Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in the last months.
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Bell, J. J., S. Lee and T. S. Gruca (2024): Bringing the Doctor to the Patients: Cardiology Outreach to Rural Areas, Journal of Marketing, 88(3842), pp.31-52
Clinical outreach is a crucial but understudied health care service delivery model. Physicians staffing rural outreach clinics must allocate a limited resource (i.e., their time) between caring for patients at their main sites and outreach locations. Using a unique 30-year data set of decisions made by cardiologists, the authors estimate a constrained utility maximization model of time allocations across home and outreach locations. The results show that travel distance, potential competition, and patient demand for cardiology services significantly influence allocation decisions. This structural model is used to simulate the impact of a predicted reduction in cardiologist supply. The expected impacts are unevenly distributed, with some rural locations experiencing large decreases in access. The authors evaluate two policies to restore rural access: targeted immigration and a subsidy program. A subsidy program with an estimated annual cost of $406,000 can restore outreach after a 10% reduction in cardiologist supply. This option should be preferred to recruiting and supporting five additional cardiologists under a targeted immigration strategy. This research demonstrates the value of marketing modeling in addressing limited access to health care services and evaluating alternative policies for maintaining access in the face of coming physician shortages.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222429231207830 [Google]
Sunder, S. and S. Thirumalai (2024): Hospital Portfolio Strategy and Patient Choice, Journal of Marketing, 88(3843), pp.53-76
Specialize? Diversify? Do patients care? The authors investigate the demand-side effects of a hospital’s portfolio strategy, which entails decisions about the depth and breadth of its service offerings. Positing that both depth (focus) and breadth (related focus) signal expertise, the authors use both archival and experimental evidence to examine these effects. The archival study is based on Florida’s State Inpatient Databases for 2006–2015 and spans all major departments in health care delivery. The empirical analysis exploits plausible exogenous variation from other health care markets and reveals that patient choice is positively influenced by a hospital’s depth (focus) and breadth (related focus) of expertise in a department. Complementing the archival evidence, the authors also conducted online experiments to examine the signaling effects of hospital portfolio strategy on patient choice behavior. The results provide support for the idea that hospital portfolio strategy influences patients’ perceptions of hospital expertise in focal and related areas and, subsequently, their choice behavior. The authors also highlight potential synergistic effects between focus and related focus and heterogeneity in the effects across departments, payer types, and hospital profit status. These findings underscore the need for managers to adopt a targeted approach to portfolio decisions in health care.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222429231204247 [Google]
Loureiro, S. M. C., L. Hollebeek, R. A. Rather, L. Ruivo, K. Kaljund and J. Guerreiro (2024): Engaging with (vs. avoiding) personalized advertising on social media, Journal of Marketing Communications, (3844), pp.1-22
This study investigates binomial consumer brand engagement (vs. advertising avoidance) in the social media context. Grounded in social exchange theory, the relationships between personalized advertising, information control, privacy concerns, advertising avoidance, and consumer brand engagement are analyzed by drawing on a survey comprising n?=?429 participants. The findings reveal that personalized advertising boosts brand engagement while also reducing privacy concerns. Additionally, it has been discovered that privacy concerns do not have a significant impact on consumers? engagement with a brand. Overall, this study demonstrates that consumers can recognize personalized advertising and are open to relying on it.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2023.2289044 [Google]
Kyeongbin, K. and D. M. McCarthy (2024): Wheels to Meals: Measuring the Impact of Micromobility on Restaurant Demand, Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 61(3845), pp.128-142
Dockless shared micromobility services have grown substantially in recent years, but their impact on consumer demand has remained largely unstudied. The authors estimate how the largest and fastest-growing segment of this market–the dockless electric scooter (“e-scooter”) sharing industry–impacts spending in one of the largest segments of the local economy, the restaurant industry. Using data covering 391 companies in 98 U.S. cities, the authors find that the introduction of e-scooters in a city significantly impacts restaurant spending, increasing spending by approximately 5.2% for e-scooter users, driving incremental spending of at least $11.3 million annually across all cities that first allowed e-scooters to operate over summer 2018. Impact varies by restaurant subcategory, with a stronger positive effect on fast-food restaurant spending, and a weaker effect on sit-down restaurant spending. E-scooter entry has a larger impact on companies with higher historical revenues selling at lower prices. It facilitates discovery of new restaurants from prospective customers and repeat business from already-acquired customers.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222437231179021 [Google]
Trujillo-Torres, L., E. Anlamlier, L. Mimoun, L. Chatterjee and D. Dion (2024): Access-based customer journeys, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 52(3846), pp.24-43
