User Empowerment during a Coercive Organizational Transformation Enabled by Information Systems Change

Examines the effects of a small empowerment during the information system conversion phase of a directively managed transformation. Motivational benefits of employee empowerment in facilitating organizational change and promoting organization effectiveness; Use of a participative, collaborative or consultative change-management strategy; Important objective of information system development; Details on the study and its findings

Death of an expert system: A case study of success and failure

A decision team composed of managers and staff experts at Mary Kay Cosmetics develops packaging for new and revised products as well as sets their prices. However, the potential for costly errors in the decision-making process motivated this group to pursue development of an expert system (ES) to assist with the problem. The ES performed so well that it changed the organization\u27s behavior—the group ceased to meet for the purpose of developing the packaging but instead gathered just to confirm and approve the expert system\u27s solution. Despite the clear benefits associated with using an ES approach, the group stopped using the ES application and the behavior of the group returned to pre-ES practices. This work describes from a managerial perspective how and why this valuable tool fell into disuse, and offers valuable lessons for management

User Empowerment during a Coercive Organizational Transformation Enabled by Information Systems Change

Examines the effects of a small empowerment during the information system conversion phase of a directively managed transformation. Motivational benefits of employee empowerment in facilitating organizational change and promoting organization effectiveness; Use of a participative, collaborative or consultative change-management strategy; Important objective of information system development; Details on the study and its findings

The Battle for Customer Relationship: Toward the Operationalization of the Investment Model

Purpose: This study examines why customers commit to and maintain relationships with offerings (i.e., automobiles or cars and apartment rentals) by operationalizing the Investment Model (IM) in a highly competitive domain. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data were collected through surveys administered to 221 customers. We used partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to empirically evaluate our commitment and relationship maintenance model. Findings: We find support for the Investment Model and show how useful it is in predicting customer commitment towards relationship maintenance in the car and apartment rental domains. Among the variables of IM we found quality of alternatives as the most significant and important predictor of customer commitment. While our result shows satisfaction to be the second most significant predictor for customer commitment, investment size did not exert any influence on commitment. Originality/Value: This study contributes toward theory development and the identification of variables showing how customers attach greater importance and when making a commitment towards relationship maintenance. Managerial implications of the findings, limitations and future research directions are provide

The Battle for Customer Loyalty: An Examination of Customer Loyalty in the Goods and Services Domain

This research fills a gap in both quality management and marketing literatures by examining how customer co-production, experiential, and situational variables in a nonpersonal setting influence loyalty decisions toward products and services. Through an empirical study, an interpersonal relationship theory from social psychology, known as the investment model (IM), is used to develop a better understanding regarding the drivers of why customers stay loyal with product and service firms. Self-reported data from a sample of 221 college students who own an automobile or live in an apartment were collected to test the authors\u27 hypotheses. The results indicate that customer satisfaction and the amount of investment made by a customer positively influence their loyalty toward a firm\u27s offering, while the quality availability of attractive alternatives negatively impacts loyalty toward the firm\u27s offering. Furthermore, the authors\u27 interpretation of the IM suggests that customer satisfaction increases a customer\u27s loyalty much more in a service offering compared with a product offering. The authors, however, did not find in their service/product offering comparison any difference between investment size, quality of attractive alternatives, and loyalty. These findings provide a much better insight in assessing the applicability of IM in nonpersonal settings, providing information that can help managers invest in resources that trigger customer engagement and enhance loyalty levels

An Integrated Model of Quality for Mass Services in the Context of Ghanaian Retailing Banking Sector

This study draws upon the service literature and operationalizes the investment model in the services domain to examine factors that contribute to customers’ desire to maintain service relationships with firms (i.e., retail banks) in an emerging economy in sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana. We empirically test the explanatory power and robustness of the investment model using 218 customers of various banking institutions in Ghana. Results from partial least squares—structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)—reveal that (1) service quality is positively associated with customer satisfaction, investment size, and customer commitment; and (2) while customer satisfaction is positively associated with customer commitment, both investment size and quality of attractive alternatives are not associated with customer commitment. Interestingly, we found investment size to have a positive association with customer commitment only when fully mediated by customer satisfaction. Our model reveals that service quality and customer satisfaction predict 79.3% of the variation in customer commitment toward maintaining a service relationship with their retail banks. Discussion and managerial implications conclude the article

Q-TAM: A Quality Technology Acceptance Model for Technology Operations Managers

This paper contributes to research on the quality factors that affect customer acceptance and intention to continue purchasing disposable technology. We have developed a model (Q-TAM) that integrates the Technology Acceptance Model and a quality framework. We conducted a survey of 322 smartphones users and analyzed the results using Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to determine how our integrated Q-TAM model affected consumers’ intention-to-continue-purchasing disposable technology. The PLS-SEM analysis of the Q-TAM model established that consumers assessed the product quality based on two distinct dimensions: attribute quality and reliability quality. Further, we found support for the positive and significant effects of product quality and perceived ease of use as predictors of a customer’s intention to purchase a technological device. Of interest is our finding that perceived usefulness, in the presence of product quality, is not significant. The finding also suggests that customers perceive the usefulness of a product as a component/part of a product’s quality dimension, confirming Joseph Juran’s quality philosophy of “fitness of use.” This suggests that in order to satisfy consumer demands, technology operations managers must ensure their products are of good attribute and reliability quality. The findings of this study make a case for a quality technology acceptance model (Q-TAM) that encourages technology operations managers to focus their efforts on quality to ensure that their products satisfy customer needs and are perceived as useful