Herm Joosten, Josée Bloemer and Bas Hillebrand
Focusing on decisional control of the outcome provides only a partial picture of how firms may handle customer complaints and ignores many (alternative) opportunities to recover…
Abstract
Purpose
Focusing on decisional control of the outcome provides only a partial picture of how firms may handle customer complaints and ignores many (alternative) opportunities to recover the relationship with the customer when service delivery fails. The purpose of this paper is to introduce other types of control and explore their effects.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper conducts a field study using survey instruments to collect data from real consumers, which are subsequently analyzed with structural equations modeling.
Findings
The main conclusion of this study is that there is more to control than having a choice. Different types of control have differential main effects: behavioral control affects distributive justice, cognitive control affects procedural justice and decisional control affects interactional justice (which in turn affect satisfaction and loyalty).
Research limitations/implications
Service recovery research should include behavioral, cognitive and decisional control of the service recovery as aspects of the firm’s organizational response to customer complaints. The effects of these customer control types on satisfaction and loyalty are mediated by dimensions of justice.
Practical implications
Firms should offer complaining customers information to interpret and appraise the failure (cognitive control), opportunities to personally take action and influence the recovery (behavioral control), and choices in the recovery process and outcome (decisional control).
Originality/value
This study is the first to offer a comprehensive investigation of the subtle interrelationships between types of control and dimensions of justice in a service recovery context.
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Timothy Lee Keiningham, Zeya He, Bas Hillebrand, Jichul Jang, Courtney Suess and Laurie Wu
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between innovation and authenticity by developing a conceptual framework that illuminates the key constructs.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between innovation and authenticity by developing a conceptual framework that illuminates the key constructs.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a common perspective – the customer – for both innovation and authenticity. A conceptual framework identifying the roles of centrality and distinctiveness in the innovation–authenticity relationship is developed and justified based upon prior research regarding brand extensions and authenticity.
Findings
The innovation–authenticity relationship can be visualized and managed using two constructs: centrality and distinctiveness. Centrality is proposed to have a positive relationship, whereas distinctiveness is proposed to have a non-linear (inverted-U) relationship.
Originality/value
The paper contributes a new conceptualization of the innovation–authenticity–loyalty relationship. It applies C–D Mapping in a completely new way to provide managerially relevant visualization of customers’ perceptions of a new innovation vis-à-vis the parent brand to guide strategic decision making. The paper also suggests areas for further research to improve our understanding of successful innovation–authenticity alignment.
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Allard C.R. van Riel, Giulia Calabretta, Paul H. Driessen, Bas Hillebrand, Ashlee Humphreys, Manfred Krafft and Sander F.M. Beckers
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the service constellation perspective affects innovation strategies and potentially contributes to the innovation literature…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the service constellation perspective affects innovation strategies and potentially contributes to the innovation literature, proposing a research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
By analyzing the notion of a service constellation, the authors provide an overview of major implications for service innovation research and practice.
Findings
Firms and service innovation researchers need to focus on the perceived consumer value of the constellation rather than on individual services. The authors illustrate how service innovation from the constellation perspective requires coordination and synchronization between projects and different approaches to portfolio management and screening.
Originality/value
Adoption of the service constellation perspective creates new opportunities.
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Bas Hillebrand and Wim G. Biemans
In B2B markets, the demand for a supplier's products is derived from demand further down the supply chain. This complexity poses several challenges for B2B firms, especially when…
Abstract
Purpose
In B2B markets, the demand for a supplier's products is derived from demand further down the supply chain. This complexity poses several challenges for B2B firms, especially when they are located near the beginning of a supply chain. This study aims to investigate to what extent firms near the beginning of the supply chain are oriented towards downstream customers, the problems they encounter in extending their market orientation to include downstream customers, and how they deal with these problems.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses an exploratory research method. It is based on in‐depth interviews with 31 managers from 21 upstream suppliers.
Findings
The findings suggest that firms are aware of the importance of downstream customers, but frequently fail to establish effective relationships with them. The paper identifies several barriers that hamper an orientation on downstream customers and shows how firms may deal with these barriers.
