Priyanko Guchait and Karthik Namasivayam
The paper models psychological processes in consumers' evaluation of an exchange and proposes frustration as a mediating mechanism explaining the relationship between consumers'…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper models psychological processes in consumers' evaluation of an exchange and proposes frustration as a mediating mechanism explaining the relationship between consumers' perceptions of control, fairness, and satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in an experimental setting using video scenarios. Hypotheses were tested using repeated‐measures MANOVA and ANCOVA.
Findings
The results support hypotheses predicting that frustration mediates the influence of fairness on satisfaction and supporting a control‐fairness‐frustration‐satisfaction linkage.
Research implications/limitations
This paper extends research in the area of consumers' cognitive and affective service evaluation processes and suggests future theoretical and methodological research directions. Although sample is representative of the population, no claims are made to generalize the findings of the study to a broader population.
Practical implications
Service industry managers should analyze their consumer interaction processes and evaluate whether consumers feel they are in control, or alternatively are being treated fairly, to reduce consumer frustration and dissatisfaction.
Originality/value
Considering consumers as actual creators of service product this study emphasizes the consumer's role in a service product focusing research and managerial attention on the cognitive and affective processes consumer adopt while producing and consuming their desired service.
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Ingrid Y. Lin and Karthik Namasivayam
The present study aims to examine the different restaurant tipping systems on perceived fairness, distributive justice, and control from employees' perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to examine the different restaurant tipping systems on perceived fairness, distributive justice, and control from employees' perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Five different written scenarios of tipping systems were depicted in the present study. A total of 205 restaurant employees were assigned to each of the five groups and responded to a written scenario. Data were collected during the restaurants' briefings. Participants were asked to read the scenario and to fill out a survey instrument. Researchers administered surveys to 12 different casual‐dining, full‐service restaurants.
Findings
Results indicate that when the service charge is added onto customers' bill and onto all tips collected for equal distribution among servers, this enhanced the employees' perception of fairness and distributive justice. Further, the traditional (non‐equal sharing) tipping system of keeping tips all to oneself is perceived as most fair and just to participants. However, in terms of equal sharing of tips, employees perceived sharing among all servers as more fair than the other tipping systems that include back‐of‐the‐house employees.
Research limitations/implications
The current study has a number of limitations. First, researchers had very little control with regard to the accuracy of the procedure due to the use of professional‐oriented sample versus student‐oriented sample. Consequently, some demographic data were missing. Second, as much as the authors would like more back‐of‐the‐house participants, the majority of the participants (94 percent) were front‐line servers of the restaurants. Third, the results of this study can only be generalized to restaurant employees in casual full‐service dining restaurants. Finally, there is limited literature available specifically focusing on employees' preferences of different restaurant tipping systems; as a result consider this study as exploratory research.
Practical implications
In order to satisfy FOH employees, restaurant managers should consider implementing tipping systems that permit front‐line servers to keep all the tips they earn to themselves. In some conditions, it is appropriate to include a service charge – the sample indicated this system as the next best choice.
Originality/value
No research has been done investigating the different restaurant tipping systems and on perceived fairness, distributive justice, and control from employees' perspective in actual restaurant settings using professional‐oriented sample, and including front‐ and back‐of‐the‐house employees.
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Priyanko Guchait, Karthik Namasivayam and Pui‐Wa Lei
This paper aims to integrate the knowledge management and marketing literatures to examine the relationships between knowledge management (KM) practices during a service exchange…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to integrate the knowledge management and marketing literatures to examine the relationships between knowledge management (KM) practices during a service exchange and customers' satisfaction and behavioral intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in an experimental setting using video scenarios; hypotheses were tested using MANOVA and ANCOVA.
Findings
Results show that tacit rather than explicit KM practices used by service providers have a greater influence on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The mediating effects of perceived control and fairness on the relationship between KM practices and customer satisfaction are also found.
Research implications/limitations
This paper extends research in the area of knowledge management, customer relationship management and services management, and suggests future theoretical and methodological research directions. Although the sample is representative of the population, no claims are made to generalize the findings of the study to the broader population.
Practical implications
Managers need to understand the value of knowledge management in service encounters and specifically focus on the tacit knowledge that front‐line workers possess. Managers need to install organizational systems that encourage front‐line workers to develop and use tacit knowledge in service encounters.
Originality/value
The impact of knowledge management practices on consumer evaluations of service has received less research attention. No prior studies have investigated the influence of KM practices in a service encounter context. This paper focuses on the influence of two fundamental knowledge management components, namely tacit and explicit knowledge, on consumer reactions.
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Karthik Namasivayam and Basak Denizci
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to value‐creating processes and their impacts on human capital valuation in high‐contact service industries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to value‐creating processes and their impacts on human capital valuation in high‐contact service industries.
