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Does Culture Impact Preferred Employee Attributes in Complaint Handling Encounters?
Total Quality Management & Business Excellence
Abstract
Recently, Gruber, Abosag, Reppel, and Szmigin’s [(2011). Analysing the preferred
characteristics of frontline employees dealing with customer complaints – a crossnational
Kano study. The TQM Journal (Kano Special Issue), 23(2), 128–144]. Kano study revealed that complaining customers in Saudi Arabia are less difficult to delight than UK customers. The present study investigates whether these differences are caused by different service-sector development stages, as suggested in their
study, or by cultural differences instead. Data were collected using Kano questionnaires from 151 respondents with complaining experience in Singapore. This country was chosen as it has a highly developed service economy (like the UK) but also a collectivistic culture (like Saudi Arabia). The analysis reveals that Singaporean customers show the same preferences as those in the UK. We consider
this as a strong indicator for the suggested impact of the stage of service-sector development rather than cultural differences on complaining customers’ preferences of frontline employee attributes. Our results support the findings by Gruber et al. (2011). By doing so, they surprisingly refute previous research which concluded that national culture plays a significant role in shaping customer expectations during
complaint-handling encounters. Our study especially corroborates the notion of a life cycle of quality attributes that had been found for goods and services and the preferred attributes of frontline employees dealing with customer complaints.
... Hofstede (2002) also argued that nations are not the best units for studying culture, but they are usually the only kind of units available for comparison and better than nothing. National cultures primarily shape the behaviors, values, and beliefs held by a majority of their members (Gruber, Abosag, Reppel, Szmigin, & Löfgren, 2013), and there could be a more effective way to assess operational decisions than considering cross-border or regional differences based on geographical boundaries (Pagell et al., 2005). Although divergent national cultures are inclined to change into convergence of cultures because of technological advancement, global communication, travel and collaboration, increasing immigration, and cross-national and ethnic marriage (Reisinger & Crotts, 2010), but this change is only slowly (Burgess, 1995). ...
... Finally, our results generally support the idea that national culture plays a significant role in shaping customer expectations for service performance (Mattila & Patterson, 2004). In contrast, Gruber et al. (2013) suggested that the service-sector development stages of countries rather than cultural differences have a strong impact on their consumers' preferences of frontline employee attributes. In their investigation of complaining customers in Singapore, Gruber et al. (2013) found that two countries with highly developed service economies (Singapore and the UK) seem to be more similar with regard to customer expectations than two countries having a collectivistic culture (Singapore and Saudi Arabia), and thus considered customer expectations vary across countries due to the different stages of service economy development of these countries. ...
... In contrast, Gruber et al. (2013) suggested that the service-sector development stages of countries rather than cultural differences have a strong impact on their consumers' preferences of frontline employee attributes. In their investigation of complaining customers in Singapore, Gruber et al. (2013) found that two countries with highly developed service economies (Singapore and the UK) seem to be more similar with regard to customer expectations than two countries having a collectivistic culture (Singapore and Saudi Arabia), and thus considered customer expectations vary across countries due to the different stages of service economy development of these countries. Nevertheless, we found that evaluations of Singaporean travelers are more similar to Chinese travelers than to Western travelers. ...
This study focuses on demonstrating the differences and similarities between and among Western and Asian customers in terms of travelers’ evaluation of satisfaction, perceived value, and attribute quality in a Hong Kong hotel setting. It has been noted that national culture has a substantial impact on travelers’ expectations and perceptions. The results show that satisfaction, perceived value, and hotel attribute evaluations are significantly higher for Western than Asian travelers. We also found considerable similarities between Australian, Canadian, and British travelers and also between Singaporean and Chinese travelers. In addition, American travelers’ ratings are closest to the average of the total sample compared with travelers from other countries, while Japanese travelers demonstrate the highest expectations and needs among the target nations.
... Saudi Arabia's national culture characteristics are reflected in high power distance and uncertainty avoidance, low individualism/high collectivism, high femininity/low masculinity and tend towards a long-term orientation (Al-Yahya, 2008;Alzeban, 2015;Gruber, Abosag, Reppel, Szmigin, & Löfgren, 2013;Onsman, 2011). From leadership/management and organisational perspectives, these characteristics are associated with autocracy, top-down decision making, fidelity to organisational leaders, drawn out decision making processes, and paternalist management limiting employee initiative and autonomy. ...
