing economy: A framework and future research agenda, Journal of Business Research, 149(3105), pp.207-216
• We highlight service innovation in the sharing economy (SE) as a strategic priority. • Our Sharing Economy Innovation Framework synthesises current research. • 13 papers in this Special Issue deepen knowledge on innovations in the SE. • We outline a comprehensive research agenda for service innovation research in SE. The sharing economy (SE) has been variously described as a disruptive, discontinuous, and social innovation. Now, more than a decade since the emergence of seminal platforms such as Airbnb, and amid heightened competition and macroenvironmental pressures, service innovation has become a strategic priority. Our editorial essay is guided by three objectives. First, as a prelude to this Special Issue, we examine the current state of SE service innovation literature. Despite some important contributions, especially in relation to business model innovation, other salient types of service innovation remain underexplored. Second, we position the contributions of the 13 papers in this Special Issue on our novel Sharing Economy Innovation Framework , which stipulates both the type of service innovation examined, and the focal dyadic relationships involved. Third, based on remaining gaps in the framework, we outline an agenda for future research on SE innovations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.020 [Google]
Cuthbertson, R. W. and P. I. Furseth (2022): Digital services and competitive advantage: Strengthening the links between RBV, KBV, and innovation, Journal of Business Research, 152(3106), pp.168-176
• The Resource-Based View of firms has evolved over the last 30 years. • Competitive advantage through digital resources is different to physical resources. • Sustainable competitive advantage for digital firms relies on dynamic capabilities. Research into the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Knowledge-Based View (KBV) of firms has evolved over the last 30 years from being focused on the control of physical resources, through knowledge-based digital resources, to innovation. This paper considers a service perspective of RBV-KBV to help explain differences in the competitive advantage attributable to digital and physical resources. Such an understanding helps explain the evolution of RBV-KBV research over the last 30 years and strengthens the links between the established research themes of RBV, KBV, and innovation. Competitive advantage can be created and retained through digital resources but sustainable competitive advantage for digital service firms relies on those physical resources that provide the dynamic capabilities to innovate, and so continually develop the digital resources.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.07.030 [Google]
Gupta, S. and R. P. Kanungo (2022): Financial inclusion through digitalisation: Economic viability for the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) segment, Journal of Business Research, 148(3107), pp.262-276
The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in every developing and frontier economy represents a largely untapped segment of the market that is excluded from formal financial markets because it cannot be served using the traditional financial market channels. We use a mixed-method approach to examine the challenges and intricacies of financial inclusion for the BOP segment in developing and frontier economies. To build a foundation for this debate, we conduct a review of the financial services and intermediaries serving the BOP, using case studies, experts’ insights, and quantitative analysis. Perspectives drawn from case studies of microfinancing firms and experts’ insights are used to explain the collaborations between businesses and formal institutions that can create a viable economic channel useful for serving the BOP segment. Further quantitative analysis demonstrates that a higher degree of financial inclusion for the BOP segment is likely to be achieved through the digitalisation of formal financial intermediaries, like banks.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.070 [Google]
Helkkula, A. and E. J. Arnould (2022): Using neo-animism to revisit actors for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in S-D logic, Journal of Business Research, 149(3108), pp.860-868
[Display omitted] To achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a marketing ecosystem composed only of human producers, customers/consumers, and economic stakeholders is inadequate. Instead, foundational rethinking is required. The study’s purpose is to analyze some of the constraints inherent in dominant marketing ontologies for reaching the SDGs. One such foundational constraint in the dominant market ontology is human-centricity, ignoring relationships between humans, animals, and other members of the natural biotic community. Neo-animism rejects the culture (humans)-nature dichotomy. We present three contributions that we call ontological enablers to pursue the SDGs. These contributions bridge a neo-animist approach to resource integration and value cocreation in service-dominant (S-D) logic, which entails implications for researchers and managers. Future research avenues elaborate a relational resource integration and cocreation approach between people and diverse members of the entire biotic community.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.031 [Google]
