Journal of Service Research recent issues

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.

Organizational Service Climate Drivers of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and Financial and Market Performance

Schneider, B., Macey, W. H., Lee, W. C., Young, S. A. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

The climate for service is conceptualized and studied as a correlate of customer satisfaction and corporate financial and market performance, with customer satisfaction as a mediator of the climate-performance relationship. Brief reviews of relevant literatures yield three hypotheses: (1) customer satisfaction will be a significant correlate of organizational financial and market performance, (2) organizational service climate will be a significant correlate of organizational customer satisfaction, and (3) customer satisfaction will mediate the relationship between service climate and financial and market performance. The hypothesized relationships are supported in a 3-year longitudinal study of Fortune 200 service companies (not units within companies) from diverse service sectors with path analyses supporting full mediation for customer satisfaction in the link between service climate and corporate financial and market performance. Management implications for corporate competitive advantage through a focus on service climate are discussed.

Knowledge Creation Through Mobile Social Networks and Its Impact on Intentions to Use Innovative Mobile Services

Kleijnen, M., Lievens, A., de Ruyter, K., Wetzels, M. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

Taking a social network perspective, the authors investigate consumers' intentions to use innovative mobile services. With a sociometric survey, they empirically assess how consumers integrate and connect through mobile social networks, as well as how their network position influences knowledge creation and intentions to use four innovative mobile services: multimedia messaging, gaming, information, and transactions. Both personal (i.e., opinion leadership and experience with the communication mode) and similarity attributes of social network members have a significant impact on network position, that is, their level of individual connectedness and integration. In addition, the impact of this network position on knowledge creation is contingent upon the type of innovative service. In three out of four mobile service categories, integration exhibits a negative effect on knowledge creation, whereas connectedness has a positive effect. Knowledge creation significantly influences intentions to use mobile services. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that carryover effects occur across the four service categories. Finally, the network's perceived ability to adopt innovative mobile services has a different impact on usage intentions across the four service categories.

Service Delivery Innovation: Antecedents and Impact on Firm Performance

Chen, J.-S., Hung Tai Tsou, , Huang, A. Y.-H. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

Service innovation is one means of gaining an advantage in a highly competitive environment. In addition, service delivery has played a key role in interactions with customers in recent years. Yet, research on the link between innovation and service delivery is scant. This article theoretically and empirically examines innovation in service delivery and its antecedents and consequences. The authors identify innovation orientation, external partner collaboration, and information technology capability as the antecedents of service delivery innovation and analyze the impact of service delivery innovation on firm performance. Respondents were managers in the marketing and information technology departments of financial firms in Taiwan. Overall, 298 responses were received (including 123 paired responses from both department managers). Findings indicated that service delivery innovation contributes to firm performance. These results support the crucial influences of innovation orientation and information technology capability on service delivery innovation.

Offshore Outsourcing of Services: A Stakeholder Perspective

Tate, W. L., Ellram, L. M., Brown, S. W. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

Offshore outsourcing of business processes is a rapidly increasing global phenomenon that requires a greater reliance on the effective development of strategic alliances and inter-firm relationships. The stakeholders involved in these service purchases influence the success or failure of the buyer-supplier relationship. This article examines the key stakeholders involved in the offshore outsourcing of services, determines what expectations these stakeholders hold, and assesses how a buying firm and the offshore supplying firm work together to meet these expectations. The case research method is used to address this phenomenon by studying six U.S.-based, Fortune 500 firms involved in offshore outsourcing of services. These buying organizations initially experienced more complexity than anticipated in engaging with offshore suppliers in outsourcing relationships. To achieve success with these relationships, the buying organizations needed to embrace cultural differences, including the needs of their suppliers' employees.

The Role of Price Tiers in Advance Purchasing of Event Tickets

Moe, W. W., Fader, P. S. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

This article focuses on the empirical modeling of advance purchasing and the effects of price on purchasing behavior. Because pricing strategies are typically more complex than simply setting a single price point, the authors consider multiple aspects of price: (a) use of multiple price tiers, (b) face value of tickets, and (c) discounts resulting in week-to-week variations in price. They show that failure to account for price tiers can lead to exaggerated inferences about the role of price over time. Findings reflect substantial differences across tiers. Purchasers in the high-priced tier tend to buy earlier in the selling period and are influenced by price discounts and premiums in the spot market. Purchasers in the low- and mid-priced tiers tend to delay purchasing and are influenced only by face value prices in the spot market. The authors discuss the implications of these empirical observations for future researchers and marketing managers.