Employees’ turnover has always been the main concern and interest of both academics and practitioners in the healthcare sector. Also, both leadership styles and organisational culture as the main contributors to employees’ intention to leave have always been the central focus of most scholars in different disciplines including healthcare and organisational studies. Although, there are numerous studies that have investigated the impact of both leadership styles and organisational culture on employees’ intention to leave, almost all of this research has only explored the direct relationships between these variables. As a result there is limited and inadequate attention on the indirect relationships among these variables through other major factors such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment and perceived organisational support. Therefore, this study argues that there is an absence of a comprehensive conceptual framework in this area that has explored both direct and indirect relationships among these variables.
As a result, the main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework that enables researchers to investigate the mediating impact of job satisfaction, organisational commitment, perceived organisational support on the relationship between leadership styles and organisational culture with the intention to leave in public healthcare in Saudi Arabia. In the first instance and in order to achieve this study’s aim and objectives, a systematic literature review was carried out that helped and enabled the researcher to develop a conceptual framework that clearly shows these relationships. After developing a conceptual framework and hypotheses related to the relationships, a questionnaire was designed based on the existing literature in these areas and was distributed among 850 employees working in one public hospital in Saudi Arabia. Out of 850 questionnaires distributed 354 usable questionnaires were returned which provided around 40 percent response rate.
The results of this study were interesting and in some respects unexpected in some areas. The findings show that transactional leadership style has no direct or indirect relationship with the intention to leave which was surprising and requires further investigation. Furthermore, job satisfaction does not act as a mediator on the relationship between transformational leadership style and intention to leave which was also unexpected and requires further investigation. On the other hand, the results of this study confirm the importance of both transformational leadership style and organisational culture on the intention to leave among expatriates in the public sector as well as the major influence of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and perceived organisational support on these relationships.
This study makes several major contributions both from an academic and practitioners’ point of view. The most important contribution of this study lies in the roots of this study with the presentation of a conceptual framework that shows both direct and indirect relationships among all variables explored. Furthermore, this study also contributes to the growing literature in the area of leadership-culture-intention to leave in public healthcare systems in developing countries.<br/
... Quality has the objective and subjective aspects, where the latter is influenced by the national culture as supported by studies linking customer satisfaction to deeply entrenched values based on Kano's model (Tontini et al., 2013;Yang, 2013). Depending on how the subjective aspects of quality are managed, positive or negative outcomes could result (Gruber et al., 2013). A conflict can create an atmosphere to consider new ideas and approaches for improved performance so much so that parties' responses to a conflict eventually determine whether the conflict (task or relational) is functional or dysfunctional (Spector, 2008). ...
Following from the preceding chapter, this chapter focuses on the construction industry in Nigeria, being the host country to the Chinese firms in the context of this study. Similarly, it covers the development of the construction industry in Nigeria and key players and highlights the perceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of Nigeria’s construction industry.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to design and test a model integrating the attributes of national culture and total quality management (TQM) principles for successful TQM implementation in international projects involving Chinese construction firms in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
– Based on the culture-specific relationship between TQM implementation and national culture and ISO 9001 being a stepping stone to TQM implementation, a model in the form of a matrix was designed integrating Hofstede’s five national cultural dimensions (NCD) and ISO 9001 eight quality management principles. The model was then tested through a three-phase research process including cross-sectional surveys of the Chinese ( n =48) and the Nigerians ( n =80) (Phase 1), Delphi study involving TQM experts ( n =12) (Phase 2), and case studies of Chinese projects in Nigeria ( n =6) (Phase 3).
Findings
– The model predicts important attributes of national culture and TQM principles for achieving good-quality performance, the management of which leads to a Chinese firm being perceived as delivering good or poor-quality services in Nigeria. Statistical testing using κ statistics revealed significant agreement between two perceived good-quality Chinese firms on the important attributes and significant disagreement between perceived good-quality and poor-quality Chinese firms in Nigeria.
Research limitations/implications
– The model designed is based on ISO 9001: 2008 version.
