Search results

Proposes exploring the opportunities for reciprocal learning between the fields of crisis management and services marketing, and stimulating research on crises experienced by service organisations through the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach.

Initially, an overview and summary are given of a crisis management approach by organisations, in order to demonstrate the contrast between the research perspectives adopted in the fields of crisis management and services marketing. To demonstrate the potential for reciprocal learning, a key construct from each field is identified and its potential contribution to learning in the other field is critically evaluated.

The comparison between the approaches of crisis management and services marketing highlights that a concentration, in services marketing, on service failures and recoveries at individual service encounters draws attention away from the “bigger picture” and the multiple stakeholder roles that may trigger a crisis and, while a crisis management approach acknowledges customers as key stakeholders in a crisis, it fails to give enough attention to the roles adopted by customers in service organisations, especially through customer participation in service production.

The selection of one construct from each field is a limitation in itself, and the suggestions for further research are not exhaustive. The paper should stimulate new direction in services research.

The interdisciplinary approach has provided implications for both services marketers and crisis managers.

The paper is breaking new ground by linking the disciplines of services marketing and crisis management as a means of furthering an understanding of crises experienced by service organisations.

This paper addresses the issue of environmental auditing by smaller business units and compares the actions of the small firm sector with those of larger organisations. It will focus on four key themes: the necessity to bring small firms to environmental account; the relationship between organisational size and the use of environmental audits; the reasons why smaller business units are less likely to undertake an environmental audit; policies that could improve the environmental practices of smaller firms.

There has been limited research examining the influence of inter‐organisational relationships and the social capital they may nurture in building SCRES. The authors aim to explore how three dimensions of social capital (cognitive, structural and relational) may act as facilitators or enablers of the four formative capabilities for SCRES (i.e. flexibility, velocity, visibility, and collaboration), identified by Jüttner and Maklan.

Data were collected from three separate tiers of the supply chain involved in the response to an extreme event (the Lambrigg, UK rail crash). Using a social constructionist approach, the paper explores how social capital may enable the emergence of formative capabilities for resilience.

The data suggest that the dimensions of social capital may play an influential role in facilitating the four formative capabilities for SCRES and indicate the potential for these to be mutually reinforcing.

The paper provides an illustration of some links between resilience and social capital constructs within one supply network, in the context of crisis response. Different types of network and contexts may result in other outcomes and have other facilitating effects upon SCRES. These findings should be explored within other contexts.

The authors highlight that social capital may be nurtured deliberately or emerge as a consequence of relationships within a network. Formal efforts to build network communications, norms of reciprocity may create the conditions for appropriable organisations to emerge when faced with extreme events.

Drawing from a social capital perspective, this paper contributes to a fuller understanding of notions of relational capital.

This paper is concerned with an exploration of crises within the service sector. The paper proposes setting out a thesis that places “management”, as both a function and a process, at the centre of crisis generation and response rather than simply in terms of “continuity management” or service recovery. The paper argues that the nature of interactions within a service sector context generates significant problems of emergence that, in turn, create vulnerability within organisations. The paper aims to conclude by offering suggestions regarding the various points of intervention that are available to organisations.

The paper explores the nature of crisis with particular reference to the service industries. The paper is conceptual in its scope, although it draws on a number of research‐ and consultancy‐based investigations.

This paper has sought to identify three of the key elements of the crisis management literature: namely vulnerability, emergence and the barriers to learning. Each of these offers quite fundamental challenges to the practice of service recovery by highlighting the need to address both the prevention and response dynamics of the crisis process. The paper outlines the theoretical aspects of failure and outlines the process of vulnerable pathways within organisations.

The conceptual framework needs to be applied to specific cases of crisis in order to validate the framework.

The interdisciplinary approach seeks to outline key issues facing practitioners around the development of contingency plans and the limitations that such plans have embedded within them.

The paper seeks to develop understanding of the nature of vulnerability within organisations and outlines a conceptual framework for the analysis of escalation within organisations.

Offers a crisis management critique of the information systems and contingency planning literature and puts forward recommendations for disaster recovery. The internal and hardware focus of disaster recovery permits only partial examination of the causes of disasters and seeks to treat their effects or symptoms rather than to prevent them. Concludes with a series of recommendations for information systems planners. Information systems crises should be perceived as the result of an interaction between a number of internal and external factors. Preventing information systems crises, therefore, requires attention to complex system issues.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how business‐to‐business (BTB) relationships may be developed through direct marketing (DM) in the context of a Portuguese training organization.

