Getting Smart: Learning From Technology-Empowered Frontline Interactions

Smart technologies are rapidly transforming frontline employee-customer interactions. However, little academic research has tackled urgent, relevant questions regarding such technology-empowered frontline interactions. The current study conceptualizes (1) smart technology use in frontline employee-customer interactions, (2) smart technology–mediated learning mechanisms that elevate service effectiveness and efficiency performance to empower frontline interactions, and (3) stakeholder interaction goals as antecedents of smart technology–mediated learning. We propose that emerging smart technologies, which can substitute for or complement frontline employees’ (FLEs) efforts to deliver customized service over time, may help resolve the long-standing tension between service efficiency and effectiveness because they can learn or enable learning from and across customers, FLEs, and interactions. Drawing from pragmatic and deliberate learning theories, the authors conceptualize stakeholder learning mechanisms that mediate the effects of frontline interaction goals on FLEs’ and customers’ effectiveness and efficiency outcomes. This study concludes with implications for research and practice

Making SENS: exploring the antecedents and impact of store environmental stewardship climate

Retailers increasingly recognize that environmental responsibility is a strategic imperative. However, little research has investigated or identified the factors that facilitate the successful implementation of environmentally responsible strategies across a network of customer-facing sales units (stores). We propose that a store manager’s ability to lead by example facilitates this process by fostering a supportive climate for store environmental stewardship (SENS-climate). By examining the influence of store managers’ actions on sales associates’ perceptions of the SENS-climate, as well as the subsequent impact on their performance—measured by margins, as well as sales of green and regular products—this study demonstrates that store managers can foster a SENS-climate by articulating their prioritization of environmental responsibility in their operational decisions. These positive effects are sustained by relational factors, such as the moderating effect of the store manager–sales associate dyadic tenure. In contrast, when store managers display high variability in their environmental orientation, it hinders the development of SENS-climate perceptions among sales associates. If sales associates perceive an enabling SENS-climate, they achieve higher margins and more green but fewer regular sales

Customer Experience Management

Dieser Beitrag leistet einen Beitrag zur Marketingforschung, da er den jungen aber von zunehmender Relevanz geprägten Forschungsstrang zum Themenkomplex CEM grundlegend entwickelt. Zum einen zeigt das identifizierte Rahmenkonzept auf, dass CEM über einzelne unternehmerische Fähigkeiten wie dem Design von Serviceerlebnissen, das die bisherige CEM-Forschung bestimmt hat, hinausgeht. Zum anderen leistet das Konzept einen Beitrag zur Synthese fragmentierter, aber miteinander zusammenhängender Literaturströmungen in der Marketingforschung ..

Does Innovation Mediate Firm Performance?: A Meta-Analysis of Determinants and Consequences of Organizational Innovation

This study uses emerging meta-analytic methods, in combination with structural equations methodology, to synthesize empirical studies that examine the correlates (antecedents and/or outcomes) of organizational innovation. Overall, this study draws upon a meta-analytic database of 134 independent samples from 83 studies from the period of 1980 through 2003. Specifically, the study examines the impact of 27 determinants and 3 performance outcomes of innovation with an overall sample size of 122,943. Organizational capabilities and structure account for the majority of unique variance explained in predicting innovation. Overall findings indicate that innovation is significantly and positively related to superior performance. Additionally, a multivariate generalized least squares (GLS) moderator analysis indicates that measurement factors and research design considerations in model specification significantly biases the observed effects within a given study. Using a dichotomous measure of innovation deflates observed effect sizes, while studying innovation cross-sectionally and within one industry sector inflates the observed effect. The findings also help address a number of conflicting results. Finally, this study tests an integrative model of product innovation and finds support for innovation as a partial mediator between environmental and organizational variables and financial performance. The study identifies surpluses and shortages in the empirical literature on organizational innovation