Practical implications
– International businesses in Africa will benefit from this study’s findings.
Social implications
– Overseas Chinese firms’ service quality perceptions can be better managed.
Originality/value
– This empirical study presents a model for successful TQM implementation through ISO 9001.
b>Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to formulate and discuss future research avenues for the marketing of tourism services.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken in the paper is to review the relevant literature and focus on the key themes most important for future research on tourism marketing.
Findings – The paper finds that there are a number of research avenues for tourism marketing researchers and marketing practitioners to conduct investigations on but the most important areas are consumer behavior, branding, e-marketing and strategic marketing.
Practical implications – The paper is relevant to tourism firms and destination management organizations in the development of marketing activities/capabilities to increase their customer base. In addition, as this paper takes a global perspective it is also helpful to compare different international research directions.
Social implications – Changing demographics and the aging of the global population mean different marketing approaches will be needed to market tourism services to older consumers and also consumers from developing countries such as China and India.
Originality/value – This paper is a key resource for marketing practitioners wanting to focus on future growth areas and also marketing academics interested in tourism marketing that want to stay at the forefront of their research area of expertise.<br /
You’ll find that this text takes a strongly managerial perspective, yet is rooted in solid academic research, complemented by memorable frameworks. Our goal is to bridge the all-too-frequent gap between theory and the real world. Practical management applications are reinforced by numerous examples within the 15 chapters. Complementing the text are 18 outstanding classroom-tested cases.
We’ve designed Services Marketing, Seventh Edition to complement the materials found in traditional marketing management and principles texts. Recognizing that the service sector of the economy can best be characterized by its diversity, we believe that no single conceptual model suffices to cover marketing-relevant issues among organizations ranging from huge international corporations (in fields such as airlines, banking, insurance, telecommunications, freight transportation and professional services) to locally owned and operated small businesses, such as restaurants, laundries, taxis, optometrists, and many business-to-business services. In response, the book offers a carefully-designed “toolbox” for service managers, teaching students how different concepts, frameworks and analytical procedures can best be used to examine and resolve the varied challenges faced by managers in different situations.
The authors argue that perceptions of service quality vary across cultural groups, as defined by each culture’s position on Hofstede’s dimensions. They explicitly map the relationship between service quality perceptions and cultural dimension positions and draw the implications for international service market segmentation. They also test the hypotheses constituting their theoretical analysis. They show that the importance of SERVQUAL dimensions is correlated with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. They also used the correlation coefficients to compute a Cultural Service Quality Index that could be used to segment international service markets and allocate resources across segments.
Purpose
This paper seeks to use the Kano model to gain a deeper understanding of attributes of effective frontline employees dealing with customer complainants in personal interactions. Previous research revealed that excitement factors deteriorate to basic factors over time. This research aims to investigate whether the same phenomenon holds true for attributes of service employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using Kano questionnaires from 272 respondents with complaining experience in the UK and Saudi Arabia, these being two countries at different stages of service sector development.
Findings
The analysis of the Kano questionnaires for the UK reveals that complaining customers take the contact employee's ability to listen carefully for granted. The Kano results for Saudi Arabia clearly indicate that complaining customers are (still) easier to delight than their UK counterparts.
Research limitations/implications
Even though the study has a sample size similar to several existing Kano studies, future research studies could still use larger probability samples that represent the broader (complaining) consumer population in the selected countries.
Practical implications
If companies know what complaining customers expect, frontline employees may be trained to adapt their behaviour to their customers' underlying expectations. For this purpose, the paper gives several suggestions to managers to improve active complaint handling and management.
Originality/value
The study adds to the understanding of effective complaint handling. The findings are the first to show that employee factors that are performance factors in a highly developed service economy can still delight customers in a less developed service economy.