Research limitations/implications
The paper includes several implications for further research, including the suggestion to test a set of seven propositions.
Practical implications
This study identifies several barriers that may prevent a firm from implementing a downstream customer orientation as well as several strategies to deal with these barriers.
Originality/value
The paper explores the neglected implications of derived demand, one of the most distinctive characteristics of B2B marketing.
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Bas Hillebrand, Ron G.M. Kemp and Edwin J. Nijssen
The aim of this paper is to investigate the differential effect of customer orientation and future market focus on organization inertia and firm innovativeness of small and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate the differential effect of customer orientation and future market focus on organization inertia and firm innovativeness of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the business‐to‐business service industry. It is motivated by the observation that small and medium‐sized service firms' proxy to customers may lead to incremental service improvement in response to customer requests for customization and improvement, but may derail programs for more innovative services.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey among 217 small and medium‐sized service firms is used to test the hypotheses developed. The data are analyzed using a path model and Lisrel software.
Findings
The results show that customer orientation breeds inertia, whereas future market focus increases the willingness to cannibalize existing technology, service portfolio and routines, which in turn stimulates firm innovativeness.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that it is important to distinguish between customer orientation and future market focus, and that particularly small and medium‐sized firms may require both orientations for sustained firm performance. Future research may be directed at developing tools for monitoring against inertia and helping managers to decide more objectively when to listen to their current customers and when not to.
Practical implications
The results suggest managers should complement customer orientation with activities and management attention geared towards developing future market vision.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to simultaneously investigate the role of customer orientation and future market focus for small and medium‐sized firms in the service industry.
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Herm Joosten, Josée Bloemer and Bas Hillebrand
Research on empowerment and service co-production assumed that customers want more control and that more control is better. An empirical test of this assumption, however, is…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on empowerment and service co-production assumed that customers want more control and that more control is better. An empirical test of this assumption, however, is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to test this assumption by not only focussing on the customer’s capacity and opportunity for control, but also taking into account the customer’s desire for control.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses an experiment employing video clips depicting a service encounter in a banking context in which control beliefs are manipulated.
Findings
This study shows that more control in services is not always better because individuals vary in their desire for control; that state measures of control are effective predictors of relevant attitudinal and behavioral effects like satisfaction and loyalty, and that the mechanism which produces these effects is the consistency between control beliefs.
Research limitations/implications
Future research on customer empowerment and service co-production should acknowledge the pivotal role of variations in desire for control, focus on inconsistencies in control beliefs to predict effects and measure control beliefs as varying states rather than as stable personality traits.
Practical implications
Enhancing customer control of a service may primarily mean: giving the customer the option to control or not to control the service.
Originality/value
This study contributes to literature and marketing practice by demonstrating that more control may have negative effects and by demonstrating the mechanism by which these effects occur.
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Mukta Srivastava, Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan and Neeraj Pandey
The increased digital interactions in the B2B industry have enhanced the importance of customer engagement as a measure of firm performance. This study aims to map and analyze…
Abstract
Purpose
The increased digital interactions in the B2B industry have enhanced the importance of customer engagement as a measure of firm performance. This study aims to map and analyze temporal and spatial journeys for customer engagement in B2B markets from a bibliometric perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The extant literature on customer engagement research in the B2B context was analyzed using bibliometric analysis. The citation analysis, keyword analysis, cluster analysis, three-field plot and bibliographic coupling were used to map the intellectual structure of customer engagement in B2B markets.
Findings
The research on customer engagement in the B2B context was studied more in western countries. The analysis suggests that customer engagement in B2B markets will take centre stage in the coming times as digital channels make it easier to track critical metrics besides other key factors. Issues like digital transformation, the use of artificial intelligence for virtual engagement, personalization, innovation and salesforce management by leveraging technology would be critical for improved B2B customer engagement.
Practical implications
The study provides a comprehensive reference to scholars working in this domain.
