Search results

This study aims to provide service managers and researchers with a deeper understanding of the direct on-site interactions taking place between customers.

Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), 284 incidents are analysed to develop a typology of how service customers experience direct on-site CCI.

The research reveals a wide range of CCI. A typology consisting of nine distinct categories of CCI emerged: (1) shared use space, (2) assigned space and possessions, (3) information provision, (4) assistance, (5) social conversations, (6) disrespectful attitude, (7) queuing discipline, (8) transaction efficiency and (9) undesired customers and ‘camouflaged customers’. These categories can accommodate a multitude of customer behaviours that impact, negatively or positively, on the service experience of other customers.

Future studies could be conducted following a more inclusive research design capable of gaining CCI insights from employees and managers.

Practitioners can use the typology to systematically identify the full range of specific CCI behaviours affecting their businesses. It also assists them in the analysis and understanding of individual C2C (customer-to-customer) interactions. For academics the typology makes available a comprehensive framework to guide future research into CCI.

The study constitutes the first systematic attempt to classify direct on-site CCI across a wide range of services. The typology, unrestricted by any single-industry bias, is robust and conceptually broad, and therefore highly portable across service industries.

The goal of this paper is to develop a customer typology for 3D virtual world by grouping similar Second Life (SL) virtual world users into homogeneous groups.

The research method entails the empirical analysis of 176 survey respondents. The evaluation of the data was done using cluster analysis technique. The use of cluster analysis is appropriate for developing marketplace typology.

The outcome of the study reveals the presence of three distinct customer clusters in SL virtual world: virtualskeptics, evirtualist, and virtualcentrist. Overall, the three distinct customer clusters differ on individual flow state and individual attitude toward SL.

Marketers can implement specific marketing strategies/tactics that take into consideration the similarities and differences among the members of the three groups identified in the analysis.

The study reveals the existence of unique customer use behavior in the 3D virtual world environment.

This paper aims to examine the phenomenon of disruptive service behavior: an act by a customer that negatively affects the service experience of other customers and to identify typology of disruptive behaviors of customers that can negatively alter the service experiences of by-standing customers.

Anecdotes of customers’ service experiences that were negatively affected by the behavior of other customers were gathered from several customer review and discussion websites using a netnographic study approach. Data were analyzed using a qualitative data analysis approach with an iterative and inductive methodologies.

The analysis produced a typology featuring seven categories of disruptive behaviors of customers: “Inattentive Parents with Naughty Kids”, “Oral Abusers”, “Outlandish Requesters”, “Hysterical shouters”, “Poor Hygiene Manners”, “Service Rule Breakers” and “Ignorant Customers”.

Using the typology developed in this study, managers and operators of hospitality businesses can identify specific customer service behaviors and develop strategies and actions to minimize the impact of those behaviors on the service experience of other customers.

Even though a great deal of attention has been given to how employees can damage customers’ service experiences, much less work has been conducted on disruptive behaviors of customers as an influential factor of service quality and satisfaction. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by developing a typology of disruptive customer behaviors.

The spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has drastically changed the entire market structure and shopping behaviors across the world. While shoppers rushed toward e-commerce platforms during the pandemic, the key debate that rose was on how this behavior will evolve post COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to explore the different categories of e-commerce platforms’ users and propose a distinctive customer typology in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An exploratory qualitative research design was adopted because of the novelty of the subject. In total, 43 participants were interviewed, including 27 consumers and 16 experts in the field of e-commerce.

Based on the findings, this study distinguishes between two stages of e-commerce usage during the pandemic. Furthermore, this study identifies four key typologies of e-commerce shoppers that are expected to form at the end of the coronavirus: duty-bound, e-watcher, makeshift and onli-vorous shoppers. The characteristics and businesses strategies pertaining to each of the identified groups are discussed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to identify the different stages, while proposing an innovative typology of e-commerce platform post COVID-19. This study also offers useful recommendations to deal with similar future crises.

This paper aims to empirically investigate the typologies of phygital (synaeresis of “physical” and “digital”) customer experiences (CXs) that can arise in high-tech retail based on the intensity of consumers' responses and reactions to the stimuli triggered by firms. Moreover, it explores how firms attempt to shape the architecture of the phygital CXs. Notably, this article identifies the flexible and agile strategies implemented by firms to enhance the several typologies of phygital CXs, with the intention of better exploiting physical and digital features to respond to the differences in customers' needs, preferences and expectations.

This study performs an in-depth exploratory single-case study based on semi-structured interviews with the customers, managers and employees of the Webidoo Store.

This study develops a framework illustrating the main typologies of ordinary (“hostile”, “controversial” and “disappointing”) and extraordinary (“passionate” and “explorative”) CXs that can arise in phygital contexts. Also, it identifies some key flexible and agile strategies (“decompressive strategy”, “mentoring strategy”, “prompting strategy” and “entertaining strategy”) that companies might follow to adjust their offerings and respond quickly to the different forms of phygital CXs to create a more compelling experience tailored to customers' needs, preferences and expectations.

Among the study's limitations are the single-case study methodology and a specific setting like the Italian one. As a result, future studies could broaden the study to include other research contexts and countries. The paper offers significant managerial insights based on the many forms of CX across ordinary and extraordinary CXs. Thus, it provides critical takeaways for businesses to meet customer demand.

This paper analyzes the different typologies of ordinary and extraordinary CXs that could occur in phygital contexts based on the intensity of consumers' responses and reactions to firms' stimuli. Also, it explores how firms attempt to shape the architecture of the phygital CXs through flexible and agile strategies. From this paper, managers and decision-makers can reflect on successful strategies they could use to affect the stimuli to which customers respond in an agile manner, thus enhancing phygital CXs.

