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Both online and brick and mortar retailers have invested heavily in developing omni-channel service offerings. Though seen as a competitive necessity, these omni-channel service offerings increase costs and complexities. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of strategies involving bundles of omni-channel services related to order fulfillment and returns management on retailer performance.

Archival data were obtained for 152 retailers and analyzed using ordinary least squares regression. Robustness tests using an alternative dependent variable and a model-based classification strategy corroborate our findings.

Retailers offering full sets of high integration omni-channel services (buy online pick up in store, ship from store and in-store returns) have better performance (e.g. sales, growth and competitive position) and web sales than retailers that offer only a partial mix of these high integration services. Retailers offering a partial bundle of high integration services, in turn, have better performance and web sales than retailers that offer none of these services.

The research extends work that has examined the performance effects of omni-channel services on individual retailers. Our results indicate retailers benefit the most when offering a full set of high integration omni-channel services, suggesting retailers who have only adopted a subset of these services could improve performance through broader adoption of services. The results further indicate partial adoption of high integration services is better than no adoption.

Awareness of environmental impacts on society is increasing among companies. In order to turn environmental problems into business opportunities, many companies are beginning to consider how environmental, or green aspects can be integrated into their service offerings. This opportunity can be of specific interest to logistics service providers, whose core business is an environmental impact in itself. The purpose of this article is to indicate where green‐labelled logistics service providers are positioned today in their development, and to seek the underlying rationale in development of green service offerings.

This article takes a logistics service provider's perspective and is based on a multiple case study of six companies. The analysis is based on cross‐case analysis, and empirical, as well as theoretical, pattern matching.

The attitude towards a green approach differs among the case companies: while some are working towards a green integration throughout the entire business, others offer green alternatives to the original service offering. The results point to possible explanations for these differences, and include differences in range of service offerings, size, and to different management principles for green aspects.

The article can inspire logistics service providers in their continuing work to integrate green initiatives into the company. By introducing alternative green approaches in the development of service offerings, logistics service providers can match their own business and context with alternative rationales.

While most of the green logistics research focuses on the logistics system's characteristics, this article offers initial insights into how the integration of green aspects into logistics services can impact logistics service providers.

Memorial University of Newfoundland, based in St. John's, is the single university in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Faculty of Business Administration is the largest concentration of resident business educational and management development expertise. In 1980, the Faculty established the Center for Management Development with the role to coordinate its non‐credit, continuing professional business educational and management training and development activities. The mandate of the Center is the development and delivery of continuing entrepreneurship and business management education programmes for the public, and for practising managers in business, government and other organisations in the province — it is to develop management in Newfoundland and Labrador. As part of the Faculty of Business Administration, the Center exists to provide management development offerings where they are most needed, and not solely on the basis of commercial profitability.

The primary objective of this paper is to formulate a research agenda in the area of consumer evaluation and competitive advantage in retail financial services markets. In order to achieve this objective, a brief exposition of the market‐led view of competitive advantage is provided, which emphasises the importance of the provision of “customer value” in the relevant market. The process of consumer evaluation of financial services offerings is then reviewed and potential problems in consumer understanding of some types of financial services offerings are highlighted. The implications of such problems for the formulation of value adding strategies are explored with reference to the conceptualisation of the financial service offering and in particular which elements of the offering may be particularly important in adding value in the eyes of consumers. Finally, propositions for research are developed and explored, with the aim of informing both academics and practitioners.

Contributes to the development of a model of Internet offerings, labelled the NetOffer model, by analysing data from an Internet‐based case, cinema ticket sales on the Internet. The objective is not to test hypotheses about Internet offerings, but to develop an understanding of the nature of such offerings. The study shows that although Internet offerings in the virtual marketspace can be characterised as services, a model of such offerings is only partly similar to a service offering model from the physical marketplace, the Grönroos Augmented Service Offering model, used as a starting point for the analysis. In the proposed model major features need to be modified or added. The accessibility and interaction elements of service offerings merge into one communication variable and a user interface element is included as an Integral part of an internet offering. The information element of the model is also explicitly emphasised.

The objective of this work is to empirically investigate the design of a service delivery system that supports the provision of modular service logistics offerings.

An in-depth single-case study relying on interview data and extensive documentary evidence is carried out in the business-to-business (B2B) logistics sector. Three main analytical techniques are used to make sense of the qualitative data: thematic analysis, process mapping and the application of modular operators.

A modular service delivery system comprises three types of processes that collectively deliver modular offerings. The platform consists of core processes that enable the collection, transport and delivery of physical items for all offerings (modular and non-modular). Dedicated modular processes are mandatory and exclusive to individual modular offerings. Optional modular processes are shared across several modular offerings. Interfaces regulate physical (e.g. parcels or parts) and information (e.g. booking data) inputs provided by the customer in order to control the interdependencies within these different process types.

The identification of three process types and their interdependencies provides detailed insights into how managers can design modular logistics services that benefit from economies of scale and meet increasingly variable customer requirements. The importance of well-designed interfaces among the customers, the service offering and the service delivery system is highlighted.

This study extends previous modularity studies in service logistics. It is the first study to apply modular operators to determine the presence of modularity in the service delivery system and to establish the role of different process types in enabling modularity in the service delivery system.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

The given case deals with the fact that primary objectives of services producers and marketers are identical to those of all marketers: to develop and provide offerings that satisfy consumer needs and expectations, thereby ensuring their own economic survival. To achieve these objectives, service providers need to understand how consumers choose, experience, and evaluate their service offerings. It also talks about employing innovative techniques at the basic level by optimizing available resources offering quality service at value based pricing, thereby, increasing customer retention by developing the trust of the consumer.

Graduation or post graduation level students studying subjects pertaining to the services aspect of marketing, namely innovative service offerings, value for money, service experience and evaluation, challenge of integrating the 4 A's of services marketing and offering them in sustainable quality, promotional or communication mix for services and consumer behaviour.

Today's dual-career couples, single-parent families, and two-job families are realizing a burning consumer need: more time. Individuals in these and other non-traditional family configurations are overstressed with their work and home obligations and find that dealing with many of life's everyday tasks is overwhelming. For many customers, all types of shopping have become “drudgery or worse.” The antidote to this time deficiency is found in many new services that recover time for consumers. One such professional service is catering. The present case study deals with grass root level innovations in this service offering that adds flavour to our lives.

Understanding the catering services offering and its features in evolving consumer's world; analyzing the importance of optimizing available resources and offering customer satisfaction, ensuring marketers own economic survival; realizing the significance of value offering and related value based pricing for services; comprehending the importance of word of mouth in post experience evaluation in services; the effect of quality and quantity consciousness in marketers while offering catering services; and understanding obstacles and challenges faced by small and medium service industries at the initial level.

Teaching notes.