Pub Date : 2023-04-06DOI: 10.1177/10946705231166742
Nathan B. Warren, Sara Hanson
The shift from analog to digital point-of-sale systems (e.g. Square) and app-based service platforms (e.g. Uber) disrupted frontline services by creating new tipping processes that occur in an ever-expanding range of service contexts and involve new stakeholders. The increasing importance of tipping in the global economy and the uncertainty regarding tipping practices suggest the need for a comprehensive framework that accounts for evolving tipped service networks. We introduce the multi-stakeholder service journey lens to build a conceptual framework that accounts for the competing interests of customers, employees, frontline service managers, technology providers, and other stakeholders in emergent tipped services. This framework examines interactions between stakeholders at different points along the tipped service journey, while accounting for the technologies and contexts that shape stakeholder interactions and the sometimes divergent outcomes that result. Stakeholder interactions at each stage of the tipped service journey suggest theoretically rich research questions, such as “How do digital tipping technologies diffuse into and realign cultural practices?”, and important practical questions, such as “Which tip request framing and formatting choices result in the highest tips, most customer satisfaction, and optimum employee outcomes?” Our conclusion emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholder service journey perspectives for examining digitally disrupted services. Graphical Abstract
{"title":"Tipping, Disrupted: The Multi-Stakeholder Digital Tipped Service Journey","authors":"Nathan B. Warren, Sara Hanson","doi":"10.1177/10946705231166742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231166742","url":null,"abstract":"The shift from analog to digital point-of-sale systems (e.g. Square) and app-based service platforms (e.g. Uber) disrupted frontline services by creating new tipping processes that occur in an ever-expanding range of service contexts and involve new stakeholders. The increasing importance of tipping in the global economy and the uncertainty regarding tipping practices suggest the need for a comprehensive framework that accounts for evolving tipped service networks. We introduce the multi-stakeholder service journey lens to build a conceptual framework that accounts for the competing interests of customers, employees, frontline service managers, technology providers, and other stakeholders in emergent tipped services. This framework examines interactions between stakeholders at different points along the tipped service journey, while accounting for the technologies and contexts that shape stakeholder interactions and the sometimes divergent outcomes that result. Stakeholder interactions at each stage of the tipped service journey suggest theoretically rich research questions, such as “How do digital tipping technologies diffuse into and realign cultural practices?”, and important practical questions, such as “Which tip request framing and formatting choices result in the highest tips, most customer satisfaction, and optimum employee outcomes?” Our conclusion emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholder service journey perspectives for examining digitally disrupted services. Graphical Abstract","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"52 1","pages":"389 - 404"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79307133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-18DOI: 10.1177/10946705231163881
Patrick B. Fennell, M. Lorenz, Kristina K. Lindsey Hall, J. M. Andzulis
Recent disruptions, labor shortages, and fiscal pressures, especially in retail service environments, have necessitated and highlighted changes in the roles and responsibilities of frontline employees, often requiring them to enforce mask mandates and police customer deviant behavior (CDB). While extant work has investigated the impact of policing, or guardianship, for customers and firms, there has been limited examination regarding the policies themselves and the corresponding toll exacted upon frontline employees (FLEs) and their managers (FLMs). Thus, this phenomenon warranted an in-depth, multi-method investigation, including a full-scale qualitative exploration substantiated and extended via three experiments and a survey. The qualitative approach probes employees’ feelings about and identifies categories of CDB in retail service settings as well as develops a novel typology of guardianship policies (policy type x approach style). The subsequent studies empirically test the CDB guardianship typology in the context of a particularly detrimental type of CDB—shoplifting, while advancing understanding of firm-related (guardianship expectations), employee-related (trait anxiety) and job role-related (FLE vs FLM) contextual factors impacting perceptions of policy fairness and turnover intentions. The findings provide rich insights for practitioners and scholars by offering a novel guardianship typology and an extensive agenda for future research.
