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This paper aims to examine experiences of low customer power in service interactions and the impact of those experiences on customers’ engagement and disengagement towards a firm. It subsequently identifies how such experiences may affect customers’ wellbeing.

The authors conducted visual elicitation interviews with 30 customers of a range of services. Data were analysed thematically using abductive reasoning.

Low customer power is influenced by several factors perceived by customers as associated with the firm and/or the context of the customer–firm relationship. Results show that low power drives negative customer engagement and may result in behavioural disengagement. Low customer power, negative engagement and disengagement can have negative implications for customers’ eudaimonic (physical and financial) and hedonic wellbeing.

Future studies might explore specific service contexts and power dynamics across service ecosystems and should further analyse the implications of these relationships on firms’ strategic organisational responses.

Firms should monitor customer power and explore means of enhancing the wellbeing of their customers through strategies designed to increase customer power, thus, reducing negative customer engagement and avoiding detrimental impact on customer wellbeing.

This study reframes discussions on low customer power in relation to firms and its impact on firms and customers. It identifies low customer power as a key variable in the study of customer engagement, disengagement and wellbeing.

This study aims to investigate how relatively weaker manufacturers respond to the dominance of stronger suppliers and/or customers. The study also analyzes how the competitive intensity perceived by manufacturers moderates their responses to powerful chain partners.

Using hierarchical regression, data from 1,417 manufacturing companies sampled from the fifth and sixth versions of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey were analyzed.

This study found that relatively weaker manufacturers often adopt exploration strategies to countervail the dominance of suppliers and adopt exploitation strategies to deal with more powerful customers. In dealing with both dominant suppliers and customers, relatively weaker manufacturers are prone to adopt exploration and exploitation strategies simultaneously and hence become ambidextrous. Furthermore, the link between dominance in supply chains and the exploration (exploitation) strategy is strengthened (weakened) as market competition perceived by manufacturers intensifies.

The contribution of this paper is multi-folds. First, this paper develops and test a novel theoretical model on how relatively weaker manufacturers create tailored strategies to defend their positions in the supply chain. Second, it integrates resource dependence theory and organizational learning theory to propose that relatively weaker manufacturers could use a unique configuration of exploration and exploitation strategies to counteract the dominance of their suppliers and customers. Third, it investigates supply chain power by considering the manufacturers’ upstream and downstream powerful partners together, rather than individually and fourth, it reveals that relationships linking supply chain power to manufacturers’ tailored strategies are contingent on competitive intensity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Canadian and Indian consumers' national cultural orientations and banking service quality expectations. Using two of Hofstede's five cultural dimensions operationalized at the individual level, and five dimensions of service quality from Parasuraman et al.'s SERVQUAL scale, the aim is to develop and test hypotheses relating national culture values to service quality expectations.

The study is quantitative in nature, using surveys (online and written) from respondents in Canada and India. Data were analyzed using dummy variable regression and structural equation modeling.

The results show that the importance of various SERVQUAL dimensions is related to Hofstede's power distance and individualism cultural dimensions both at the individual and national levels. More specifically, consumers low on power distance expect highly responsive and reliable service. High power distance customers attach higher importance to tangible service attributes. Consumers high on individualism expect lower empathy and assurance from service providers. Furthermore, Indian consumers attach higher importance to tangible attributes, whereas Canadian consumers find service reliability more important. However, differences in overall service quality expectations are not significantly different across the two countries.

The results suggest that managers must be aware of the cultural values of the buyer/client in order to fully understand the most effective means of establishing and nurturing the service delivery process and, consequently, establishing service quality expectations. Banks will be more successful when service delivery is in tune with cultural imperatives, particularly sub‐group cultural imperatives.

The study provides an original insight into the manner in which national culture impacts on service quality expectations. Furthermore, the study identifies individual sub‐cultural influences that shape service quality expectations.

This paper aims to develop a research model that proposes a relationship among customer power, psychological empowerment and voice behavior of frontline employees (FLEs). The model also suggests that managerial openness, as a result of the manager–employee interface, contributes by mediating the effect of customer power on psychological empowerment. As a result of the job characteristic–employee interface, task interdependence is suggested as a moderator in the relationship between psychological empowerment and voice behavior.

