Search results

This paper has four purposes. First, it points out and explains why the Market‐type culture, is not the culture type most conducive to business performance. This Market‐type culture reflects mainly a Transactional approach to the market rather than a longer term Relational approach to clients. Second, a modification of the CVM is presented which forces the respondents to weigh the value their firm places on the client or customer compared with the other competing values in the model. This modified version can be used to describe organizational cultures which are more Relational or Transactional in nature. Third, an empirical study of commercial banking relationships in France indicated that business effectiveness was greater when both parties in the exchange (account manager and business client) perceived their respective organizations to be Relational‐type cultures. Conversely, the worst business performance was found when both organizations had Transactional‐type cultures. Fourth, the managerial implications of the paper are discussed in the context of commercial banking.

This empirical study of commercial banking relationships in France demonstrates that, despite the current emphasis on new technology, contact personnel remain important for the success of professional business‐to‐business services. When account managers are changed, the business clients feel that their relationship with the bank is weaker and they judge the bank to be less client oriented. More important for the bank’s future profitability is the finding that changing account managers is negatively associated with the bank’s external effectiveness, as measured by the client’s judgement of satisfaction and service quality, by their purchase intentions and by their willingness to recommend the bank. Also, the business clients who change account managers express a greater likelihood of switching banks. In addition, the study points out the divergence between the transactional sales approach of the bank and the relational perspective of the business client. Commercial banks tend to overestimate both the degree to which they are client oriented and the benefits of technology as a substitute for human interactions with their business clients.

This study assessed the technical (tangible) and functional (human interaction) quality of services in a first‐class international health resort and related these to service management effectiveness. Service management is effective when customers judge the overall service quality to be good, they are highly satisfied, they are willing to recommend the firm to others and they intend to re‐purchase or are predisposed to purchase additional services from the firm. The technical and functional aspects of services quality and their relation to service management effectiveness, were found to be different between the core and supplementary services, between customers and service personnel and between customers with and without experience. The results support the statement that competitive advantage in this industry can be obtained by improving the functional aspects of services management, by better performance of supplementary services and by reducing the gap in perceptions between customers and contact personnel.

Emerging biotechnology firms rely on a network of socio‐economic partnerships that can be classified as “interimistic” or close, collaborative but relatively short‐lived. Few studies have assessed the importance of relational governance to the performance of these partnerships. The purposes of this research were to determine the effect of relational governance on the performance of financial partnerships and to compare biotechnology manager assessments of their financial and non‐financial partnerships.

Interviews were conducted with managers of emerging biotechnology companies and lead investors in Canada, France and Germany. Relational governance was assessed by relational norms such as flexibility, information sharing, solidarity and fairness. Performance was assessed by overall effectiveness and partnership benefits. First, the contribution of relational governance to partnership effectiveness and benefits was examined. Second, for the financial partnerships, the perceptions of both biotech managers and lead investors were compared. Third, the biotech manager perceptions of their financial and non‐financial partnerships were compared.

Relational governance is positively associated with performance. Communication (information sharing) was most predictive of partnership performance. Biotech managers view their financial partnerships as being less relational than do their lead investors. Also, biotech managers view their financial partnerships to be less relational than those with their non‐financial partners.

The findings extend our knowledge of the positive influence of relational governance from longer lasting exchanges to “interimistic” technology partnerships. The communication of pertinent and timely information is particularly relevant for both biotech managers and lead investors and can allay fears of opportunistic behaviour and develop trust and commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to study micro-level research into the social dimensions of entrepreneurial partnerships assessed by the influences of: the degree of interpersonal attraction, the strength of relational norms and the level of partner trustworthiness on value co-creations in an emerging biotechnology network.

Financial and scientific partnerships were investigated by structured interviews with entrepreneurs. Financial partnerships were also studied using interviews with lead investors. Research design and analyses were based on a Conditional Process Model.

Partner trustworthiness was found to be critical for the co-creation of value in both types of partnerships. In financial partnerships, the level of interpersonal attraction and relational norms strength acted independently as antecedents of partner trustworthiness. Only the entrepreneur linked interpersonal attraction directly to value co-creation. Both entrepreneurs and lead investors perceived the association between interpersonal attraction and co-created value to be mediated through partner trustworthiness. Only the lead investor perceived this mediation to be moderated by relational norms strength. However, in scientific partnerships, relational norms strength, but not interpersonal attraction, contributed to partner trustworthiness that subsequently effected value co-creation. The entrepreneur’s trustworthiness perception in both types of partnerships was mainly due to a partner’s reputation, whereas for lead investors it was primarily the perceived reliability of the entrepreneur.

This research points out the challenges of measurement and interpretation of network research. Theoretical conclusions based on only one partner’s perspective and in one context would not be sufficient to describe the complexity of value co-creations in entrepreneurial networks. Also, the cooperative social, rather than competitive opportunistic nature of entrepreneurial knowledge-intensive networks was confirmed.

