Today we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems & Practioner-oriented Journals in the last month.
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Mende, M., M. L. Scott, J. van Doorn, D. Grewal and I. Shanks (2019): Service Robots Rising: How Humanoid Robots Influence Service Experiences and Elicit Compensatory Consumer Responses, Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 56(4), pp.535-556
Interactions between consumers and humanoid service robots (HSRs; i.e., robots with a human-like morphology such as a face, arms, and legs) will soon be part of routine marketplace experiences. It is unclear, however, whether these humanoid robots (compared with human employees) will trigger positive or negative consequences for consumers and companies. Seven experimental studies reveal that consumers display compensatory responses when they interact with an HSR rather than a human employee (e.g., they favor purchasing status goods, seek social affiliation, and order and eat more food). The authors investigate the underlying process driving these effects, and they find that HSRs elicit greater consumer discomfort (i.e., eeriness and a threat to human identity), which in turn results in the enhancement of compensatory consumption. Moreover, this research identifies boundary conditions of the effects such that the compensatory responses that HSRs elicit are (1) mitigated when consumer-perceived social belongingness is high, (2) attenuated when food is perceived as more healthful, and (3) buffered when the robot is machinized (rather than anthropomorphized).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022243718822827 [Google]
Bolandifar, E., N. DeHoratius, T. Olsen and J. Wiler (2019): An empirical study of the behavior of patients who leave the emergency department without being seen, Journal of Operations Management, 65(5), pp.430-446
Queue abandonment has a significant impact on system performance. However, the key drivers for abandonment, particularly in observable systems, are not well understood. To better inform our understanding of abandonment behavior, we study the effect of three operational drivers of abandonment from a hospital emergency department (ED), namely, waiting time, queue length, and observed service rate. We confirm that all three factors affect a patient’s propensity for leaving the waiting area without being seen by a physician (LWBS), that is, abandoning the queue. Further, these factors interact with each other in a nonlinear fashion. Both ED crowding and observed service rate influence a patient’s perception of waiting time. Moreover, patients are not homogenous in their abandonment response, and we observe behavior that is distinct for patients with severe conditions. Specifically, patients who report to a congested ED with more severe conditions are more inclined to abandon the ED early in the process compared to patients with less severe conditions. Further, we observe that patients with severe conditions who elect to remain in the crowded ED exhibit less sensitivity to waiting time and observed service rate than other patient types. We discuss the implications of this observed abandonment behavior on ED management.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joom.1030 [Google]
Savva, N., T. Tezcan and Ö. Yıldız (2019): Can Yardstick Competition Reduce Waiting Times?, Management Science, 65(7), pp.3196-3215
Yardstick competition is a regulatory scheme for local monopolists (e.g., hospitals), where the monopolist’s reimbursement is linked to performance relative to other equivalent monopolists. This regulatory scheme is known to provide cost-reduction incentives and serves as the theoretical underpinning behind the hospital prospective reimbursement system used throughout the developed world. This paper uses a game-theoretic queueing model to investigate how yardstick competition performs in service systems (e.g., hospital emergency departments), where in addition to incentivizing cost reduction the regulator wants to incentivize waiting time reduction. We first show that the form of cost-based yardstick competition used in practice results in inefficiently long waiting times. We then demonstrate how yardstick competition can be appropriately modified to achieve the dual goal of cost and waiting-time reduction. In particular, we show that full efficiency (first-best) can be restored if the regulator makes the providers’ reimbursement contingent on their service rates and is also able to charge a provider-specific “toll” to consumers. More important, if such a toll is not feasible, as may be the case in healthcare, we show that there exists an alternative and particularly simple yardstick-competition scheme, which depends on the average waiting time only, that can significantly improve system efficiency (second-best). This scheme is easier to implement because it does not require the regulator to have detailed knowledge of the queueing discipline. We conclude with a numerical investigation that provides insights on the practical implementation of yardstick competition for hospital emergency departments, and we also present a series of modelling extensions. The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3089.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3089 [Google]
Yang, L., L. G. Debo and V. Gupta (2019): Search Among Queues Under Quality Differentiation, Management Science, 65(8), pp.3605-3623
