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11 – 20 of over 10000Although the performance of services is done at an operative level, service is an important issue for the strategic, tactical, and operative business activities of companies. This…
Abstract
Although the performance of services is done at an operative level, service is an important issue for the strategic, tactical, and operative business activities of companies. This paper examines the construct of interactive service quality in service encounters. This is a complex approach that goes beyond the current exploration of the service‐quality construct. Interactive service quality requires the simultaneous consideration of the service provider's perspective and the service receiver's perspective. The study was conducted in the Swedish automotive industry and focused on the issues of interactive service quality between a vehicle manufacturer and a selection of its most important suppliers. The major contributions of the research provide an on‐the‐spot account of interactive service quality. The paper provides theoretical and managerial implications of the construct of interactive service quality in service encounters.
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Koji Kimita, Yoshiki Shimomura and Tamio Arai
Combined offerings of products and services, that is, a product‐service system (PSS), have been attracting much attention. Consequently, a good design methodology of services as…
Abstract
Purpose
Combined offerings of products and services, that is, a product‐service system (PSS), have been attracting much attention. Consequently, a good design methodology of services as well as that of manufacturing products is needed. The purpose of this paper, is to propose a method for estimating customer satisfaction that enables designers to compare design solutions in the conceptual stage.
Design/methodology/approach
In the proposed method, first, the models that represent PSS features with relation to a customer's state is adopted. Then, the authors propose the estimation procedure that utilises a non‐linear value function called the satisfaction‐attribute (S‐A) function to quantify customer satisfaction.
Findings
The proposed method centres on the estimation of customer satisfaction. It enables the designers to evaluate design candidates in the conceptual stage where little information is available, and therefore supports iterative improvements without the designer needing to hesitate under the weight of market analysis.
Research limitations/implications
In this paper, the estimation is limited to a single transaction with a customer, rather than cumulative satisfaction that represents a customer's imprints about the provider accumulated by repeating purchases. In future, therefore, the authors need to integrate the concept of effects over time such as loyalty and defection into the proposed framework.
Practical implications
In the application, the proposed method is statistically proven to effectively illustrate customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
This paper proposes the estimation method of customer satisfaction for PSS design. The proposed method allows designers to choose a design solution from the customer viewpoints.
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The objective is two‐fold. The first is to describe contemporary and future penetration (i.e. analysis and understanding) in service encounter research. The other is to describe…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective is two‐fold. The first is to describe contemporary and future penetration (i.e. analysis and understanding) in service encounter research. The other is to describe contemporary and future abstraction in service quality research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a conceptual discussion of new aspects of research into service encounters and service quality.
Findings
There are still flaws in the contemporary penetration of service encounters and the contemporary abstraction of the service quality construct.
Research limitations/implications
Service encounters and service quality pertain not only to human interactions, but also to the interaction between individuals and self‐service technology. The new aspects of service encounters and service quality described here are restricted to the interaction between individuals. It is argued that an extended penetration of service encounters, and an extended abstraction of the service quality construct, taken together, provide great potential for future research opportunities in services marketing.
Practical implications
The aspects of penetration discussed here have the potential to provide a more sophisticated understanding of the complexity and dynamics of service encounters. The aspects of abstraction described here have the potential to contribute to a more sophisticated level of measurement of the service quality construct.
Originality/value
A two‐fold approach is suggested that goes beyond the current state of the art in terms of penetration of service encounters and abstraction of the service quality construct. This is likely to trigger and encourage innovative research designs and alternative methodological approaches to new research problems. This might also stimulate innovative analytical techniques that could produce groundbreaking research findings, with important implications for practice.
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Carmen Otero-Neira, Carmen Padin, Juan Carlos Sosa Varela, Maria Santos Corrada, Irma Magana and Goran Svensson
This paper aims to assess negative emotions in Mexican, Puerto Rican and Spanish service settings in the hospital industry. The paper also attempts to validate previous findings…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess negative emotions in Mexican, Puerto Rican and Spanish service settings in the hospital industry. The paper also attempts to validate previous findings in existing theory and previous studies across three national samples and describes the similarities and differences in negative emotions between Mexican, Puerto Rican and Spanish service settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study comprised Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Spaniards who experienced a service failure (i.e. critical incident) in hospital settings within the past year. A descriptive research design was followed, and a self-administered questionnaire was applied to gather the data from respondents.
