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1 – 10 of over 12000Ashwini K. Awasthi and Vineet Kumar
The purpose of this study is to distinguish those emotions which customers express verbally during a failed remote service encounter from those which they do not. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to distinguish those emotions which customers express verbally during a failed remote service encounter from those which they do not. The study further attempts to investigate the post-consumption customer behaviour of verbally expressed and unexpressed negative customer emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a survey-based research design. The hypotheses were tested through the “partial least squared structural equation modelling” method.
Findings
This study shows that in a failed remote service encounter, customers verbally express retaliatory rage emotions, such as anger and rage. At the same time, they are able to suppress rancorous rage emotions, such as disgust and contempt and do not express them verbally. The authors demonstrate that after emotions are verbally expressed during a failed remote service encounter, they are followed by the post-consumption behaviours of negative word of mouth and revenge; when emotions are not expressed verbally during a failed service encounter, they are followed up by exit behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The effects of variables, such as switching costs and individual and situational factors, can be investigated in the model. Future studies can also explore the role of organizational interventions, such as explanation and apology, on negative customer emotions during failed remote service encounters. Their moderating impact on customer behaviour during and after the encounters can be investigated.
Practical implications
This study has much practical relevance in the post-COVID-19 world, where remote service delivery is becoming the new normal in many sectors. In remote service delivery situations, verbally unexpressed negative emotions can remain undetected; however, they have negative consequences for firms. This study underscores the need to train frontline employees to notice these unexpressed emotions so that service recoveries can be initiated.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the area of dysfunctional customer behaviour and service recovery. The existing literature has not explored whether some negative emotions are expressed during a failed service encounter and then acted upon later, and some emotions are not expressed but acted upon later. This study addresses the problem of firms getting caught unawares when they find customers resorting to undesirable post-consumption behaviour without demonstrating any verbal expressions during the preceding failed service encounters.
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Current policy context in the UK promotes the “co-production” of health and care services – with service users and providers working in partnership. However, the assumption that…
Abstract
Purpose
Current policy context in the UK promotes the “co-production” of health and care services – with service users and providers working in partnership. However, the assumption that all individuals and communities have the personal resources, skills and willingness to get involved in co-produced services may have implications for social and geographical equity of access to health and care services. The paper presents the results of a nine-month action research project with a remote and rural community in Scotland to discuss the implications of co-produced health and care services for remote and rural community members – particularly those with ageing populations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research project worked with community members, health care providers and commissioners to develop a community social enterprise model for home care delivery. Textual resources collected during this action research process were subject to thematic analysis in order to explore community perceptions and experiences of service co-production development in the remote and rural context.
Findings
The qualitative analysis showed that community members identified some positive aspects of being involved in service co-production relating to sense of community, empowerment and personal satisfaction. However, negative impacts included increased feelings of pressure, strain and frustration among those who took part in the co-production process. Overall, the community was reluctant to engage with “transformative” co-production and traditional provider-user dynamics were maintained.
Originality/value
The example is used to demonstrate the types of resources that rural individuals and communities draw on in order to create social enterprises and how the potentially negative impacts of co-produced services for different types of social and geographical community may be overlooked in contemporary policy and practice.
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Michael Aherne and José L. Pereira
The purpose of this paper is to use a descriptive case study to establish how collaboration, innovation and knowledge‐management strategies have scaled‐up learning and development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use a descriptive case study to establish how collaboration, innovation and knowledge‐management strategies have scaled‐up learning and development in rural, remote and other resource‐constrained Canadian delivery settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Intervention design was realized through a one‐time, collaborative, national capacity‐building project. A project portfolio of 72 sub‐projects, initiatives and strategic activities was used to improve access, enhance quality and create capacity for palliative and end‐of‐life care services. Evaluation was multifaceted, including participatory action research, variance analysis and impact analysis. This has been supplemented by post‐intervention critical reflection and integration of relevant literature.
Findings
The purposeful use of collaboration, innovation and knowledge‐management strategies have been successfully used to support a rapid scaling‐up of learning and development interventions. This has enabled enhanced and new pan‐Canadian health delivery capacity implemented at the local service delivery catchment‐level.
Research limitations/implications
The intervention is bounded by a Canada‐specific socio‐cultural/political context. Design variables and antecedent conditions may not be present and/or readily replicated in other nation‐state contexts. The findings suggest opportunities for future integrative and applied health services and policy research, including collaborative inquiry that weaves together concepts from adult learning, social science and industrial engineering.
Practical implications
Scaling‐up for new capacity is ideally approached as a holistic, multi‐faceted process which considers the total assets within delivery systems, service catchments and communities as potentially being engaged and deployed.
Originality/value
The Pallium Integrated Capacity‐building Initiative offers model elements useful to others seeking theory‐informed practices to rapidly and effectively scale‐up learning and development efforts.
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This study aims to propose research directions for service providers to most effectively navigate through (and beyond) the post-pandemic service delivery challenges from a North…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose research directions for service providers to most effectively navigate through (and beyond) the post-pandemic service delivery challenges from a North American perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the personal reflections of an academic researcher who has focused on the intersection of technology in services marketing for nearly 25 years.
Findings
The paper takes the position that much of what was learned through the internet revolution (early 2000s) can help us to understand the process of evolving into a post-pandemic environment. Both situations completely altered the way services are typically produced and consumed, and academic researchers can (and should) play a role by addressing these important business issues. Two major themes from early Self-Service Technology (SST) research include consumer adoption of new technologies and the consumer experience with SSTs. Pandemic requirements for service providers forced a very similar adaptation as experienced during the internet revolution with SSTs, thus our pandemic experiences can be viewed through a similar lens.