Despite the popularity of access-based platforms, the understanding of customer journeys remains anchored in traditional market contexts that overlook prosumers’ extended value-chain roles, interconnected experiences, and instrumental sociality in access-based consumption. Using a qualitative study on the access-based platform Rent the Runway, the authors discuss the nature of customer journeys in access-based platforms and showcase how customers perform these journeys. The study reveals two key elements: (1) systemic dynamics, which encompass just-in-time circularity and tightly coupled customer interdependencies, and (2) job crafting, which involves customer work practices that allow pain point avoidance, circulation flow adjustments, and journey stickiness increases. Job crafting can create unpredictable disruptions in other customer journeys and affect systemic flows. This investigation expands research on customer experience management and journey design by developing an access-based platform journey model differentiated from ownership- and service-based platform models, showcasing its systemic instability dynamics, and elaborating how to manage these customer journeys.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-023-00942-6 [Google]
Shanks, I., M. L. Scott, M. Mende, J. van Doorn and D. Grewal (2024): Cobotic service teams and power dynamics: Understanding and mitigating unintended consequences of human-robot collaboration in healthcare services, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, (3847), pp.1-27
In cobotic service teams, employees and robots collaborate to serve customers. As cobotic teams become more prevalent, a key question arises: How do consumers respond to cobotic teams, as a function of the roles shared by employees and robots (robots in superordinate roles as team leaders and humans in subordinate roles as assistants, or vice versa)? Six studies, conducted in different healthcare settings, show that consumers respond less favorably to robot-led (vs. human-led) teams. In delineating the process underlying these responses, the authors demonstrate that consumers ascribe less power to robot (vs. human) team leaders, which increases consumer anxiety and drives downstream responses through serial mediation. Further examining the power dynamics in cobotic service encounters, the authors identify boundary conditions that help mitigate negative consumer responses (increasing consumers’ power by letting them choose the robot in the service team, leveraging consumers’ power distance beliefs, and reinforcing the robot’s performance capabilities).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-024-01004-1 [Google]
Sohn, S., O. Schnittka and B. Seegebarth (2024): Consumer responses to firm-owned devices in self-service technologies: Insights from a data privacy perspective, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 41(3848), pp.77-92
• SSTs can be described by device ownership (firm- vs. customer-owned devices). • Data privacy needs shape consumer preferences for firm-owned devices in SSTs. • Interactions with firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices enhance data privacy. • Vulnerability and data privacy explain the effect of device ownership on intentions. • The firm’s strategy of customer data usage dictates the effects of firm-owned devices. While self-service technologies (SSTs) enable customers to produce services such as food ordering, hotel check-in, and retail store checkout on their own, they involve the use of devices that are either firm-owned (e.g., the retailer provides a handheld device for self-checkout) or customer-owned (e.g., a customer uses a personal smartphone for self-checkout). With the increasing relevance of customer-owned devices, the role of firm-owned devices is an open question. Therefore, this study examines the role of devices in SSTs. In a series of six empirical studies and drawing on data privacy theory, we explore consumer responses to firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices. The findings reveal that consumers prefer firm-owned devices in SSTs and that their general need for data privacy guides these preferences. The findings also show that the interaction with firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices is associated with increasing perceptions of data privacy because consumers feel less vulnerable when interacting with firm-owned devices. However, this effect changes depending on the service firm’s practices of customer data usage (data sensitivity and transparency). These findings add to knowledge about consumer response to SSTs and devices, and thereby unfold how devices are interwoven with consumer data privacy. Practitioners learn how consumers respond to device ownership in SSTs and when firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices induce favorable customer responses.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.08.003 [Google]
Fletcher-Brown, J., K. Middleton, H. Thompson-Whiteside, S. Turnbull, A. Tuan and L. D. Hollebeek (2024): The Role of Consumer Speech Acts in Brand Activism: A Transformative Advertising Perspective, Journal of Advertising, (3849), pp.1-20
Transformative advertising research (TAR) suggests examining advertising?s transformational possibilities via the interactions between institutional actors at each marketing level to gauge its effect on society. We employ rhetorical institutionalism as a lens to examine the online speech acts of consumers as they respond to a brand activism campaign focusing on an environmental problem. Our data take the form of written comments by YouTube users and employ a research design using automated text analysis and qualitative thematic data analysis. Our contributions to TAR are threefold. First, we offer a preliminary conceptualization of the role of consumer language as rhetorical institutional work to advance TAR scholars and practitioners? insight. Second, we highlight the role of linguistic tone and clout in giving speakers agency through which consumers as institutional actors create, maintain, and disrupt institutional logics and practices. Finally, we develop a tripartite classification of consumer speech acts used to support brand activism. We label these activist warriors, brand champions, and conscious consumers as typologies that deepen understanding of how consumers? online speech may amplify brand activism, thereby contributing to advertising?s transformative outcomes. We conclude by outlining important managerial implications including how practitioners can adopt the tripartite classification to enhance brand activism campaigns.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2023.2288828 [Google]