This article advances our understanding of the influence of affect in consumers’ responses to brief, nonpersonal service encounters. This study contributes to the services marketing literature by examining for mundane service transactions the impact of customer-displayed emotion and affect on assessments of the service encounter and the overall experience. Observational and perceptual data from customers were matched with frontline employees in 200 transaction-specific encounters. The results of this study suggest that consumers’ evaluations of the service encounter correlate highly with their displayed emotions during the interaction and postencounter mood states. Finally, the findings indicate that frontline employees’perceptions of the encounter are not aligned with those of their customers. The managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
As in other social exchanges, cultural norms and values are likely to influence customers’ perceptions of fairness and satisfaction with the service recovery process. This study contrasts the impact of two recovery attributes (compensation and explanation) on customers’ postrecovery perceptions in a cross-cultural context (East-Asia versus United States). The results from this experimental study indicate that compensation seems to drive customers’ fairness perceptions, in particular with American consumers. Offering an explanation for the failure had a positive impact on customer perceptions regardless of the customer’s cultural orientation. Finally, the study’s findings show that perceived fairness is directly linked to postrecovery satisfaction.
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to understand the differences across various quality dimensions and how these contribute to experienced quality and satisfaction among users.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies the Kano model of attractive quality to a destination (in this case a snowpark). The fact that the Kano model was used means that a quantitative approach was applied. In total 270 respondents responded to the survey instrument, which in turn was based on qualitative interviews.
Findings
The research shows the great importance of a destination that offers conditions that support specific goals or desired activities in order to achieve customer satisfaction. It also finds that the physical service environment has a major influence on customer satisfaction. Finally, the physical conditions seem to affect the destination's image to a greater degree than the interactions.
Practical implications
In order to create the most attractive offering, managers should focus primarily on the physical service environment.
Originality/value
The Kano model is widely discussed and well known. There are, however, very few applications for which the Kano model has been used, especially with regard to hedonistic services, the motivation for this study. The theoretical contribution of this paper is an extension of Brady and Cronin's model of what creates service quality. In this model, the location or place is added as an important construct for explaining the experience.
Examines service provider behaviors that influence customer evaluation of service encounters. Develops a list of service provider behaviors relevant to customer evaluation of a service encounter. Examines performance of these behaviors in specific restaurant and medical transactions. Then examines the relationship between performance of each behavior and encounter satisfaction. Behaviors are grouped, using factor analysis from consumer surveys, into three dimensions: concern, civility, and congeniality. Each is defined using multiple behavioral measures. Measures include concepts not widely addressed in current services literature, including conversation, respect, genuineness, attitude, and demeanor. These dimensions and constituent behaviors provide a framework for future research and service training and management.
Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to shed further light on the dynamics of quality attributes, as suggested by the theory of attractive quality. The study aims to investigate the existence of the life cycle for successful quality attributes and to identify alternative life cycles of quality attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
– The research is based on two surveys in which a total of 1,456 customers (708 in 2003 and 748 in 2009) participated in the classification of quality attributes. In particular, the study investigated how customers perceived 24 particular packaging attributes at two points in time, in 2003 and 2009.
Findings
– The study identified three life cycles of quality attributes: successful quality attributes, flavor‐of‐the‐month quality attributes, and stable quality attributes. The research also extends the theory of attractive quality by identifying the reverse movement of certain quality attributes; that is, that a quality attribute can take a step backwards in the life cycle of successful quality attributes through, for instance, a change in design.
Originality/value
– The paper provides empirical evidence for the existence of several alternative life cycles of quality attributes. The results of the empirical investigation increase the validity of the theory of attractive quality, which is important, given the limited amount of research that has attempted to validate the fundamentals of the theory of attractive quality.
This article analyzes service research published in marketing journals between 1993 and 2003. Two levels of analysis of the dynamics and evolution of the service marketing literature are distinguished: first, the dynamics of specific themes of the service marketing literature, and second, the structural evolution of these themes. Through a content analysis, we study the dynamics of individual themes in the service marketing literature as well as the relationships between these themes. Multiple correspondence analysis provides maps of themes and of the most frequent contributors, and a framework to track the structural dynamics and structural evolution of this literature over time. An evaluation of past predictions about the dynamics and evolution of service research is also provided with a discussion of its future.
There is growing evidence that service quality attributes fall into three categories of factors that have a different impact on the formation of customer satisfaction. However, it is not clear which analytical procedure best identifies these factors. Vavra proposed a two-dimensional importance grid based on customers’ self-stated importance and derived importance using regression analysis. It is based on the assumption that there is a difference between self-stated and derived importance and that by combining these importance weights, three groups of product or service attributes can be identified. Using data collected to measure customer satisfaction with the service of the IT department of a hospital, the authors test the underlying assumptions of the importance grid. They seem to be correct. When the results are compared with the penalty-reward contrast analysis developed by Brandt, the two methods do not yield the same results. Therefore, the convergent validity of the importance grid has to be questioned. The paper closes with a discussion of the implications for research and practice.