To analyze the data, a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling procedure using LISREL 8.5 were used. Next, the conditional process modeling was fitted to test the moderated mediation hypotheses. In this stage, the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating effect of task interdependence voice behavior were tested with bootstrapping methods.

The results showed a significant relationship between customer power and FLEs’ voice behavior, establishing psychological empowerment as an intervening mechanism. Thus, customer power can be a signal of appreciation for passive and job uncontrollability to service employees. The findings also suggested the mediating role of managerial openness, which delivered a negative effect of customer power on the FLEs’ psychological empowerment. Task interdependence enhanced the link between psychological empowerment and voice behavior.

The specific service sector chosen for this study was retail banks. Furthermore, the study was undertaken among the FLEs of banks in South Korea. Having FLEs self-report on managerial openness raises a general concern that those employees with little experience may not have fully understood whether a manager’s current behaviors are open-minded and empowering. Lastly, the perceptions of customer power, psychological empowerment, managerial openness, task interdependence and voice behavior that all came from FLEs naturally raises concerns about the influence of method bias in these results.

The significant negative and indirect relationship observed between the perception of customer power and employees’ voice through managerial openness and employees’ psychological empowerment suggested that the double deviation effect of customer power on employees’ psychological empowerment through the interface between customer and employee (customer power) and manager and employee (managerial openness). This study provides insight into the management of service customer–employee and manager–employee interactions to encourage employee psychological empowerment.

The main emphasis of the model is on the so-called voice behaviors that FLEs exhibit as an overall consequence of various service employee interfaces. The management of FLEs has been extensively discussed in the services marketing literature. However, few research studies have attempted to link and combine the effect of various interfaces to which employees are exposed on employees’ voice behavior. In this study, three interfaces that the FLEs are always exposed to were examined simultaneously: that of the employee and the customer (perceived customer power), the interface of the employee and the manager (managerial openness) and that of the employee and his or her job characteristic (task interdependence).

Sexual harassment is often the result of the abuse of power by perpetrators over victims. This study investigated the effects of customer reward power, customer coercive power, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and personal factors on full-time life insurance salespeople's intentions to report customer sexual harassment.

This study collected quantitative data through questionnaire surveys. A total of 743 valid questionnaires were collected.

Two types of customer sexual harassment (quid pro quo and hostile work environment) were evaluated. PBC was found to be the most influential factor affecting whistleblowing intentions. Regression analysis indicated that customer reward power significantly affected whistleblowing intentions toward quid pro quo customer sexual harassment. The male salespeople experienced stronger customer coercive power than did the female salespeople.

Not every society views customer power and customer sexual harassment in the same manner. By examining Taiwan's life insurance salespeople and including the concept of customer power, this study broadens the understanding of whistleblowing intentions toward the two types of customer sexual harassment.

Research on the relationship between customer bargaining power and supplier performance in supplier–customer relationships has flourished in recent decades. This study aims to empirically investigate whether product market overlap (PMO) in a supply chain moderates the effect of customer bargaining power on supplier profitability.

This study uses large-scale secondary data from multiple databases. Econometric panel data techniques are used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that PMO in a supplier–customer relationship and PMO in supplier–supplier relationships both exacerbate the negative effect of the bargaining power of customers on supplier profitability.

This study contributes to the field of supply chain management. This study brings new insights into the ongoing debate surrounding the relationship between customer bargaining power and supplier profitability. The study also contributes to the literature on supply chain networks by showing the impact of indirect supply chain relationships.

This study aims to examine how three types of information technology (IT) capability (supplier technological capability, customer technology-sensing capability and relatedness of IT infrastructure) facilitate knowledge acquisition by the customer when the supplier is dominant in the supplier-customer relationship.

The unit of analysis was project. The authors designed two different questionnaires that were responded by the project manager of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software supplier and the contact person of the customer organization in the same project, respectively. The two questionnaires were matched by means of project name. The final sample included a total of 136 projects. The authors used ordinary least squares to test the research hypotheses.

The authors found that supplier power advantage negatively influenced knowledge acquisition by the customer. The three types of IT capability did not have direct impacts on knowledge acquisition. The moderating effect of customer technology-sensing capability was not significant either. However, supplier technological capability and relatedness of IT infrastructure attenuated the negative effect of supplier power advantage on knowledge acquisition, indicating that both factors promoted knowledge acquisition.