Customers looking for service providers often face search frictions and have to trade off quality and availability. To understand customers’ search behavior when they are confronted with a large collection of vertically differentiated, congested service providers, we build a model in which arriving customers conduct a costly sequential search to resolve uncertainty about service providers’ quality and queue length and select one to join by optimal stopping rules. Customers search, in part, because of variations in waiting time across service providers, which, in turn, is determined by the search behavior of customers. Thus, an equilibrium emerges. We characterize customers’ equilibrium search/join behavior in a mean field model as the number of service providers grows large. We find that reducing either the search cost or customer arrival rate may increase the average waiting time in the system as customers substitute toward high-quality service providers. Moreover, with lower search costs, the improved quality obtained by customers may not make up for the prolonged wait, therefore degrading the average search reward and, more importantly, decreasing customer welfare; when customers search, their welfare can even be lower than if they are not allowed to search at all.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3112 [Google]
Bai, J., K. C. So, C. S. Tang, X. Chen and H. Wang (2019): Coordinating Supply and Demand on an On-Demand Service Platform with Impatient Customers, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(3), pp.556-570
We consider an on-demand service platform using earning-sensitive independent providers with heterogeneous reservation price (for work participation) to serve its time and price-sensitive customers with heterogeneous valuation of the service. As such, the supply and demand are “endogenously” dependent on the price the platform charges its customers and the wage the platform pays its independent providers. We present an analytical model with endogenous supply (number of participating agents) and endogenous demand (customer request rate) to study this on-demand service platform. To coordinate endogenous demand with endogenous supply, we include the steady-state waiting time performance based on a queueing model in the customer utility function to characterize the optimal price and wage rates that maximize the profit of the platform. We first analyze a base model that uses a fixed payout ratio (i.e., the ratio of wage over price), and then extend our model to allow the platform to adopt a time-based payout ratio. We find that it is optimal for the platform to charge a higher price when demand increases; however, the optimal price is not necessarily monotonic when the provider capacity or the waiting cost increases. Furthermore, the platform should offer a higher payout ratio as demand increases, capacity decreases or customers become more sensitive to waiting time. We also find that the platform should lower its payout ratio as it grows with the number of providers and customer demand increasing at about the same rate. We use a set of actual data from a large on-demand ride-hailing platform to calibrate our model parameters in numerical experiments to illustrate some of our main insights.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0707 [Google]
Örsdemir, A., V. Deshpande and A. K. Parlaktürk (2019): Is Servicization a Win-Win Strategy? Profitability and Environmental Implications of Servicization, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(3), pp.674-691
Problem definition: Servicization is a business strategy to sell the functionality of a product rather than the product itself. It has been touted as an environmentally friendly strategy as it encourages manufacturers to take more responsibility for their products. We study when servicization results in a win-win outcome where it can simultaneously increase a firm’s profits and decrease its environmental impact compared with selling products. Academic/practical relevance: Whereas policy planners are interested in strategies that reduce environmental impact, firms are unlikely to embrace them if they are not profitable. Hence, understanding when servicization results in a win-win outcome is critical both for firms and for policy makers. Methodology: We construct a stylized game-theoretic model that takes into account several key dynamics not accounted for in prior literature. In particular, we allow the servicizing firm to tailor the service to consumers’ needs, endogenize product durability choice, and also use an environmental impact metric that captures the low discretionary use nature of products. Results:For products that have a low use impact relative to their production and disposal impacts, servicization can be a win-win strategy only if the firm has sufficiently high operating efficiency. By contrast, for products that have a high use impact relative to their production and disposal impacts, servicization can be a win-win strategy only if the firm has sufficiently low operating efficiency and the consumer segments are adequately similar. Furthermore, servicization can improve consumer welfare and simultaneously improve profitability and environmental impact only for products with a low relative use impact. Managerial implications: Whether servicization leads to a win-win outcome cannot simply be determined by changes in product durability, as often argued. It critically depends on the firm’s relative operating efficiency, environmental impact of product in its use phase relative to the production and disposal phases, and the similarity of consumer segments. Our results explicitly characterize these relations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0718 [Google]
Ramasubbu, N., J. Shang, J. H. May, Y. Tjader and L. Vargas (2019): Task Interdependence and Firm Performance in Outsourced Service Operations, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 21(3), pp.658-673