Understanding Emotional Reactions for Negative Services: The Impact of Efficacy Beliefs and Stage in Process

Gelfand Miller, E., Luce, M. F., Kahn, B. E., Conant, E. F. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

This article examines consumers' emotional reactions for a specific negative service—a mammography screening test—and measures how such reactions are influenced by the consumer's stage in the screening process and her beliefs in the efficacy of the test. Stage in process moderates the relationship between test efficacy beliefs and stress, such that those obtaining screening tests feel more stress as their belief in the efficacy of mammography increases while those obtaining follow-up diagnostic tests feel less stress as their belief in the efficacy of mammography increases. Process measures indicate that fear of a positive mammogram result is uniquely associated with stress for those receiving a screening mammogram, while uncertainty regarding diagnosis is uniquely associated with stress for those receiving a diagnostic mammogram. Implications for better managing the testing experience and for understanding negative services more generally are discussed.

Predicting the Likelihood of Voiced Complaints in the Self-Service Technology Context

Robertson, N., Shaw, R. N. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 PDT

There is considerable evidence to suggest that consumer dissatisfaction with self-service technologies is widespread. However, there has been little conceptual or empirical scrutiny of the likelihood that consumers will complain to an organization (likelihood of voice) in this context. This study contributes to the service domain by testing empirically a model of the antecedents of consumers' likelihood of voice in unsatisfactory encounters with self-service technologies. A model is tested that combines established antecedents of voice, such as likelihood of voice success, and those that have not yet been considered, including self-service technology powerlessness and need to vent. The results support the proposed model in general. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

JSR's Flagship Status Will Continue Under a New Editor

Parasuraman, A. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

JSR Best Article Awards

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

JSR Best Reviewer Awards

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

JSR Ad Hoc Reviewers 2008

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

Twenty Years of Service Guarantee Research: A Synthesis

Hogreve, J., Gremler, D. D. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

During the past two decades, service guarantees have received increased attention as a means for service firms to attract and retain customers and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Although many academic studies, referring to diverse service guarantee aspects, have appeared during this time, a synthesis of research is needed to clarify what researchers have learned about service guarantees and what remains unknown. To evaluate the state of published research on service guarantees, 109 articles published from 1985 to 2008 are collected and analyzed. The resultant review reveals a significant change in the type of research being performed, including a shift toward greater interest in the impact of service guarantees on consumer behavior and service firms. However, a significant shortfall marks empirical work directed toward the internal and operational effects of service guarantees. The effects of service guarantees on service performance, service recovery, and return on service guarantee investments are topics in need of further research.

Managing Service Innovation and Interorganizational Relationships for Firm Performance: To Commit or Diversify?

Eisingerich, A. B., Rubera, G., Seifert, M. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

An increasing body of research suggests interorganizational relationships as being critical to the financial performance of firms. Similarly, innovation has been considered a key driver of the growth and success of firms. However, little work has examined how the extent firms' interorganizational relationship commitment and diversity influence their innovation focus and performance. In this article, the authors show that diverse interorganizational relationships reduce the positive impact of innovation focus on firm performance. In contrast, interorganizational relationship commitment increases service innovation focus and strengthens the innovation focus—firm performance relationship. The findings are based on multisource and longitudinal performance data and highlight the positive impact of relationship commitment on the effects of service innovation focus on firm performance. Implications for management and research are discussed.

The Reinforcing Effects of Loyalty Program Partnerships and Core Service Usage: A Longitudinal Analysis

Lemon, K. N., Wangenheim, F. v. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

In this research, the authors develop a dynamic model of cross-buying across loyalty program partnerships and test the model using data from a European airline. They identify a reinforcing mechanism that operates when loyalty program partnerships are operating effectively. The results suggest that customer usage of (and satisfaction with) the core service influences customer cross-buying from loyalty program partners. The cross-buying behavior then reinforces the customer's relationship with the core service, as cross-buying positively influences future purchases of the core service. Furthermore, the authors find that these reinforcing effects are influenced by the type of cross-buying service (partner) being considered. This dynamic reinforcement mechanism has not been shown in prior research. These findings have implications for understanding and management of loyalty programs and brand partnerships; valuating return on investments in improvements in product quality, service quality, and customer satisfaction; and more broadly, the dynamics of customer purchase behavior.