Iheanachor, N. and I. Umukoro (2022): Partnerships in digital financial services: An exploratory study of providers in an emerging market, Journal of Business Research, 152(3109), pp.425-435
Partnerships play a crucial role in unlocking the enormous potential of digital financial services to increase access to affordable and scalable services in emerging markets. This study explores the major forms and patterns of partnerships consummated by Nigerian financial service providers (FSPs) in the creation and delivery of digital financial services. Through case studies of existing providers and ecosystem participants, this study investigates the role of partnerships in facilitating financial inclusion, as a cardinal aim of FSPs. The study finds that a well-developed ecosystem is critical in driving financial inclusion and that such an ecosystem is built on effective partnerships. Furthermore, it shows that ineffective partnerships hamper financial inclusion significantly. This study develops a framework for consummating partnerships between FSPs from an emerging market perspective.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.08.010 [Google]
Subramony, M., M. Golubovskaya, B. Keating, D. Solnet, J. Field and M. Witheriff (2022): The influence of pandemic-related workplace safety practices on frontline service employee wellbeing outcomes, Journal of Business Research, 149(3110), pp.363-374
• Conceptualizing pandemic-related workplace safety practices (WSP) & investigating its influence on FLE work outcomes. • Designing & validating a measure of WSP based on the US OSHA recommendations for COVID-19 mitigation. • Demonstrating that WSP implementation reduces COVID-19 threat & increases supportiveness, leading to FLE wellbeing. • Offering insights into mitigating pandemic-related safety threats and enhancing FLE engagement and wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of frontline employee (FLEs) to infections and other hazards and highlighted the importance of workplace safety practices (WSP) for service organizations. In response to the critical issue of service safety, we developed and empirically tested a model proposing that WSPs negatively influence FLE perceptions of pandemic related threats and positively influence their perceptions of organizational supportiveness (POS). In turn, these perceptions have time-lagged effects on two aspects of FLE wellbeing—reduced emotional exhaustion and increased work engagement. Utilizing data from a two-wave (separated by a month) survey panel consisting of 310 FLEs across the United States, we found evidence for all hypothesized relationships. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of our findings and provide suggestions for future research on service safety on the organizational frontlines.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.040 [Google]
Tan, K. P.-S., Y. Yang and X. Li (2022): Catching a ride in the peer-to-peer economy: Tourists’ acceptance and use of ridesharing services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Journal of Business Research, 151(3111), pp.504-518
• Includes behavioral data of U.S. domestic tourists: 11,282 in 2016 & 6,955 in 2020. • Binary logit & treatment effects models were used for hypotheses testing. • Selected antecedents consistently & significantly influenced tourists’ rideshare use. • Cost saving significantly influenced usage before but not during COVID-19 pandemic. • Rideshare use influenced outcomes during the pandemic but not in 2016. Building on the self-determination theory and technology acceptance model, this study considers tourists’ adoption decisions around ridesharing and taxi services and examines whether actual rideshare use on-site affects visitors’ trip-level (i.e., trip satisfaction and trip value) and destination-level (i.e., locals’ perceived friendliness) evaluations. Econometric analysis is used to empirically evaluate actual behavioral data of domestic tourists collected from a U.S.-wide household tourism survey with 11,282 valid respondents in 2016 and 6,955 in 2020. Results indicate that while consumption competency, peer-to-peer consumption spillover, and taxi service availability significantly influenced tourists’ use of ridesharing services, safety reputation and destination familiarity are not significant determinants. Over time, cost saving is no longer significant in explaining the ridesharing demand, and during the pandemic, local pandemic severity shaped tourists’ use of ridesharing. Notably, tourists’ rideshare use significantly affected their trip- or destination-level assessments in 2020 but not in 2016. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.069 [Google]
Tierney, K. D., I. Oswald Karpen and K. Westberg (2022): Brand meaning and institutional work: The light and dark sides of service employee practices, Journal of Business Research, 151(3112), pp.244-256