Findings
The three-dimensional construct of negative emotions commonly identified in existing theory and previous studies of negative emotions turned out to be four in the current multinational study.
Research limitations/implications
The four-dimensional construct of negative emotions thus revealed is relevant and valuable to research. A number of research limitations are provided, all of which provide opportunities for further research in assessing negative emotions in service settings.
Practical implications
Service providers need to manage and deal with the negative emotions in service failures in an appropriate manner. It is necessary that the front-line staff identify and understand the reasons behind service receiver’s negative emotions in service failures, and that they act accordingly to reduce the intensity of critical incidents and the overall negative consequences.
Originality/value
The negative emotions assessed provide a fruitful contribution and do not only complement additional facets to existing theory and previous studies of negative emotions in service settings but also fortify the notion that further research is required to gain an enhanced understanding and additional insights into them across countries and cultures, just as it is crucial to manage the occurrence of negative emotions in critical incidents accurately.
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Göran Svensson and Carmen Padin
The purpose of this paper is to describe and apply teleological approaches from complexity sciences in services.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and apply teleological approaches from complexity sciences in services.
Design/methodology/approach
The performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality are dependent upon complex and dynamic interactions between service providers and service receivers. A set of teleological approaches from complexity sciences is incorporated and applied in the context of service settings.
Findings
A teleological application from complexity sciences in relation to the interactive nature of the performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality offers opportunities to apply innovative research designs and alternative methodological approaches to future research problems in services.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could focus on where and how the insights from other research disciplines can be used that have encapsulated teleological approaches from complexity sciences more sophisticated, and how this knowledge could be incorporated and applied in services.
Practical implications
The inclusion and consideration of teleological approaches from complexity sciences in the performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality generates a series of managerial and research implications regarding the dynamics and complexity of the interactive nature in services.
Originality/value
The research opportunities into service quality and service encounters by applying teleological approaches from complexity sciences are extensive. They might also stimulate innovative analytical techniques that may generate important empirical findings, in extension, with relevant and valuable implications for practice in services. A maintained focus on multi‐disciplinary aspects of research may enhance contemporary research and practice of services.
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Carmen Padin and Goran Svensson
The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework and illustration to assess and manage the perceived content and experiences in hospitality processes through the lens of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework and illustration to assess and manage the perceived content and experiences in hospitality processes through the lens of teleological actions. Teleological actions are movements into the future that are believed to move either towards a predictable/known or unpredictable/unknown state or condition: transformative – ad hoc and present-based actions; formative – pre-determined and past-based actions; and rationalist – goal-directed and future-based actions.
Design/methodology/approach
A framework of teleological actions and its underlying logic illustrates how critical hospitality processes may be assessed and managed in both research and practice.
Findings
The lens of teleological actions offers a non-traditional and unusual, potentially unique, perspective on hospitality processes. It reveals additional insights to assess and manage critical incidents in hospitality processes between service providers and service receivers.
Research limitations/implications
Assessing and managing hospitality processes through the lens of teleological actions makes both a contribution to and provides opportunities for further research in the field of hospitality management.
Practical implications
It opens up the possibility of examining different hospitality processes based upon the lens of teleological actions. It provides interesting and valuable insights in relation to contemporary approaches to assess and manage critical incidents in the literature of hospitality processes.
Originality/value
It sheds a different and additional light upon current theory and practice in hospitality management. It explicitly addresses the meaning of time and how to relate to the content and experiences of previous, current and forthcoming hospitality processes.
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Rocío Rodríguez, Göran Svensson, Sergio Román and Greg Wood
The purpose of this study is to examine the actions and interactions that take place before and after purchase between a service provider (service seller) and its customers …
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the actions and interactions that take place before and after purchase between a service provider (service seller) and its customers (service buyers) in complex business relationships. Specifically, it is to examine customers’ expectations of the service provider’s service offer before purchase and the same customers’ perceptions of the service solution offered after purchase in a business-to-business (B2B) context.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a mixed methods design, which combined data generated through in-depth interviews (both with service buyers and key informants from the service company), an online customer survey, analysis of textual documents and structured observations of buyer–seller interactions and actions. Both objective and subjective points of view at different stages of the investigation were collected.