最近的中断、劳动力短缺和财政压力,特别是在零售服务环境中,使得一线员工的角色和责任发生了必要的变化,并突出了这些变化,通常要求他们执行口罩命令,并监督客户越轨行为(CDB)。虽然现有的工作已经调查了监管或监护对客户和公司的影响,但对政策本身以及对一线员工(le)及其经理(flm)所造成的相应损失的审查有限。因此,这一现象需要进行深入的、多方法的调查,包括通过三个实验和一项调查证实和扩展的全面定性探索。定性方法探讨了员工对零售服务环境中CDB的感受,并确定了CDB的类别,并开发了一种新的监护政策类型(政策类型x方法风格)。随后的研究在一种特别有害的CDB -入店行窃的背景下对CDB监护类型进行了实证检验,同时促进了对公司相关(监护期望)、员工相关(特质焦虑)和工作角色相关(FLE vs FLM)影响政策公平和离职意向感知的背景因素的理解。这一发现为从业者和学者提供了丰富的见解,为未来的研究提供了一种新的监护类型和广泛的议程。
{"title":"Not My Circus, Not my Monkeys? Frontline Employee Perceptions of Customer Deviant Behaviors and Service Firms’ Guardianship Policies","authors":"Patrick B. Fennell, M. Lorenz, Kristina K. Lindsey Hall, J. M. Andzulis","doi":"10.1177/10946705231163881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231163881","url":null,"abstract":"Recent disruptions, labor shortages, and fiscal pressures, especially in retail service environments, have necessitated and highlighted changes in the roles and responsibilities of frontline employees, often requiring them to enforce mask mandates and police customer deviant behavior (CDB). While extant work has investigated the impact of policing, or guardianship, for customers and firms, there has been limited examination regarding the policies themselves and the corresponding toll exacted upon frontline employees (FLEs) and their managers (FLMs). Thus, this phenomenon warranted an in-depth, multi-method investigation, including a full-scale qualitative exploration substantiated and extended via three experiments and a survey. The qualitative approach probes employees’ feelings about and identifies categories of CDB in retail service settings as well as develops a novel typology of guardianship policies (policy type x approach style). The subsequent studies empirically test the CDB guardianship typology in the context of a particularly detrimental type of CDB—shoplifting, while advancing understanding of firm-related (guardianship expectations), employee-related (trait anxiety) and job role-related (FLE vs FLM) contextual factors impacting perceptions of policy fairness and turnover intentions. The findings provide rich insights for practitioners and scholars by offering a novel guardianship typology and an extensive agenda for future research.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"42 1","pages":"422 - 440"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76681141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-13DOI: 10.1177/10946705231161778
Valerie Good, Amy Greiner Fehl, Alexander C. LaBrecque, Clay M. Voorhees
This research examines the antecedents and outcomes of organizational frontline employees’ (FLEs’) resilience. Developing a better understanding of resilience, defined as an employee’s ability to overcome or bounce back from adversity, has become critical, as managers increasingly are struggling to manage change on the front lines. The results from three studies conducted in organizational frontline contexts confirm the importance of FLE resilience, demonstrating its association with increased effort and reduced turnover intentions. Moreover, using an experience sampling methodology, we find that nearly half the variance in resilience lies within individuals, which suggests that resilience is not merely a trait but rather malleable. As such, the main contribution of this research is to offer fresh insights into what leads to greater resilience in customer-facing roles. The results show that rather than being motivated by a desire for monetary compensation, FLEs’ resilience is driven by a sense of competence and relatedness to not only coworkers but also customers. Moreover, we find that autonomy is negatively related to resilience when customer orientation is low. For managers, our findings offer guidance on how to cultivate resilience to improve FLE effort and reduce turnover intentions in the face of adversity.
