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Technological advances have made a significant impact on the banking sector in recent years, with a key development being the introduction of technological and remote channels of interaction. While some research has been undertaken to establish the level of acceptance by customers of these channels, most of this research has examined retail banking customers’ attitudes to, and adoption of, remote interaction channels. This paper reports the findings of a study which has investigated channel preferences amongst corporate customers of a leading retail and corporate bank in the UK. Specifically, it seeks to differentiate between smaller business customers and larger customers. The key findings are that all customers prefer personalised interaction and that smaller customers, who are generally less profitable for banks than large clients, show relatively less willingness to embrace technological means of communication and to insist on personal interaction with their bank.

Self-service technology (SST) has become popular in many areas, but consumers from many countries still prefer human-provided services. Why is this so? The purpose of this paper is to understand the possible reasons by integrating two perspectives: personal characteristics marketing and the information systems success model (IS success model).

The authors propose an integrated model and conduct an empirical questionnaire survey which generates a total of 345 valid responses.

The authors find that personal technology anxiety and the need for interpersonal interaction are critical factors that affect SST usage continuance intention. Furthermore, personal technology anxiety affects the consumer’s perception of the quality of both the information and the SST system itself, which determines the level of satisfaction and the intention to continue to use the system. Second, the IS success model perspective reveals that the following factors determine the level of perceived satisfaction with SST: information quality, system quality, enjoyment and design. However, only information quality and system quality affect the intention to continue SST usage. The authors also find that satisfaction and the need for interpersonal interaction also determine the SST usage continuance intention.

The IS success model is found to be helpful in understanding the underlying reasons for this. To aid in the development of successful future SSTs, these findings can be referenced by countries in which SST is not so popular. Our proposed model further enhances the theoretical development of the IS success model.

This paper proposes a model that extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) by identifying factors that influence consumers' acceptance of augmented reality (AR) self-service technologies (AR-based SSTs) in the retail sector, resulting in the Augmented Reality in Retail Model (ARiR Model).

This study is based on an online questionnaire responded to by 284 makeup-using women from Nicaragua and the USA. It is based on an AR mobile app used to shop in retail stores. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling was used to validate the ARiR model and test the hypotheses.

Aesthetics and navigation are significant predictors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (PEOU), and self-efficacy also explains perceived ease of use. Technology readiness and the need for personal interaction were not found to be influencing factors. A cross-cultural comparison indicated that both countries have similar overall attitudes towards AR-based SSTs.

This paper provides insights into the perceived value of, and motives for customer acceptance of, AR-based SSTs, which can serve as guidelines for their future implementation. Furthermore, it validates and confirms the application of the proposed ARiR model for technology acceptance in both developed and developing countries.

The paper provides new insights for retailers on the implementation of AR at the point of sale.

The model extends the original TAM to AR and introduces five new constructs: need for personal interaction, aesthetics, navigation, self-efficacy and technology readiness. It was tested in both a developing and a developed country.

Purpose – This study attempts to explore further the relation between performance information and trust as the main control levers in inter-firm transactional relationships.

Design/methodology/approach – After discussing the interaction between information and trust from different theoretical perspectives, the study examines the case of a multinational company working in the pharmaceutical industry. Material has been collected through interviews with managers and documental analyses, focusing on the relations between the company and its partner suppliers.

Findings – A theoretical systematisation is provided, distinguishing three main perspectives: (1) the transactional perspective, strictly derived from transaction cost economics assumptions, which denies any role to trust; (2) the relational perspective, which, in examining inter-firm trust, assumes similarities with inter-personal trust; (3) the institutional perspective, which, based on the sociological distinction of “trust in abstract systems” and “trust in persons”, is intended to identify institutional factors explaining management accounting changes. Case discussion shows that the institutional propositions fit the empirical evidence better, for both trust in persons and in systems are important as control levers, but their relevance differs along the value chain: while trust in persons is more relevant in the less-programmable phases, trust in systems is more developed in the more programmable one.

Research implications – The paper contributes to the literature on inter-organisational control by providing more insights into the interaction between information and trust as control levers.

Originality/value – The focus on value chain phases enables us to analyse how different control patterns or archetypes can be co-present in a given relationship.

Using retail banking as a setting and focusing specifically on elderly customers (i.e. individuals aged 60 or more), this study aims to deepen the current understanding of how the physical context and the need for human interaction influence elderly customers' attitudes toward self-service technologies (SSTs) and their behavior.

Using face-to-face questionnaires, a sample of 505 elderly bank customers was collected. Data were analyzed using a multi-method approach, combining a moderated mediation analysis with a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

The findings suggest that a pleasant retail space may result in a positive attitude toward SSTs, which increases their co-creation intention. It also highlights that need for interaction of elderly customers with employees has detrimental effects on their attitude toward SSTs.

The current analysis was carried out among Italian elderly banks' customers. Thus, the results are highly dependent on the context of the analysis. In addition, it does not consider the different degrees of knowledge and experience the elderly may have with technology.

This study suggests that providing access and support for using technology may be essential for banks to facilitate SSTs adoption in elderly customers.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to examine the influence of the physical context on elderly customers' attitudes toward SSTs and their consequent behavioral intentions. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of the human touch for these particular customers.