• We discover ten service employee practices that function as institutional work. • These practices have either dark-side or light-side consequences for brands. • Dark-side practices may place brand meaning outcomes at risk. • Light-side practices potentially can enhance brand meaning. • Brand meaning outcomes are identified for relevance, authenticity, and legitimacy. Service employees (SEs) are instrumental in shaping customer brand perceptions. However, to deliver favorable brand experiences, SEs may not always abide by socially constructed norms and guidelines—called institutions—that coordinate service interactions. We explore how SEs navigate internal and external institutions, and the potential implications for brand meaning outcomes. Drawing on qualitative interviews with SEs from five local and international bank brands in Vietnam, and archival data, we discover 10 practices that function as institutional work and identify potential implications for brand meaning outcomes of authenticity, relevance, and legitimacy. Using institutional theory as an enabling lens, we demonstrate how these practices either disrupt or maintain internal and external institutions with dark-side or light-side consequences for brands. Specifically, our findings uncover how dark-side practices may place brand meaning outcomes at risk and how light-side practices, even those that disrupt institutions, can potentially enhance brand meaning, providing significant theoretical and managerial implications.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.06.045 [Google]
Wang, L., G. Zhang, J. Chen, X. Lu and F. Song (2022): The territory effect: How awe reduces territoriality and enhances sharing intention, Journal of Business Research, 148(3113), pp.1-11
A sharing economy promotes the optimal allocation of various resources, and is especially stimulating for social resources that positively impact social development. Therefore, how to enhance consumers’ sharing intention has become a major issue. Research tends to focus on what motivates sharing intention from the perspective of consumers as service recipients. In recent years, research has begun to consider the context in which consumers play the role of service provider. However, most of these studies are conducted from the perspective of cognition rather than emotion. Diverging from past findings, we examine the effect of awe on sharing intention and discuss the mediating effect of territoriality and the moderating effects of perceived similarity and regulatory focus. Five experiments show that consumers are more likely to share resources when experiencing awe than any other emotion because awe reduces their tendency toward territoriality. We also find that this effect is reinforced in the context of high (vs. low) perceived similarity among consumers and for promotion-focused (vs. prevention-focused) consumers.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.014 [Google]
Zheng, H., H. Wu and L. Tian (2022): Healthcare service enhancement with patient search, Journal of Business Research, 152(3114), pp.398-409
The rapid development of Internet medical and advanced information technology has allowed patients to effortlessly search for their preferred healthcare services before making medical decisions. However, such strategic search behavior from patients will challenge the efforts of healthcare service providers to enhance their services and create marketing strategies. We investigate a healthcare service provider’s optimal service enhancement strategy with the consideration of patient search. Our primary objective is to figure out how the patient search cost affects the optimal healthcare service level and also the healthcare provider’s corresponding selling strategy. We find that if the fraction of patients who like the service is low, the optimal service level is increasing in the search cost. Whereas, if there are more patients who like the service, with a decrease in search cost, the healthcare provider may increase the service level to attract patients to search their preferences. In addition, by comparing with the scenario wherein patient search behavior is prohibited, we find that the patient search will counter-intuitively dampen the healthcare provider’s incentive on service enhancement. Thus, the underlying patient search would be detrimental to the provider’s profitability. We further find that, even if patients initially perceive their preferences over the healthcare service, such elimination of preference uncertainty (i.e., patient search, in this case, is needless) will not always benefit the healthcare provider, which highly hinges on the fraction of patients who like the healthcare service and the magnitude of search cost.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.07.060 [Google]
Agyei, P. M., F. Manu and S. Coffie (2022): Positioning strategies for B2B service markets, Industrial Marketing Management, 106(3115), pp.405-419
The study sought to determine the areas of congruence between firm and organizational buyers, and consequently develops a B2B service positioning strategy framework. With an interpretative phenomenology and purposive sampling, the study sampled and interviewed 35 participants from the banking, insurance and media industries. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis, and identified quality, price, network and relationships, competitiveness, service employees, and CSR as positioning strategies required in the B2B market for sustainable competitive advantage. The study makes a substantial contribution to the study of B2B positioning with the proposed B2B service positioning framework. The outcome of the study also informs the practice of marketing in general and B2B positioning strategy in particular.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.09.010 [Google]
