Search results

This article examines customer satisfaction in using banking services through Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India. It addresses two questions: first, will customers perceive AI technology as a reliable and efficient alternative to traditional banking practices; second, will AI save customers’ time.

The quantitative research method based on regression analysis models was adopted for hypothesis testing, with data collected from a survey of 189 banking customers from four banks, i.e., State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Punjab National Bank, and HDFC Bank in India.

AI improves banking customers’ experiences by making banking more accessible and enjoyable. Satisfied customers are quick to use cutting-edge AI tools. However, human service is more satisfying than digital service. AI has great potential but works alongside humans rather than replacing them. Even though AI’s novel architecture is helpful, human bank tellers are still needed in enhancing customer satisfaction.

AI’s integration in Indian banking, propelled by customer satisfaction, foresees a transformative landscape. This study uncovers AI’s role in saving time and improving customer satisfaction. While AI revolutionizes financial processes, its harmonious coexistence with human expertise emphasizes personalized and efficient services. This study provides insights for optimal AI utilization in shaping the future of banking.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical overview of compassionate release policies in the USA and describe how these policies have been used during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors then describe how these programs have been shaped by COVID-19 and could be reimagined to address the structural conditions that make prisons potentially life limiting for older adults and those with chronic illness.

This paper is primarily descriptive, offering an overview of the history of compassionate release policies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors augmented this description by surveying state Departments of Corrections about their utilization of compassionate release during 2019 and 2020. The findings from this survey were combined with data collected via Freedom of Information Act Requests sent to state Departments of Corrections about the same topic.

The findings demonstrate that while the US federal prison system saw a multifold increase in the number of individuals released under compassionate release policies in 2020 compared to 2019, most US states had modest change, with many states maintaining the same number, or even fewer, releases in 2020 compared with 2019.

This paper provides both new data and new insight into compassionate release utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers new possibilities for how compassionate release might be considered in the future.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the capabilities essential to vaccine supply chain (VSC) resilience given a mass vaccination endeavor during a pandemic.

An exploratory qualitative study was used to elicit the required capabilities pertinent to the design of resilient VSC flows. Data were extracted from white papers, reports, academic papers and the presentations of over 100 experts globally who convened at webinars, symposia and workshops to discuss the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign and the VSC.

The results of this study indicated that 7 primary capabilities, 44 Level 1 sub-factor capabilities and 145 Level 2 sub-factor capabilities are essential to VSC resilience in a mass vaccination situation during a pandemic. Furthermore, through cluster analysis, associations of various degrees were identified between some pairs of resilience capabilities.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, a comprehensive and holistic exploratory research study that identifies systemic resilience capabilities of mass vaccination supply chains and aligns these requirements to the seven critical flows in the VSC has not been previously undertaken. A cluster analysis that depicts the relationships between the resilience capabilities has also not yet been done.

The results have significant consequences as an informative reference for leaders managing herd immunity goals during pandemic situations. Stakeholders in the public sector, private sector and other entities, involved in planning and managing all or part of a mass VSC during a pandemic, should find the results valuable in providing a structured approach for building resilience at systemic and individual flow levels.

This study contributes to the literature on designing resilient mass vaccination supply chains during a pandemic. Using data from a wide spectrum of published and audiovisual sources, this study identifies seven resilience capabilities to reduce disturbances that lead to delays in mass vaccination supply chains. This study develops a structured approach to align these capabilities to the seven critical flows in the VSC. Through cluster analysis, associations between the resilience capabilities are identified, indicating where multiple strategies may be required to reinforce VSC resilience.

This research addressed online customer-to-customer (C2C) incivility during digital service recovery.

To examine the effectiveness of managerial responses to online C2C incivility post a restaurant service failure, a 2 (Managerial response: general vs specific) x 2 (Failure severity: high vs low) quasi-experimental design was employed. A pretest was conducted with 123 restaurant consumers via Amazon Mechanical Turk, followed by a main study with 174 restaurant consumers. Taking a mixed-method approach, this research first asked open-ended questions to explore how participants perceived the restaurant’s motivation for providing a generic versus a specific response. Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS procedure was then performed for hypotheses testing.

The results revealed significant interaction effects of managerial responses and failure severity on perceived online service climate and revisit intention, mediated by trust with managerial responses.

This research yielded unique insight into C2C incivility management literature and industry practices in the context of digital customer service recovery.

There is a paucity of published research regarding service employees’ side of gloomy consequences emanating from value co-creation (VCC). The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the activities and interactions of VCC that can result in negative well-being for service employees.

This paper is a theory synthesis paper and, as such, seeks to accomplish conceptual integration of multiple theories and literature streams.

The origins of negative outcomes of VCC are infinite, and for the purpose of this study, the potential triggers of negative outcomes are limited to typical processes and behaviours initiated by VCC of services. For the purposes of this paper, dysfunctional customer behaviour, customer incivility, value co-destruction, boundary-spanning activities, organisational structure and policies and resource integration are investigated as sources of negative well-being for service employees.

The first limitation is the focus on offline transactions. Although the accepted definition of a service ecosystem provides for it to be a “self-adjusting system” a need could emerge for some formal management structure to cope with the increasing complexity of service transactions. A theoretical implication of this paper is that it includes a few lesser researched elements in the context of VCC. A starting point to deal with undesirable VCC interactions is to distinguish between undesirable interaction outcomes that originated inside the firm (own service employees) and those that originated from outside the firm (dysfunctional customers).

A first suggestion on how managers could deal with undesirable VCC interactions is to distinguish between undesirable interaction outcomes that originated inside the firm (e.g. own service employees, firm policies and structure) and those that originated from outside the firm (e.g. customer incivility and dysfunctional customers), as these two types of interaction outcomes require different interventions. Firms will need to bring together, study, analyse and assess all service employee experiences and challenges generated by VCC interactions. The frequency and significance of negative incidents should indicate the amount of effort and time to be spent on types of negative incidents.

A challenge for service ecosystems is how they will adjust to comply with novel and traditional non-business objectives in the light of transformational, upliftment and other calls from society, whilst at the same time improving the well-being of the entire service ecosystem (i.e. providers, users and society). The improvement of well-being versus reducing suffering/losses/risks is not an option. The words of Hammedi et al. (2024, p. 159) “we move towards the conceptualization of service ecosystem health as a harmonious state in which private, public and planetary well-being merge” are exceptionally fitting here.

The negative consequences of VCC impact the well-being of service employees and are costly for a firm. Suggestions to prevent or limit the impact of undesirable or harmful consequences are made. This study is of value for service businesses, service academics and society. A greater awareness of the destructive nature of negative consequences of VCC will hopefully transpire from this study.