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1 – 7 of 7Corina Braun and Karsten Hadwich
This paper aims to explore the determinants of perceived internal service complexity in internal service encounters. In this context, the nature of internal service complexity is…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the determinants of perceived internal service complexity in internal service encounters. In this context, the nature of internal service complexity is considered, to identify its promoting and limiting factors, as well as its non-linear effects on internal service quality.
Design/methodology/approach
To acquire information on factors influencing internal service complexity, a broad literature review was conducted. Furthermore, to validate and verify these results, structural equation modeling’ was used in the context of a quantitative study with 705 internal customers.
Findings
The results revealed four promoting and seven limiting complexity determinants at organizational, interdepartmental and internal supplier-related levels. Moreover, the findings showed that an optimal, moderate level of internal service complexity maximizes internal service quality.
Research limitations/implications
As the findings are restricted to this study, further research should be conducted with regard to different types of companies and internal customers. Furthermore, future research should take variability over time into account. Executing a longitudinal approach to internal service complexity might therefore be appropriate.
Practical implications
Managers should note that exclusively reducing internal service complexity is insufficient; rather, a hybrid strategy of lowering and controlling is indispensable for an optimization. Based on the identified complexity determinants, a three-step guidance to optimize internal service is proposed.
Originality/value
Despite examining the construct complexity, previous research has neither analyzed internal service complexity nor studied its determinants. This paper provides an empirical model that analyzes inhibiting and promoting factors of internal service complexity as well as its non-linear effects on internal service quality.
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Corina Braun, Verena Batt, Manfred Bruhn and Karsten Hadwich
Relationship marketing scholars and managers have recognized the potential of customer engagement to enhance business performance and customer value. Therefore, the purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Relationship marketing scholars and managers have recognized the potential of customer engagement to enhance business performance and customer value. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that different types of customer engagement behaviors have on their perceived benefits.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted two empirical studies. In the first step, 69 in-depth interviews were held to identify important customer engagement behaviors and targeted benefits. Then, in the second step, a quantitative study with 255 participants was used to match the identified customer engagement behaviors with the targeted benefits.
Findings
The results reveal that there are three aggregated types of customer engagement behaviors (“value creation-focused customer engagement”, “online-focused customer engagement” and “customer-to-customer interaction-focused customer engagement”). These types of customer engagement behaviors lead to different targeted benefits (social, relationship, autonomous, economic, altruistic and self-fulfillment benefits).
Research limitations/implications
A consideration of the influencing factors of the different customer-engagement-behavior types, including customers’ motives for their engagement with a company, would potentially enhance the findings. Furthermore, a closer investigation of the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and customer engagement types can also provide deeper insights into the reasons for engaging with a certain firm or brand.
Practical implications
The findings provide managers with information on how to segment customers according to their customer engagement type and associated benefits and thereby enable them to manage customer engagement behaviors more profitably.
Originality/value
The results make a key contribution to the emerging research field of customer engagement by gaining deeper insights into the benefits associated with different customer engagement behaviors. It becomes clear that different customer engagement types aim at receiving various benefits.
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Benjamin Biesinger, Karsten Hadwich and Manfred Bruhn
(Digital) servitization, referring to service-driven strategies and their increasing implementation in manufacturing, is one of the most rapidly growing areas in industrial…
Abstract
Purpose
(Digital) servitization, referring to service-driven strategies and their increasing implementation in manufacturing, is one of the most rapidly growing areas in industrial service research. However, the cultural change involved in successful servitization is a phenomenon that is widely observed but poorly understood. This research aims to clarify the processes of social construction as manufacturers change their organizational culture to transform into industrial service providers.
Design/methodology/approach
This research takes a systematic approach to integrate disparate literature on servitization into a cohesive framework for cultural change, which is purposefully augmented by rationale culled from organizational learning and sensemaking literature.
Findings
The organizational learning framework for cultural change in servitization introduces a dynamic perspective on servitizing organizations by explaining social processes between organizational and member-level cultural properties. It identifies three major cultural orientations toward service, digital and learning that govern successful servitization.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the servitization literature by presenting a new approach to reframe and explore cultural change processes across multiple levels, thus providing a concrete starting point for further research in this area.
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Karsten Hadwich, Dominik Georgi, Sven Tuzovic, Julia Büttner and Manfred Bruhn
Health service quality is an important determinant for health service satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate requirements of e‐health…
Abstract
Purpose
Health service quality is an important determinant for health service satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate requirements of e‐health services and to develop a measurement model to analyze the construct of “perceived e‐health service quality.”