The complexity of customer relationships has been recognized in the relationship marketing literature. Yet, the understanding of how this complexity impacts on the formation and development of different relationship forms is limited. Focusing on the development of customer‐service provider relationships in a financial services context, this paper aims to critically examine the nature and formation of business‐to‐consumer service relationships.

Qualitative methods were employed, with in‐depth interviews undertaken with a sample of UK bank customers.

The complexity of customer relationships was documented by approaching relationships as multidimensional, dynamic and contextual. A relationship typology based on four key relationship components (trust, commitment, buyer‐seller bonds, and relationship benefits) is proposed. This typology suggests that for a relationship to exist it does not necessarily have to encompass an emotional dimension. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the importance of the fit between customers' relational expectations and their experiences with service providers in developing long‐term committed relationships.

The study was limited to the UK context. The extension of this study to other sectors or financial institutions operating in different regulatory and technological environments needs to be tested.

It is crucial that relationships are viewed as multidimensional, taking into account various relationship components. Since different relationship components influence relationships differently, organisations need to develop different relationship marketing strategies for each consumer segment according to consumers' relational expectations.

Building on preceding research, this paper broadens understanding of the complexity of customer‐firm relationships by presenting insight into the affective element of relationships and highlighting the role of the fit between customers' relational expectations and their experiences in relationship development.

This research sets about discovering if it is possible to identify distinct, practice‐relevant and addressable clusters by means of selected criteria for constructing typologies – such as psychographic, culturally‐specific and purchasing behaviour‐relevant features – which permit an online supplier to efficiently and effectively focus on attractive consumer segments.

To answer the research question, the study conducted an online survey with 1,011 participants. The respondents were from three countries, each with culturally‐distinct features: France, Germany and the US. Underpinning the research are theoretically‐secured constructs of purchasing behaviour on the internet.

Cluster analysis confirmed the outstanding validity of a three‐cluster‐solution (97.7 per cent score) – risk‐averse doubters, open‐minded online shoppers, and reserved information‐seekers. Discriminant analysis shows that certain constructs, particularly “neuroticism”, “willingness to buy” and “shopping pleasure”, separate the clusters best.

An extension of our clustering approach to more countries and especially non‐western cultures promises interesting results. Furthermore, researchers are encouraged to enlarge the catalogue of clustering variables to allow an even more specific fine‐tuning of the main clusters identified in this research.

The classification created provides the potential for a much closer fit between a company's goods and services and heterogeneous customer needs.

The principal contribution of the paper is the identification of three different clusters of internet users. This can be of good use for shaping internet marketing, particularly by virtue of the likely stability over time from cultural and personality characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a typology of institutions enabling or constraining customer centricity and value co-creation in service ecosystems; illustrate the various types of institutions with examples from healthcare; and provide case study evidence on how pharmaceutical companies react to and induce institutional change.

First, a typology of institutions enabling or constraining customer centricity and value co-creation is proposed and illustrated with examples from healthcare. Next, to clarify how companies deal with these institutions by reacting to or inducing institutional change, two case companies from the pharmaceutical industry are described.

The research identifies and illustrates nine types of institutions (culture, structure, processes, metrics, language, practices, IP, legislation and general beliefs) grouped by three levels of analysis (micro, meso and macro). Furthermore, the findings of the two case studies indicate that companies react to, but also proactively induce, institutional change.

The investigation is limited to two case studies.

Organizations need to understand the micro-, meso- and macro-level institutions of their service ecosystem; react to institutional changes imposed by other actors; and proactively change institutions by breaking, making or maintaining them.

Pharmaceutical companies can improve patient well-being by inducing institutional change.

This research develops a mid-range theory of service ecosystem institutions by developing a typology. This typology is empirically examined in a healthcare context.

Using customers' evaluations of electronic service quality (e‐SQ), the purpose of this paper is to analyze internet buyer behavior and propose a typology of online buyers for wine web sites based on e‐SQ dimensions.

In all, 1,813 French internet customers filled in an online questionnaire after completing a specified task on 18 selected web sites selling wine directly to customers.

Analysis of the results confirmed the structure of the NetQual scale for wine web sites using structural equation modeling and identified three groups of customers: the “disappointed” the “reassurance seeker” and the “opportunist”.

This study has some limitations. One of them is related to the fact that the target population is representative of the French internet buyer population and not of the customer profile for the web sites analyzed. Future research should integrate customers of the different web sites analyzed and, in order to have an intercultural comparison, non‐French wine web sites should also be included in future studies.

The seven dimensions of the NetQual scale are important for consumers when they evaluate wine web sites and contribute to identify three groups of internet buyers of French wine web sites. For each group, this study provides recommendations for practitioners in order to transform visitors into buyers.

The increasingly systematic use of the internet in consumers' decision‐making processes, combined with the growth in the number of wine web sites, has led researchers and practitioners to examine service quality issues in an online context. Existing typologies do not take into account the importance of e‐SQ dimensions. This paper's typology shows how these dimensions contribute to differentiating the groups.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how tracking of products by the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology may describe customer behaviour in real-time.

The study was conducted as a field experiment, where a commercially available RFID platform was deployed in the fitting rooms of a fashion retail store.

The study demonstrates an application of in-store RFID tracking to describe customer behaviour, and some practical challenges of utilising such technology. An example typology of four fitting room traits was constructed based on the data collected.

Different customer types most likely require and respond differently to attention from the personnel operating the fitting room area. By identifying customer behaviour in real-time, it is possible to deliver “best practice” shop stewardship and create a more personalised retail experience.

The study is based on real-life retail settings, rather than anecdotal management observations or economic and demographic indicators. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, few contributions combine RFID and consumer behaviour outside conceptual work or laboratory experiments.