Design/methodology/approach
The main argument in this paper is developed from existing theoretical and empirical research in the fields of intellectual capital, organizational behavior, marketing, and economics. This paper is conceptual and the approach adopted is analytical. Extant research and concepts have been used to develop a human capital valuation model in high‐contact service industries and to discuss both research and managerial implications.
Findings
Provides conceptual description of a value matrix that can be employed to identify more accurately value drivers of human capital in various industries.
Research limitations/implications
The article provides a novel conceptualization of value drivers in industry. A limitation of the paper is that it is conceptual.
Practical implications
This paper provides a useful tool to identify human capital value drivers in various industries. The value matrix can help group industries based on these value characteristics making comparisons across and within industries more readily available.
Originality/value
The article proposes a novel way to analyze value addition and transfer in industries. It moves extant research further by outlining a mechanism to identify relevant drivers of human capital with increased precision.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers and practitioners an understanding of one potentially direct linking mechanism between organizational practices and consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers and practitioners an understanding of one potentially direct linking mechanism between organizational practices and consumer satisfaction with a service.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is conceptual and the approach adopted is analytical. Extant research and concepts, including from psychology and economics, have been used to develop propositions and to discuss both research and managerial implications.
Findings
Provides conceptual support for a psychological dynamic or mechanism linking service employees' job autonomy and consumers' service satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The article provides a novel way of thinking about consumer satisfaction. A limitation of the paper is that it is conceptual. Research is required to test empirically the various research propositions. In this manner, research in this area can be furthered.
Practical implications
Further research in this area may provide more directed solutions to service quality and consumer satisfaction issues.
Originality/value
The article proposes an entirely novel way to imagine the service exchange. It moves extant research further by outlining a causal mechanism rather than correlational connections between organizational practices and consumer satisfaction.
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Breffni M. Noone, Karthik Namasivayam and Heather Spitler Tomlinson
This paper aims to explore the role of six sigma in the assembly of service components, during the service exchange. Specifically, it seeks to examine whether applying six sigma…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the role of six sigma in the assembly of service components, during the service exchange. Specifically, it seeks to examine whether applying six sigma principles to customer‐facing processes enhances customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a field study to examine the relationship between conformance with a standardized service assembly process and customer satisfaction. Data were collected over a two‐month period using participant observation at the front desk of a leading hotel, and were analyzed using logistic regression.
Findings
The results of the study provide a basis for discussion of the issues associated with applying six sigma to the service assembly process. The results suggest that the application of six sigma to customer‐facing processes does not improve customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
Much of the documented success of six sigma has focused on its application to processes with minimum or no customer involvement. In contrast, this paper focuses on the application of six sigma in the service exchange, which typically encompasses a high degree of customer involvement. The paper also adopts a customer‐centric view and differentiates two different processes in a service exchange. This novel view suggests fresh theorizing and research directions. The intent is to encourage discourse among academics and practitioners regarding the applicability of six sigma in a service setting, and identify avenues for future research in this domain.
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Karthik Namasivayam, Priyanko Guchait and Puiwa Lei
This study aims to examine the role that psychological empowerment (PE) and employee satisfaction (ES) play in the relationship between leader empowering behaviors (LEB) and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the role that psychological empowerment (PE) and employee satisfaction (ES) play in the relationship between leader empowering behaviors (LEB) and customer satisfaction (CS) and employees' organizational commitment (OC).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 365 frontline employees and 2,915 customers at 40 units of a chain restaurant in the USA.
Findings
Structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicated that LEB influences PE, and PE in turn influences employee satisfaction, which consequently results in higher employees' OC levels and higher customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
Although recent hospitality research recognizes the importance of employee empowerment and leadership, few studies have focused on leader empowering behaviors and its influence on organizational outcomes. Moreover, potential mediating processes have not received research attention. Addressing this, the current study tests a conceptual model that shows how leader empowering behaviors ultimately lead to customer satisfaction through employee psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. Although, some of these relationships have been studied separately in different contexts, the current work shows the complete process of how leadership is linked to organizational outcomes, which has not been previously studied.
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This paper responds to the call for increased attention to the consumer's point of view in modeling the service exchange. A novel conceptualization of a service product is…
Abstract
This paper responds to the call for increased attention to the consumer's point of view in modeling the service exchange. A novel conceptualization of a service product is presented. Further, extending extant research that conceptualizes consumers as “partial employees”, this paper treats consumers as “transient” employees. Next, drawing on the literatures in human resources, specifically Karasek's job demand‐control model, a theoretical model of consumer satisfaction is developed and presented. Attention is also drawn to a typology of services based on the level of consumer participation. Managerial recommendations are developed and presented on the basis of these arguments.