Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in the last months.
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George, R., S. D’Alessandro, M. I. Mehmet, M. Nikidehaghani, M. M. Evans, G. Laud and D. Tedmanson (2024): On the Path to Decolonizing Health Care Services: The Role of Marketing, Journal of Marketing, 88(3783), pp.138-159
Despite considerable investment, health outcomes for First Nations people are well below those of the rest of the population in several countries, including Canada, the United States, and Australia. In this article, the authors draw on actor-network theory and the case of Birthing on Country, a successful policy initiative led by First Nations Australians, to explore the decolonization of health services. Using publicly available archival data and the theoretical guidance of actor-network theory, the analysis offers insight into how marketing techniques and technologies can be deployed to achieve improved health outcomes and implement decolonized approaches. The insights provided have theoretical implications for marketing scholarship, social implications for understanding and implementing an agenda of decolonization, and practical implications for health care marketing.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222429231209925 [Google]
Farronato, C., J. Fong and A. Fradkin (2024): Dog Eat Dog: Balancing Network Effects and Differentiation in a Digital Platform Merger, Management Science, 70(3784), pp.464-483
Network effects are often used to justify platform strategies such as acquisitions and subsidies that aggregate users to a single dominant platform. However, when users have heterogeneous preferences, a single platform may not be as effective as multiple platforms from both a strategic perspective and an antitrust perspective. We study the role of network effects and platform differentiation in the context of a merger between the two largest platforms for pet-sitting services. To obtain causal estimates of network effects, we leverage geographic variation in premerger market shares and employ a difference-in-differences approach. Our results reveal that although users of the acquiring platform benefit from the merger thanks to network effects, those of the acquired platform are comparatively worse off because their preferred option is removed. Network effects and differentiation offset each other such that at the market level, users are not substantially better off with a combined platform than with two separate platforms. These findings have strategic and regulatory implications as well as highlight the importance of platform differentiation even in the presence of network effects. This paper was accepted by Alfonso Gambardella, business strategy. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4675.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4675 [Google]
Salomonson, N. and P. Echeverri (0): Embodied interaction: a turn to better understand disabling marketplaces and consumer vulnerability, Journal of Marketing Management, (3785), pp.1-40
The purpose of this study is to extend current understanding of disabling marketplaces by substantiating embodied interaction, between service providers and disabled consumers, as interlinked multimodal activities in a material environment. The study is based on three extensive datasets on service production and provider-consumer interactions, gathered from several public sector markets containing private service providers. Using different qualitative and semi-ethnographical methods, the study makes three contributions: i) a more embodied construct of disability, materialised in a conceptual typology of embodiment and materiality, advancing research into what disables consumers from being active members of marketplaces; ii) identifying themes of disabling marketplace interactions which contribute a more fine-grained understanding of the relationship between embodiment and how consumers experience vulnerability ? an explanation of how consumers with disabilities appropriate space and ascribe meanings to a place; and iii) substantiating previous research into ?bodily dys-appearance?.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2024.2303108 [Google]
Asante, I. O., Y. Jiang and M. Miao (2024): Exploring the motivating factors for using live‐streaming and their influence on consumers’ hedonic well‐being: The mediating effect of psychological engagement, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3786), pp.27-44
This study employs a multimethod approach to examine the factors motivating consumers to interact with brands through live‐streaming platforms and how they affect their hedonic well‐being. The result indicates that exclusively relying on the net effects of the motivating factors could be misleading. It presents an insight into how a mediation effect (psychological engagement) affects the interdependence of the independent variables in achieving hedonic well‐being. Although the structural equation modeling results highlight the significant mediating impact of psychological engagement, the fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis shows that psychological engagement is only a core condition in one configuration (out of the three configurations). That is when two motivational factors (brand awareness and real‐time customer service) act as a substitute, and the others (convenience and consumer–brand relationship quality) are present. Therefore, psychological engagement is indifferent when all motivational factors are present. This study, through the application of a multimethod approach, shows that motivational factors for using live‐streaming are only necessary for escalating consumer well‐being but not sufficient in themselves.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21881 [Google]
Hotkar, P., R. Garg and K. Sussman (2023): Strategic social media marketing: An empirical analysis of sequential advertising, Production & Operations Management, 32(3787), pp.4005-4020