Loureiro, S. M. C., J. Jiménez‐Barreto, R. G. Bilro and J. Romero (2024): Me and my AI: Exploring the effects of consumer self‐construal and AI‐based experience on avoiding similarity and willingness to pay, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3850), pp.151-167
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping consumer interaction with brands, but little is known about how brands can implement AI tools effectively. Drawing on consumer uniqueness and self‐construal theories, the authors examine the implementation of branded AI tools and their influence on consumers’ experience, sense of uniqueness, and spending behavior. Across five studies, this research examines consumers’ narratives about interacting with a branded AI tool (Study 1); tests the relationships between self‐construal, AI‐enabled consumer experiences, and avoidance of similarity (Studies 2A and 2B); evaluates in situ experience with a branded AI tool and its implications for spending behavior (Study 3); and delineates consumer preferences about the attributes of branded AI tools (Study 4). The findings reveal that individuals characterized by independent self‐construal are prone toward perceiving higher recognition and hedonic values during their experience with branded AI tools, partially enhancing consumer avoidance of similarity and influencing their willingness to pay for products that the AI tool recommends. For practitioners, the findings suggest developing a two‐fold value proposition strategy for consumers by generating personal and psychological value together with product and service recommendations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21913 [Google]
Alimamy, S., M. Chylinski, K. R. Deans and J. Gnoth (2024): Revealing the essence of value‐in‐being: A Heideggerian paradigm of value co‐creation, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3851), pp.5-15
This study presents a novel paradigm of “value‐in‐being,” offering an alternative to the prevailing customer‐centric approaches and their utilitarian focus on value‐in‐use that dominate the co‐creation literature. Drawing upon Heidegger’s philosophy, the study derives the fundamental elements of value‐in‐being, emphasizing the crucial importance of subjective meaning, context‐specific purpose, and dwelling as key priorities for service design. By investigating the intricate relationship between Heideggerian philosophy and value‐in‐being, as well as its relation to value‐in‐use, this study provides valuable insights into the competing processes of value co‐creation and their impact on customer well‐being. Through theoretical analysis, the paper illustrates how organizations can cultivate more authentic experiences by embracing Heideggerian principles and giving prominence to value‐in‐being. The primary objective is to redirect the trajectory of services research, achieving a balance between value‐in‐use and value‐in‐being, while also serving as a roadmap for future investigations into the emerging paradigm of value‐in‐being within the co‐creation domain.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21867 [Google]
Poirier, S. M., B. Huang, A. Suri and S. Sénécal (2024): Beyond humans: Consumer reluctance to adopt zoonotic artificial intelligence, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3852), pp.292-307
In addition to humanoid‐robotic designs, an increasing number of artificial intelligence (AI)‐powered services are being represented by animals, referred to as zoonotic design. Yet, little is known about the consequential effects of such zoonotic AI on consumer adoption of these services. Drawing on the concepts of prototypicality, Cognitive Load Theory, and the “Match‐up” Hypothesis, the current research uncovers how the use of zoonotic designs, as opposed to robotic ones, may negatively influence consumers’ adoption of AI over a human provider. The results of seven studies suggest that consumers are less likely to choose an AI over a human provider for performing tasks when the AI has a zoonotic embodiment rather than a robotic embodiment. This negative effect is mediated by the increased cognitive difficulty associated with linking the AI prototype to the task. However, such a negative effect decreases when the characteristics of the animal are congruent with the task and is even reversed when the congruent task is of a hedonic nature. These findings advance the understanding of consumer–AI interactions in the context of zoonotic embodiment and provide valuable managerial insights into when and how firms should use zoonotic design for AI‐powered services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21934 [Google]
Silber, D., A. O. I. Hoffmann and A. Belli (2024): When “good enough” is not good enough: How maximizing benefits financial well‐being, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3853), pp.308-327
A maximizing decision‐making style is generally associated with lower individual well‐being. That is, even though maximizers invest more time and resources in finding the best option and achieve better outcomes than satisficers, they are still more dissatisfied with those outcomes. Contrary to this general consensus that maximizing is negatively associated with overall well‐being, across two studies we show that this decision‐making style is actually positively associated with individuals’ financial well‐being. We find that measured dispositional maximizing is positively associated with financial well‐being, regardless of whether maximizing is operationalized as having high standards or the tendency to engage in alternative search (Study 1) and replicate this relationship with experimentally induced situational maximizing (Study 2). We identify financial self‐control (both measured as a trait and as the behavioral outcome of an experimental choice task) as a mediator of the aforementioned relationship. Our findings offer guidance to financial service providers and policymakers on how to improve consumers’ financial well‐being, such as encouraging consumers to engage in a more meticulous search while evaluating financial products and services (e.g., home loans, retirement plans, investments) to identify the best possible option.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21936 [Google]
