Muhammad Junaid, Kiane Goudarzi, Muhammad Faisal Rasheed and Gilles N’Goala
Contrary to want-based services, customer participation has got lesser attention in high-credence services like health care. Customer participation for patients with chronic…
Abstract
Purpose
Contrary to want-based services, customer participation has got lesser attention in high-credence services like health care. Customer participation for patients with chronic illnesses could be life-threatening and goes beyond the service organization’s physical environment. Realizing the importance of transformative service research in health-care services, this study aims to propose and validate the conceptualization of customer participation for patients with chronic illnesses.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses sequential exploratory research design with mixed method research. The first phase is a qualitative exploration of the nature and meaning of customer participation by synthesizing theory and insights from semi-structured interviews (N = 75) with doctors, patients and paramedical staff. Next, survey data (N = 690) of patients with chronic illnesses is used to validate the proposed conceptualization. Finally, nomological validity was also tested on an additional survey data set (N = 362) using SEM and FsQCA.
Findings
The findings reveal that health-care customer participation is a three-dimensional behavioral construct in which a customer can participate by sharing information, involving in decision-making and ensuring compliance. The study also demonstrates that customer participation is a critical driver of satisfaction with life and perceived control on illness.
Practical implications
The research provides policy guidelines for owners and operators of health-care organizations in developing frameworks for collecting participation data, which can be used in strategies for seeking customer participation.
Originality/value
The research conceptualizes and validates “customer participation” as a multidimensional higher-order construct for patients with chronic illnesses, rarely focused in services marketing and management research on health care.
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Aurélien Rouquet, Kiane Goudarzi and Tatiana Henriquez
The starting point of the paper is the fact that customers participate in the logistics activities of the supply chain (SC) (Johnston, 1989; Granzin and Bahn, 1989). Having…
Abstract
Purpose
The starting point of the paper is the fact that customers participate in the logistics activities of the supply chain (SC) (Johnston, 1989; Granzin and Bahn, 1989). Having established that customers can and do participate in logistics, firms can consider transferring some of their logistics activities to/from their customer. The transfer can take two contrasting forms: outsourcing by the company of some logistics activities to its customers or insourcing by the company of some logistics activities from its customers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a theoretical understanding of these company/customer transfers.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this emerging issue, the authors build on the service management literature and on the study of two contrasting cases of transfer. The first (IKEA) examines the outsourcing of some logistics activities to the consumer. The second (AuchanDrive) examines the reverse process of insourcing.
Findings
Based on the service management literature and the two case studies, the authors develop a theoretical model for the transfer of logistics activities between a firm and its customers. The findings confirm several elements, such as the importance of managing customer participation and adapting service production during a transfer. Most importantly, the findings show that a key issue for a firm during a transfer is the need to redesign its SC in terms of transport, warehousing and production. The main contribution of the research therefore is showing that customer participation in logistics is a key variable in SC design.
Research limitations/implications
This research is based on the analysis of two cases. To generalise these results, further research needs to be conducted.
Practical implications
This research proposes recommendations to help managers and organisations to transfer some logistics activities to or from their customers.
Originality/value
The originality of the framework is that it considers both the company and its customers. This comprehensive approach establishes a link between supply chain management research and marketing.
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Aisha Rehman Ansari and Muhammad Kashif
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of brand identification (BI), brand knowledge (BK) and brand psychological ownership (BPO) to predict brand citizenship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of brand identification (BI), brand knowledge (BK) and brand psychological ownership (BPO) to predict brand citizenship behaviours (BCB) in a mediating role of brand pride.
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey data collected from 372 front line employees (FLEs), employed in different banks in Pakistan, the path analysis through structural equation modelling procedures is used to perform data analysis.
Findings
The results show that BI, BK and BPO strongly predict BCB in a mediating role of brand pride.
Practical implications
The results have pragmatic value to guide managers and marketing policymakers to develop a brand culture where the company as a brand is internally owned by its employees. The supervisors should offer FLEs with opportunities to speak up and must socialize with them so that communication touch points can be established and strengthened. Furthermore, delegation of authority and positive enforcement are important tools to trigger psychological ownership among FLEs.
Originality/value
Three antecedents (i.e. BI, BK and BPO) to advocate and channelize brand-oriented citizenship behaviours are unique to this study. Furthermore, the mediating role of brand pride is yet another unique contribution.
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Muhammad Kashif, Anna Zarkada and Ramayah Thurasamy
The episodes of customer rage with employees during service encounters are common and adversely affect the long-term commitment of employees with an organization. The service…
Abstract
Purpose
The episodes of customer rage with employees during service encounters are common and adversely affect the long-term commitment of employees with an organization. The service organizations, in an effort to control employee turnover, are striving hard but have failed. There are a wide variety of studies that address employee turnover but the research which encapsulates a combined effect of perceived justice and organizational pride to study exhaustion-turnover path are almost scant. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of customer aggression on the frontline food service managers’ emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. The mitigating effects of perceived distributive justice and emotional organizational pride are also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 250 frontline employees of global fast food chain outlets located in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling by AMOS.