How Often Versus How Long: The Interplay of Contact Frequency and Relationship Duration in Customer-Reported Service Relationship Strength

Dagger, T. S., Danaher, P. J., Gibbs, B. J. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

This study investigates the effects of customer contact frequency and relationship duration on customer-reported relationship strength (CRRS). We embed our analysis of these two relationship-quantity variables within a larger model that considers the effects of relationship-quality variables—commitment, trust and satisfaction—on CRRS. We additionally control for customer demographics and service type. Using a fully national sample of 591 service consumers, we find that both contact frequency and relationship duration have a positive effect on CRRS, and that duration moderates the effect of frequency. Specifically, we observe a relationship-maturity effect: for shorter-duration relationships, contact frequency enhances CRRS, but for longer-duration relationships, contact frequency has no effect on CRRS. Furthermore, employing an iso-contact analysis, we find that for relationships with about the same number of total contacts, those with longer duration are perceived to be stronger, while those with greater contact frequency are not.

Unifying Service Marketing and Operations With Service Experience Management

Kwortnik, R. J., Thompson, G. M. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

One of the pioneer firms in the leisure cruise industry embarked on a bold idea in 2000 to offer an unregimented experience unlike most cruises. Despite the appeal of the concept from a marketing perspective, the service innovation posed operational challenges, many of which continue to undermine the firm's competitive position. Using a multimethod empirical approach and interdisciplinary views that draw on research from marketing and operations management, the authors analyze this business case to identify challenges that service firms face when services are developed and managed from siloed functional perspectives. Based on their research findings and guided by the literature, the authors derive a service-systems model to aid service planning and management. The authors further highlight a new organizational form and function for services under the domain of service experience management that is positioned as a means to unify service operations and marketing for delivering on service promises. The authors offer direction for further research on service operations systems and service experience management.

Customer Self-Efficacy in Technology-Based Self-Service: Assessing Between- and Within-Person Differences

van Beuningen, J., de Ruyter, K., Wetzels, M., Streukens, S. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

Firms increasingly offer customers the opportunity to coproduce self-service using online technologies. This requires novice customers to adopt a new role and engage in information search. This is particularly challenging in complex, high-risk services, such as online investment trading. Actively managing customers' task-specific self-confidence, or self-efficacy, in these types of technology-based self-service (TBSS) may convert novice customers into regular users and thereby increase return on investments. The authors show that self-efficacy increases novice customers' financial performance perceptions, service value evaluations, and future usage intentions. During online information search, novices focus on credibility and argument quality cues to determine their self-efficacy. The effects differ across information sources; third-party credibility and firm argument quality are most influential. Moreover, when consumers are highly engaged in their self-service role, the impact of credibility is strengthened, whereas that of argument quality is attenuated.

Evolutionary Changes in Service Attribute Importance in a Crisis Scenario The Uruguayan Financial Crisis

Kim, M., Lado, N., Torres, A. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:54:56 PDT

This article attempts to identify and assess the evolution of consumers' differential reactions to major service attribute classes that resulted from and were propagated by a severe financial crisis. The authors perform a longitudinal analysis, using correspondence analysis of square asymmetric matrices, on data generated from three different postcrisis time periods. The first period encompasses data during the 2 weeks after the crisis occurred, the second period assesses data 1 year later, and the third period refers to 5 years later. The results from the first and second periods both indicate the growing importance of credence attributes rather than search attributes compared with during the precrisis period. The third-period analysis indicates a reversal and greater importance of the search attributes that were important in the precrisis period. The results also reveal correlations with the type of banking organization. These findings point to important managerial implications; bank management's inability to realize the shift in consumers' attitudes failed to facilitate and expedite a resolution to the crisis.

Predicting Customer Wallet Without Survey Data

Glady, N., Croux, C. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:01 PST

A single company provides only a part of the total volume of products or services required by a customer. From the company perspective, this total business volume conducted by a customer, the customer's size-of-wallet, is generally unobservable. The percentage of this business done with the company, the customer's share-of-wallet , is unobservable as well. This article focuses on the prediction of these values and on the derived concept of potential-of-wallet, which is the difference between the size-of-wallet and the actual business volume the customer does with the focal company. In the existing literature, the models predicting the customer wallet need survey data to estimate the model parameters. The authors propose an approach to predicting customer wallet without using survey data. In the empirical application, the authors show that a company can generate substantial gains by targeting customers with a large potential-of-wallet.