Employee satisfaction has become one of the critical issues in total quality management. Numerous studies investigate the antecedences and consequences of the construct. It has been found that employee satisfaction drives productivity and customer satisfaction. In order to better understand the drivers of employee satisfaction, the authors investigate whether Kano's model of customer satisfaction also applies to employee satisfaction. Kano's model distinguishes three categories of factors that have a different impact on the formation of customer satisfaction: basic factors (dissatisfiers), excitement factors (satisfiers) and performance factors (hybrid factors). In the first part of the paper, the authors review the literature on Kano's model of customer satisfaction. Next, they discuss whether and how it applies to employee satisfaction. The authors then report the findings of an empirical study in a pharmaceutical company. Using a regression analysis with dummy variables, the authors find an asymmetric relationship between the satisfaction with different factors and overall employee satisfaction, thereby confirming Kano's model in the context of employee satisfaction. In the final section of the paper, the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.
This research examines how consumers in the U.S. and Japan evaluate service encounters. It broadens traditional thinking about components of service transactions and develops behaviorally based service encounter dimensions, each with multiple measures, for the two countries. The study reveals a conversation factor not presently identified in the services literature and significant cross-cultural differences in both the dimensions and behaviors identified in the two countries. It also examines the relationship of dimensions to encounter satisfaction in both countries.
A theory of individualism and collectivism The evolution of individualism and collectivism theory and research is reviewed. The antecedents of collectivism–individualism can be found in the ecology, family structure, wealth distribution, demography, history, cultural diffusion, and situational conditions. The consequences of collectivism–individualism include differences in attention, attribution, cognition, emotion, motivation, self-definitions, values, language use, and communication, as well as other kinds of social and organizational behavior. Applications of individualism and collectivism include improvements in conflict resolution, health, international relations, and cross-cultural training. Culture is to society what memory is to individuals (Kluckhohn, 1954). It consists of what “has worked” in the experience of a group of people so it was worth transmitting to peers and descendents. Another definition of culture was provided by anthropologist Redfield (1941): “Culture is shared understandings made manifest in act and artifact.” In short, culture is shared behavior and shared human-made aspects of the society. Thus, ...
The authors develop and test a model of service employee management that examines constructs simultaneously across three interfaces of the service delivery process: manager-employee, employee-role, and employee-customer. The authors examine the attitudinal and behavioral responses of customer-contact employees that can influence customers' perceptions of service quality, the relationships among these responses, and three formal managerial control mechanisms (empowerment, behavior-based employee evaluation, and management commitment to service quality). The findings indicate that managers who are committed to service quality are more likely to empower their employees and use behavior-based evaluation. However, the use of empowerment has both positive and negative consequences in the management of contact employees. Some of the negative consequences are mitigated by the positive effects of behavior-based employee evaluation. To increase customers' perceptions of service quality, managers must increase employees' self-efficacy and job satisfaction, and reduce employees' role conflict and ambiguity. Implications for the management of customer-contact service employees and directions for further research are discussed.
In service settings, customer satisfaction is often influenced by the quality of the interpersonal interaction between the customer and the contact employee. Previous research has identified the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters from the customer's point of view; this study explores these sources in service encounters from the contact employee's point of view. Drawing on insights from role, script, and attribution theories, 774 critical service encounters reported by employees of the hotel, restaurant, and airline industries are analyzed and compared with previous research. Results generally support the theoretical predictions and also identify an additional source of customer dissatisfaction-the customer's own misbehavior. The findings have implications for business practice in managing service encounters, employee empowerment and training, and managing customers.
The authors examine the mitigating effect of an established trusting relationship between service providers and consumers on the consequences of service failures as a function of interdependent-independent self-construal. Two studies reveal that the effect of prior relationship, defined as the length of past patronage of a service provider, on consumer behavioral responses to service failure tends to be more pronounced among consumers with interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal. This variation in the mitigating effect of prior relationship can be attributed to the differential impact of trust in the service provider on the two groups of consumers. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial implications.
