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Article
Publication date: 16 February 2022

Julia A. Fehrer and Liliana L. Bove

The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding for the shaping of resilient service ecosystems that considers tactics that act as stabilizing forces, and tactics…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding for the shaping of resilient service ecosystems that considers tactics that act as stabilizing forces, and tactics that promote diversity and change and act as destabilizing forces – both central for service ecosystems to bounce forward in times of crises and beyond.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper draws on theory on complex adaptive service ecosystems and work on organizational resilience and resilient systems. With a focus on Australia and New Zealand, stalwarts of the top three economies in Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking before the arrival of the Delta variant, this study illustrates how resilient service ecosystems can be shaped.

Findings

This study explicates complexity related to navigating service ecosystems toward a new order in response to the pressures of major crises. It points to the importance of understanding both, how service ecosystems stabilize and change over time. It documents a portfolio of tactics that service organizations can use to influence resilience in the service ecosystems of which they are part. It further reflects on the potential downside of resilient service ecosystems, as they tilt toward rigid structures, failure to learn and an inability to transform or alternatively chaos.

Originality/value

Service research has made progress in explicating how a service ecosystems perspective can inform crises management. This paper extends this work and explains how service ecosystems can be shaped to bounce not only back from the imposed pressures of a disruptive event but also forward toward a new order.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 36 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

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Abstract

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

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Article
Publication date: 25 November 2019

Gaurangi Laud, Liliana Bove, Chatura Ranaweera, Wei Wei Cheryl Leo, Jill Sweeney and Sandra Smith

Actors who participate in co-created service experiences typically assume that they will experience improved well-being. However, a growing body of literature demonstrates that…

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Abstract

Purpose

Actors who participate in co-created service experiences typically assume that they will experience improved well-being. However, a growing body of literature demonstrates that the reverse is also likely to be true, with one or more actors experiencing value co-destruction (VCD), rather than value co-creation, in the service system. Building on the notion of resource misintegration as a trigger of the VCD process, this paper offers a typology of resource misintegration manifestations and to present a dynamic conceptualization of the VCD process.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic, iterative VCD literature review was conducted with a priori aims to uncover the manifestations of resource misintegration and illustrate its connection to VCD for an actor or actors.

Findings

Ten distinct manifestations of resource misintegration are identified that provide evidence or an early warning sign of the potential for negative well-being for one or more actors in the service system. Furthermore, a dynamic framework illustrates how an affected actor uses proactive and reactive coping and support resources to prevent VCD or restore well-being.

Originality/value

The study presents a typology of manifestations of resource misintegration that signal or warn of the potential for VCD, thus providing an opportunity to prevent or curtail the VCD process.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 33 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

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Article
Publication date: 3 October 2016

Aphrodite Vlahos and Liliana L. Bove

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer relationship marketing (CRM) activities are utilized by plastic surgery providers to encourage the sale of non-surgical…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer relationship marketing (CRM) activities are utilized by plastic surgery providers to encourage the sale of non-surgical cosmetic procedures (such as Botox). These procedures are considered to be an important gateway for future, more invasive (and profitable) services. As a result, the techniques used to build relationships with clients may be unethical, as they prioritize increased financial performance and profitability over customer well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual models are presented that compare and contrast the CRM activities, mediators and expected outcomes for plastic surgery providers, motivated primarily by profit, with those primarily motivated by mutual betterment.

Findings

It is suggested that when accompanied by sales promotions, problem augmentation – an approach used by plastic surgeons to broaden the scope of a patient’s aesthetic problem to other areas of concern – may generate increased sales in the short term, but reduce the opportunity of positive word-of-mouth to recruit new clients.

Originality/value

This paper applies relationship marketing to a novel context to demonstrate how practices to retain and improve clients may harm their well-being and commoditize the service, unless mutual betterment is a key objective.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

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Article
Publication date: 10 August 2020

Liliana L. Bove and Sabine Benoit

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers fear for their health when interacting with service providers. To mitigate this fear service providers are using safety…

5253

Abstract

Purpose

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers fear for their health when interacting with service providers. To mitigate this fear service providers are using safety signals directed to consumers and other stakeholders who make organizational assessments. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the range of safety signals in a framework that integrates signaling theory with servicescape elements so as to provide guidance for service providers to assist in their recovery.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors extracted examples of how service providers signal safety to their consumers that the risk of infection is low in exchanging with their service. These examples were taken from secondary data sources in the form of trade publications resulting from a systematic search and supplemented by an organic search.

Findings

In total 53 unique safety signals were identified and assigned to 24 different categories in our framework. Most of the signals fell into the default and sale independent category, followed by the default contingent revenue risking category.

Originality/value

This study builds on signaling theory and service literature to develop a framework of the range of safety signals currently in use by service providers and offers suggestions as to which are likely to be most effective. Further, a future research inquiry of safety signals is presented, which the authors believe has promise in assisting recovery in a post-pandemic world.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 31 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

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Article
Publication date: 24 April 2019

Liliana L. Bove

Empathy is a core characteristic of helping and caring interactions and thus is fundamental to service. Yet, to date, service marketing literature has focused on a restricted view…

3694

Abstract

Purpose

Empathy is a core characteristic of helping and caring interactions and thus is fundamental to service. Yet, to date, service marketing literature has focused on a restricted view of the value of empathy as it leads to improved service quality perceptions and successful sales outcomes. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the empathy literature and the dispositional and situational factors affecting it, so as to further explore its potential benefits and limitations for service.