The purpose of the present study was to determine, across three distinct national contexts, to what extent the creation of customer‐perceived value, as determined by the measure of the firm’s external effectiveness, was deemed important and implemented within a professional business‐to‐business service industry (commercial banking). External effectiveness is a measure of business performance reflecting the client’s judgement of satisfaction, service quality, future purchase intentions and willingness to recommend the service firm to others. It was postulated that strong relationships would contribute to external effectiveness and that, in order to be effective, a service firm needs to be client‐oriented and develop managerial processes and an organizational culture compatible with the creation of client‐perceived value, the driver of longer‐term profitability. In all three countries, the higher the business client rated the strength of the relationship with their bank, the higher was their assessment of external effectiveness. However, the banks’ service management processes supporting the work of the account manager and the dominant organizational culture were not congruent with the bankers’ perception that their organizations were client‐oriented. Important differences were found in the banking relationships and managerial processes in Mexico as compared to Canada and the USA.

This study was designed to assess the theoretical and managerial implications of relational norms in two distinct business contexts within the same service industry. The relationship between commercial banks and client‐companies was studied using matched pairs of account managers and company representatives in Canada and Mexico. This research indicates that: relational as well as short‐term economic variables are important for successful commercial banking; front‐line personnel may not accurately assess the client’s reality; contextual differences are important with regard to both the theory and practice of management in banking.

The service‐dominant logic describes customer‐actualized value as being idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual, and meaning laden. Since positive word‐of‐mouth (WOM) is an expression of customer‐actualized value, the paper postulate that WOM is not only related to a holistic set of assessments of the service experience but also to the idiosyncratic nature of the individual customer. In particular, do socially oriented individuals have a greater propensity to engage in positive WOM? The purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses that socially oriented personality traits, and personal values as well as a set of dimensions of the total service experience, are antecedents of positive WOM. The context studied is a surgical operation involving considerable personal meaning and implication in the whole service process.

A cohort of 500 surgical patients are studied prior to, three‐days after and one‐month post‐surgery. Independent variables include the socially oriented personality traits of agreeableness and extraversion, social‐ vs self‐oriented personal values, as well as dimensions of the total service experience assessed by information adequacy, pain and discomfort, patient‐to‐patient interaction, patient‐to‐personnel interaction, and recovery outcomes. The dependent variable is the strength of positive WOM intentions.

The sociability of surgery patients as measured by both their personality traits and socially oriented values is significantly related to the strength of positive WOM intentions. Self‐oriented values are not associated with positive WOM intentions. Also, to varying degrees, all dimensions of the total service experience are associated with positive WOM intentions.

The paper is the first to illustrate that, in a given service context, the antecedents of customer loyalty may be complex, not only dependent on customer assessments of their interactions and experiences throughout the service process, but also relative to their dispositional characteristics such as sociability. The consistency of the results for positive WOM assessed at three‐days and one‐month post‐surgery adds to the robustness of the findings. This paper makes a significant contribution to the service‐dominant logic and the concept of value co‐creation.

It has been suggested that the future success of non-profit organizations lies in ensuring the sustainable involvement of the Millennial generation through social network sites. Facebook is a social media (SM) network that creates new research contexts and methodologies in service management. Organizations must now engage in learning how customer-with-customer interactions in SM could work best for them. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the factors influencing Millennials support for social causes through their autonomous engagement in the public environment of SM.

The authors conducted two studies of events for social causes (breast cancer and youth homelessness). In each, two Facebook event pages appealing to others-benefits and self-benefits were designed. Participants were randomly assigned the task of examining the appeal pages online. The dependent variables were two sets of intentions in support of the cause (online and offline). The effectiveness of an others-benefit vs a self-benefit Facebook appeal, the influence of empathetic identification with these causes and the direct and mediating effects of autonomous motivation was studied.

The studies provide consistent evidence that, to gain Millennial's support for social causes through SM, it is better to appeal mainly to the benefits others derive than to benefits to the self. Autonomous motivation is a strong predictor of supportive intentions and it also significantly mediates the positive influence of empathetic identification with a cause. Self-reported behavioral data following the youth homelessness event provided empirical evidence that the supportive intentions data were valid predictors of actual behaviors.

The paper used innovative experimental and correlational research methodologies to address Millennial's social behaviors within a SM context. The paper also introduced self-determination theory of motivation to this literature. From a practical standpoint, Millennials readily engage in impression management. Therefore, their supportive activities should be publicly lauded. Managers should also identify those Millennials who already empathize with the cause and facilitate their ability to influence other members in their networks. SM are changing at a fast pace and managers should employ Millennials in developing pertinent strategies and practices to keep pace. Taking advantage of marketing “with” Millennials can facilitate the development of new approaches for creating and supporting cause events.