Li, X., W. Si and K. W. Chan (2024): Virtual agents that flatter you: Moderating effects of self‐esteem and customization target in e‐customization services, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3854), pp.344-363
As e‐customization services have grown in popularity, companies widely use virtual agents in such services to improve consumers’ online shopping experience. However, extant research has not thoroughly clarified the best way to leverage the use of virtual agents and involve consumers in the e‐customization process. Drawing on self‐enhancement and self‐verification theories, this research investigates the effects of an instrumental social influence tactic employed by virtual agents—specifically, flattering feedback—and the pivotal roles of consumers’ self‐esteem and customization target when evaluating and using e‐customization services. Through four experiments that simulate e‐customization experiences using different products, we find that the effect of virtual agents’ flattering feedback on customization outcomes (i.e., word‐of‐mouth, product interest, and actual purchase) is contingent on consumers’ self‐esteem. Among consumers with high self‐esteem, flattering (vs. generic) feedback from virtual agents in the e‐customization process elicits more positive customization outcomes. In contrast, the opposite is true among those with low self‐esteem. Moreover, consumers’ process involvement mediates the interaction effects, and the interaction effects are attenuated when consumers customizing the product for others (vs. oneself). Our work contributes to online customization research by unveiling the mechanism and boundary conditions of the potentially double‐edged effect of virtual agents’ flattery.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21943 [Google]
Holz, H. F., M. Becker, M. Blut and S. Paluch (2024): Eliminating customer experience pain points in complex customer journeys through smart service solutions, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3855), pp.592-609
Scholarly understanding of customer journeys has evolved from a linear, single service provider perspective to encompass complex service delivery networks that involve multiple touchpoints governed by various service providers. This intricate setting often gives rise to experiential pain points for customers. To investigate this phenomenon within the context of airport services, our research employs critical incident and problem‐centered interviews as well as an analysis of 7192 online airport reviews. In Studies 1a and 2a, we explore the crucial pain points that travelers encounter throughout their airport journey. Complementing these insights, Studies 1b and 2b assess the impact of the identified pain points on travelers’ emotions. Building upon a classification of pain points into information, performance, and hospitality themes, Study 3 further examines how smart service solutions, as new technologies, can address and resolve these pain points, ultimately enhancing the customer experience (CX). By accomplishing these objectives, our work contributes a comprehensive classification scheme for experiential pain points in complex customer journeys to the academic discourse on customer journeys. Furthermore, it establishes a connection to the emerging field of research on the impact of smart service solutions on the CX.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21938 [Google]
Hollebeek, L. D., C. Menidjel, M. Sarstedt, J. Jansson and S. Urbonavicius (2024): Engaging consumers through artificially intelligent technologies: Systematic review, conceptual model, and further research, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3856), pp.880-898
Abstract While consumer engagement (CE) in the context of artificially intelligent (AI-based) technologies (e.g., chatbots, smart products, voice assistants, or autonomous cars) is gaining traction, the themes characterizing this emerging, interdisciplinary corpus of work remain indeterminate, exposing an important literature-based gap. Addressing this gap, we conduct a systematic review of 89 studies using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach to synthesize the AI-based CE literature. Our review yields three major themes of AI-based CE, including (i) Increasingly accurate service provision through AI-based CE; (ii) Capacity of AI-based CE to (co)create consumer-perceived value, and (iii) AI-based CE’s reduced consumer effort in their task execution. We also develop a conceptual model that proposes the AI-based CE antecedents of personal, technological, interactional, social, and situational factors, and the AI-based CE consequences of consumer-based, firm-based, and human-AI collaboration outcomes. We conclude by offering pertinent implications for theory development (e.g., by offering future research questions derived from the proposed themes of AI-based CE) and practice (e.g., by reducing consumer-perceived costs of their brand/firm interactions).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21957 [Google]
Cheng, L. K. and C. L. Toung (2024): Effects of interaction between brand positioning and chatbot conversational style on perceived fit and brand attitudes, Psychology & Marketing, (3857), pp.1
Although an underdog brand positioning can elicit positive consumer responses, maintaining a brand’s positioning requires maintaining consistent brand associations. If the associations created by the company’s service providers do not align with the brand’s positioning, this discrepancy can lead to consumer confusion or to a decline in brand attitudes. Chatbots, as customer‐facing representatives, play a crucial role in how consumers perceive and evaluate a brand. However, the role of chatbots in shaping brand attitude has not been extensively studied. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of chatbot conversational styles on consumers’ perceptions of the fit between a brand’s positioning and its messaging, focusing on both “top‐dog” and “underdog” brands. This study demonstrates that underdog brands using chatbots with warm conversational styles and top‐dog brands using chatbots with competent (i.e., professional) conversational styles foster positive brand evaluations by consumers through perceived fit. Additionally, this study introduces the concept of power state—an individual’s degree of perceived control over their surroundings—as a moderator in human–chatbot interactions, demonstrating that high‐power‐state consumers of top‐dog brands favor a competent conversational style, whereas low‐power‐state consumers favor a warm conversational style regardless of the brand’s positioning.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21986 [Google]