Knowledge acquisition is important for the success of software implementation in the supplier-customer relationship. There is limited evidence in the literature on how to apply externally oriented IT capability to enhance knowledge management, improve knowledge acquisition and manage the business relationship that is typically dominated by the software supplier. The authors provide evidence to examine related issues.

This paper aims to incorporate material derived from four case study analyses of industrial business-to-business relationships. Although there is a substantial amount of literature on the concept of power, there is little academic research studying the “perception” of power – especially that of key customers’ suppliers – relative to that of the buying company. This paper develops a framework, which provides a different set of perceptions regarding the nature of supplier-key customer relationship.

The case studies involve four firms that have been long-term suppliers to a number of global industrial companies and who have set up key account programs to work with them. Three suppliers are in the corrugated cardboard industry (two large and one medium-sized company) and one supplier (a medium-sized company) is in the coding equipment industry.

The study develops a power framework, which can be used in the analysis of buyer/supplier power and points out the risk that can arise when one or more of the parties involved operates on the basis of perceptions that are incorrect.

The results suggest that the actors’ power perceptions are important constructs, which have so far been neglected in the academic literature, and stress the role of “subjectivity” in the actors’ analysis of power.

The active voice behavior of customers is crucial to the development of enterprises, but few studies have examined how to promote customer voice behavior. Does a sense of power drive consumers to provide advice to the companies involved? This paper aims to address the issue.

By conducting three experiments, the authors proved the effect of the sense of power on customer voice behavior. In Study 1, the authors manipulated subjects' sense of power levels (high vs low) through an episodic recall task. Tangible goods were used as experimental material. The authors verified that power had a positive impact on customer voice behavior. In Study 2, the authors changed the experimental materials to intangible service products and used role-playing tasks to manipulate the subjects' sense of power. Study 2 validated the mediating role played by self-confidence in the main effect. In Study 3, the authors validated the moderating role of self-doubt for the power effect.

Based on the approach-inhibition theory of power and the situated focus theory of power, the current research finds that there is a positive effect of consumer's sense of power on their voice behavior. It also further analyzes the mediating role of self-confidence, the mechanism by which power affects customer voice behavior. However, this positive effect does not always occur. Self-doubt plays a moderating role in this relationship. If the individual's self-doubt level is high, the positive effect of power on the individual's self-confidence cannot be observed, which means that self-doubt is a boundary condition for the positive effect of power on individuals' self-confidence.

The authors discuss the influence of sense of power on customer voice behavior and test the mediating role of self-confidence and its boundary conditions. The results show that consumers are more confident in themselves when they feel a sense of power and are more likely to proactively make suggestions to the company. However, the overall effect is not obvious when consumers have a high level of self-doubt. As a psychological state of consumers that firms can easily manipulate, the effects of power on consumer behavior remain to be explored by the authors.

The findings of current research suggest that empowering consumers who are less self-doubting can increase their self-confidence, which, in turn, can lead to more active expression and feedback on issues that need improvement in their experience. Thus, companies can enhance consumers' sense of power through some ways, such as using environmental elements to stimulate consumers' sense of power.

There are few studies on how the sense of power affects consumers' voice behavior. Prior work on voice behavior has focused on the perspective of customers' perception of the social exchange relationship between themselves and enterprises. The research explores the strategies suitable for enterprises to promote customer voice behavior from the perspective of the sense of power, and the findings contribute to the research on the sense of power and consumer voice behavior.

This study aims to examine the relationships between power, relationship commitment and customer integration by replicating and extending Zhao et al. (2008) in China and the USA.

This study collects data from 210 manufacturers in China and 202 manufacturers in the USA. In this study, structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data.

This study finds that normative relationship commitment is positively associated with customer integration and expert and referent power are positively associated with normative relationship commitment in China and the USA. Reward and coercive power are positively associated with instrumental relationship commitment in China, whereas referent power is negatively associated. Referent, legal legitimate and reward power are positively associated with instrumental relationship commitment in the USA, whereas expert and legitimate power are negatively associated.

This study provides empirical evidence on the distinct impacts of different bases of mediated and non-mediated power in China and the USA, contributing to the development of the power-relationship commitment theory. The findings also provide insights into where and when the theory applies. The results can provide guidelines for managers to adjust the use of power to improve relationship commitment and customer integration in China and the USA.