This paper expands on past conceptual models of listening and delineates the attributes of effective listening in the sales encounter. It argues that the most effective level of listening combines empathy with the techniques of active listening. Empathy is defined as the ability to discern another person's thoughts and feelings with some degree of accuracy and involves listening on an intuitive as well as a literal level. A set of propositions is posited that describe how active empathetic listening can facilitate the personal selling process. Suggestions to improve the quality of salespeople's listening are given.
Haley (1968) and Wind (1973) have proposed to segment markets on the basis of benefits sought by identifiable groups of consumers. While psychografic and general attitudinal approaches to segmentation may work statistically well they are less helpful when it comes to deriving effective marketing strategies (Young, Ott, and Fein, 1978). Therefore, benefit segmentation has become the preferred technique for successful product positioning, new product introduction, pricing, advertising, and distribution (Wind, 1978).
Service customers perceive quality in the moment of interaction with the service provider. In times of globalization, it is important for a growing number of service companies to ask if the perceived service encounter quality differs among customers from different cultures. Particularly needed is information about whether problematic “culture shocks” occur in service encounters due to culture-bound expectations and perceptions. To answer this question, a model of inter-cultural service encounter quality is presented. In order to test the assumption of “culture shocks” in inter-cultural service encounters, an empirical study applying the critical incident technique (CIT) was conducted. The unexpected results of this study lead to a further development of the model presented. This gives insights into why, and under which circumstances, inter-cultural encounters are perceived as less problematic than intra-cultural encounters. Finally, managerial implications and open research questions are discussed.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of recovery and strength of recovery on satisfaction and voice behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Two role‐playing experiments involving product failure followed by recovery at a video store were conducted. Data collected from students were analyzed using t ‐tests and ANOVA.
Findings
Relationship satisfaction after a strong recovery was higher than it would have been, had the failure not occurred in the first place. In the case of store satisfaction, the original level was restored but not exceeded. Furthermore, customers appear to have an expectation threshold for customer recovery. A recovery effort that fell below this threshold led to sharply lower expectations. On the other hand, a customer recovery far beyond the customers' expectation threshold was no more effective than one that just exceeded it. Product satisfaction was lower regardless of the strength of recovery. Internal voice behaviors were higher following a customer recovery but a stronger recovery did not lead to any more internal voice behaviors than a weak recovery. External voice behaviors were not affected by a customer recovery.
Practical implications
The key to managing complaints in companies is to find just the right amount to spend for recovery. If the recovery is below the customer's expectation threshold, she will be dissatisfied. On the other hand, a recovery much above the customer's expectation threshold will not lead to any greater satisfaction, any more internal voice behaviors, or any fewer external voice behaviors.
Originality/value
The study looks at the influence of recovery on satisfaction with respect to store, relationship, and product. It also looks at the effect of recovery on internal and external voice behaviors.
Although the basic idea of benefit segmentation lies in using causal, as opposed to descriptive, factors as segmentation criteria, most of the empirical studies do not differentiate between product attributes and the benefit sought by consumers. The objectives of this article are to clarify the distinction between attributes and benefits sought, and to apply a modified laddering technique, based on means-end theory to use the elicited benefits to form benefit segments. A comparison with attribute-based segments demonstrates that means-end chains provide a powerful tool for “true” benefit segmentation.
Asks which product qualities are decisive for the satisfaction of the customer and which features merely prevent dissatisfaction. Proposes Kano’s model of customer satisfaction for answering these questions and for drawing conclusions for the management of product development. In his model, Kano distinguishes between three types of product requirement which influence customer satisfaction in different ways when met: must-be requirements, which are basic criteria of a product - if these requirements are not fulfilled, the customer will be extremely dissatisfied; one-dimensional requirements, where customer satisfaction is proportional to the level of fulfillment, the higher the customer’s satisfaction and vice versa; and attractive requirements, which are the product criteria which have the greatest influence on how satisfied a customer will be with a given product. Attractive requirements are neither explicitly expressed nor expected by the customer.