Chaudhary, S., A. Dhir, D. Gligor, S. J. Khan and A. Ferraris (2022): Paradoxes and coping mechanisms in the servitisation journey, Industrial Marketing Management, 106(3116), pp.323-337
Servitisation is conceptualised as product manufacturers’ transition towards bundling products and services to offer customers enhanced value. Scholars have raised concerns regarding the potential challenges that firms face during servitisation, often termed servitisation paradoxes. Limited studies have explored the paradoxes experienced during the servitisation journey and the associated coping mechanisms. We utilise the open-ended essay methodology to unravel various paradoxes and coping mechanisms to address the gap. We collected data in two stages—from 69 participants in the first stage and 32 in the second stage. The study’s findings reveal three broad paradoxes: the paradox of organising (autonomy and control, efficiency and flexibility, formal and informal information flow, and employee and customer needs), the paradox of learning (prior knowledge and new knowledge), and the paradox of performance (short-term and long-term performance). In addition, we identify four coping practices: change management, open communication, training programmes and digitalisation. The study augments the prior literature by developing a conceptual framework that elucidates the coexistence of numerous paradoxes and coping mechanisms. • Servitization illustrates a manufacturing firm’s transition from product manufacturing to customised solutions. • We attempt to explore paradoxes and coping mechanisms employed by firms across industries. • The finding reveals the coexistence of three paradoxes, i.e., organising, learning, and performing. • The coping strategies include change management, open communication, training programmes, and digitalisation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.09.005 [Google]
Crecelius, A. T., J. M. Lawrence, J. L. Ogilvie and A. A. Rapp (2022): Riding the waves or rocking the boat? Benefits and unintended consequences of customer growth strategies, Industrial Marketing Management, 107(3117), pp.407-422
Suppliers can grow sales by offering expanded solutions to specific, promising customer accounts via relationship expansion proposals. Extant perspectives offer conflicting advice on which accounts to target and how to price such proposals. The authors investigate how expansion proposals can be strategically targeted and designed to enhance supplier financial outcomes. A novel conceptual framework provides direction for targeted account growth based on three relationship metrics: sales potential, prior profitability, and service level. Two studies with a major industrial supplier assess the effects of relationship expansion proposals contingent on these three metrics. A quasi-experiment in Study 1 reveals that higher sales potential and higher service provision make accounts an ideal target for expansion efforts. However, when a relationship exhibits higher past profitability, expansion proposals can backfire. Study 2 focuses on discounting expansion proposals to incentivize customer response. Results show that the depth of discounting in a proposal can negatively affect sales. The findings contribute to industrial marketing literature by (i) demonstrating positive and negative financial outcomes of customer growth strategies, (ii) showing how these outcomes depend on multiple relationship metrics in ways that align with value capture theory, and (iii) illustrating and explaining ambivalent effects of discounts in expansion proposals. • -Targeting growth strategies to seemingly promising accounts is not always optimal and depends on several account metrics. • Accounts with untapped potential and high service provision are lucrative targets, but highly profitable accounts are not. • Offering deep discounts is not a silver bullet for ensuring successful account growth. • Providing high service levels is critical to expanding the most attractive accounts, especially with steep discounts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.10.004 [Google]
Florea, D.-L., M. E. R. Nieto-Saucedo and P. Reyes-Mercado (2022): Unveiling professional service providers’ willingness to educate: A configurational approach, Industrial Marketing Management, 107(3118), pp.222-237
