Perceived Omnichannel Customer Experience (OCX): concept, measurement, and impact

Efforts to measure customer experiences (CX) in multifaceted, omnichannel, retail contexts are crucial but lacking research guidance. Prior service quality literature has established methods for measuring CX in traditional, single-channel contexts but not adapted such measures to omnichannel contexts. With a mixed method research design and studies in eight phases, the authors propose a comprehensive measurement instrument that incorporates a schema- and categorization-based theoretical conceptualization of how customers assess omnichannel retail experiences; they also integrate means–end chain theory to explain perceived omnichannel customer experience (OCX) as a construct. This construct captures multiple omnichannel evaluation dimensions: social communications, value, personalization, customer service, consistency of both product availability and prices across channels, information safety, delivery, product returns, and loyalty programs. Multiple applications of the measurement model empirically confirm the suitability of this instrument in consumer goods omnichannel retail settings. Its 36 items reflect nine first-order quality dimensions that combine to form the overall, second-order OCX construct. The measurement instrument offers sound psychometric properties, as confirmed by several reliability and validity tests, and predicts customer behavior reliably across studies. Thus, the OCX measurement instrument offers utility for theory, management practice, and further research

The Impact of Internal Market Orientation on Staff Service Behaviours

The impact of service direction, service training and staff behaviours on perceptions of service delivery are examined. The impact of managerial behaviour in the form of internal market orientation (IMO) on the attitudes of frontline staff towards the firm and its consequent influence on their customer oriented behaviours is also examined. Frontline service staff working in the consumer transport industry were surveyed to provide subjective data about the constructs of interest in this study, and the data were analysed using structural equations modelling employing partial least squares estimation. The data indicate significant relationships between internal market orientation (IMO), the attitudes of the employees to the firm and their consequent behaviour towards customers. Customer orientation, service direction and service training are all identified as antecedents to high levels of service delivery. The study contributes to marketing theory by providing quantitative evidence to support assumptions that internal marketing has an impact on services success. For marketing practitioners, the research findings offer additional information about the management, training and motivation of service staff towards service excellence

The effects of sensing and seizing of market opportunities and reconfiguring activities on the organisational resource base

This study has important implications for marketing theory and practice. In an era of turbulent market environments, the organisational ability to sense and seize market opportunities and to reconfigure the resource base accordingly, has significant effects on performance. This paper uses a dynamic capability framework to explain more explicitly the intricacies of the relationship between sensing and seizing of market opportunities and reconfiguring the resource base (i.e. dynamic capabilities) and the resource base. We investigate how the attributes of dynamic capability deployment, timing, frequency and speed, influence the resource base. We test the proposed framework using survey data from 228 large organisations. Findings show that the timing and frequency of dynamic capability deployment have significant effects on the resource base

Managing service staff as an organizational resource: Implications for customer service provision

This paper supports the notion that organizational level directives affect the customer service performance of staff. We show that organizations applying service routines and training systems which encourage the development of service capabilities develop a basis for the effective provision of customer services. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the positive attachment the staff member feels toward the organization by way of emotional motivation also influences their approach to customer service provision. This highlights for management the need for positive reinforcement so that staff feel valued in their jobs and feel a positive devotion to their employer

How do Dynamic Capabilities and Market Orientation Drive Ambidextrous Business Models?

Despite both business models and market orientation being relevant to value creation and firm performance, little research has investigated their relationship. Importantly, designing a business model often requires adjustments, which rests on the deployment of dynamic capabilities. Yet, we know little about the role of dynamic capabilities in fostering business model innovation. Thus, in this study we aim to understand the particular processes through which firms in general, and SMEs in particular, produce innovations to their business model in line with their market orientation. We develop process framework of business model innovation of an SME from start-up to scale-up, enabled by dynamic capabilities. More specifically, the paper clarifies the kind of dynamic capability deployment that is necessary for transforming a business model from market-driving to market-driven, and ultimately to one that reflects an ambidextrous market-orientation. Drawing on an in-depth longitudinal case study, this paper outlines that SMEs deploy dynamic capabilities that align with the SME’s type of market orientation to innovate the design and architecture of their business models.

The Role of Fairness in Modelling Customer Choice

Some business practices of service firms have the potential to negatively affect customer demand because they are perceived as unfair. We discuss how fairness concerns can influence customer choice, and propose a conceptualisation embedded in expected utility theory that accounts for fairness judgments. The intended contributions are (1) to advance the literature on customer decision making by combining expected utility theory with justice (fairness) theory; (2) to provide a conceptual framework capturing fairness in customer choice; and (3) to propose a research agenda concerning fairness in customer decision making

Service employee behaviour: The role of compliance and risk taking

This paper looks at the decision-making process that determines the amount of effort frontline service employees will expend in delivering a service in a business-to-business context. Using theories in behavioural economics and interactional and social psychology, the paper develops and presents a model of employee decision-making. Managerial implications, which have the potential to enhance the marketing of business-to-business services and directions for future research in this area, are indicated

Employer branding: strategic implications for staff recruitment

In many developed economies, changing demographics and economic conditions have given rise to increasingly competitive labour markets, where competition for good employees is strong. Consequently, strategic investments in attracting suitably qualified and skilled employees are recommended. One such strategy is employer branding. Employer branding in the context of recruitment is the package of psychological, economic, and functional benefits that potential employees associate with employment with a particular company. Knowledge of these perceptions can help organisations to create an attractive and competitive employer brand. Utilising information economics and signalling theory, we examine the nature and consequences of employer branding. Depth interviews reveal that job seekers evaluate: the attractiveness of employers based on any previous direct work experiences with the employer or in the sector; the clarity, credibility, and consistency of the potential employers’ brand signals; perceptions of the employers’ brand investments; and perceptions of the employers’ product or service brand portfolio

Strategic embeddedness of modularity in alliances: Innovation and performance implications

This paper examines modular product structures in alliances. Results from a survey of 225 alliances show that modular product structures within alliances affect alliance firms' competitive performance. Product innovation performance, assessed as both speed to market and radical innovations and contingent on the employed innovation strategy, partially mediates this effect. Modular product structures exert curvilinear effects on product innovation performance and linear effects on competitive performance. Although the interaction of modular product structures with an innovation strategy increases product innovation performance, this contingency also reduces the positive effect of the innovation strategy on competitive performance