Zhu, W. and H. Topaloglu (2024): Performance Guarantees for Network Revenue Management with Flexible Products, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3859), pp.252-270
Problem definition: We consider network revenue management problems with flexible products. We have a network of resources with limited capacities. To each customer arriving into the system, we offer an assortment of products. The customer chooses a product within the offered assortment or decides to leave without a purchase. The products are flexible in the sense that there are multiple possible combinations of resources that we can use to serve a customer with a purchase for a particular product. We refer to each such combination of resources as a route. The service provider chooses the route to serve a customer with a purchase for a particular product. Such flexible products occur, for example, when customers book at-home cleaning services but leave the timing of service to the company that provides the service. Our goal is to find a policy to decide which assortment of products to offer to each customer to maximize the total expected revenue, making sure that there are always feasible route assignments for the customers with purchased products. Methodology/results: We start by considering the case in which we make the route assignments at the end of the selling horizon. The dynamic programming formulation of the problem is significantly different from its analogue without flexible products as the state variable keeps track of the number of purchases for each product rather than the remaining capacity of each resource. Letting L be the maximum number of resources in a route, we give a policy that obtains at least 1/(1+L) fraction of the optimal total expected revenue. We extend our policy to the case in which we make the route assignments periodically over the selling horizon. Managerial implications: To our knowledge, the policy that we develop is the first with a performance guarantee under flexible products. Thus, our work constructs policies that can be implemented in practice under flexible products, also providing performance guarantees. Funding: The work of H. Topaloglu was partly funded by the National Science Foundation [Grant CMMI-1825406]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0583.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0583 [Google]
Arora, K., F. Zheng and K. Girotra (2024): Private vs. Pooled Transportation: Customer Preference and Design of Green Transport Policy, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3860), pp.594-611
Problem definition: Large cities around the globe are facing an alarming growth in traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, to which a significant contributor in recent years are on-demand cabs operated by ride-hailing platforms. Newly emerged pooled transportation options like shuttle services are cheaper and greener alternatives. However, those alternatives are still new to many customers and policy makers. The design of their promotion policies demands careful investigation. This paper studies how we can reduce the number of on-demand cabs on the road and, therefore, their GHG emissions by promoting pooled transportation such as shuttle services. Methodology/Results: In this work, we use detailed usage data and build a structural model to study customer preferences of price and service features when choosing between private cabs and a scheduled shuttle service. Using the estimated model, we identify and evaluate the efficacy of improving service features like reducing the walking distance to shuttle stops on customers’ choices of transport and, therefore, the number of ride-hailing vehicles on the road. We find that a 20% decrease in walking distance can achieve 40% of the benefits of commonly adopted congestion surcharge policies. It can also reduce up to 4.8 thousand tonnes of GHG emissions, which is worth over a million dollars per year. In addition, we demonstrate the implementability of walking distance reduction policies by adding stops on existing shuttle routes. Managerial implications: Reducing the number of ride-hailing vehicles on the road has become an important goal in many cities’ green transport policy design. For example, cities like New York have implemented congestion surcharge policies targeting ride-hailing vehicles in recent years. Our findings suggest that, by changing operations levers such as service features of pooled transport, cities can achieve a substantial amount of benefits from reducing congestion compared with congestion surcharge policies with essentially zero cost, leading to much more efficient green transport policies. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0569.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0569 [Google]
Frazelle, A. E. and E. Katok (2024): Paid Priority in Service Systems: Theory and Experiments, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 26(3861), pp.775-795
