This study aims to investigate how customer satisfaction and loyalty evolve during the initial years of a business services relationship. In addition to assessing the potential…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how customer satisfaction and loyalty evolve during the initial years of a business services relationship. In addition to assessing the potential for dynamic effects, models explore how relational transgressions such as very poor sales and implementation experiences might moderate customer satisfaction dynamics and the relationship trajectory.
Design/methodology/approach
Analyses utilize structural equation modeling on longitudinal data obtained over a three‐year period from customers contracting with a global provider for IT services.
Findings
Results reveal significant dynamic effects for satisfaction across two successive time periods but not for loyalty intentions, suggesting prime importance for finding ways to continually satisfy customers. Customers' initial sales and implementation experiences negatively moderated the dynamic effects of satisfaction from time 1 to time 2, but not for time 2 to time 3. This result indicates that customers who experience relational transgressions strongly update their perceptions with new information in early phases of the relationship, but subsequently, customers anchor future evaluations using their existing perceptions.
Originality/value
Whereas a growing amount of work explores how satisfaction and loyalty evolve for consumers, there is very little empirical knowledge to help managers understand how business customers' evaluations shift or follow certain trajectories based on initial relationship experiences. This study aims to address this important gap and finds evidence that customers do rely on their satisfaction perceptions from previous periods and, given time, can move beyond past relational transgressions when they evaluate their providers.
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William Q. Judge and Christopher P. Blocker
Successful firms must exploit existing markets while simultaneously exploring new market opportunities. However, skills required to do both simultaneously are often at odds with…
Abstract
Purpose
Successful firms must exploit existing markets while simultaneously exploring new market opportunities. However, skills required to do both simultaneously are often at odds with each other. To reconcile this dilemma, the authors aim to discuss the new concept of “strategic ambidexterity”, which is conceptualized as the ability to simultaneously pursue exploitation and exploratory strategies in ways that lead to enhanced organizational effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conceptually integrate literature from organizational theory, strategic management, and marketing to yield three new theoretical propositions.
Findings
It is argued that a relatively new dynamic capability, organizational capacity for change, is the primary antecedent of strategic ambidexterity and that this relationship is moderated by environmental uncertainty and organizational slack.
Originality/value
Most organizational and marketing theories rely on linear assumptions and models. However, twenty‐first century organizations must reconcile competitive realities that are often nonlinear in nature. This study provides a conceptual framework which transcends traditional thinking, and provides a comprehensive yet concise framework for researching this new competitive reality further.
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Christopher P. Blocker and Daniel J. Flint
A recent development in customer value research is building theory that can help the field go beyond understanding what customers currently value to exploring how customers'…
Abstract
Purpose
A recent development in customer value research is building theory that can help the field go beyond understanding what customers currently value to exploring how customers' perceptions of value change. This paper seeks to extend this emerging theory of customer value change to a global context by conceptually exploring the role of national culture as a key moderator of this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature examining the role of national culture in business is reviewed for insights pertaining to buyers' tendencies for change in general and for clues suggesting how customers' embedded values in various cultural contexts might undergo value change in systematically different ways. Specifically, this paper employs Hofstede's cultural framework to explore how the lens of national culture might influence the value change process.
Findings
Based on this integrative review, several links between the cultural dimensions in Hofstede's framework and value change theory are found to be supported by the literature. These connections suggest a moderating role for national culture, given the tendency for cultural factors to shape buyers' interpretation of environmental change drivers and their resulting feelings of tension which research shows are closely associated with customers' desired value changes from suppliers.
Originality/value
This paper offers several theoretical propositions and conceptual models for future empirical validation. These new insights into an emerging theory of customer value change can provide the building‐blocks for a number of future research directions designed to help managers exercise strategic foresight for changing global markets.
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Elina Tang and Christopher Blocker
This research aims to examine pathways for providers to facilitate social resilience in service communities to promote collective well-being and engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine pathways for providers to facilitate social resilience in service communities to promote collective well-being and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Using abductive and metaphorical analysis, this study develops insights leveraging: the transdisciplinary field of molecular biology where 150 years of research demonstrates how cells build resilience through clustering together in a hostile environment; and case data collected with nonprofit service communities to help ground and elaborate upon the metaphorical analogues of cellular concepts.
Findings
This analysis uncovers the emergent processes of communal protection, communal adaptation and communal training within customer-to-customer service interactions. Findings identify novel drivers, such as the sharing of vulnerability markers and pre-training for community stressors, as well as pathways through which social resilience within service communities promotes habitual and transformative value, as well as collective well-being.
Practical implications
Service leaders can build upon the ideas in this research to understand the nature of social resilience and to intentionally design communal experiences and interactions that promote greater well-being and brand engagement.
Originality/value
The recent COVID-19 pandemic, along with the UN Development Goal for building a more resilient society, highlights the acute needs for a deeper understanding of social resilience. However, resilience-related research in marketing primarily focuses on individual-level coping. This research provides a deeper understanding of the drivers and outcomes of social resilience in service communities and offers a catalyst for future research on the topic.
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David Gligor, Siddik Bozkurt, Ismail Gölgeci and Michael J. Maloni
Despite the recent wealth of supply chain agility literature, scholars have yet to thoroughly examine its impacts on the customer experience. To address this gap, we assess the…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the recent wealth of supply chain agility literature, scholars have yet to thoroughly examine its impacts on the customer experience. To address this gap, we assess the effects of supply chain agility on customer value and customer satisfaction, including the moderating role of customer loyalty, from the perspectives of both business customers (B2B) and end-customers (B2C).