We conceptualize task interdependence between firms in outsourced service operations as an endogenous design choice made by the outsourcing firm. Then, utilizing relative firm efficiency and Tobin’s q as performance metrics, we examine the impacts of the task interdependence choices of outsourcing firms on their performances. We examine data, collected from a variety of sources, on 184 service alliances across nine industries. We find that task interdependence in outsourced service operations increases with the knowledge dependence of outsourcing firms on their vendor firms and with other contract-related factors, such as alliance duration, transaction complexity, and repeat relationships. Results indicate that outsourcing firms face challenges in choosing the appropriate levels of task interdependence in their outsourced service operations, and that excessive levels of task interdependence in outsourced service operations negatively affect the performances of outsourcing firms, both in terms of relative firm efficiency and long-term market value measures. Based on these results, we infer that firms need to invest in modularity-enhancing service architectures that reduce task interdependences with vendors before outsourcing large-scale, knowledge-intense service operations. The study contributes to the understanding of factors that influence the performances of outsourcing firms, and provides guidelines for organizing outsourced service operations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0716 [Google]
DeCelles, K. A., S. E. DeVoe, A. Rafaeli and S. Agasi (2019): Helping to reduce fights before flights: How environmental stressors in organizations shape customer emotions and customer–employee interactions, Personnel Psychology, 72(1), pp.49-80
Abstract Previous examinations of environmental stressors in organizations have mostly emphasized their dysfunctional effects on individuals? emotions and behaviors. Extending this work by drawing from the social functional perspective on emotion, we propose that customers? negative emotional responses to environmental stressors in organizations can exert both dysfunctional and functional effects on customer?employee interactions. Specifically, we theorize that situational and physiological forms of environmental stressors can be dysfunctional by incurring customer anger, precipitating customer aggression, and diminishing employee helpfulness. We further theorize that situational relative to physiological stressors can exert functional effects in inducing customer fear that elicits empathy and helpfulness from employees. We test our model via an archival, observational, and critical incident yoked experimental study set in the airport context. This research contributes to stress theory and its organizational application by integrating theory from the social functional approach to emotion with appraisal-based theories of stress in organizations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/peps.12292 [Google]
He, W. (2019): Integrating Overbooking with Capacity Planning: Static Model and Application to Airlines, Production & Operations Management, 28(8), pp.1972-1989
Many firms that practice overbooking are able to adjust capacity prior to the service time. This study proposes an integrated approach for a firm’s overbooking and capacity planning. We formulate a static model that simultaneously optimizes the firm’s capacity level and overbooking limit. We find that the optimal level of capacity with overbooking can be higher and lower than that without overbooking. This is because overbooking has both positive and negative effects on the marginal value of capacity. It suggests that the level of capacity can be set too low or too high if overbooking is not taken into account when making capacity planning decisions. Moreover, our analysis shows that overbooking leads to a lower optimal capacity level if and only if the marginal cost of capacity is below a threshold. It is also shown that a higher cost per denied service or a higher service level does not necessarily lead to a higher optimal capacity level. We then extend the static model to explicitly account for an airline’s demand‐driven dispatch (i.e., reassignments of aircraft types to flight legs). Numerical experiments show that the integrated approach can significantly improve an airline’s expected profit, compared to the sequential approach that optimizes capacity planning (aircraft type assignments) and overbooking decisions in two separate and consecutive steps. The benefit of the integrated approach remains significant when a service level constraint is imposed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13022 [Google]
Lee, C. and A. R. Ward (2019): Pricing and Capacity Sizing of a Service Facility: Customer Abandonment Effects, Production & Operations Management, 28(8), pp.2031-2043
This paper studies the effect of customer abandonment in the economic optimization of a service facility. Specifically, we consider how to jointly set the price and service capacity in order to maximize the steady‐state expected profit, when the system is subject to customer abandonment and the price is paid only by customers that eventually receive service. We do this under the assumption that there is a high rate of prospective customer arrivals. Our analysis reveals that the economically optimal operating regime is consistent with the standard heavy traffic regime. Furthermore, we derive the following economic insight: when the capacity cost is sufficiently high, it can be advantageous for the system manager to “underinvest” in capacity and “take advantage of the abandonments” to trim congestion. Lastly, we show the loss in profit when customer abandonments are ignored is on the order of the square root of the demand rate.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13029 [Google]