Problem definition: Motivated by the prevalence of paid priority programs in practice, we study a service provider operating a system in which customers have random waiting costs and choose between two queues: regular (no cost) or priority (for a fee). We also consider a mechanism by which the provider redistributes a portion of priority revenue to compensate regular-queue customers for their longer waits. Methodology/results: To determine the waiting-cost-dependent equilibrium priority purchasing strategies, we establish structural results at a sample-path level and prove that they generalize. In models both with and without compensation, the equilibrium exhibits a cost-dependent, increasing-threshold structure. We also prove that compensation entails fewer priority purchases because compensating regular-queue customers makes priority less attractive. We then analyze system-wide performance. Despite the fewer priority purchases, for a fixed (low) priority fee, compensation can actually reduce equilibrium aggregate waiting cost by filtering low-waiting-cost customers out of the priority queue; however, this finding does not hold when comparing at the optimal fees. We then test our models in the laboratory. Key behavioral regularities are that low-cost subjects are overrepresented (underrepresented) in the priority (regular) queue compared with equilibrium, and subjects with low and high waiting costs tend to overbuy priority at high fees. Managerial implications: Our theoretical and behavioral results guide service providers in managing priority service systems. First, we find that compensation does not provide short-term performance benefits. Second, our experiments reveal that suboptimal customer decisions partially prevent efficient reordering of customers by waiting cost, leading to higher aggregate waiting cost than the equilibrium predicts, but still lower than under first-come, first-serve service. Finally, because customers tolerate higher fees than they should, a revenue-maximizing provider can set a higher priority fee and extract more revenue than it could if customers acted rationally. Funding: This work was supported by the Center and Laboratory for Behavioral Operations and Economics at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0387.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0387 [Google]
Zhu, Y., Z. Liu and X. Qi (2024): Nonsequential Appointment Scheduling With a Random Number of Requests, Production & Operations Management, (3862), pp.1
This article studies an appointment scheduling problem where a service provider dynamically receives appointment requests from a random number of customers. By leveraging the randomness of the number of potential customers, we develop a nonsequential appointment scheduling policy as an alternative to the conventional first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy. This allows for more flexibility in managing appointment scheduling. To calculate the optimal policy, we develop a branch-and-bound algorithm in which the lower bound is estimated using multiple approaches, such as optimality conditions, dynamic programming for calculating FCFS policy, and the shortest path reformulation. Through numerical studies, we observe that nonsequential appointment scheduling is particularly advantageous in systems characterized by highly fluctuating customer numbers or low congestion. In such cases, leaving gaps between appointments for potential future arrivals proves to be a more appropriate strategy. We also evaluate the performance of heuristics proposed in prior literature and provide insights into situations where these heuristics can be effectively applied.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224926 [Google]
Zhang, Z., A. Garimella and M. Fan (2024): Leveraging the Social Fabric to Improve Rural E-Commerce Access, Production & Operations Management, (3863), pp.1
Motivated by recent developments aimed to address last-mile delivery challenges in rural areas of Indonesia and China, we develop a theoretical model to study how to lower participation barriers to the e-commerce market. We analyze how stage stations lower the cost of last-mile delivery by leveraging the preexisting social fabric in rural communities, including local stores, as well as social technologies such as chat services and virtual groups. Specifically, we examine two models, a decentralized model with stage stations run by independent agents, and a centralized model, similar to the one pioneered by Alibaba Taobao. We find that when the delivery cost in rural areas is high, the decentralized model can lower the participation cost and increase both platform profit and social welfare. In general, the centralized model outperforms the decentralized one. One reason is that the decentralized model suffers from a double marginalization problem. The centralized model has more flexibility, for example, in determining the pricing policies for both sellers and buyers. It could offer free service to rural customers if the participation of fresh rural customers can attract many additional sellers. However, a centralized model may not be feasible in many countries. Therefore, we explore whether the platform can implement a coordination mechanism for decentralized stage stations. We find that our proposed coordination mechanism can improve the performance of the decentralized model. Our results have important implications for how e-commerce platforms can leverage stage stations and social technologies to lower participation barriers for rural customers, thereby creating a more inclusive development model.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224974 [Google]
Tang, Y., K. K. Sinha, A. Moen and N. Ertekin (2024): Towards Achieving Mental Health Equity for the Underserved Population: Evaluating the Potential of Mobile Apps, Production & Operations Management, (3864), pp.1
The underserved population—i.e., individuals who identify themselves as non-female, non-heterosexual, or non-White—have long faced inequities when accessing traditional clinic-based mental health services. Individuals from the underserved population tend to use and benefit from these services less than their better-served counterparts (i.e., those who identify themselves as female, heterosexual, and White). This study investigates whether similar inequities exist within the context of mobile apps specifically designed to provide self-support and peer-support. To this end, we conduct an empirical analysis using longitudinal user-level data collected from a mental health mobile app (MHMA). Our results indicate that: (i) in contrast to the traditional clinic-based mental health services, in a MHMA setting, users from the underserved population engage with the app services and derive similar benefits as much as their better-served counterparts; and (ii) there is a positive relationship between app usage frequency and the mental condition of app users. Our post-hoc analysis uncovers that the MHMA promotes equitable usage and benefit for users: (i) from the underserved population via self-management functions that enable self-support; and (ii) from the better-served population via online community functions that facilitate peer-support. These findings suggest that MHMAs have the potential to achieve equity through both user engagement and the benefits derived from such engagement. We conclude by discussing the implications for mobile app firms, policymakers, and organizations in their efforts to achieve mental health equity for the underserved population.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224914 [Google]