Findings
The customer aggression is found to influence emotional exhaustion which in turn reduces job satisfaction and increases turnover intentions among frontline food service managers. The mitigating effects of distributive justice on the customer aggression to emotional exhaustion path and of emotional organizational pride on the job satisfaction to turnover intentions path are confirmed.
Practical implications
The results reveal importance of maintaining a supportive and justice-oriented organizational culture. Rewarding frontliners, celebrating the organizational successes that build pride, and acknowledging the emotional burden misbehaving customers place on employees are identified as shields to guard against employee dissatisfaction and turnover.
Originality/value
The turnover intentions resulting from the emotional exhaustion caused by customer aggression in the global fast food industry is studied for the first time. Furthermore, the inclusion of distributive justice and emotional organizational pride as cognitive and affective factors that reduce the effects of customer aggression on frontliners is unique to this study.
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Zahid Hameed, Ikram Ullah Khan, Tahir Islam, Zaryab Sheikh and Safeer Ullah Khan
The purpose of this paper is to extend the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature by examining the influence of a firm’s external CSR activities (efforts directed toward…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature by examining the influence of a firm’s external CSR activities (efforts directed toward external stakeholders of the firm) and internal CSR activities (efforts directed toward employees) on employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors toward the environment (OCBE) via organizational pride. The authors also examine the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) between CSR and organizational pride.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 324 questionnaires were collected from the hospitality industry of Pakistan.
Findings
The results of this research revealed that dimensions of CSR (external and internal) have a positive influence on organizational pride. Also, organizational pride is found as an underlying mediating mechanism between the relationship of CSR and OCBE. The results also indicated that a higher level of POS strengthens the relationship between CSR and organizational pride.
Practical implications
The findings are limited to only hospitality industry. Organizations can enhance employees’ sense of pride through CSR activities, which subsequently enhance employees OCBE. The findings also suggested that organizational pride contains intrinsic motivation that can help employees to enhance their OCBE.
Originality/value
This research suggests that organizational pride and POS are important factors which influence the relationship between CSR and OCBE. Further, it also empirically tests this model in a developing country context.
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S. Askari, M.H. Shojaeefard and K. Goudarzi
The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comprehensive study of compressible flow over double wedge and biconvex airfoils using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and three…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comprehensive study of compressible flow over double wedge and biconvex airfoils using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and three analytical models including shock and expansion wave theory, Busemann's second‐order linearized approximation and characteristic method (CHM).
Design/methodology/approach
Flow over double‐wedge and biconvex airfoils was investigated by the CFD technique using the Spalart‐Allmaras turbulence model for computation of the Reynolds stresses. Flow was considered compressible, two dimensional and steady. The no slip condition was applied at walls and the Sutherland law was used to calculate molecular viscosity as a function of static temperature. First‐order upwind discretization scheme was used for the convection terms. Finite‐volume method was used for the entire solution domain meshed by quadratic computational cells. Busemann's theory, shock and expansion wave technique and CHM were the analytical methods used in this work.
Findings
Static pressure, static temperature and aerodynamic coefficients of the airfoils were calculated at various angles of attack. In addition, aerodynamic coefficients of the double‐wedge airfoil were obtained at various free stream Mach numbers and thickness ratios of the airfoil. Static pressure and aerodynamic coefficients obtained from the analytical and numerical methods were in excellent agreement with average error of 1.62 percent. Variation of the static pressure normal to the walls was negligible in the numerical simulation as well as the analytical solutions. Analytical static temperature far from the walls was consistent with the numerical values with average error of 3.40 percent. However, it was not comparable to the numerical temperature at the solid walls. Therefore, analytical solutions give accurate prediction of the static pressure and the aerodynamic coefficients, however, for the static temperature; they are only reliable far from the solid surfaces. Accuracy of the analytical aerodynamic coefficients is because of accurate prediction of the static pressure which is not considerably influenced by the boundary layer. Discrepancies between analytical and numerical temperatures near the walls are because of dependency of temperature on the boundary layer and viscous heating. Low‐speed flow near walls causes transformation of the kinetic energy of the free stream into enthalpy that leads to high temperature on the solid walls; which is neglected in the analytical solutions.
Originality/value
This paper is useful for researchers in the area of external compressible flows. This work is original.
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Changli Feng, Ruize Ma and Lin Jiang
With the rise of service economy, many companies are attempting to gain a competitive advantage through service innovation. However, the existing research has not drawn consistent…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rise of service economy, many companies are attempting to gain a competitive advantage through service innovation. However, the existing research has not drawn consistent conclusions about the relationship between service innovation and firm performance. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative review on the service innovation-performance relationship based on research findings reported in the extant literature.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies from 46 peer-reviewed articles were sampled and analyzed. A meta-analytic approach was adopted to conduct a quantitative review on the relationship between service innovation and firm performance, and the effects of any potential moderators were further explored.