Purpose
– The aim of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the theory of attractive quality through an empirical investigation of an e‐service. Our focus is on the consistency of different levels of service attributes and their dynamics. Our empirical investigation aims to increase both the validity of the theory of attractive quality and the use of technology readiness as a means to understand the variation of customer perceptions of service attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
– A survey of customers' technology readiness, usage and perceptions of an e‐service was conducted. Four propositions concerning the consistency and dynamics of Kano's theory of attractive quality are tested, mainly using general linear models.
Findings
– Our results show that by investigating customers at different stages of the service adoption curve, a better understanding of certain dynamics of service attributes can be achieved. When the e‐service was introduced, it was perceived as indifferent; at present it is seen as an attractive service by the market. But the early adopters of e‐services already regard it as a one‐dimensional or a must‐be service.
Originality/value
– The study provides a new framework and methodology for how to investigate the dynamics of service attributes, not only between individuals within different market segments, but also at different service attribute levels. From a managerial standpoint, our results suggest consequential insight about the life cycle of the services that an organization provides to its customers.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the different approaches to the classification of quality attributes deliver consistent results.
Design/methodology/approach
– The investigation includes four approaches and enables comparisons to be made from a methodological perspective and from an output perspective. The different approaches are described, analyzed, and discussed in the context of an empirical study that investigates how 430 respondents perceive the performance of an e‐service. The theory of attractive quality rests on a solid theoretical foundation and a methodological approach to classify quality attributes. Recently, various authors have suggested alternative approaches to the traditional five‐level Kano questionnaire – including a three‐level Kano questionnaire, direct classification, and a dual‐importance grid.
Findings
– The classification of quality attributes are found to be dependent on the approach that is utilized. The development of new ways to classify quality attributes should follow rigid procedures to provide reliable and consistent results.
Originality/value
– This is the first attempt to compare alternative approaches to classify quality attributes. For managers, our results provide guidance on what approach to choose based on the strengths and weaknesses with the different approaches.
Over the past two decades, the multidimensional model of quality attributes that is often referred to as “Kano's theory of attractive quality” (Kano et al. 1984) has gained increasing exposure and acceptance among academics and practitioners alike. Despite this, no research has provided a systematic review of the subsequent development of this theory since its introduction. The aims of this study are: a) to synthesize and organize the extant literature on the subject; and b) to suggest areas that require further research. A review was conducted of 33 papers related to the theory of attractive quality. The content of these papers was analyzed and theoretical and methodological research themes were identified. The study revealed several interesting developments with respect to methodological issues. Many of these, however, lack sufficient scientific rigor to be accepted as valid contributions to the further development of the theory of attractive quality. The findings of the study also provide guidance to managers on how to incorporate the latest development of the Kano methodology available in product development and customer satisfaction studies. The study aims at helping current and future researchers, and practitioners employing the Kano methodology, to examine their methodological decisions in detail.
A model and an associated measurement instrument of employees' perceptions of job dimensions, satisfaction, commitment and loyalty has been developed and applied in several Danish organizations. The model is a structural equation model with unobservable latent variables that link employee satisfaction to its determinants and, in turn, to its consequences, namely employee commitment and loyalty. The determinants of employee satisfaction, commitment and loyalty are top management, company values, daily leadership, working and appointment conditions, co-operation and people relations, and development of competencies. We tested the model among more than 300 employees, and achieved a very good explanation of employee satisfaction (R2 0.73). We then calculated the performance indices and importance scores of job dimensions. Priority maps point to the areas that show the greatest potential for improving employees' loyalty. That is, the areas that the organization should pay most attention to in the future. The calculation of these maps is based on estimated importance scores. Importance of job dimensions is also self-rated. By setting up importance grids for daily leadership and competencies, where estimated importance defines the horizontal axis and the stated (explicit) importance defines the vertical axis, we were able to identify Kano et al.'s (1996, The Best on Quality (Milwaukee, WI, ASQ Quality Press)) three quality types: expected dimensions, proportional dimensions and value added dimensions. These importance grids give an indication of how each area is perceived and of the action that is required. Furthermore, the results from the priority maps were compared with the importance grids. These comparisons indicate that the areas showing the greatest potential for improving employees' loyalty are either value added areas or high proportional elements. Areas the organization should pay less attention to in the future were all categorized as expected job elements or low proportional elements. Finally, opportunity areas were either characterized as low proportional or expected quality elements. Finally, the managerial implications will be discussed briefly.