Qiu, L., D. Qiao, B. C. Y. Tan and A. B. Whinston (2024): Leading the Horse to Water? Investigating the Impact of Ride-Hailing Services on Hate Crimes, Production & Operations Management, (3865), pp.1
Hate crimes, which stem from prejudiced attitudes, have a distributionally detrimental impact on societal stability. Although inter-group contacts are potentially an effective means for reducing prejudice and subsequently decreasing the number of hate crimes, scholars have recently recognized the possibility of negative contacts that might actually amplify prejudice. As a result, the question of whether intergroup contacts truly possess the ability to effectively decrease hate crime numbers remains inconclusive. In addition, prior contact research primarily relies on laboratory experiments because the establishment of intergroup contacts in a field setting is challenging. Examination of the effectiveness of intergroup contacts hence merits further investigation in a real-world setting. In this article, we propose that ride-hailing services, which naturally connect individuals from different backgrounds, offer an avenue to facilitate intergroup contacts in practice, which could potentially reduce prejudice and the volume of hate crimes. Leveraging the staggered introduction of this technology into counties in the United States, we conducted a series of analyses to empirically evaluate the contact effects in the open field. Our analysis reveals a notable decrease in the number of hate crimes (particularly a 5.75% reduction in racial hate crimes) after the introduction of ride-hailing services. These findings remained consistent across various robustness tests. Additional moderation analysis suggests that the increased interaction between different groups, facilitated by ride-hailing services, is the most likely explanation for the observed decrease in hate crimes. We further conducted an extensive survey involving real ride-hailing drivers and passengers. The results from our survey provide direct evidence that ride-hailing services create natural and constructive environments where positive interactions and mutual understanding can develop among diverse groups of people. This, in turn, helps mitigate prejudice and hate crimes within society, as observed in our analysis. This study not only extends the existing body of literature on contact theory but also sheds light on how modern technologies can play a pivotal role in curtailing hate crime, yielding both theoretical and practical implications.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224944 [Google]
Min, X., W. Chi, X. Hu and Q. Ye (2024): Set a Goal for Yourself? A Model and Field Experiment With Gig Workers, Production & Operations Management, (3866), pp.1
On-demand service platforms are interested in having gig workers use self-set, nonbinding performance goals to improve efforts and performance. To examine the effects of such self-set goal mechanisms, we build a behavioral model, derive theoretical results and testable hypotheses, and conduct a field experiment using a large gig platform for food delivery. Our model analysis finds that individual workers’ optimal self-set goals may exhibit a spectrum of difficulty levels, ranging from trivial to impossible, depending on workers’ reference-dependent utility coefficients and self-control cost. Moreover, workers’ efforts are higher with properly set goals rather than no-goals. Consistently, our experimental data show significant treatment effects of self-goal setting, and a causal tree algorithm identifies subgroups who are mostly motivated by self-set goals. Furthermore, our study compares two common types of performance metrics for goal setting: the number of completed orders and total revenue. Our model suggests different cases of effort and performance improvement for the two goal types. The experimental data suggests that both goal types improve efforts equally but lead to different attainment rates. Specifically, the goal attainment rate is lower for the revenue-goal treatment than for the order-quantity-goal treatment. Further analysis reveals that this disparity is due to workers setting excessively high revenue goals. Our study demonstrates the efficacy and limitations of self-goal-setting mechanisms and yields two important managerial implications. First, the implementation of self-goal-setting mechanisms could improve gig workers’ efforts and performance. Second, encouraging order-quantity goals instead of revenue goals could help gig workers achieve higher attainment rates.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224927 [Google]
Metters, R., M. Ketzenberg and J. Abbey (2024): Determinants of Operations Management Faculty Salary: Is Publishing in “A” Journals the “Bottom Line”?, Production & Operations Management, (3867), pp.1
This study investigates the determinants of salary for operations management scholars. Is it as some opine that the only thing that matters is the publication count in “A” journals? How do the full range of activities: research, teaching, service, and administration, affect salary? The present research seeks to shed light on these questions and is predicated on a data set that consists of the research, teaching, and service outcomes, along with salary, for a full census of operations management faculty at 22 public universities (227 faculty) for base, 9-month salary and a subset of 15 universities (150 faculty) for total annual compensation. The results demonstrate partial support for the hypotheses that only “A” publications are financially rewarded, with publications in