Findings
The results found that service innovation has a significant positive impact on firm performance. Additionally, the relationship between service innovation and firm performance is influenced by measurement moderators (economic region and performance measurement), and contextual moderators (firm type, innovation type, customer factors and attitudes toward risk).
Originality/value
The meta-analysis has been used to explore the relationship between service innovation and firm performance, and the findings have contributed to the literature on service innovation, as well as providing future research directions.
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Karin Teichmann, Ursula Scholl-Grissemann and Nicola E. Stokburger-Sauer
Although close customer–company interactions are essential sources of value creation, their effect on well-being, depending on fair treatment by the service employee, has not been…
Abstract
Purpose
Although close customer–company interactions are essential sources of value creation, their effect on well-being, depending on fair treatment by the service employee, has not been established. This research identifies two customer-centric, proactive, market orientation strategies that might accelerate the positive effects of fairness perceptions in service encounters.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experimental studies investigate if customer participation and price savings can boost the positive effects of fairness or compensate for the negative influence of unfairness, through customers’ word of mouth, on hedonic well-being.
Findings
The results show that high levels of customer participation can boost customers’ well-being, but monetary compensation in the form of price savings cannot offset low fairness experienced during the service encounter. Service firms benefit directly from increased word of mouth when customers perceive high fairness; customers benefit indirectly from increased hedonic well-being.
Originality/value
This research contributes to academic debates about the extent to which transformative services contribute to consumer well-being. By linking service fairness perceptions to value co-creation and well-being, it also advances research on power distribution in service ecosystems. Finally, this study contributes to services literature by identifying customer participation as a feasible way to increase consumers’ hedonic well-being.
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Sang Bong Lee, Shih-Hao Liu, Carl P. Maertz, Nitish Singh and James Fisher
This study aims to identify different antecedents and reveal divergent moderating effects of horizontal collectivism, thereby unlocking the asymmetric mechanisms for employees’…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify different antecedents and reveal divergent moderating effects of horizontal collectivism, thereby unlocking the asymmetric mechanisms for employees’ brand citizenship behavior (BCB) and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM).
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a survey data set and analyzes it with structural equation modeling along with common latent factor analysis designed to control for common method variance.
Findings
BCB is associated with pride at work but not perceived organizational support (POS), so POS drives BCB not directly but indirectly through the emotion of pride at work. In contrast, employees’ NWOM is associated with both POS and frustration, and POS drives NWOM directly and indirectly through the emotion of frustration. Horizontal collectivism has divergent moderating effects that strengthen the relationships of BCB with POS and pride at work and weaken the relationship between employees’ NWOM and frustration.
Originality/value
This study makes two major theoretical contributions to internal branding. First, as a response to the need for an investigation into drivers of employees’ brand-oriented behaviors, it will identify different psychological antecedents and mechanisms for BCB and employees’ NWOM. Second, capturing the potential of horizontal collectivism on employees’ brand-oriented behaviors, this study will reveal the potential divergent moderating effects of horizontal collectivism on BCB and employees’ NWOM. These two contributions will lead to a better understanding of the different mechanisms for employees’ BCB and NWOM.
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Christine Roussat, Valentina Carbone and Aurélien Rouquet
Over the last decade, a “new” sharing economy has emerged. So far, the supply chain literature has focused on platforms delivering crowd-logistics services that connect businesses…
Abstract
Purpose
Over the last decade, a “new” sharing economy has emerged. So far, the supply chain literature has focused on platforms delivering crowd-logistics services that connect businesses and consumers (B2C). The literature has paid little attention to platforms that facilitate products exchanges between consumers. This article aims to develop a first supply chain conceptualization for consumer-to-consumer (C2C) product exchanges stimulated by the sharing economy. How to conceptualize C2C product exchanges from an Supply Chain (SC) perspective? Do such C2C product exchanges form what might be called “sharing supply chains”? What are the characteristics of these sharing supply chains?
Design/methodology/approach
The authors rely on a single case study of Vestiaire Collective (VC), a C2C platform that links consumers buying and selling second-hand luxury goods. This case was not selected because it is a typical C2C product platform, but because it is an “extreme” case (Yin, 2014) meeting Siggelkow's “talking pig” criterion (2007).
Findings
The authors demonstrate that VC intermediates a “sharing supply chain”, whose features differ from forward and reverse supply chains. The authors stress that strong physical intermediation is crucial in this extreme case. The authors then contrast this extreme case with other forms of sharing supply chains to identify the variables leading to these alternative configurations. Finally, the authors develop theoretical propositions regarding the physical intermediation role that these platforms may play.
Originality/value
The authors' article extends the scope of the supply chain concept by identifying sharing supply chains alongside other types of chains. The article also points to the strategic role of SC dimensions in the sharing economy. The authors hope that this article will lead to further research on sharing supply chains.