Niemand, T., R. Mai and S. Kraus (2019): The zero‐price effect in freemium business models: The moderating effects of free mentality and price–quality inference, Psychology & Marketing, 36(8), pp.773-790
In the digital world, many firms struggle in employing a freemium business model (simultaneously offering restricted free options and full featured premium options). Although this is an increasingly popular revenue strategy, conversion rates for premium options are relatively low as free options provide users an irrationally high value, the so‐called zero‐price effect. This study develops a framework of the zero‐price mechanism by shifting the attention to the more intuitive mode of decision making. When being confronted with freemium offers, users are expected to rely on different naïve intuitions, which diverge and, ironically, may even have opposite implications. This study identifies two central intuitions about freemium offers: a free mentality (the tendency to intuitively expect that all digital services should be available at no cost) and price–quality inference (the tendency to intuitively expect a positive relationship between price and quality). Individuals are expected to greatly vary in their degree of subscription to both intuitions. Even more important, it is this paper’s overarching premise that the interplay between both opposing intuitions shapes user’s response to freemium offers thereby providing a lever to tackle the issue of low conversions for premium options. The zero‐price framework is tested in two studies. First, the implicit association test identifies the opposing intuitions, and second, a choice‐based conjoint study for a highly relevant digital service (media streaming) examines the catalyzing role of both intuitions as well as their intricate interplay. Implications for marketing theory and directives for future research are developed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21211 [Google]
Go Jefferies, J., S. Bishop and S. Hibbert (2019): Service innovation through resource integration: An empirical examination of co-created value using telehealth services, Public Policy and Administration, (), pp.9.5207671882e+14
Scholars, policymakers and practitioners recognise the potential to improve public services through active citizen involvement and much research has examined the formal opportunities to ?co-produce? changes in the structures and cultures of public services. Yet scholars have devoted little attention to the opportunities for service and social innovation that emerge from the everyday activities of service users and their phenomenological experiences of realising value from service interactions. This qualitative study of telehealth users explores how and why public service beneficiaries co-create value. It argues that understanding citizens? approaches to co-create phenomenological value is a vital component of the collaborative processes that generate social benefit.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0952076718822715 [Google]
Ekman, P., J. Röndell and Y. Yang (2019): Exploring smart cities and market transformations from a service-dominant logic perspective, Sustainable Cities and Society, 51(), pp.101731
This study addresses the emergence of new actors and their roles in the transformation of smart cities. By building on a Service-Dominant logic perspective, the study capture how smart city transformation is closely related to a smart market transformation. While prior conceptualizations of markets have followed a linear supply-demand structure, the new market conceptualization can be described as a service ecosystem. The study empirically follows the increased use of renewable energy, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems and their related services, as they are incorporated into smart cities. The results reveal that the overall interaction level among the involved actors increases as the energy market changes from a linear to a networked logic. This transition impacts the market’s information quality and, subsequently, the actors’ level of required knowledge. The study shows that even if the prevailing actors become more informed, information needs to be ‘translated’ into ‘knowledge-in-context’ to become a valuable resource. Thus, the resulting service ecosystem demands a complementary actor that requires the role of a knowledge broker to function. The paper describes the mechanisms behind this smart city transformation and clarifies the broker functions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101731 [Google]
Bigne, E., C. Ruiz and R. Curras-Perez (2019): Destination appeal through digitalized comments, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.447-453
Brand choice remains under review in the context of service provision. Drawing on schema theory and persuasion theory, this study tests how, in online reviews, valence (positive vs. negative), content style (general vs. specific), and destination familiarity interact and influence digital destination image (DDI) and intention to visit a tourist destination (TD). We run a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design using a sample of 1055 TripAdvisor users. Our findings suggest that: (i) Positive (vs. negative) online reviews, specific (vs. general) online reviews, and familiarity with a destination enhance DDI and intention to visit a TD; (ii) the impact of the valence of the review on DDI and intention to visit decreases when the destination is familiar vs. unfamiliar; (iii) the impact of the valence of the review on DDI and intention to visit decreases when the review is specific vs. general.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.020 [Google]