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241231855 [Google]
Lu, T., X. Lu, H. Yang and P. Zhang (2024): Being Emotionally Supportive: Exploring the Value of Emotional Appeals Retargeting in Recovering Consumers of Financial Services, Production & Operations Management, (3868), pp.1
This study investigates whether retargeting, an operational approach broadly adopted in traditional retail but underexplored in financial services, is effective in recovering valuable consumers. Whereas informative appeal retargeting operations have been found useful and thus prevalently employed in traditional retail, we propose that emotional appeals retargeting operations should be more effective in successful financial consumer persuasion drawing on the uniqueness of financial services. Particularly, we explore the value of two types of emotional appeals retargeting strategies tailored for financial services:
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224925 [Google]
Jin, F., Y. Cheng, X. Li and Y. J. Hu (2024): Connecting the Last Mile: The Impact of Dockless Bike-sharing on Public Transportation, Production & Operations Management, (3869), pp.1
In this study, we examine the impact of a new mobile-based, dockless bike-sharing service on public transportation usage. This new bike-sharing model removes the constraint of having fixed stations and gives users full flexibility on where to pick up and return bikes. This innovative feature of dockless bike sharing potentially disrupts the current norms of how people commute. The dockless shared bikes offer easy connections between destinations and public transportation stations. They can potentially promote public transportation, by improving its flexibility and outreach. To examine this impact, we collaborate with one of the largest dockless bike-sharing companies in China and collect unique daily-station-level panel data of shared-bike rides and subway traffic. Our findings indicate that a 1% increase in shared-bike rides leads to an increase of 0.35% in subway traffic. Further analyses show that this positive effect is stronger when people need to travel a longer distance to reach subway stations. These results suggest one potential underlying mechanism for the positive relationship we observe, that is, dockless shared bikes alleviate the “last-mile problem” for public transportation, making it a more appealing mode of transportation, compared with alternatives. Overall, we find that dockless shared bikes, in contrast to ridesharing or traditional bike sharing, act as a complement, rather than a substitute, for public transportation. Dockless shared bikes present a greener way of commuting, with significant environmental and societal impacts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224953 [Google]
Hu, M., W. Huang, C. Liu and W. Zhou (2024): Regulation of Privatized Public Service Systems, Production & Operations Management, (3870), pp.1
To alleviate the financial shortage for public service provision, a government agency may jointly finance, own, and run a service system with a private firm (in the manner of a joint venture) or delegate service provision to the firm subject to regulation in service price or wait time. We model the service system as a queueing system in which customers are heterogeneous in service valuation and sensitive to price and delay. While the government aims to maximize social welfare, the firm’s goal is to maximize profit. Hence, the joint venture has the objective of a mix of profit maximization and social welfare creation. Under the regulation, two types of interaction between the government and the firm, that is, sequential move (in the absence of the government’s myopic adjustment) and simultaneous move (in the presence of myopic adjustment), are considered. We find that while wait time regulation is more efficient than price regulation in the presence of myopic adjustment, the relationship is reversed in the absence of myopic adjustment. Somewhat surprisingly, price regulation with myopic adjustment may backfire. However, in some instances, the government must take a large share in a joint venture to achieve the same performance under price regulation without myopic adjustment. Our work uncovers whether the government adopts myopic adjustment plays a critical role in choosing the regulation instrument.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241235005 [Google]
He, S., S.-Y. Lee and H. Rui (2024): Open Voice or Private Message? The Hidden Tug-of-War on Social Media Customer Service, Production & Operations Management, (3871), pp.1
Firms use social media as a great marketing tool and a convenient platform to deliver customer service. However, due to its public and social nature, social media tends to amplify a brand’s successes as well as failures. Reluctant to subject their customer service to public scrutiny, firms are increasingly turning to private messaging on their social media channels for customer service conversations, which amounts to a reincarnation of traditional customer service in the social media era. Nonetheless, whether customers are willing to relinquish their newfound power is unclear. In this paper, we analyze a natural experiment where the inconvenience of the private channel with the treated firm is suddenly eliminated, and we find evidence that customers prefer to complain through the public channel. A randomized survey experiment further confirms this insight. Overall, firms’ and customers’ diverging preferences toward public or private channel reveal a hidden tug-of-war between the traditional mode of customer service featuring firm control and the recently emerged mode of customer service featuring shared control. These findings have important implications for firms’ customer service operations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224933 [Google]
Guo, C., B. Zhang, X. Chen and P. Goes (2024): Using “Super Apps” in Online Retailing Operations: Evidence From a Large Hotel Chain, Production & Operations Management, (3872), pp.1
The introduction of
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478231224908 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241231851 [Google]