{"title":"Cultivating Resilience in Organizational Frontline Employees","authors":"Valerie Good, Amy Greiner Fehl, Alexander C. LaBrecque, Clay M. Voorhees","doi":"10.1177/10946705231161778","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231161778","url":null,"abstract":"This research examines the antecedents and outcomes of organizational frontline employees’ (FLEs’) resilience. Developing a better understanding of resilience, defined as an employee’s ability to overcome or bounce back from adversity, has become critical, as managers increasingly are struggling to manage change on the front lines. The results from three studies conducted in organizational frontline contexts confirm the importance of FLE resilience, demonstrating its association with increased effort and reduced turnover intentions. Moreover, using an experience sampling methodology, we find that nearly half the variance in resilience lies within individuals, which suggests that resilience is not merely a trait but rather malleable. As such, the main contribution of this research is to offer fresh insights into what leads to greater resilience in customer-facing roles. The results show that rather than being motivated by a desire for monetary compensation, FLEs’ resilience is driven by a sense of competence and relatedness to not only coworkers but also customers. Moreover, we find that autonomy is negatively related to resilience when customer orientation is low. For managers, our findings offer guidance on how to cultivate resilience to improve FLE effort and reduce turnover intentions in the face of adversity.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"43 1","pages":"405 - 421"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91335330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-09DOI: 10.1177/10946705231161758
Tracey S. Danaher, P. Danaher, J. Sweeney, Janet R. Mccoll-Kennedy
In managing a chronic illness, customers have the opportunity to play an active role in their healthcare—by cocreating value. For example, customers can adhere to medical advice, seek out information about their condition(s), manage their diet, and interact with family and friends. Moreover, across an extended treatment period, customers may dynamically adjust their level of value cocreation. In this study, we examine 307 healthcare customers receiving treatment for cancer, with 12 value cocreation activities tracked longitudinally over 4 survey waves. Using a hidden Markov model, we reveal three latent states of customer value cocreation: low, moderate, and high. We then determine which of the 12 value cocreation activities are most strongly associated with transitions among cocreation states. Finally, we show that transitioning to a cocreation state with a higher level of cocreation activity positively correlates with customer and marketing outcomes, including customer quality of life and satisfaction. Our findings show that an increase in six cocreation activities—actively sharing information, compliance with medical requirements, interacting with staff, maintaining a healthy diet, interacting with others who receive treatment, and maintaining a good physical appearance—yields positive gains for both customer and marketing outcomes. In contrast, an increase in emotion regulation negatively affects customer outcomes.
{"title":"Dynamic Customer Value Cocreation in Healthcare","authors":"Tracey S. Danaher, P. Danaher, J. Sweeney, Janet R. Mccoll-Kennedy","doi":"10.1177/10946705231161758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231161758","url":null,"abstract":"In managing a chronic illness, customers have the opportunity to play an active role in their healthcare—by cocreating value. For example, customers can adhere to medical advice, seek out information about their condition(s), manage their diet, and interact with family and friends. Moreover, across an extended treatment period, customers may dynamically adjust their level of value cocreation. In this study, we examine 307 healthcare customers receiving treatment for cancer, with 12 value cocreation activities tracked longitudinally over 4 survey waves. Using a hidden Markov model, we reveal three latent states of customer value cocreation: low, moderate, and high. We then determine which of the 12 value cocreation activities are most strongly associated with transitions among cocreation states. Finally, we show that transitioning to a cocreation state with a higher level of cocreation activity positively correlates with customer and marketing outcomes, including customer quality of life and satisfaction. Our findings show that an increase in six cocreation activities—actively sharing information, compliance with medical requirements, interacting with staff, maintaining a healthy diet, interacting with others who receive treatment, and maintaining a good physical appearance—yields positive gains for both customer and marketing outcomes. In contrast, an increase in emotion regulation negatively affects customer outcomes.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85437516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-27DOI: 10.1177/10946705231159715
V. Kuppelwieser, Nathalie Spielmann, Diego Vega
Prior works discuss servicescapes as a stable environment but abstain from examining servicescapes in crisis situations and how they impact frontline employees (FLEs). This paper investigates servicescapes as something other than static and planned, and it accounts for the uncertainty often present in servicescapes. Specifically, we conceptualize servicescapes in crisis situations on a continuum that takes into account the landscape’s (in)stability and the processes’ (un)predictability. In so doing, we provide a more nuanced understanding of FLE experience and job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes, such as humanitarian contexts. Our research on these rarely surveyed but highly important service-providing circumstances identifies how FLEs need to reconcile the dynamic contextual facets and the variables likely to influence their job satisfaction. Across two studies of humanitarian aid contexts, including one with the United Nations, we show that servicescape processes and/or landscapes are often dynamic. We further show that organizational value’s congruence, pleasantness, and convenience have a positive impact on FLE job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes by decreasing their perceived level of uncertainty.