Customer education in professional business services demands that service providers solve multiple trade-offs in allocating limited educational resources. This study explains the differences in service providers’ willingness to provide education in professional business services. Supported by the relationship marketing literature, service-dominant logic, and transaction-cost economics, the authors adopt a configurational approach to conceptualize the willingness to educate as a complex phenomenon. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis applied to a sample of 240 marketing service providers reveals eight equifinal configurations that elicit a willingness to educate and three configurations that lead to an unwillingness to educate. These findings enable customer firms to anticipate potential service providers’ willingness to provide education, which can constitute a new criterion for service provider selection. Professional service provider managers can leverage these findings to reassess the foundational premises of their willingness to educate and upgrade the strategic role of customer education. • We explore why professional service providers educate their customers in different extents. • We conceptualize professional service providers’ willingness to educate as a manifestation of customer prioritization. • Eight configurations elicit a willingness to educate a customer firm. • These configurations show the different uses of customer education in the context of professional business services. • An unwillingness to educate can occur in unexpected conditions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.10.007 [Google]
Kot, M. and G. Leszczyński (2022): AI-activated value co-creation. An exploratory study of conversational agents, Industrial Marketing Management, 107(3119), pp.287-299
This paper aims to provide in-depth insight into the value co-creation around conversational agents — a solution based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that replaces customer service employees. Using the concepts of value-in-use from information technology and the ARA Model as a theoretical lens, we investigated which resources are combined to create an AI-based solution, how providers and clients cooperate, and what value is an outcome of co-creation in the case of advanced technologies in the B2B context. Based on multiple case studies on leading providers of conversational agents, this research demonstrates the complexities of the process. Our findings reveal significant differences in informational, strategic, transactional, and transformational dimensions of value-in-use of conversational agents (CA) from other technologies. It shows that AI-activated value is dynamic, context-dependent, and fuzzy. This paper also highlights the role of resource interaction and non-technological factors that enable conversational agents to reflect and replace human activities. • Value of AI-activated solutions is the effect of changes within the resource layer. • Resource reconfigurations are far-reaching and difficult to change back. • Conversational Agent acts as a facilitator and dominates the resource layer. • Value co-creation becomes contextual, fuzzy and dynamic.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.10.013 [Google]
Picaud-Bello, K., E. Stevens, L. M. Cloutier and L. Renard (2022): Coordinating service ecosystems for innovation: The case of tourism destination innovation projects, Industrial Marketing Management, 106(3120), pp.444-460
The study aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of the coordination mechanisms that facilitate collaboration in service ecosystems for the development of an innovation project. Recent studies have shown that coordination mechanisms, rather than formal agreements, are necessary to manage collaboration in ecosystem settings. Although coordination mechanisms are well identified from a firm/organization perspective, the ecosystem perspective, where independent organizations manage their own agenda and priorities, has not yet been investigated. This study focused on tourism destination ecosystems to identify and examine the coordination mechanisms that facilitate collaboration for a new tourism destination project. It used the in-depth case research analysis of two tourism destination projects at their initial development stage to identify the coordination mechanisms. Moreover, empirical findings were used to identify the key challenges for the development of an innovation project in the context of tourism destination service ecosystems. A conceptual framework of coordination mechanisms in the development of an innovation project in ecosystems is proposed. This framework provides new insights on the role of coordination mechanisms in innovation ecosystems by proposing two sets of coordination mechanism concepts: the designing of an innovative service ecosystem and the designing of the new offering. This study contributes to emerging research on how coordination mechanisms facilitate collaboration among multiple and heterogeneous organizations for the development of an innovation project in the age of ecosystems. • This paper identifies and examines coordination mechanisms used by service ecosystems actors for the development of an innovation project. • A conceptual framework of coordination mechanisms in the development of an innovation project in ecosystem is proposed. • This paper contributes to emerging research on how coordination mechanisms facilitate collaboration in service ecosystems for the development of an innovation project.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.08.013 [Google]
Yang, M. and T. Leposky (2022): An entrepreneurial framework for value co-creation in servitization, Industrial Marketing Management, 107(3121), pp.484-497