Originality/value
The study makes a pioneering effort to comprehensively analyze the vast corpus of literature on customer engagement in B2B markets for business insights.
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Shamita Garg and Sushil Sushil
The world is on the verge of entering the deglobalization age, and industrialized economies have ushered it in. However, there is still a scarcity of comprehensive and rigorous…
Abstract
Purpose
The world is on the verge of entering the deglobalization age, and industrialized economies have ushered it in. However, there is still a scarcity of comprehensive and rigorous studies in this field. This research has tried to analyze the evolution and characteristics of deglobalization research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have employed bibliometric analysis for examining the existing evidence on accelerating deglobalization thinking based on a thorough analysis of articles published during a roughly 25-year span between 1996 and 2022. This study has used the TISM-P technique to study the relationship among the factors accelerating deglobalization thinking. This research reviews the articles on several dimensions of deglobalization using the “what”, “why”, “how”, “who”, “when” and “where” approaches.
Findings
The authors specify the critical factors, policy reforms, approaches and observed characteristics explored in this developing research area.
Practical implications
The authors have analyzed the factors accountable for rising deglobalization thinking and also suggested strategic recommendations based on the findings to minimize the adverse impact of globalization.
Originality/value
Although there is a wealth of literature on globalization, very little study has been done in the field of deglobalization. This is the first substantive review being done in the deglobalization domain. The contemporary research has used the bibliometric approach and the “5W and 1 H” framework to gain a comprehensive understanding of the changing paradigm.
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Shamita Garg and Sushil
Globalisation has benefitted both developed and emerging markets. However, few recent studies have pointed out that globalisation has failed to deliver promising results. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Globalisation has benefitted both developed and emerging markets. However, few recent studies have pointed out that globalisation has failed to deliver promising results. This research aims to examine the impact of globalisation on different performance aspects of an emerging market like India.
Design/methodology/approach
We examined the impact of globalisation on different performance aspects of a country at the national, industry and firm levels. We have defined the performance dimensions for country-level analysis as GDP and unemployment. We have defined the performance dimensions as profitability for industry and firm-level analysis. The effects of globalisation on the critical economic performance aspects in the Indian setting are covered in the first part. In the second part, we used the panel regression approach to evaluate the impact of overseas revenue on the employability and profitability of select Indian auto firms. We have chosen the auto industry for industry analysis because of its extensive integration with other production fields. In the third section, we discussed how globalisation has improved the profitability of two Indian car companies.
Findings
This study finds that globalisation has benefitted nearly every aspect of the Indian economy's performance. India has gained from national, industry and firm globalisation.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its kind to examine the impact of globalisation on a country's performance across different levels, including national, industry and firm levels. We have studied the Indian context to develop a theory that globalisation still benefits emerging markets.
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Abdul Ghaffar, Fazila Islam, Syed Shahid Zaheer Zaidi and Tahir Islam
The purpose of this study is that researchers have widely explored and associated corporate social responsibility (CSR) with firm success. Measuring the relationship between CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is that researchers have widely explored and associated corporate social responsibility (CSR) with firm success. Measuring the relationship between CSR, service quality, corporate reputation and brand preference by drawing on the stakeholder theory in developing countries remains a substantial research gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected using a survey method. The study was performed on 387 respondents who have undergone treatments in hospitals. The authors analysed the data using the Smart PLS 3.0 structural equation modelling technique.
Findings
The survey revealed that service quality and CSR are positively linked with corporate reputation, leading to brand preference in the health-care sector.
Research limitations/implications
The survey was performed in the context of the health-care industry; however, additional studies are necessary to extrapolate the findings to other fields, such as education and food. This research helps guide policymakers, administrators, health-care managers and researchers by highlighting the contribution and role of service quality, CSR and corporate reputation in achieving a hospital’s performance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the CSR literature by introducing the concept of CSR. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study also extends research in the diverse literature by examining the relationship between CSR, service quality, corporate reputation and brand preference by illustrating the stakeholder theory in the context of the health-care sector.