{"title":"Humanitarian Crises: The (Un)Certainty of Servicescapes and Their Impact on Frontline Actors","authors":"V. Kuppelwieser, Nathalie Spielmann, Diego Vega","doi":"10.1177/10946705231159715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231159715","url":null,"abstract":"Prior works discuss servicescapes as a stable environment but abstain from examining servicescapes in crisis situations and how they impact frontline employees (FLEs). This paper investigates servicescapes as something other than static and planned, and it accounts for the uncertainty often present in servicescapes. Specifically, we conceptualize servicescapes in crisis situations on a continuum that takes into account the landscape’s (in)stability and the processes’ (un)predictability. In so doing, we provide a more nuanced understanding of FLE experience and job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes, such as humanitarian contexts. Our research on these rarely surveyed but highly important service-providing circumstances identifies how FLEs need to reconcile the dynamic contextual facets and the variables likely to influence their job satisfaction. Across two studies of humanitarian aid contexts, including one with the United Nations, we show that servicescape processes and/or landscapes are often dynamic. We further show that organizational value’s congruence, pleasantness, and convenience have a positive impact on FLE job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes by decreasing their perceived level of uncertainty.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"66 1","pages":"371 - 388"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85366904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-16DOI: 10.1177/10946705231157076
Frank G. Cabano, Elizabeth A. Minton
Prior research shows that consumers act in ways to avoid associating with conflicting social identities. However, it is unclear how such conflicting social identities influence the behaviors of service providers when interacting with consumers experiencing vulnerabilities, leading to potential marketplace discrimination. Additionally, research has yet to adequately identify what type of intervention strategy may be introduced in order to improve service quality when discrimination occurs. Across six studies, within the context of highly religious service providers or highly conservative service employees interacting with LGBTQIA + consumers, we demonstrate that the motivation to avoid being associated with undesirable social identities negatively influences their service quality toward these consumers experiencing vulnerabilities, leading to discrimination against such consumers. This occurs because of an increase in social identity threat perceptions associated with providing service to these consumers. We also identify an important boundary condition, such that this effect manifests when providing service that is high (vs. low) in identity relevance. Importantly, we provide evidence for a common identity intervention (i.e., focusing on the commonalities between actors) as a strategy that increases service quality and show its effectiveness across multiple contexts and using real businesses. Graphical Abstract
{"title":"A Common Identity Intervention to Improve Service Quality for Consumers Experiencing Vulnerabilities","authors":"Frank G. Cabano, Elizabeth A. Minton","doi":"10.1177/10946705231157076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231157076","url":null,"abstract":"Prior research shows that consumers act in ways to avoid associating with conflicting social identities. However, it is unclear how such conflicting social identities influence the behaviors of service providers when interacting with consumers experiencing vulnerabilities, leading to potential marketplace discrimination. Additionally, research has yet to adequately identify what type of intervention strategy may be introduced in order to improve service quality when discrimination occurs. Across six studies, within the context of highly religious service providers or highly conservative service employees interacting with LGBTQIA + consumers, we demonstrate that the motivation to avoid being associated with undesirable social identities negatively influences their service quality toward these consumers experiencing vulnerabilities, leading to discrimination against such consumers. This occurs because of an increase in social identity threat perceptions associated with providing service to these consumers. We also identify an important boundary condition, such that this effect manifests when providing service that is high (vs. low) in identity relevance. Importantly, we provide evidence for a common identity intervention (i.e., focusing on the commonalities between actors) as a strategy that increases service quality and show its effectiveness across multiple contexts and using real businesses. Graphical Abstract","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"9 1","pages":"597 - 613"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87884659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-05DOI: 10.1177/10946705221140148
R. Fisk, A. Gallan, Alison M. Joubert, J. Beekhuyzen, Lilliemay Cheung, Rebekah Russell–Bennett
The “digital divide” refers to societal-level inequalities of digital access, capabilities, and outcomes. To explore how the digital divide affects customers experiencing vulnerability, service interactions in essential service settings (health care, education, and social services) were empirically investigated and practices service system members might adopt to address vulnerability were identified. This research upframes the pillars of service inclusion framework to define human capabilities that result from service inclusion practices. Three research topics were addressed: how the digital divide affects vulnerability (RQ1), how the digital divide can be addressed through service inclusion practices (RQ2), and how service inclusion practices enable human capabilities for digital inclusion (RQ3). The findings illuminate: (1) how service employees can engage in service inclusion practices to address the digital divide (by letting go of rules and perspectives, sharing control, providing services beyond job scope, and facilitating social connections), and (2) how these service inclusion practices build human capabilities for digital inclusion (by building basic skills and capabilities for meaningful outcomes through role modeling, coaching, customer-to-customer mentoring, and expanding networks). Contributions include conceptual models of service inclusion practices and fostering digital inclusion that specify a new meso level service organization pathway for healing the digital divide.