The importance of value co-creation in servitization is increasingly emphasized but remains largely unexplored from the entrepreneurship theoretical perspective. This study develops an entrepreneurial framework for value co-creation in servitization by conducting a qualitative case study with middle managers from a multinational industrial company. The empirical findings suggest that value co-creation facilitates the discovery and creation of service opportunities through middle managers’ entrepreneurial actions, that is, boundary spanning and bricolage. We also find that servitization reinforces value co-creation through middle managers’ exploitation or exploration of service opportunities. The study not only offers new knowledge on the mutual influence between value co-creation and servitization, but also discusses the importance of middle managers as individual level actors in value co-creation. In addition, this study acts as a call for entrepreneurship frameworks for research on servitization. • Examining how middle managers influence value co-creation in servitization. • Developing an entrepreneurial framework for value co-creation in servitization. • Uncovering the micro level influence between value co-creation and servitization.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.11.002 [Google]
Kreye, M. E. (2022): When servitized manufacturers globalise: becoming a provider of global services, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 42(3122), pp.1521-1543
Purpose: To increase the global competitiveness of their service business, servitized manufacturers transition towards global services. Yet, the literature has not addressed this development. This study is one of the first to investigate how servitized manufacturers can manage the globalisation of their service business. Design/methodology/approach: The study explores two cases of servitized manufacturers that transitioned from a local organisation of multi-domestic international services to a global-service organisation. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews, observations, and secondary sources. Findings: The authors identify four elements of global service provision: operating model, global performance management, relationship governance, and staffing and employee development. The authors discuss each element and the connections between them, which the authors summarise in a proposed framework for global service provision. Originality/value: The contributions of this research relate to the proposed framework of global service provision, which extends current conceptualisation of globalisation of routine services. The authors show the unique elements of global service provision of servitized manufacturers and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the work.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-11-2021-0714 [Google]
Kong, L., K. Hu and R. Verma (2022): Service Chains’ Operational Strategies: Standardization or Customization? Evidence from the Nursing Home Industry, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(3123), pp.3099-3116
Problem definition: We investigate how the degree of standardization (DoS) across service chain-belonging units impacts units’ performance outcomes. We study this question in the nursing home industry, focusing on the DoS in three operational dimensions—customer mix, service offering, and service delivery—and its impact on three nursing home outcomes: financial performance, clinical outcome, and resident welfare. Academic/practical relevance: All service chains must decide how unique or standardized each of their units should be, but it is unclear how this decision affects units’ performance outcomes. We assess standardization strategies in multiple operational dimensions in chain-belonging nursing homes and their impact on important operational outcomes, and generalize our findings to other service industries. Methodology: We use a panel data set covering 11 years (2005–2015) of comprehensive measurements of all nursing homes in the United States. We estimate the relationship between the DoS and important nursing home outcomes using fixed-effect models with instrumental variables and clustered standard errors. Results: We find that chain-belonging nursing homes that (1) customize service delivery and standardize customer mix relative to the chain norm tend to experience improved financial performance; (2) standardize customer mix tend to experience improved clinical outcome; and (3) customize service delivery tend to experience enhanced resident welfare. Managerial implications: To our knowledge, this study is the first systematic multidimensional assessment of multiunit service firms’ standardization strategies from a chain perspective. Our results guide nursing home chains in their (1) strategies of within-chain standardization, and (2) investment decisions in acquiring new properties. Our results also provide broader managerial insights for service chains’ standardization strategies and merging and acquisition activities. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1111.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1111 [Google]
Samorani, M., S. L. Harris, L. G. Blount, H. Lu and M. A. Santoro (2022): Overbooked and Overlooked: Machine Learning and Racial Bias in Medical Appointment Scheduling, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(3124), pp.2825-2842