Design/methodology/approach
We used multivariate regression analysis to evaluate direct, indirect and conditional effects across survey responses from 148 senior-level supply chain managers (buyers) (Study 1) and 170 end-customers (i.e. consumers) (Study 2).
Findings
The results reveal that supply chain agility retains a direct link to both B2B and B2C’ value and satisfaction. However, a higher level of customer loyalty reduces the strength of these relationships, signifying that agility is less important with established customers. In this respect, agility is important to attract new customers, but more agility is not always beneficial once the customer relationship is established.
Originality/value
The current study is among the first to examine end-customer response to supply chain agility. The findings complement existing literature by providing novel insights into the impact of supply chain agility on both business customers (B2B) and end-customers (B2C).
Sarah F. Mott, Gene S. Feder, Christopher J. Griffiths and Sheila M. Donovan
The East London Clinical Guidelines Project aims to improve clinical effectiveness by disseminating locally developed guidelines linked to research evidence to inner city primary…
Abstract
The East London Clinical Guidelines Project aims to improve clinical effectiveness by disseminating locally developed guidelines linked to research evidence to inner city primary health care teams. Practice‐based educational sessions combined with audit are offered to help practices implement the guidelines. This paper reports on the baseline and one‐year audit results following facilitation and implementation of coronary heart disease guidelines.
Kelly Goldsmith, Caroline Roux, Christopher Cannon and Ali Tezer
This chapter advances our understanding of vulnerable consumers by exploring new relationships between resource scarcity and consumer decision-making. Although resource scarcity…
Abstract
This chapter advances our understanding of vulnerable consumers by exploring new relationships between resource scarcity and consumer decision-making. Although resource scarcity often prompts individuals to pull back on spending, recent research has shown that it can also increase consumers' motivation to engage in behaviors that fulfill their need for personal control. We extend this stream of research by offering the novel proposition that because resource scarcity motivates the desire for control, activating thoughts about scarcity will increase consumers' interest in products offering self-improvement benefits. We offer initial empirical evidence for when resource scarcity causes consumers to forgo their desire to save by increasing their willingness to pay for products that offer self-improvement benefits. In doing so, this chapter (i) highlights resource scarcity, a state of vulnerability, as an antecedent to the desire for self-improvement, (ii) provides a more nuanced perspective on the motivational underpinnings of resource scarcity and its effects on consumption, and (iii) sheds light on when resource scarcity can increase rather than decrease consumer spending.
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Dara G. Schniederjans, Stephen A. Atlas and Christopher M. Starkey
As organizations increasingly engage with consumers over mobile devices, there is a growing need to understand how consumers react to impression management over platforms with…
Abstract
Purpose
As organizations increasingly engage with consumers over mobile devices, there is a growing need to understand how consumers react to impression management over platforms with limited textual content. The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess how different impression management tactics can be used in mobile media to enhance consumer perception-attitude-intentions toward a corporate brand.
Design/methodology/approach
We surveyed 670 consumers and estimate structural equation models and repeated-measures ANOVAs to determine how short passages employing alternate impression management tactics influence consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions.
Findings
Results reveal that each impressions management tactic (i.e. ingratiation, intimidation, organizational promotion, supplication and exemplification) influences consumer perceptions, attitudes and intentions. The authors compare differences in how the impressions management tactics influence each stage of the perception-attitude-intentions model and find evidence that initial differences in perceptions favoring ingratiation and exemplification appeals become magnified for purchase intentions.
Research limitations/implications
Recent calls for research focus on an understanding of how consumers process information on reduced-content platforms of small-screened mobile devices. These results provide empirical evidence of the use of impression management and the difference between five impression management tactics on enhancing consumer perception-attitude-intentions model.
Practical implications
The results of this study will provide marketers with insights to optimize communications and corporate brands with consumers over mobile media.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the nascent yet vital literature on mobile marketing by focusing on how impression management tactics influence perceptions, attitudes and intentions through the short message characteristic of mobile platforms. The authors develop a framework for how corporate brand management can strategically use impressions management tactics in this novel domain.
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Raymond P. Fisk, Linda Alkire (née Nasr), Laurel Anderson, David E. Bowen, Thorsten Gruber, Amy L. Ostrom and Lia Patrício
Elevating the human experience (HX) through research collaborations is the purpose of this article. ServCollab facilitates and supports service research collaborations that seek…
Abstract
Purpose
Elevating the human experience (HX) through research collaborations is the purpose of this article. ServCollab facilitates and supports service research collaborations that seek to reduce human suffering and improve human well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
To catalyze this initiative, the authors introduce ServCollab's three human rights goals (serve, enable and transform), standards of justice for serving humanity (distributive, procedural and interactional justice) and research approaches for serving humanity (service design and community action research).
Research implications
ServCollab seeks to advance the service research field via large-scale service research projects that pursue theory building, research and action. Service inclusion is the first focus of ServCollab and is illustrated through two projects (transformative refugee services and virtual assistants in social care). This paper seeks to encourage collaboration in more large-scale service research projects that elevate the HX.
Practical implications
ServCollab seeks to raise the aspirations of service researchers, expand the skills of service research teams and build mutually collaborative service research approaches that transform human lives.
Originality/value
ServCollab is a unique organization within the burgeoning service research community. By collaborating with service researchers, with service research centers, with universities, with nonprofit agencies and with foundations, ServCollab will build research capacity to address large-scale human service system problems. ServCollab takes a broad perspective for serving humanity by focusing on the HX. Current business research focuses on the interactive roles of customer experience and employee experience. From the perspective of HX, such role labels are insufficient concepts for the full spectrum of human life.