Journal of Service Research current issue

How to Make Switching Costly: The Role of Marketing and Relationship Characteristics

Polo, Y., Sese, F. J. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

Customer switching costs have emerged as one of the fundamental drivers of customer retention. Although the consequences of these costs have been well documented in the literature, research on the determinants of switching costs remains limited. The present study seeks to address this issue by investigating the extent to which switching costs are influenced by marketing variables—price and advertising—and relationship characteristics. The authors develop a conceptual framework about the drivers of switching costs and test the framework empirically in the mobile phone industry using a hierarchical Bayes approach. The empirical results show that by using price and advertising—both service and brand advertising—firms are able to make switching costly for customers. Moreover, relationship characteristics significantly contribute to explaining consumers’ differences in the cost of switching. Finally, this study illustrates the key role played by competitors’ marketing actions in affecting the cost of switching for customers of the focal firm. Implications for decision makers are discussed.

It Depends: Moderating the Relationships Among Perceived Waiting Time, Anger, and Regret

Voorhees, C. M., Baker, J., Bourdeau, B. L., Brocato, E. D., Cronin, J. J. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

When consumers have to wait, the service delivery process is frequently compromised. The literature suggests that reducing waiting time is beneficial, but for service firms faced with scarce resources this is not always an option. As an alternative strategy, this study identifies and tests the mitigating effects of three factors that moderate the waiting time—anger and waiting time—regret relationships. Results show that in four service industries, affective commitment, perceived justice, and physical environment quality affect negative evaluations of a service experience and attenuate the effects of waiting time on both anger and regret. The authors discuss implications for researchers and service marketers in light of the results.

Employees' Willingness to Report Service Complaints

Luria, G., Gal, I., Yagil, D. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

This article presents the concept of service workers’ willingness to report service complaints (WRC) and examines frontline workers’ discretion about reporting customer complaints in two qualitative studies and a quantitative study. The qualitative studies conceptualize WRC based on a critical incident technique and interviews with service providers and reveal that service providers practice much discretion in their decision to report both informal and formal complaints, weighing cost/ benefit considerations, customer motivation and complaint justification, and numerous organizational and other factors. The quantitative study examines a preliminary WRC scale and its relationship with several correlates and shows that WRC levels are associated with measures of organizational citizenship behavior, service climate, and empowerment. The discussion examines the contribution of the findings regarding WRC to research on service recovery and improving customer satisfaction and presents managerial implications.

Dashboards as a Service: Why, What, How, and What Research Is Needed?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

Recent years have seen the introduction of a "marketing dashboard" that brings the firm’s key marketing metrics into a single display. Service firms across industries have created such dashboards either by themselves or together with a dashboard service provider. This article examines the reasons for this development and explains what dashboards are, how to develop them, what drives their adoption, and which academic research is needed to fully exploit their potential. Overcoming the challenges faced in dashboard development and operation provides many opportunities for marketing to exercise a stronger influence on top management decisions. The article outlines five stages of dashboard development and discusses the relationships among demand for dashboards, supply of dashboards, and the implementation process in driving adoption and use of dashboard systems. Key topics for future research include metrics selection, relationships among metrics, and the ultimate question of whether dashboards provide sufficient benefits to justify their adoption.

Regulatory Focus Theory, Trust, and Privacy Concern

Wirtz, J., Lwin, M. O. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

Relationship marketing typically requires organizations to continually collect customer information. Two distinct approaches coexist to encourage customers to disclose information: reducing privacy concern and building trust, which in the past have been examined in isolation. In the present study, regulatory focus theory is used to integrate both approaches and examine their distinct response behaviors concurrently. The findings are robust across two studies with different methods and contexts. As suggested in the proposed model, trust and privacy concern are the two central mediating variables with differentiated effects on promotion and prevention-focused behaviors. Specifically, trust mediates fairness perceptions on promotion-focused behaviors (i.e., relational behavior, relationship investment, and repatronage intentions), whereas privacy concern mediates fairness perceptions on prevention-focused behaviors (i.e., defensive, deflective, and disruptive behaviors). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Communal Service Delivery: How Customers Benefit From Participation in Firm-Hosted Virtual P3 Communities

Dholakia, U. M., Blazevic, V., Wiertz, C., Algesheimer, R. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

Firm-hosted virtual peer-to-peer problem solving (P3) communities offer a low-cost, credible, and effective means of delivering education and ongoing assistance services to customers of complex, frequently evolving products. Building upon the social constructivist view on learning and drawing from literature on the firm-customer relationship in services marketing, we distinguish between functional and social benefits received by P3 community participants and study the central role of learning in influencing these benefit perceptions. The proposed model is tested on data gathered from 2,299 active members of a P3 community hosted by a global online auction firm, and the framework’s generalizability is demonstrated using a sample of 204 members of a global business-to-business (B2B) software firm’s P3 community. Based on the results, specific recommendations are provided to marketers interested in implementing service support programs via customer communities, and future research opportunities are explored.

Demystifying Intercultural Service Encounters: Toward a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework

Sharma, P., Tam, J. L. M., Kim, N. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:33 PDT

Customers and employees from different cultures are increasingly interacting with each other. However, there is little research in this area and it focuses mostly on the customers’ perspective. This article presents a conceptual framework for intercultural service encounters applicable to both customers and employees. Findings from an exploratory qualitative study show that perceived cultural distance and intercultural competence influence inter-role congruence, interaction comfort, adequate and perceived service levels, and satisfaction. These findings have important managerial implications for managing the expectations and perceptions of customers and employees involved in the intercultural service encounters and improving their satisfaction with the service experience.