Problem definition: Machine learning is often employed in appointment scheduling to identify the patients with the greatest no-show risk, so as to schedule them into or right after overbooked slots. That scheduling decision maximizes the clinic performance, as measured by a weighted sum of all patients’ waiting time and the provider’s overtime and idle time. However, if a racial group is characterized by a higher no-show risk, then the patients belonging to that racial group will be scheduled into or right after overbooked slots disproportionately to the general population. Academic/Practical Relevance: That scheduling decision is problematic because patients scheduled in those slots tend to have a worse service experience than the other patients, as measured by the time they spend in the waiting room. Thus, the challenge becomes minimizing the schedule cost while avoiding racial disparities. Methodology: Motivated by the real-world case of a large specialty clinic whose black patients have a higher no-show probability than non-black patients, we analytically study racial disparity in this context. Then, we propose new objective functions that minimize both schedule cost and racial disparity and that can be readily adopted by researchers and practitioners. We develop a race-aware objective, which instead of minimizing the waiting times of all patients, minimizes the waiting times of the racial group expected to wait the longest. We also develop race-unaware methodologies that do not consider race explicitly. We validate our findings both on simulated and real-world data. Results: We demonstrate that state-of-the-art scheduling systems cause the black patients in our data set to wait about 30% longer than nonblack patients. Our race-aware methodology achieves both goals of eliminating racial disparity and obtaining a similar schedule cost as that obtained by the state-of-the-art scheduling method, whereas the race-unaware methodologies fail to obtain both efficiency and fairness. Managerial implications: Our work uncovers that the traditional objective of minimizing schedule cost may lead to unintended racial disparities. Both efficiency and fairness can be achieved by adopting a race-aware objective. History: This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Section on Responsible Research in Operations Management. Funding: M. Samorani’s work was partly funded by the 2020 Leavey Research Grant. Supplemental Material: The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0999.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0999 [Google]
Dayarian, I. and J. Pazour (2022): Crowdsourced order‐fulfillment policies using in‐store customers, Production & Operations Management, 31(3125), pp.4075-4094
Omni‐channel services, such as buy‐online‐pick‐up‐from‐store, transfer the in‐store logistics once completed by shoppers to retailers. To cost‐effectively meet the high demands for such pickup services, we introduce a crowdsourced order‐fulfillment policy that deploys in‐store customers to pick items for online orders while completing their own personal shopping. As opposed to existing store fulfillment policies, this new concept utilizes in‐store customers to help, not constrain, dedicated pickers. Empirical data indicate that a high percentage of surveyed in‐store shoppers would be willing to occasionally participate in such a program. In‐store customers willing to participate were observed to be heterogeneous in their efforts, with variability in how much extra time they would be willing to provide and would prefer picking tasks that had only a small deviation from their personal shopping. Motivated by these empirical results, the decision problem of how to assign picking tasks for arriving online orders with a given service commitment, to a set of arriving in‐store customers or an abundant set of dedicated pickers, was formalized to capture the uncertainty and heterogeneity of using in‐store customers for in‐store picking tasks. We propose a tractable decision‐making methodology to determine whether an order will meet both service commitment feasibility and in‐store customer availability with a probability at least equal to a target threshold. This method captures dynamic order placements and in‐store customer arrivals and stochasticity in in‐store customers’ shopping baskets. Extensive computational experiments for varying operational conditions of a grocery store dynamically matching actual online orders to arriving in‐store customers helps answer open questions from practitioners. Compensating in‐store customers based on their additional efforts reduced costs of fulfillment by greater than 30%, on average, compared to a baseline that uses only dedicated pickers for store fulfillment. Using the past five shopping baskets of participating in‐store customers to estimate assignment decisions can achieve both high online order service commitments and in‐store customer availability requirements. Our results suggest that in‐store customers should be assigned smaller orders than dedicated pickers.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13805 [Google]
