Do self-service technologies affect interfirm relationships? A B2B perspective

While considerable literature examines business-to business (B2B) relationships, the impact of technology on these relationships has lacked attention. IT has impacted the way businesses operate in a B2B context as well as influencing services by altering the way services are delivered. To understand the way in which Internet technology has impacted these B2B services, it is essential to examine its impact not only on business processes but on business relationships too. One technology, enabled by modern Internet technologies, which is changing the nature of business relationships is the increased use of self-service technologies (SSTs) or technology-enabled services, however, there is a shortage of research in the area in a B2B context. The discussion in this paper provides an overview of the impact of IT on business relationships, using Relationship Marketing theory to provide a theoretical framework. A qualitative study in the Australian banking industry provides findings relating to the theory. The findings of this study provide evidence that while traditional Relationship Marketing theory is still applicable for some business customers, new theory is required for business customers who do not seek relationships. With both practical and theoretical implications, the research detailed in this paper makes a useful contribution to the literature and indicates the necessity for further research to be developed which explores business customers who prefer to remain transaction-oriented, rather than develop interpersonal relationships

The Impact of Internet Banking on Business-Customer Relationships (are you being self-served?)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how technology has dramatically altered the way businesses operate in a business-to-business (B2B) context and has had profound influences on services, altering the way services are delivered. It is believed that the increased use of self-service technologies (SSTs) impacts on B2B relationships. The paper seeks to explore the impact of the use of internet banking on business relationships. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews the results and implications of recent exploratory research conducted with a small sample of Australian business bank customers. Findings - It was expected that perceptions of technology would impact on the relationship. However, it was the perception of the relationship which led respondents to develop a perception of the technology. Further research is recommended. Practical implications - Banks are encouraging internet banking to reduce service delivery costs and improve service quality for customers. However, a greater understanding of the impact of this on relationships is essential. Originality/value - The importance of developing and fostering relationships with customers has long been regarded as important within services marketing and also within B2B relationships. However, there is little discussion of the impact of self-service technologies on business relationships. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The power of celebrity: Exploring the basis for Oprah's successful endorsement of Australia as a vacation destination

In December 2010, Tourism Australia and Tourism New South Wales (respectively, Australia’s national and Australia’s largest state tourism promotion agencies) entered into an agreement with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey (or Oprah) for Ms Winfrey to undertake a celebrity endorsement tourism marketing campaign for Australia. In executing this campaign, Oprah and 300 of what she called her ‘Ultimate Australia Adventure’ viewers visited iconic and less well-known tourism attractions around Australia. These visits were filmed and later broadcast as four episodes of the Oprah Winfrey Show in the United States, Australia, and many other countries during January 2011. Longitudinal studies of subsequent visitation (especially from the United States) showed a delayed but significant surge in tourists, leading to Australian tourism authorities to mark the campaign a success. While celebrity endorsement has commonly been discussed in a marketing context, little attention has been given to celebrity endorsement in a tourism context ( Glover (2009) Celebrity endorsement in tourism advertising: effects on destination image. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 61(1): 16–23). This article investigates this issue, in particular, focussing on a close analysis of the content of the broadcasts to explore why the approach chosen for the campaign was successful. Results indicated that Oprah’s celebrity endorsement of Australia positioned the Australian brand effectively. Oprah’s ‘brand image’ had significant value as a celebrity endorser and that Oprah had strong appeal in these roles to the Tourism Australia target market. </jats:p

Service system resilience under resource scarcity:from vulnerability to balanced centricity

Purpose: Disruptive shocks significantly compromise service contexts, challenging multidimensional value (co)creation. Recent focus has been on consumers experiencing vulnerability in service contexts. However, the susceptibility of service firms, employees and other actors to the impacts of disruptive shocks has received little attention. Since resource scarcity from disruptive shocks heightens tensions around balancing different needs in the service system, this paper aims to propose a framework of balanced centricity and service system resilience for service sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a conceptual model process, the paper integrates resilience and balanced centricity (method theories) with customer/consumer vulnerability (domain theory) resulting in a definition of multiactor vulnerability and related theoretical propositions. Findings: Depleted, unavailable, or competed over resources among multiple actors constrain resource integration. Disruptive shocks nevertheless have upside potential. The interdependencies of actors in the service system call for deeper examination of multiple parties’ susceptibility to disruptive resource scarcity. The conceptual framework integrates multiactor vulnerability (when multiactor susceptibility to resource scarcity challenges value exchange) with processes of service system resilience, developing three research propositions. Emerging research questions and strategies for balanced centricity provide a research agenda. Research limitations/implications: A multiactor, balanced centricity perspective extends understanding of value cocreation, service resilience and service sustainability. Strategies for anticipating, coping with and adapting to disruptions in service systems are suggested by using the balanced centricity perspective, offering the potential to maintain (or enhance) the six types of value. Originality/value: This research defines multiactor vulnerability, extending work on experienced vulnerabilities; describes the multilevel and multiactor perspective on experienced vulnerability in service relationships; and conceptualizes how balanced centricity can decrease multiactor vulnerability and increase service system resilience when mega disruptions occur.</p