Findings
The authors’ results show that, contrary to previous evidence in B2C service research, the customers’ perceptions of the service performance were not significantly related to their previous expectations. In this context, characterized by dynamic and constantly evolving processes and many parties (both from the buyer and the seller company) involved in the implementation process, service complexity may cause a lack of well-formed expectations regarding how the service will perform and its relevant performance attributes.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests that the service models traditionally used to describe and explain customer service expectations and perceptions in relatively simple service contexts with final consumers are difficult to apply in B2B complex business relationships. Rather, scholars need to take a holistic, continuously evolving and adapted perspective when examining the formation of customer service expectations and their perceptions in B2B complex services.
Practical implications
There should be a teleological balance between sales and purchase approaches in B2B contexts to optimize the outcome of complex business relationships between service providers and service receivers. The authors suggest several recommendations to service providers to ensure that their salespeople do not create unrealistic and unachievable expectations in the minds of the service receivers. Service providers are also encouraged to develop formal cross functional teams (e.g. consisting of salespeople, service technicians and service support) based on mutual understanding and information sharing.
Originality/value
This study provides an alternative time-oriented understanding of the way customer expectations before purchase and their perceptions after purchasing a complex software solution in industrial markets formed through the lens of teleological framework. As such, this is the first empirical inquiry with this specific framework in B2B contexts making a relevant contribution to literature.
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Competitive pressure and declining incomes in higher education have propelled many universities to increase the number of students admitted as a means of increasing their income…
Abstract
Purpose
Competitive pressure and declining incomes in higher education have propelled many universities to increase the number of students admitted as a means of increasing their income, while the admitted students are regarded as “customers.” The purpose of this paper is to examine students’ beliefs regarding outcomes of the adoption of the student-as-customer concept and the interaction effects of these outcomes and the social influence on students’ attitudes toward acceptance of the student-as-customer concept and their intentions to study at universities adopting this concept.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model was developed to investigate the interaction effects of the five outcomes of the student-as-customer concept's adoption – the universities’ aim toward student satisfaction, the instructors’ neglect of teaching, the impairment of instructor-student relationship, the ease of course achievement, and the improvement of universities’ service quality and social influence on the students’ attitudes toward acceptance of the student-as-customer concept, and their intentions to study at universities adopting this concept. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data from students studying at a large private university inclining to adopt the student-as-customer concept. The structural equation modeling technique was utilized for testing the proposed model.
Findings
The results indicate that students believe that the universities’ adoption of the student-as-customer concept will lead to improvement of the universities’ service quality and the degradation of educational quality in terms of the instructors’ neglect of teaching, the impairment of instructor-student relationship, and the ease of course achievement. The improvement of service quality has a positive effect on the students’ attitudes toward acceptance of the student-as-customer concept and their intentions to study at universities adopting this concept. The students’ beliefs toward the degradation of educational quality, on the other hand, have indirect and negative effects on the students’ intentions to study at universities adopting the concept. Interestingly, the effect of social influence on students’ intentions to study at universities adopting the concept is greater than the effects of students’ beliefs toward outcomes of the concept.
Originality/value
This study is among the first research to empirically investigate the factors affecting students’ attitudes toward acceptance of the student-as-customer concept and their intentions to study at universities adopting this concept. The paper fills the gap in the higher education literature and provides guidance for universities to consider and prepare for the consequences of the concept's adoption associated with the number of students who intend to study at their universities.
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The unidirectional measurement and evaluation of the service quality in a specific service encounter is not enough to understand the existing service quality between two actors in…
Abstract
The unidirectional measurement and evaluation of the service quality in a specific service encounter is not enough to understand the existing service quality between two actors in a dyadic service encounter. Furthermore, a bi‐directional approach may not always be sufficient to understand the service quality in a specific service encounter. The incorporation of a third actor may improve the understanding of service quality in dyadic service encounters. Therefore, a method is applied to analyze the dynamics of service quality in triadic business networks.
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This article is about the implications of the different uses of the concept of care in the research and debate on home care. It can be read as a comment on the British debate…
Abstract
This article is about the implications of the different uses of the concept of care in the research and debate on home care. It can be read as a comment on the British debate, seen with Norwegian eyes, and from a starting point where care is a positively loaded concept. The article begins with a definition of care, in order to try to identify some core elements, and then proceeds to examine two main lines of attack on care in the British debate. A distinction between care as an ideal and as practice is introduced, and the article tries to demonstrate how the outcome of caring can be seen as a result both of political attitudes and of different forms of organisation. The article concludes by discussing why we need to save ‘care’ as a positive concept in the evaluation of formal systems providing care as a social service.
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