Naumov, S. and D. Keith (2022): Optimizing the economic and environmental benefits of ride‐hailing and pooling, Production & Operations Management, (3126), pp.1
Ride‐hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft promise to reduce the negative externalities of driving and improve access to transportation. However, recent empirical evidence has been mixed about the impact of ride‐hailing on US cities, often resulting in a net increase in traffic congestion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, largely due to increased travel demand and competition with public transit. Pooled rides, in which multiple passengers share a single vehicle, are an effective solution to improve the sustainability of ride‐hailing, reducing GHG emissions and traffic congestion and appealing to price‐sensitive population segments by offering relatively cheaper rides. Yet, most ride‐hailing trips are unprofitable currently, resulting from ride‐hailing rides being subsidized (especially pooled) to compete with cheaper transportation alternatives such as public transit. In this paper, we consider whether price optimization can be used to improve ride‐hailing revenues while also reducing the environmental impacts of ride‐hailing, particularly as the cost of ride‐hailing is expected to fall into the future with the introduction of automated vehicles. Using a discrete choice experiment and multinomial logit choice model with a representative sample of the US population, we estimate consumer preferences for the attributes of ride‐hailing services and use them to explore how ride prices affect the revenue of ride‐hailing platforms and the total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by the ride‐hailing fleet. We show that as the costs of driving fall, continuously
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13905 [Google]
Qin, H., D. Simchi‐Levi, R. Ferer, J. Mays, K. Merriam, M. Forrester and A. Hamrick (2022): Trading safety stock for service response time in inventory positioning, Production & Operations Management, (3127), pp.1
We study an inventory placement optimization problem where demand is sensitive to service response time, under the online retailing setting. The main challenge is to achieve the optimal trade‐off between revenue benefits from shorter delivery time and the increase in inventory cost associated with placing inventory closer to market demand. To predict the effects of modified demand under service response time variations, we introduce a demand prediction and elasticity model to quantify the sensitivity in demand for particular product categories. Of course, shortening response time by positioning products close to market demand may increase inventory costs. Hence, the team developed a novel data‐driven two‐stage stochastic programming approach complementing the demand prediction and elasticity model, which optimally trades safety stock with service response time and hence revenue increase. We then illustrate the impact of our approach through data provided by an e‐commerce retailer in North America. Our approach offers supply chain managers a general‐purpose decision support tool that optimizes the inventory network to generate recommended stocking levels for stores, distribution centers, and warehouses on a daily basis.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13869 [Google]
Singh, S. P., M. Delasay and A. Scheller‐Wolf (2022): Real‐time delay announcement under competition, Production & Operations Management, (3128), pp.1
Internet‐based technology enables firms to disseminate real‐time delay information to delay‐sensitive customers. We study how such delay announcements impact service providers in a competitive environment with two service providers who compete for market share. We model the service providers’ strategies based on an endogenous timing game, investigating strategies that emerge in equilibrium. We determine the service providers’ market shares under the various game outcomes by analyzing continuous‐time Markov chains, which capture customers’ joining decisions, and by developing a novel computational technique to analyze the intractable asymmetric Join‐the‐Shortest Queue system, providing bounds on the market shares. We find that only the lower capacity service provider announces its real‐time delay under intermediate system loads and highly imbalanced capacities. However, for most parameter settings, the mere presence of a competitor induces both providers to announce delays in equilibrium, leaving customers better off on average. We relate our findings to the single‐provider delay announcement literature by discussing the impact of competition on service providers, delay announcement technology firms, and customers.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13903 [Google]
Singhal, K. and J. Singhal (2022): Technology, knowledge, and manufacturing before the Industrial Revolution, Production & Operations Management, (3129), pp.1
Long‐term vision depends on history, and on history alone. Scholarship in technology, manufacturing, and operations management is incomplete without a knowledge of history. In chronicling the history of technology, knowledge, and manufacturing, we have traced the remarkable continuity in the evolution of humans from
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13855 [Google]