Bruce, H. L., H. N. Wilson, E. K. Macdonald and B. Clarke (2019): Resource integration, value creation and value destruction in collective consumption contexts, Journal of Business Research, 103(), pp.173-185
How consumers coordinate to create value in collective consumption contexts is of wide interest. While resource integration provides a promising theoretical lens, research has not yet examined collective resource integration. This article explores resource integration around subscription television use, through systemic interviews within households. A resulting framework relates five resource types to six resource integration activities: resource assembly, resource mastery, resource optimization, usage event planning, real-time usage design, and resource reflection. These interwoven activities enrich the prior view of resource integration as combining and applying resources. Furthermore, whereas literature assumes resource integration to be an individual process, each activity is observed to be undertaken collectively as well. Whether resource integration results in value creation or destruction depends upon consumers’ agency over shared resources, their individual and collective mastery of those resources, resources’ integrable quality, and the quality of collaboration between resource-integrating consumers. A new definition of resource integration is derived.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.05.007 [Google]
Cervera-Taulet, A., C. Pérez-Cabañero and W. Schlesinger (2019): Experience management as an innovative approach in emerging Mediterranean destinations, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.536-547
Recent experience-centric management theory stresses the quality of the interaction between the consumer and the company as the key contributor to the creation of value. The theory follows that understanding tourists’ quality of service experience (QSE) is crucial if tourism managers are to effectively support the value cocreation experience. This study examines the impact of QSE on destination image, as well as the impact of these variables on positive word-of-mouth and revisit intentions. The hypotheses are tested with data from a convenience sample of 1362 tourists who were surveyed in seven emerging Mediterranean destinations. Notably, the variable QSE is considered to be a formative variable, with four main dimensions named in the literature review. The data analysis includes a multivariate analysis using SmartPLS 3.0. By confirming the set of hypotheses, the role of QSE as an antecedent of destination image and behavioral intentions is underlined. Managerial implications are also provided.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.037 [Google]
Cziehso, G. P., T. Schaefers and M. Kukar-Kinney (2019): Free no more – investigating customer reactions to unexpected free-to-fee switches, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.229-242
Many companies struggle with the consequences of introducing prices for previously free services, known as free-to-fee switches. We compare an unexpected forced free-to-fee switch, in which continued usage is only possible if the fee is paid, to a freemium switch, which entails the option to use a service with reduced features for free. Integrating price fairness theory and the concept of cannibalization, three experimental studies reveal detrimental effects of free-to-fee switches on fairness perceptions, attitude toward the company, and purchase intentions, which may partly be attenuated by a freemium switch. Furthermore, we examine different levels of feature reduction as a way for improving the effectiveness of free-to-fee switches. Overall, the findings question the common practice of unexpectedly introducing freemium business models, contribute to a better understanding of customer reactions to free-to-fee switches, and provide recommendations for companies intending to introduce a price for free services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.050 [Google]
Festa, G., M. T. Cuomo and G. Metallo (2019): The service-dominant logic perspective for enhancing the e-commerce of wine – A test/application on the Italian wine sector, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.477-484
Developing a framework that could apply the 11 foundational premises of service-dominant logic – SDL – to wine e-commerce, and answer an investigation objective (“Are the most important Italian wineries’ e-commerce websites oriented to value cocreation according to SDL?”) are the two aims of this research. Main outcome is a framework for the application of SDL to WECSs (wine e-commerce sites). Subsequent test/application to the Italian wine sector shows the delay of the most important Italian wineries in focusing on e-commerce, with very few exceptions. Further studies on the application of SDL to WECSs will involve relational, educational, and experiential marketing. The model can work as a checklist for evaluating value cocreation (according to SDL) in WECSs. All the wineries under investigation make heavy use of social media. A conversion strategy of (corporate) social network users into (corporate) social commerce users seems practicable, but only if wine e-commerce is strategic. • Wine e-commerce is a key opportunity for growth strategies in wine markets. • Service-dominant logic is a powerful perspective for successful e-commerce solutions. • Value co-creation in wine e-commerce of Italian wineries is still under developed. • Social network activity of Italian wineries can be useful basis for enhancing wine e-commerce.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.077 [Google]
Go Jefferies, J., S. Bishop and S. Hibbert (2019): Customer boundary work to navigate institutional arrangements around service interactions: Exploring the case of telehealth, Journal of Business Research, (), pp.