{"title":"Healing the Digital Divide With Digital Inclusion: Enabling Human Capabilities","authors":"R. Fisk, A. Gallan, Alison M. Joubert, J. Beekhuyzen, Lilliemay Cheung, Rebekah Russell–Bennett","doi":"10.1177/10946705221140148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705221140148","url":null,"abstract":"The “digital divide” refers to societal-level inequalities of digital access, capabilities, and outcomes. To explore how the digital divide affects customers experiencing vulnerability, service interactions in essential service settings (health care, education, and social services) were empirically investigated and practices service system members might adopt to address vulnerability were identified. This research upframes the pillars of service inclusion framework to define human capabilities that result from service inclusion practices. Three research topics were addressed: how the digital divide affects vulnerability (RQ1), how the digital divide can be addressed through service inclusion practices (RQ2), and how service inclusion practices enable human capabilities for digital inclusion (RQ3). The findings illuminate: (1) how service employees can engage in service inclusion practices to address the digital divide (by letting go of rules and perspectives, sharing control, providing services beyond job scope, and facilitating social connections), and (2) how these service inclusion practices build human capabilities for digital inclusion (by building basic skills and capabilities for meaningful outcomes through role modeling, coaching, customer-to-customer mentoring, and expanding networks). Contributions include conceptual models of service inclusion practices and fostering digital inclusion that specify a new meso level service organization pathway for healing the digital divide.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"144 1","pages":"542 - 559"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79923479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-29DOI: 10.1177/10946705221141925
Lena Steinhoff, Kelly D. Martin
Service frontline encounters between customers and service providers have been subject to fundamental changes in recent years. As two major change agents, technology infusion and data privacy regulations are inextricably linked and constitute a critical ethical and societal issue. Specifically, service frontlines—as represented by human or technological agents, or some hybrid form—rely on customer data for service provision, which subjects them to privacy regulations governing the collection, submission, access, and use of any customer data thus captured. However, scant research outlines the significant implications of evolving data privacy regulations for service frontline encounters. To advance knowledge in this domain, this research distills six key dimensions of global data privacy regulations (fairness, data limits, transparency, control, consent, and recourse). Employing an intelligences theoretical lens, the authors theorize how these dimensions might become differentially manifest across three service frontline interface types (human-based, technology-based, and hybrid). Carefully intersecting the need for varying intelligences across data privacy regulatory dimensions with the abilities of service frontline interfaces to harness each intelligence type, this study offers a novel conceptual framework that advances research and practice. Theoretical, managerial, and policy implications unfold from the proposed framework, which also can inform a future research agenda.