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have emerged as effective channels for advertising that enable consumer targeting based on demographics, interests, and user behavior. Social media marketers have utilized information spillover within these platforms to reach a larger customer base. This information spillover also exists across groups of users within the platform and enhances returns from social media advertising. Thus, this information spillover can be utilized to strategically sequence targeted advertising to amplify the returns from social media ads. In this paper, we present a theoretical model for information retention and show that the sequential advertising strategy is effective in targeting groups of users on a social media platform. In addition, we provide empirical evidence through two series of randomized field experiments. From experiments for a health services organization, we find that sequential advertising campaigns provide 23% more clicks when compared to campaigns that target groups simultaneously, which translates to a saving of 18.7% in the advertising budget to achieve similar results as simultaneous advertising. Additionally, we found that sequential advertising campaigns targeting a smaller group first followed by a larger group provide 10.7% additional clicks when compared to targeting a larger group first followed by a smaller group. These results were consistent for consumer packaged goods that were advertised on Facebook and Twitter. These results provide implications for social media advertising research and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.14075 [Google]
Vial, G. (2023): A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective of Software Reuse in the Digital Age: An Agenda for IS Research, Information Systems Research, 34(3788), pp.1728-1743
Most software on which we rely to help us organize our professional and personal lives is based on the reuse of other pieces of software that are created and maintained by groups of software developers that work independently from one another. Oftentimes, these groups simply publish their software in the form of self-contained packages available on dedicated repositories, facilitating the widespread diffusion of their work. Whereas the production and publication of software packages fosters unprecedented levels of digital innovation, there are also drawbacks associated with software reuse (e.g., as was publicly discussed in 2021 with the discovery of the Log4Shell vulnerability). Building on previous research, our work explores the implications associated with the unprecedented scale and uncoordinated nature of packaged software reuse. We use complex adaptive systems as a generative lens to help us conceptualize the phenomenon and identify promising avenues for research and practice on this topic. Our work, therefore, draws attention to the importance of the packaged software reuse phenomenon as well as the need for research to help increase our understanding of its nature and implications considering its prevalence in software development practice and the overall importance of software in our everyday lives. Software is instrumental to the accelerated pace of digital innovation, and our ability to rapidly develop and deliver digital products and services is largely based on the reuse of existing software. In recent years, packaged software reuse has emerged as an important phenomenon driving the creation of new software, both proprietary and open source, as well as the emergence and evolution of entire software ecosystems. Arguing that our theoretical understanding of the nature and the magnitude of current packaged software reuse practice remains limited, our objective with this research commentary is twofold. First, we draw attention to the importance of packaged software reuse and its relevance as a promising phenomenon of interest for information systems (IS) researchers. Second, we mobilize the concept of generativity to conceptualize packaged software as a form of technological innovation that fosters large-scale (re)combination and propose complex adaptive systems (CAS) as a theoretical foundation to help us engage with the current nature of the phenomenon. Using key principles of CAS as the generative foundation for our conceptual scaffolding, we offer a research framework for packaged software reuse and develop an agenda for IS research organized across three main axes. For each axis, we outline relevant research themes and research questions leveraging the nature of software as objects constituted of other pieces of software developed and maintained by heterogeneous groups of software developers. Shedding light on the renewed role of software reuse, our work contributes to ongoing conversations on generativity and software ecosystems as well as the design of digital products and services. History: Suprateek Sarker, Senior Editor; Ning Su, Associate Editor. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.1200.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.1200 [Google]
Raghavan, S. and R. Zhang (2024): The Driver-Aide Problem: Coordinated Logistics for Last-Mile Delivery, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3789), pp.291-311
Problem definition: Last-mile delivery is a critical component of logistics networks, accounting for approximately 30%–35% of costs. As delivery volumes have increased, truck route times have become unsustainably long. To address this issue, many logistics companies, including FedEx and UPS, have resorted to using a “driver aide” to assist with deliveries. The aide can assist the driver in two ways. As a “jumper,” the aide works with the driver in preparing and delivering packages, thus reducing the service time at a given stop. As a “helper,” the aide can independently work at a location delivering packages, and the driver can leave to deliver packages at other locations and then return. Given a set of delivery locations, travel times, service times, jumper’s savings, and helper’s service times, the goal is to determine both the delivery route and the most effective way to use the aide (e.g., sometimes as a jumper and sometimes as a helper) to minimize the total routing time. Methodology/results: We model this problem as an integer program with an exponential number of variables and an exponential number of constraints and propose a branch-cut-and-price approach for solving it. Our computational experiments are based on simulated instances built on real-world data provided by an industrial partner and a data set released by Amazon. The instances based on the Amazon data set show that this novel operation can lead to, on average, a 35.8% reduction in routing time and 22.0% in cost savings. More importantly, our results characterize the conditions under which this novel operation mode can lead to significant savings in terms of both the routing time and cost. Managerial implications: Our computational results show that the driver aide with both jumper and helper modes is most effective when there are denser service regions and when the truck’s speed is higher (≥10 miles per hour). Coupled with an economic analysis, we come up with rules of thumb (that have close to 100% accuracy) to predict whether to use the aide and in which mode. Empirically, we find that the service delivery routes with greater than 50% of the time devoted to delivery (as opposed to driving) are the ones that provide the greatest benefit. These routes are characterized by a high density of delivery locations. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0211.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0211 [Google]