This research extends literature on value co-creation by examining customer perspectives on institutional arrangements of service systems and how these shape customers’ efforts to navigate service interactions. Healthcare provides the empirical context for the study focusing on a digital service technology incorporated into customer interfaces. We report a qualitative inquiry carried out with 19 people with heart disease registered to a telehealth service for remote symptom monitoring. The study focuses on customer perceptions of the key differences between the healthcare system’s technological, professional and bureaucratic processes compared to family and community institutions that shape customers’ life worlds. We explain how customer perceptions shape healthcare experiences, and patterns of adaptive telehealth usage to co-create value highlighting how customers engage in boundary work. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical implications of applying boundary work to customer experience of digital interfaces within service systems.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.052 [Google]
Sánchez-Franco, M. J., A. Navarro-García and F. J. Rondán-Cataluña (2019): A naive Bayes strategy for classifying customer satisfaction: A study based on online reviews of hospitality services, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.499-506
This research assesses whether terms related to guest experience can be used to identify ways to enhance hospitality services. A study was conducted to empirically identify relevant features to classify customer satisfaction based on 47,172 reviews of 33 Las Vegas hotels registered with Yelp, a social networking site. The resulting model can help hotel managers understand guests’ satisfaction. In particular, it can help managers process vast amounts of review data by using a supervised machine learning approach. The naive algorithm classifies reviews of hotels with high precision and recall and with a low computational cost. These results are more reliable and accurate than prior statistical results based on limited sample data and provide insights into how hotels can improve their services based on, for example, staff experience, professionalism, tangible and experiential factors, and gambling-based attractions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.051 [Google]
Sjödin, D., V. Parida and M. Kohtamäki (2019): Relational governance strategies for advanced service provision: Multiple paths to superior financial performance in servitization, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.906-915
The ability of manufacturing companies to offer advanced services and achieve superior financial performance remains an open question in the servitization literature. One central question relates to how providers govern customer relationships to realize profits through servitization. This study addresses this question by unraveling the complex relations between advanced service provision, relational governance strategies, and the financial performance of manufacturing firms. Drawing on a dataset of 50 Swedish advanced service providers, this study uses a configurational comparative method—namely, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)—to identify the influence of configurations of governance conditions (i.e., service innovation, perceived switching costs, the attractiveness of alternatives, and explicit contracts) on firm performance. This study contributes through the identification of three alternative governance strategies that enable advanced service providers to benefit from service provision: 1) innovation governance strategy (high service innovation, low attractiveness of alternatives, and low use of explicit contracts); 2) relational governance strategy (high service innovation, high perceived switching costs, and low use of explicit contracts); and 3) market-based governance strategy (high service innovation, low perceived switching costs, high attractiveness of alternatives, and high use of explicit contracts). These results enrich the literature on servitization and advanced services by reflecting the need to apply diverse relational governance strategies. The results suggest multiple paths to superior financial performance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.042 [Google]
Vakulenko, Y., P. Shams, D. Hellström and K. Hjort (2019): Service innovation in e-commerce last mile delivery: Mapping the e-customer journey, Journal of Business Research, 101(), pp.461-468
The remarkable growth of e-commerce has defined the recent years of various industries worldwide. Driven by consumers, the e-commerce surge (e-retail in particular) stems from the final leg of the supply chain: the last mile. As the growing flow of e-commerce orders continues to generate new records for annual revenues, key actors in the last mile face the challenges of increasing customer demands and transportation volumes. In response, e-retailers and logistics service providers seek innovative service solutions, often powered by technological advancements. This study consisted of focus group interviews and a usability test that incorporated an innovative technology in the delivery service. The study provides insights into how service innovation affects e-customer behavior and presents a basic map of the e-customer journey. The findings also provide a foundation for improving management of the customer experience and aiding managerial decision-making when designing new e-commerce last mile services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.016 [Google]