{"title":"Putting Data Privacy Regulation into Action: The Differential Capabilities of Service Frontline Interfaces","authors":"Lena Steinhoff, Kelly D. Martin","doi":"10.1177/10946705221141925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705221141925","url":null,"abstract":"Service frontline encounters between customers and service providers have been subject to fundamental changes in recent years. As two major change agents, technology infusion and data privacy regulations are inextricably linked and constitute a critical ethical and societal issue. Specifically, service frontlines—as represented by human or technological agents, or some hybrid form—rely on customer data for service provision, which subjects them to privacy regulations governing the collection, submission, access, and use of any customer data thus captured. However, scant research outlines the significant implications of evolving data privacy regulations for service frontline encounters. To advance knowledge in this domain, this research distills six key dimensions of global data privacy regulations (fairness, data limits, transparency, control, consent, and recourse). Employing an intelligences theoretical lens, the authors theorize how these dimensions might become differentially manifest across three service frontline interface types (human-based, technology-based, and hybrid). Carefully intersecting the need for varying intelligences across data privacy regulatory dimensions with the abilities of service frontline interfaces to harness each intelligence type, this study offers a novel conceptual framework that advances research and practice. Theoretical, managerial, and policy implications unfold from the proposed framework, which also can inform a future research agenda.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"330 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80200176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-29DOI: 10.1177/10946705221141923
Omid Kamran-Disfani, R. Bagherzadeh, Ashok Bhattarai, Maryam Farhang, L. Scheer
Frontline employees (FLEs) often face customer incivility—rude or demeaning remarks, verbal aggression, or hostile gestures. Although incivility from customers is rising at an alarming rate, most organizations refuse to act decisively to protect their FLEs and stop customer incivility. This research asserts that an organizational policy of ignoring and accepting incivility from customers is neither a wise business strategy nor has positive outcomes. In contrast, customer incivility should be handled promptly and decisively. Specifically, the authors present FLE Constructive Resistance (FLE CR) as a strategy to confront customer incivility. The authors conduct interviews with FLEs, develop a Constructive Resistance (CR) scale to fit the context of FLE–customer encounters, and test a conceptual model to examine the impact of CR by FLEs. The results suggest that customers who observe incivility perpetrated by fellow customers respond positively to FLE CR, including greater future purchase intention, greater positive word-of-mouth intention, and reduced future misbehavior intention. These effects are mediated by the observer’s perceived fairness of the FLE’s CR. Finally, the indirect effects of FLE’s CR on observer outcomes are more likely to manifest in customers with higher moral identity as well as newer customers.
{"title":"Constructive Resistance in the Frontlines: How Frontline Employees’ Resistance to Customer Incivility Affects Customer Observers","authors":"Omid Kamran-Disfani, R. Bagherzadeh, Ashok Bhattarai, Maryam Farhang, L. Scheer","doi":"10.1177/10946705221141923","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705221141923","url":null,"abstract":"Frontline employees (FLEs) often face customer incivility—rude or demeaning remarks, verbal aggression, or hostile gestures. Although incivility from customers is rising at an alarming rate, most organizations refuse to act decisively to protect their FLEs and stop customer incivility. This research asserts that an organizational policy of ignoring and accepting incivility from customers is neither a wise business strategy nor has positive outcomes. In contrast, customer incivility should be handled promptly and decisively. Specifically, the authors present FLE Constructive Resistance (FLE CR) as a strategy to confront customer incivility. The authors conduct interviews with FLEs, develop a Constructive Resistance (CR) scale to fit the context of FLE–customer encounters, and test a conceptual model to examine the impact of CR by FLEs. The results suggest that customers who observe incivility perpetrated by fellow customers respond positively to FLE CR, including greater future purchase intention, greater positive word-of-mouth intention, and reduced future misbehavior intention. These effects are mediated by the observer’s perceived fairness of the FLE’s CR. Finally, the indirect effects of FLE’s CR on observer outcomes are more likely to manifest in customers with higher moral identity as well as newer customers.","PeriodicalId":48358,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Service Research","volume":"2 1","pages":"560 - 577"},"PeriodicalIF":12.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75327316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-15DOI: 10.1177/10946705221132583
Bieke Henkens, K. Verleye, Bart Larivière, H. Perks
As smart technology develops at an ever-increasing pace, firms are investing heavily in boosting the smartness of their service systems. To support these endeavors, practitioners and researchers call for guidance on how to account for customers’ complex needs and wants when making smartness decisions. This research adopts the firm’s perspective on investigating how and why decisions on smartness are undertaken. It examines how firms configure the smartness of service systems and communicate the intended value to customers through value propositions. Critically, it further unravels why firms make these decisions on the basis of their reasoning about aligning resources to create value for customers—that is, the firm’s value creation logic. Our analysis of multiple case studies across several industry sectors reveals a number of pathways to service system smartness. These are labeled cautious, tailored, premium, and balanced pathways, and each entails specific combinations of smartness configurations and customer value propositions, underpinned by particular logics. A more nuanced analysis shows that firms may pursue multiple pathways simultaneously when targeting different customer segments and indicates how firms’ characteristics may shape their pathways to smartness. The resulting framework can operate as a guiding tool for managers and consultants when making important smartness decisions. Graphical Abstract
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