Semi‐structured interviews (30) are undertaken, including 24 training directors and six participants from 30 different organizations. A grounded theory approach as used in data analysis is employed.

Two key roles of DM emerged from the paper: to establish a relationship between customers and training companies, this being dependent on the relevance of DM to the recipients' jobs/activities combined with the credibility of the DM source; and DM has a conditional role in the relationship development between customers and training companies. DM only has a role in developing relationships if the received DM is relevant to customers' training needs combined with positive perceptions of the past training performance in customers' minds. These perceptions are linked to quality and satisfaction, customers making an immediate association between the DM source and past training performance.

Customers want to receive DM from training companies which is relevant to their professional interests. These customers desire further follow‐up and diagnosis from training providers than is currently the case. Training providers are thus losing market opportunities. Further dialogue and interaction between companies and customers is necessary.

There has been limited empirical study of the processes and activities of DM in developing relationships in BTB contexts using a qualitative approach around customers' experiences.

Proposes stimulating future thought and research among service scholars and practicing service marketers as to the relevance of crises and crisis management issues in the service sector.

This article offers the author's perspective of the issues discussed. Eight crisis‐related questions are raised and discussed, with insights from various business leaders also woven into the discussion.

Several themes are addressed, including: crisis‐related issues (including crisis management) should be of particular interest to service organizations; although crises may be linked to specific dates or events, their occurrence is not necessarily random and unpredictable; a proactive approach to crisis management is called for; some organizations (e.g. small and powerless firms) may be more crisis‐prone than others; the term “crisis” means different things to different people and is used in both negative and positive contexts; and when organizations are interconnected with partners or constituencies, it is not always clear who “owns” a crisis – the organization or those affected by it.

To enhance service recovery efforts and ensure service continuity, the article promises to help practicing managers and service providers better understand the nature of crises and how crises might be effectively dealt with in their respective organizations.

The article takes a fresh look at the issues, highlights their particular relevance in the service sector, and includes the perspectives of numerous well‐known business leaders from around the world.

Proposes responding to earlier calls for further research into “fraudulent” or “feigned” customer complaints, and providing insights which explore and describe the motivations and forms of such deliberate “illegitimate” customer complaints.

Critical incident technique was utilized in analyzing 104 interviews with customers who had knowingly made an illegitimate complaint within the six months prior to the interview. Data collection stopped at the point of theoretical saturation and was subsequently analyzed according to the coding procedures advocated by Strauss and Corbin (open, axial and selective coding).

Two key insights emerged from data analysis. First, coding procedures revealed four distinct forms of customer complainants. These are labeled; “one‐off complainants”, “opportunistic complainants”, “conditioned complainants”, and “professional complainants”. Second, six main motives for articulating fraudulent complaints were uncovered during data analysis. These are termed; “freeloaders”, “fraudulent returners”, “fault transferors”, “solitary ego gains”, “peer‐induced esteem seekers”, and “disruptive gains”.

The study is constrained by its exploratory design and qualitative methods employed. Subsequently, future studies could employ survey methods to improve empirical generalizability. Future studies could adopt a more inclusive approach and incorporate insights from employees, managers, and other relevant actors within service encounters.

Practical implications highlighted by the study include a need for businesses to examine and, in many cases, reevaluate their personnel training, customer complaint and service recovery procedures. Furthermore, managers may wish to enforce mechanisms wherein customer complaints are monitored and tracked in a manner that assists in the identification and challenging of re‐offending fraudulent complainers.

The study constitutes the first systematic attempt to explore and describe illegitimate customer complaining behaviors.

The authors propose focusing on e‐commerce service failure and recovery through the presentation of failure and recovery strategies employed by e‐commerce service firms.

The authors employ the critical incident technique using 377 customer responses to present ten e‐tail failures and 11 e‐tail recovery strategies used by e‐commerce service firms. The authors also present data on post‐recovery satisfaction levels and propensity to switch behavior.

Findings indicate that: e‐tail customers experience different types of service failure relative to traditional retail settings; e‐tail firms employ a different series of recovery strategies relative to traditional retail settings; and post‐recovery switching by e‐tail customers can be high even with satisfying experiences.

This paper strengthens the existing failure and recovery literature by presenting data on the largest growing sector of the service industry. These findings will have value to traditional firms looking to expand to e‐commerce channels in addition to e‐commerce firms currently experiencing customer dissatisfaction.