The Role of Empathy in the Service Experience

Purpose: This study examines the role of empathy in the student service experience. Taking a dyadic perspective, both students and staff’s perceptions are analyzed to determine if 1) empathy matters to both actors alike; and 2) which differences in perceptions about the role of empathy between these actors exist. Design/Methodology/Approach: We adopt a multi-method approach and used data from 256 usable survey responses from eleven higher education service providers in Singapore. Empathy was operationalized by six cognitive and affective independent variables and multiple multivariate analyses are applied, such as multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminant analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results: Results show that both students and staff alike evaluate empathy as important in the co-created service experience. The provision of individualized attention to students to positively influence student experience in learning was deemed important by both staff and students. Yet, there are also distinct differences. For students, it is essential that staff members have students’ best interests at heart; for staff members, knowledge of students’ needs and show of care and concern are important. Practical Implications: Students and staff perceive empathy in higher education service provision differently. Interestingly, whilst staff think, caring for students is important, students feel that too much care and concern from staff has a negative effect on their experience. Hence, too much care and concern might cause potential issues with the student’s perception of ‘over-servicing’ which might manifest as ‘spoon-feeding’. Instead, students are asking for individualized and professionalized attention, to be taken seriously and to be involved in the co-creation of the education service experience. Originality/Value: This study advances the understanding of affective and cognitive aspects of empathy and their influence on students’ service experiences

Generation Y: evaluating services experiences through mobile ethnography

Purpose: This paper suggests mobile ethnography as a method for data collection, where Generation Y customers are integrated as active investigators. The paper aims to contribute to the debate on museums as experience-centred places, to understanding how the experience is perceived by Generation Y, to identifying the customer journey, to providing an insight into service experience consumption and to deriving managerial implication for the museum industry of how to approach Generation Y. Design/methodology/approach: Mobile ethnography is applied to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra with a sample of Generation Y visitors as the future visitor market. Findings: The paper finds that there is a need to involve museum management in measuring museum experiences, especially with regard to the definition and improvement of the service-delivery processes. Service experience must be appropriately managed by museum operators by collecting, evaluating, storing and reusing relevant data on customer experience. Mobile ethnography and tools such as MyServiceFellow offer an important potential source of sustainable competitive advantage by improving customer experience, particularly for Gen Y. Research limitations/implications: The most significant limitation is the exploratory nature of the single case study derived from a small sample within only one museum. Originality/value: This is one of the few studies to have addressed mobile ethnography in a service context and examined the museum experience of Generation Y. The paper finds that there is a need to involve museum management in service design to improve the service-delivery process, especially with regard to the different mindsets of the Millennials

Marketing and Branding Implications of a Corporate Service Program: The Case of Women’s Group Mentoring

Corporate programs are often voluntary and sometimes struggle to attract sufficient participants. Mentoring programs tend to follow a mentor-mentee format. However, one Australian university offers female staff a group-mentoring model. Despite the positive ratings of this mentoring model, there appeared to be negative perceptions of the program. To understand why these perceptions were negative, exploratory research was undertaken. Quantitative and qualitative research was triangulated to improve understanding of the data. Ultimately, recommendations for branding of the product were developed. Numerous incorrect perceptions existed, and one of the biggest hindrances for participation in the program was a perceived lack of time and confusion about the nature of the program

Rapport with a chatbot? The underlying role of anthropomorphism in socio-cognitive perceptions of rapport and e-word of mouth

This study examines the impact of rapport with chatbots on electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), in the first phase, by considering several antecedents including anthropomorphism. In the second phase, deeper insights are provided into the moderated mediation role of rapport and the moderated moderation effect of value creation and hedonic motivation on e-WOM engagement. With tourism services as the research context, a survey was conducted among 257 visitors from three countries (China, India and New Zealand), selected due to their diverse cultural backgrounds and higher number of inbound visitors to Australia. The partial least squares method was used for data analysis along with multi-group analysis. Findings report the positive role of anthropomorphism in developing rapport with chatbots in digital interactions. Interestingly, rapport had the highest moderated mediation impact in the data from China followed by the data from India. The moderated moderation impact of hedonic motivation was only significant in the data from China, whereas value creation was a significant moderator in the data from both China and New Zealand. The study extends social exchange theory in a human–chatbot or artificial intelligence (AI) interaction context with cultural implications. The findings are useful for organizations relying on customer rapport with AI-based chatbots to ensure long-term customer service through digital interactions