Research limitations/implications
This paper urges service researchers and business professionals alike to consider the potential improvements in service delivery from the adjustments to the COVID-19 pandemic and, as appropriate, incorporate those into service provision in the future. Just as firms who were best able to adapt to the internet revolution dynamics were most successful, those that are able to adjust most quickly in the post-pandemic environment are likely to be the most successful.
Originality/value
The insights provided here are intended to stimulate research and continued exploration of the post-pandemic service environment.
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The objective of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of Global Services businesses that will thrive and achieve success in the future. These factors are integrated…
Abstract
The objective of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of Global Services businesses that will thrive and achieve success in the future. These factors are integrated into three main pillars, which we refer to as the Triple-Win. The first and most obvious pillar is technology as a tool. The second pillar is the design and sustainability of the business model, without which the previous factor would be merely a cost and not an investment. And last but not the least, there is the purpose which gives meaning to the proposal, focusing on the human being and their environment. The DIDPAGA business model sits at the intersection of these three elements.
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Reviews the advantages gained by remote users and distance learners from the growth in information technology and looks at the impact of this technology on the delivery of…
Abstract
Reviews the advantages gained by remote users and distance learners from the growth in information technology and looks at the impact of this technology on the delivery of documents via the World Wide Web. Discusses the increase in electronic publications and the resulting copyright problems. Reports on the comparisons and developments in commercial document supply and briefly covers articles on interlibrary loan procedures and co‐operation.
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Peter M. Wynne, Geoff Butters and Peter Brophy
Describes the networking solutions used in the experimental extension of academic library services from the University of Central Lancashire to an agricultural college some 100km…
Abstract
Describes the networking solutions used in the experimental extension of academic library services from the University of Central Lancashire to an agricultural college some 100km distant, under the EC‐funded BIBDEL Project. Includes a detailed description of the functionality of each service. Summarizes the experimental findings of the research, in terms of cost, staff training needs, user training needs and liaison with external third parties. Considers the University of Central Lancashire’s retention and expansion of the extended service, on an operational footing, after the close of the experiment. Contrasts the functionalities of the operational services with those of the experiment.
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Philip John Archard, Emma Giles, Isobel Moore, Sewanu Awhangansi, Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Leanne Kulik and Michelle O’Reilly
The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a service evaluation undertaken within a single specialist child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) team. The team…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a service evaluation undertaken within a single specialist child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) team. The team works closely with local authority children’s services to serve specific populations recognised as experiencing higher levels of mental health need, including children living in alternative care and with adoptive families. The evaluation sought to better understand the experience of this provision during the COVID-19 pandemic and concomitant increase in remote and digitally mediated care delivery.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of the accounts of 38 parents, carers and professionals involved with the team gathered via telephone interviews and email and postal questionnaires.
Findings
Similar views were expressed from participants involved with the team before and following the onset of the pandemic. Overall, satisfaction was high; however, changes in care appeared more challenging for those already involved with the team before the pandemic. Differences in experience between groups were also evident. Whereas foster carers’ accounts were generally appreciative of the involvement of clinicians, particularly regarding clinician–patient relationships, amongst adoptive parents and members of children’s birth families there were more mixed and negative impressions.
Originality/value
Locally based service evaluations can help inform care pathway planning in specialist CAMHS provision as part of wider quality improvement initiatives. This is especially relevant considering the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and as the longer-term acceptability of remote working practices is appraised.
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Anne J. Broderick and Supattra Vachirapornpuk
One of the key challenges of the Internet as a service delivery channel is how service firms can manage service quality as these remote formats bring significant change in…
Abstract
One of the key challenges of the Internet as a service delivery channel is how service firms can manage service quality as these remote formats bring significant change in customer interaction and behaviour. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of service quality and adapting these to particularly reflect the remote delivery format of the Internet, this study proposes and tests a service quality model of Internet banking. The research uses participant observation and narrative analysis of a UK Internet banking Web site community to explore how Internet banking customers perceive and interpret the elements of the model. Findings show that the level and nature of customer participation had the greatest impact on the quality of the service experience and issues such as customers’ zone of tolerance, the degree of role understanding by customers and emotional response potentially determined, expected and perceived service quality.
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The UK Government has set targets for its services to be available online by 2005. It is hoped that electronic public services will improve quality and efficiency of delivery…
Abstract
The UK Government has set targets for its services to be available online by 2005. It is hoped that electronic public services will improve quality and efficiency of delivery, enhance public access to essential services, and achieve cost economies. While attention initially focussed on the Internet as the key platform for online public service delivery, digital television may eventually become the platform of choice. Television's wider penetration and familiarity gives it an edge over the Internet. A number of pilot projects and initiatives have been instigated by Government to explore the potential of digital television (DTV). This paper presents a review of early evidence to emerge about DTV services and public opinion from DTV pilots. While DTV can provide wider access than the Internet in terms of demographic reach, its limited interactivity and the relearning that viewers will need to undergo may limit its initial applications and adoption. Significant problems remain with the usability of basic DTV services, resulting in certain sectors of society being excluded. This exclusion is more pronounced when considering the most complex applications of DTV, such as interactive services. Widespread acceptance of the digital switchover will require a shift in mindset of the television audience as a different paradigm of television use comes to the fore.
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