Moderating effects of service separation on customer relationships with service firms: A social-exchange perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of service separation on the ability of service firms to build and maintain customer relationships, by exploring the differences in the strength of interrelationships among key relational constructs between separated and unseparated service delivery modes. Design/methodology/approach: A field survey was conducted with retail banking customers in Saudi Arabia (n=592) using a structured self-administered questionnaire consisting of well-established scales. Data were analyzed using AMOS 24. Findings: Service separation negatively moderates (weakens) the ability of the service firms to leverage their social benefits, relational trust and affective commitment to increase customer loyalty and to strengthen overall customer relationships. Research limitations/implications: This study uses retail banking customers in Saudi Arabia to test the impact of service separation in their relationship with the bank; hence, its findings may not be generalizable to other types of services and cultural settings. Practical implications: Service firms using online and mobile technologies should be aware that trust and commitment remain key to building customer loyalty. Hence, the trade-off between the benefits of these technologies and their negative impact on customer relationship needs to be factored into managerial decision making. Originality/value: The paper highlights the importance of maintaining face-to-face interactions with service customers to create robust relationships that yield loyalty, despite the growing popularity of online and mobile technologies

Border-busting microenterprises: handshakes and eye contact, not headshakes and binding contracts, the keys to stellar growth

Trust-based relationships impact foreign market success of NZ Micro-enterprises. Firms capable of building trust-based relationships as a springboard to foreign market entry and growth perform better than those reliant upon the protective mechanisms of a transactional cost approach. The implications of such findings are discussed

The impact of student engagement within a university setting: a social exchange perspective

The growing significance of the Australian tertiary education sector (Ibisworld, 2010) has created a number of managerial challenges facing higher learning institutes. This manuscript provides a conceptual framework encapsulating how student-university relationships can be modeled and the impact this is likely to have upon the range of outcomes stemming from the relationship. By drawing upon social exchange theory (Thibaut & Kelly, 1959) and in particular tapping emotional value (Barlow & Maul, 2000) it is proposed that current student interactions with the university can predict future intentions. By drawing upon these conceptual areas this research outlines a potential new direction for research into how services marketing literature within the context of the higher education sector can be modeled. This has a wide number of managerial and scholarly implications and a number of these are discussed

Firm Self-Service Technology Readiness

Purpose: Technological advances and new business models have contributed to the usage of self-service technology (SST) by firms. As SST continues to create organisational efficiencies, firms have jumped on the bandwagon without considering their own readiness to use SST. To date, there has been no systematic attempt to develop a valid scale of firm SST readiness and assess its influence on firm performance. This paper presents and validates a multidimensional firm SST readiness scale. Design/methodology/approach: A series of studies was conducted for the development and validation of the firm SST readiness scale. Study 1 included generating items from semi-structured interviews with managers and an extensive literature review. Study 2 comprised item reduction and identifying the dimensionality of the scale through exploratory factor analysis (n = 177 participants from service organisations). The reliability and validity of the scale were tested in Study 3 by performing confirmatory factor analysis using data obtained from managers of service organizations in the United States (n = 257). Study 4 measured the predictive validity of the firm SST readiness instrument using several structural models. Findings: This paper proposes a new multidimensional construct labelled ‘Firm SST Readiness’, consisting of four dimensions: managerial acquiescence, customer alignment, employee engagement, and channel integration. The predictive validity of the new scale on two key firm outcome variables: customer value and firm performance is also demonstrated. Originality/value: This is the first study to provide a comprehensive, psychometrically sound, and operationally valid measure of firm SST readiness

'Happy-Performing Managers’ thesis: Testing the Mediating Role of Job-related Affective Outcomes on the Impact of Role-Stressors on Contextual Performance

Purpose –This study extends the ‘Happy-Performing Managers’ thesis to show that managers’ job-related affective wellbeing and affective job satisfaction mediate the impact of their role stressors (ambiguity, conflict, and overload) on their contextual job performance. Design/methodology/approach – Results from an online survey of 305 managers from the private, public and third sectors in Western Australian support most of the hypotheses. The psychometric properties of all the scales were analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and the conceptual model was tested using Structural Equation Modelling. Findings – Role stressors have a direct negative effect on the managers’ affective wellbeing and affective job satisfaction, which in turn mediate the negative effects of the three role stressors on the managers’ contextual performance. Research limitations/implications – Conceptual and managerial contributions along with methodological limitations and future research directions are discussed. Originality/value – Contemporary managers face a wide-range of intrinsic and extrinsic role and environmental stressors. This research suggests that organisations may need to redesign manager roles to reduce their role stressors (ambiguity, conflict and overload) in order to optimize their contextual performance

Impact of frontline service employees’ acculturation behaviors on customer satisfaction and commitment in intercultural service encounters

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of four types of acculturation behaviors of frontline service employees (assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization) on customer satisfaction and customer commitment. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 377 ethnically diverse customers of a retail bank in New Zealand participated in this study. SmartPLS3 was used to test all the hypotheses. Findings: Assimilation and integration have positive effects on both customer satisfaction and commitment. Marginalization has a negative effect on both customer satisfaction and commitment but separation has a negative effect only on customer satisfaction and not on customer commitment. Research limitations/implications: Future research may validate and extend the authors findings in diverse cultural settings and use experimental method to explore the socio-psychological mechanisms underlying the influence of frontline service employees’ acculturation behaviors on customer satisfaction and commitment. Practical implications: This study will help managers understand the importance of service employees’ acculturation behaviors and develop suitable recruitment strategies and training programs to improve their impact on customer satisfaction and commitment. Originality/value: This study extends current research on intercultural service encounters by looking beyond the moderating effects of four types of service employees’ acculturation behaviors, to explore their direct effects on customer satisfaction and commitment