The Effect of Service Price Increases on Customer Retention: The Moderating Role of Customer Tenure and Relationship Breadth

Dawes, J. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:01 PST

This study examines the impact of actual price increases on customer retention in a service context and how the effect of a price increase is moderated by both tenure and breadth of the customer's relationship. The study finds that tenure is associated with lowered customer sensitivity to price increases as well as having a favorable direct effect on customer retention rates. The study also finds that relationship breadth can exacerbate the adverse effect of price increases on customer retention. Finally, relationship breadth is found to have a favorable direct effect on retention rates only among newer customers. The managerial implication is that marketers must pay extra attention to short-tenure and broad-breadth customers when implementing price increases. The study represents a unique contribution to the service marketing literature, which to date reports little research examining the effect of actual price changes on consumer behavior.

Intention to Engage in Digital Piracy: A Conceptual Model and Empirical Test

Taylor, S. A., Ishida, C., Wallace, D. W. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:01 PST

Digital piracy represents a significant threat to the marketers of digital service products. Industry efforts to attenuate the practice, often deterrent in nature, have largely failed. We propose that one reason for this failure is the absence of a commensurably accepted model of the social psychological foundations underlying digital piracy behaviors. A modified version of Perugini and Bagozzi's (2001) Model of Goal Directed Behavior is advocated and empirically validated across both movie and music industry settings for this purpose. The results support the theoretical and empirical efficacy of the proposed model and highlight the importance of attitudes toward the act of digital piracy, the frequency of past digital piracy behaviors, and the motivations and intentions underlying digital piracy. A normative framework is proposed with five actionable recommendations to assist digital service marketers in better addressing digital piracy. The research implications of the reported study are also presented and discussed.

How Commitment Influences the Termination of B2B Exchange Relationships

Tsiros, M., Ross, W. T., Mittal, V. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:01 PST

Commitment is a key construct determining relationship outcomes, especially in B2B relationships. However, the processes by which commitment affects relationship outcomes—specifically likelihood to terminate a B2B relationship—are not well understood. Using a number of decision-process models, we propose three mechanisms by which commitment influences supplier termination. We suggest that commitment may (a) curtail search, (b) bias supplier evaluation, or (c) curtail action. These are tested using an experimental study as well as a survey. Convergent findings from both studies demonstrate that a combination of all three processes is involved in determining how commitment affects termination likelihood.

The Relationship of Employee Perceptions of Organizational Climate to Business-Unit Outcomes: An MPLS Approach

Cooil, B., Aksoy, L., Keiningham, T. L., Maryott, K. M. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:01 PST

There has been an extensive exploration of how organizational climate is related to various business outcomes, but these studies have generally examined outcomes separately or developed univariate measures that combine outcomes. These approaches fail to (a) accommodate the multivariate character of important business results and (b) facilitate the firm's need to achieve success on several dimensions. This research proposes a methodological approach new to the service domain to address these issues. Using data from a large, multinational retail grocery superstore based in continental Western Europe, this study illustrates how multivariate partial least squares (MPLS) models can be used. MPLS provides three interpretable factors of climate—Overall Organizational Climate, Self-Efficacy Versus Leader's Efficacy, and Personal Empowerment Versus Management Facilitation —that are important predictors of three business outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, and scaled revenue. The use of the MPLS approach in other services domains is also explored.

Half Full or Half Empty: The Role of Optimism in Boundary-Spanning Positions

Crosno, J. L., Rinaldo, S. B., Black, H. G., Kelley, S. W. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:01 PST

Previous research demonstrates the dysfunctional consequences of high levels of role stressors (role ambiguity and role conflict) in boundary-spanning positions. These consequences include higher levels of burnout and lower levels of satisfaction and performance. Although marketing researchers have investigated external mechanisms for coping with role stressors, research to date has not investigated the inherent capability of boundary spanners to cope with role stressors. This research examines optimism as an internal characteristic that facilitates coping with role stressors in boundary-spanning positions. The research findings reveal that optimists are able to anticipate and respond proactively to stressors, resulting in less burnout and higher levels of performance and satisfaction.