Design/methodology/approach

A summative review of the empathy literature uncovers cause–effect relationships and their potential boundary conditions. Theoretical propositions set an agenda for future research on empathy for service that breaks new ground.

Findings

Empathy can reduce anti-social, revenge, discrimination and unethical behaviors in service settings. It can also improve value-in-context experiences for users of service innovations. Notwithstanding its potential benefits, empathy can diminish the objectivity and performance of service providers when experienced at extreme levels. Empathy can also serve as an ingratiation influence tactic and can be detrimental to the target in embarrassing service contexts.

Originality/value

This paper suggests propositions for future research to advance theory and managerial practice on the use of empathy to improve service outcomes for interacting actors. It also alludes to the potential dark side of empathy when experienced at excessive levels or when used to manipulate.

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Abstract

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

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Article
Publication date: 22 May 2009

Liliana L. Bove and Lester W. Johnson

The paper aims to use Dick and Basu's two‐dimensional matrix that identifies four types of customer loyalty: true, spurious, latent and non‐loyal. It seeks to investigate if these…

4270

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to use Dick and Basu's two‐dimensional matrix that identifies four types of customer loyalty: true, spurious, latent and non‐loyal. It seeks to investigate if these four distinct clusters of loyalty existed both in terms of loyalty to the individual service worker (personal loyalty) and loyalty to the firm (service loyalty). The paper also aims to examine the stability of the loyalty clusters.

Design/methodology/approach

Using self‐completion mail questionnaires, females over 18 who frequently used the service were surveyed at two time periods, 18 months apart. Of the original 341 respondents at time 1, only 137 (40 per cent) of these successfully completed the questionnaire at time 2.

Findings

Even though the service context is such that the customer has the freedom of choice in selecting the service, the four loyalty clusters were found for both personal loyalty and service loyalty. Those customers who were originally classified as “true” loyals were the most stable group. Perceived credibility of the service worker and the length of the customer relationship with the service worker were found to be the main drivers of the type of customer loyalty cluster.

Originality/value

This study provides further empirical support of the value of true loyal customers, defined in terms of both a positive relative attitude towards the object of loyalty and high repeat patronage behavior. A higher proportion of true loyal customers were retained by both the service worker and firm compared to the other loyalty types.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

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Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

Simon J. Pervan and Liliana L. Bove

– The purpose of this paper is to examine how a crisis affects public attitudes toward stigmatized service workers (SSWs) who are blamed by the media for the event.

763

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a crisis affects public attitudes toward stigmatized service workers (SSWs) who are blamed by the media for the event.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses grounded in two theories, crisis communication and empathic concern, are tested using two experimental design studies of 180 and 107 adult respondents.

Findings

The effects of both empathy (positive) and anger (negative) on attitudes toward the SSWs involved in crisis are mediated by controllability of attribution of crisis. Empathic concern mitigates negative public attitudes toward stigmatized workers and appears to remove the effect of anger but only when the crisis severity is not too high. In a severe crisis both empathy and anger are important predictors of public response.

Research limitations/implications

Boundary conditions in terms of severity, nature and victim of crisis and media framing need to be investigated.

Practical implications

Proactive crisis management practice is required by professional associations of SSW. Eliciting empathy and paying attention to prior crisis history and professional reputation offers scope to quell public anger and desire for punishment.

Social implications

The attrition rates of socially stigmatized workers following crisis events have profound social and financial costs to society. This study sets a foundation for substantive managerial change in crisis response, and how the perception of socially stigmatized workers, is managed.

Originality/value

This study is the first to examine the voracity of two theories which provide informed but different insights to public response to service workers in crisis.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 25 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

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Article
Publication date: 16 October 2007

Liliana Bove and Betty Mitzifiris

This study sets out to replicate Garbarino and Johnson's paper, where the effects of trust, commitment and satisfaction towards service provider loyalty were examined. However…

4759

Abstract

Purpose

This study sets out to replicate Garbarino and Johnson's paper, where the effects of trust, commitment and satisfaction towards service provider loyalty were examined. However, whereby Garbarino and Johnson tested their model in a relationship prone environment, i.e. a theatre company, this study was set in a retail context where transactional customers are more likely. Personality traits as a means to identify customers who are prone to forming relationships with their service providers were also investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, customers of two fast food independent stores in Melbourne, Australia completed 202 questionnaires.

Findings

The findings in the paper showed that in this transactional context, only trust and commitment had a significant direct effect on store behavioral loyalty. Satisfaction did not offer any unique explanatory power but was a significant predictor of both trust and commitment. Further, trust, commitment and satisfaction all had significant direct effects on store attitudinal loyalty, with satisfaction displaying the strongest effect. There was little evidence to support the claim that certain consumer personality traits are more conducive to relationship formation in this low involvement retail context.

Originality/value

The paper shows that retailers need to be aware that even in a transaction prone retail environment, trust and commitment and not just satisfaction, play a significant role in both store behavioral and attitudinal customer loyalty.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 21 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

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