Feedback is a central element of the learning experience yet, until recently, few studies have focused directly on what students think about feedback. This paper seeks to address this issue.

Data collected as part of a larger study investigating reasons for consistently low ratings of feedback across the higher education sector are reported. The larger study includes Rowe and Wood's Student Feedback Questionnaire (SFQ), which gathers quantitative data on student perceptions and preferences for feedback, but also includes two open‐ended questions inviting students to give written comments on why they believe feedback is important, and how the feedback they are getting could be improved.

Focusing on responses to the first open‐ended question and viewing comments in the context of the larger study and its findings, an analysis is offered of the students' responses, extracting seven different student conceptions of the function of feedback.

Feedback serves a wide variety of functions in the lives of students, not limited to the implication of feedback for learning. Students are most likely to succeed in an environment where their broader social needs are met.

The findings reported in this paper contribute to an area of educational research previously neglected, drawing attention to: the importance which students attach to feedback as a teacher's personal response to them as individuals; and the need to take into account students' perceptions – both positive and negative – of the emotional aspects of feedback.

The COVID-19 crisis experience is shaping new guidelines for learning activities that need to be developed from an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective based on the analysis and assessment of potential impacts and social expectations.

The research is devoted to the study of modern e-learning challenges in the context of social distance, the analysis of learning experience, problems and opportunities associated with online learning. The research was carried out at the “Blinded for peer review” and involved 300 graduate students. A qualitative method based on a two-step process was used in the study. The discussion allowed participants to discuss and compare personal learning experiences primarily related to the COVID-19 crisis.

The results of the study demonstrated that online learning is an efficient tool for the development of hard skills while being less effective for the improvement of soft skills; they also allowed us to identify important aspects of professional personnel training which should be taken into account while developing a strategy for harmonizing on-campus and online education with the diversification of curricula by various pedagogical technologies and digital tools, as well as bringing social interactions into classroom activities.

Due to the fact that most study participants were technical and economic students, it was concluded that the e-learning format is an effective methodology for the development of technical and digital skills of students.

Despite the growing number of cashierless stores, few studies have examined the factors that influence the success of such stores. This paper aims to identify the influence of store attributes in customers’ affective attitudes regarding cashierless stores and to understand how customers’ need for interaction and risk reduction affect the relationship between customer experiences and evaluation.

Quantitative research is conducted using a partial least squares structural equation model. Data was collected from 174 customers with cashierless store experience.

The results identify the influence of hedonic and utilitarian characteristics on affective attitudes and the impact of attitudes on behavioral intentions. Also, multigroup analysis reveals that hedonic features are stronger indicators of customer attitudes among those with a low need for interaction, whereas utilitarian attributes are more important among customers with a low need for risk reduction. Customers’ affective attitudes are stronger influences on behavioral intentions among members of customer groups with a low need for both interaction and risk reduction.

To add to the limited research in customers’ experience with unstaffed stores, this study provides useful insights to achieve sustainable growth in the retailing context. Managerial considerations suggest that operators of cashierless stores should design store environments to guarantee customers’ purchasing and recommendation intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of Value Fusion to describe how value can emerge from the use of mobile, networked technology by consumers, firms, and entities such as non‐consumers, a firm's competitors, and others simultaneously.

The paper discusses the combination of characteristics of mobile devices that enable Value Fusion and discusses specific value and benefits to consumers and firms of being mobile and networked. Value Fusion is introduced and defined and set apart from related, other conceptualizations of value. Examples are provided of Value Fusion and the necessary conditions for Value Fusion to occur are discussed. Also discussed are the conditions under which the use of mobile, networked technology by consumers and firms may lead to Value Confusion instead of Value Fusion. Several research questions are proposed to further enhance the understanding and management of Value Fusion.

The combination of portable, personal, networked, textual/visual and converged characteristics of mobile devices enables firms and consumers to interact and communicate, produce and consume benefits, and create value in new ways that have not been captured by popular conceptualizations of value. These traditional conceptualizations include customer value, experiential value, customer lifetime value, and customer engagement value. Value Fusion is defined as value that can be achieved for the entire network of consumers and firms simultaneously, just by being on the mobile network. Value Fusion results from producers and consumers: individually or collectively; actively and passively; concurrently; interactively or in aggregation contributing to a mobile network; in real time; and just‐in‐time.

This paper synthesizes insights from the extant value literature that by and large has focused on either the customer's or the firm's perspective, but rarely blended the two.

Service customers perceive quality in the moment of interaction with the service provider. In times of globalization, it is important for a growing number of service companies to ask if the perceived service encounter quality differs among customers from different cultures. Particularly needed is information about whether problematic “culture shocks” occur in service encounters due to culture‐bound expectations and perceptions. To answer this question, a model of inter‐cultural service encounter quality is presented. In order to test the assumption of “culture shocks” in inter‐cultural service encounters, an empirical study applying the critical incident technique (CIT) was conducted. The unexpected results of this study lead to a further development of the model presented. This gives insights into why, and under which circumstances, inter‐cultural encounters are perceived as less problematic than intra‐cultural encounters. Finally, managerial implications and open research questions are discussed.