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adapts the C‐OAR‐SE procedure for scale development by Rossiter. The focal aspect is the “physician‐patient relationship” which forms the core dyad in the healthcare service provision. Several in‐depth interviews were conducted in Switzerland; first with six patients (as raters), followed by two experts of the healthcare system (as judges). Based on the results and an extensive literature research, the classification of object and attributes is developed for this model.
Findings
The construct e‐health service quality can be described as an abstract formative object and is operationalized with 13 items: accessibility, competence, information, usability/user friendliness, security, system integration, trust, individualization, empathy, ethical conduct, degree of performance, reliability, and ability to respond.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations include the number of interviews with patients and experts as well as critical issues associated with C‐OAR‐SE. More empirical research is needed to confirm the quality indicators of e‐health services.
Practical implications
Health care providers can utilize the results for the evaluation of their service quality. Practitioners can use the hierarchical structure to measure service quality at different levels. The model provides a diagnostic tool to identify poor and/or excellent performance with regard to the e‐service delivery.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to knowledge with regard to the measurement of e‐health quality and improves the understanding of how customers evaluate the quality of e‐health services.
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Robert Kwame Dzogbenuku, Joshua Kofi Doe and George Kofi Amoako
This study evaluates the mediating role of social media entertainment on social information (content) and social media performance, during the COVID-19 era.
Abstract
Purpose
This study evaluates the mediating role of social media entertainment on social information (content) and social media performance, during the COVID-19 era.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data were randomly gathered from 373 students from two top universities (public and private) in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African economy. Data analysis was achieved utilizing the partial least square–structural equation model (PLS-SEM).
Findings
Social media (SM) entertainment partly mediates the link between social media content and social media performance of students, suggesting that social media entertainment is almost indispensable in creating social media content to achieve optimum performance among tertiary students.
Research limitations/implications
The use of cross-sectional data alone for this study does not give us the opportunity to observe the social media activities of respondents over a longer period. Future studies could, therefore, include longitudinal data.
Practical implications
The findings in this study suggest that faculties can modify their pedagogical activities to include social media and reflect some entertainment content, since it has an influence on student performance within the social media space.
Social implications
SM has a great influence on students' performance socially and academically; therefore, educational stakeholders like university authorities, faculties, parents and guardians, and the government should consider social media as a tool for attaining educational goals.
Originality/value
The study extends the use of UTAUT2, in understanding students' learning and behavior processes, by linking antecedents of adoption to the post-adoption effect.
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Jorge Carlos Fiestas Lopez Guido, Jee Won Kim, Peter T.L. Popkowski Leszczyc, Nicolas Pontes and Sven Tuzovic
Retailers increasingly endeavour to implement artificial intelligence (AI) innovations, such as humanoid social robots (HSRs), to enhance customer experience. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Retailers increasingly endeavour to implement artificial intelligence (AI) innovations, such as humanoid social robots (HSRs), to enhance customer experience. This paper investigates the interactive effect of HSR intelligence and consumers' speciesism on their perceptions of retail robots as sales assistants.
Design/methodology/approach
Three online experiments testing the effects of HSRs' intellectual intelligence on individuals' perceived competence and, consequently, their decision to shop at a retail store that uses HSRs as sales assistants are reported. Furthermore, the authors examine whether speciesism attenuates these effects such that a mediation effect is likely to be observed for individuals low in speciesism but not for those with high levels of speciesism. Data for all studies were collected on Prolific and analysed with SPSS to perform a logistic regression and PROCESS 4.0 (Hayes, 2022) for the mediation and moderated-mediation analysis.
Findings
The findings show that the level of speciesism moderates the relationship between HSR intellectual intelligence and perceived competence such that an effect is found for low but not for high HSR intelligence. When HSR intellectual intelligence is low, individuals with higher levels of speciesism (vs low) rate the HSR as less competent and display lower HSR acceptance (i.e. customers' decision to shop using retail robots as sales assistants).
Originality/value
This research responds to calls in research to adopt a human-like perspective to understand the compatibility between humans and robots and determine how personality traits, such as a person's level of speciesism, may affect the acceptance of AI technologies replicating human characteristics (Schmitt, 2019). To the best of the authors' knowledge, the present research is the first to examine the moderating role of speciesism on customer perceptions of non-human retail assistants (i.e. human-like and intelligent service robots). This study is the first to showcase that speciesism, normally considered a negative social behaviour, can positively influence individuals' decisions to engage with HSRs.
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