Manou, A., P. G. Canbolat and F. Karaesmen (2024): Strategic Heterogeneous Customers in a Transportation Station: Information and Pricing, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3790), pp.389-406
Problem definition: We consider pricing of services with strategic customers who have heterogeneous delay costs motivated by transportation systems. Customers are strategic decision makers who weigh the reward from the transport service against the waiting cost for the vehicle at a transportation station. Customers arrive at the station according to a Poisson process, and the vehicle visits the station according to a renewal process. We analyze the optimal price and the equilibrium for different levels of information available to customers. Methodology/results: We represent the service system as a stochastic clearing process, heterogeneity in delay cost as a random variable, and heterogeneity in rewards as a positive affine transformation of delay cost. For each information level, we identify the equilibrium behavior of customers and solve the revenue-maximization problem based on this equilibrium. The equilibrium turns out to be unique in each case, and it is of a threshold form in the sense that for each value of the information, it is best to join either for all types of customers, only for those who are sufficiently price sensitive, only for those who are sufficiently delay sensitive, or for none. The optimal fee is also unique in nontrivial cases. This enables us to perform comparisons across different information structures. Managerial implications: The effect of heterogeneity depends highly on model parameters as well as the available information. For a fixed fee, an increase in heterogeneity has a positive overall impact on the customer population, whereas the effect on the revenue can be positive (slow service at a high fee) or negative (fast service at a low fee). Unlike with fixed fee, for the optimal fee, an increase in heterogeneity can have a negative overall effect on customers. Ignoring heterogeneity can lead to a substantial opportunity loss for the system. Funding: A. Manou was supported by AXA Research Fund. P. G. Canbolat was supported by Marie Curie Career Integration Grant from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (RISK) [FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, Proposal No. 618853]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0116.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0116 [Google]
Li, S., M. A. Lariviere and A. Bassamboo (2024): Is Full Price the Full Story When Consumers Have Time and Budget Constraints?, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3791), pp.370-388
Problem definition: A canonical model in service management assumes that consumers base the purchase of a service on its full price, that is, a linear combination of the monetary price and the expected time commitment. Although analytically convenient, when this assumption holds is an unexplored question. Methodology/results: We present a model of consumers allocating their time and money between working, overhead activities that do not provide utility, one continuous leisure activity, and one discrete service. Both continuous leisure activity and discrete service increase utility. Consumers can allocate any nonnegative amount of time or money to the leisure activity. Consumption of the discrete service requires a specific amount of time and money. We examine when the decision to purchase the discrete service depends only on its full price. We show that the full-price assumption does hold in specific cases. To be precise, it depends on how consumers are paid. If consumers completely control the amount of time that they work and earn a constant wage, they base their purchase decision on the full price. If, however, they must work a fixed shift length, then the assumption fails, and the full price is not sufficient to determine the consumer’s action. This leads to systematic differences in sellers’ strategies when they serve consumers with different compensation structures. If the consumers must work longer than would be optimal if they controlled their schedule and earned the same hourly wage, that is, the consumers are overemployed shift workers, then a seller restricts sales (relative to selling to consumers who control their work hours), and the system is less congested. The reverse holds if the consumers would prefer to work longer at the offered wage; that is, the consumers are underemployed shift workers. Managerial implications: We show that sellers who fail to take prevailing compensation structures of the community they serve into consideration experience significant revenue loss. In some cases, we see losses in consumer surplus and social welfare as well. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0357.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0357 [Google]
Buell, R. W., K. Ramdas, N. Sönmez, K. Srinivasan and R. Venkatesh (2024): Shared Service Delivery Can Increase Client Engagement: A Study of Shared Medical Appointments, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3792), pp.154-166
Problem definition: Clients and service providers alike often consider one-on-one service delivery to be ideal, assuming, perhaps unquestioningly, that devoting individualized attention best improves client outcomes. In contrast, in shared service delivery, clients are served in batches and the dynamics of group interaction could lead to increased client engagement, which could improve outcomes. However, the loss of privacy and personal connection might undermine engagement. The engagement dynamics in one-on-one and shared delivery models have not been rigorously studied. To the extent that shared delivery may result in comparable or better engagement than one-on-one delivery, service providers in a broad array of contexts may be able to create more value for clients by delivering service in batches. Methodology/results: We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1,000 patients who were undergoing glaucoma treatment over a three-year period at a large eye hospital. Using verbatim and behavioral transcripts from more than 20,000 minutes of video recorded during our trial, we examine how shared medical appointments (SMAs), in which patients are served in batches, impact engagement. On average, a patient who experienced SMAs asked 33.3% more questions per minute and made 8.6% more nonquestion comments per minute. Because there were multiple patients in an SMA, this increase in engagement at the individual patient level resulted in patients hearing far more comments in the group setting. Patients in SMAs also exhibited higher levels of nonverbal engagement across a wide array of measures (attentiveness, positivity, head wobbling, or “thalai aattam” in Tamil: a South Indian gesture to signal agreement or understanding, eye contact, and end-of-appointment happiness), relative to patients who attended one-on-one appointments. Managerial implications: These results shed light on the potential for shared service delivery models to increase client engagement and thus enhance service performance. Funding: This work was supported by the Wheeler Institute at London Business School (WIBAD Ramdas_Sonmez CFP19), the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital at London Business School (IIE_3432_2019), Aravind Eye Hospital, and Harvard Business School. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0012.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0012 [Google]
Meierhofer, J. and C. Heitz (2023): On the Value of Data in Industrial Services: How to Optimize Value Creation by Reconfiguration of Operant Resources, Journal of Creating Value, 9(3793), pp.245-258
The background to this article is a quantitative model for data-driven value creation that conceptually explains a holistic approach to finding optimal data-driven service configurations along the customer lifecycle by modeling both provider and customer value and identifying the optimum on the Pareto front. This model, which provides an artifact for service optimization in an iterative design process, is characterized by different inputs that model the costs and benefits of providers and customers depending on different intensities of data usage for services in the respective phases of the lifecycle. In this article, we analyse empirical industrial service configurations by applying the quantitative model and derive insights for optimizing value creation. The analysis shows that this optimization leads to solutions that are not simply achieved by maximizing the intensity of data usage of individual services, but by specifically optimizing the reconfiguration of operant resources along the lifecycle. This enables an overall optimization in a designoriented, iterative approach that differs significantly from standard models that target ascending levels of intensity and maturity of digitization.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23949643231199002 [Google]
Wang, Q., H. Zhou and X. Zhao (2024): The role of supply chain diversification in mitigating the negative effects of supply chain disruptions in COVID-19, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 44(3794), pp.99-132
Purpose: This study examines the firm-level financial consequences caused by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 and explores how firms’ supply chain diversification strategies, including diversified suppliers, customers and products, moderate the negative effect on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: Based on data drawn from 222 publicly traded firms in China, the authors use event study methodology to estimate the effects of supply chain disruptions on the financial performance of affected firms. Regression analyses are conducted to examine the moderating effects of supply chain diversification. Findings: Firms affected by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 experienced a significant decline in shareholder value in two weeks and a subsequent decrease in operating performance in one year. Diversified suppliers, customers and products act as shock absorbers to alleviate the negative effects. Further regression shows a substitution effect between customer and product diversification. Cross-industry comparisons reveal that service firms experienced more loss than manufacturing firms. Customer diversification mitigates the adverse effects of supply chain disruptions for both manufacturing and service firms. Supplier diversification exerts a noteworthy role in manufacturing firms, while product diversification is beneficial for service firms. Originality/value: The study provides empirical evidence on the magnitude of financial consequences of supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 in both the short term and long term and enriches the current understanding of how to build resilience from the supply chain diversification perspective.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-09-2022-0567 [Google]
Niu, Y. and Z. Jiang (2024): Servitization in cross-border relationships: investigating the effects of global supply chain dependence on the servitization level of the manufacturers, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 44(3795), pp.260-291
Purpose: Servitization is a business transformation that increases service provision in manufacturers. This study aims to empirically examine how a manufacturer’s global supply chain dependence and its power positions affect its servitization output. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs secondary longitudinal datasets and econometric specifications to test the relationship between global supply chain dependence and servitization. It further examines the moderating roles of the firm’s market power and the degree of being principal customers and principal suppliers. Heterogeneity analyses are performed to verify the robustness of the results. Findings: The findings indicate that fewer global suppliers and more global customers contribute to a higher level of servitization. The negative effect of global supplier dependence is mitigated when manufacturers have less market power and are the principal customers for most of their suppliers. The positive effect of global customer dependence is stronger when manufacturers have less market power and their customers are less dependent on the manufacturers. Research limitations/implications: Data mixing manufacturing and service inputs and data on public US manufacturers may restrict the generalizability of the findings. Nonetheless, the study urges future research to focus more on other countries/markets. Practical implications: This study encourages manufacturers who servitize their businesses to connect with more global customers and fewer global suppliers and manage powers among stakeholders. Other recommendations for policymakers and industry associations are also proposed. Originality/value: This study is the first to explore the impacts of the global supply chain dependence on servitization. Multiple-level findings offer important implications for researchers and practitioners.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-10-2022-0651 [Google]