In this paper, the concept of trust is elaborated upon and compared with the traditional values of quality management. Trust is approached from the areas of relationship marketing and organisational learning where it is a frequent element. The purpose is to create a framework of trust based on previous research, particularly in the areas of relationship marketing and organisational learning, and to analyse whether trust should be regarded as a core value of quality management. Properties of the concept of trust in quality management, relationship marketing and organisational learning are described. Concerning trust as a quality value, it is found that dissimilarities with the current values make it an unsuitable candidate for inclusion in this group. However, examination of the underlying components of the current values of quality management is encouraged with the conviction that trust will prove to be an important element in this endeavour. A tentative framework based on the two dimensions of aspects of trust and components of the relationship is proposed. This framework broadens the view of trust and its implications for quality management. The proposed framework should be helpful for managers in providing a more structured view of the different aspects of trust in business relationships.
The aim of this article is to explore and discuss the role of trust and closely interrelated ethical core values such as respect, fairness, and honesty in a managerial and organisational context and to link these factors further to employee motivation, commitment and loyalty. From an identified shortage and limitation of existing frameworks of human needs and motivation, the author suggests an alternative conceptual framework where trust and other core values are incorporated along with physiological and psychological needs. Empirical research and several findings regarding relationships with the new conceptual framework are presented, discussed and reflected upon.
The authors explore the role of 5 drivers of loyalty: customer usage level, service pricing, service quality, membership in the firm's loyalty program, and satisfaction with complaint handling. The effects of these drivers may differ for customers who complain versus those who do not complain, as well as for satisfied complainers versus dissatisfied complainers. Testing the proposed models with customers of a large airline, the authors found that satisfaction with complaint handling was key to consumer recommendation of the service to others. The results also underscore the importance of service quality and service pricing as determinants of customer loyalty.
The Second Edition of this classic work, first published in 1981 and an international bestseller, explores the differences in thinking and social action that exist among members of more than 50 modern nations. Geert Hofstede argues that people carry "mental programs" which are developed in the family in early childhood and reinforced in schools and organizations, and that these programs contain components of national culture. They are expressed most clearly in the different values that predominate among people from different countries. Geert Hofstede has completely rewritten, revised and updated Cultures Consequences for the twenty-first century, he has broadened the book's cross-disciplinary appeal, expanded the coverage of countries examined from 40 to more than 50, reformulated his arguments and a large amount of new literature has been included. The book is structured around five major dimensions: power distance; uncertainty avoidance; individualism versus collectivism; masculinity versus femininity; and long term versus short-term orientation. --Publisher.
This article discusses Geert Hofstede's work on national cultural differences. It explains how Hofstede's model of the dimensions of national culture might be of use to performance improvement professionals as they try to solve familiar, and perhaps not so familiar, problems in international settings. Hofstede's work, first published in 1980, argues that many management theories, such as those of Herzberr, Mausner, and Snyderman (1959), Maslow (1970), and McGregor (1960), are not valid worldwide be cause the authors are subject to cultural bias that is manifested in their own cultural makeup. Hofstede's research has shown that national cultures tend vary on four dimensions: uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, power distance, and individualism. Understanding national cultural differences is important to organizations to expand beyond their own national boundaries and to attempt to win the loyalty and business of customers around the globe.
The role of emotions is increasingly gaining attention as a central element in understanding customer evaluations of service
failure and recovery experiences. Despite the importance of emotions for service organizations, however, empirical investigations
of customers’ emotional response to service recovery encounters remain scarce. A reason for this has been the absence of a
valid and reliable measurement instrument for analyzing and comparing the emotions associated with different recovery experiences.
Addressing this issue, the current paper presents the development and validation of a new scale specifically designed to measure
experienced emotions during service recovery encounters (ESRE). The results show that the ESRE scale is a valid and reliable
instrument, which should be helpful for empirically studying the role of emotional responses to service failure and recovery
encounters.
It is widely recognized that an increasing number of service firms are expanding into international markets. Many studies in the services marketing literature have focused on the identification and discussion of similarities and/or differences in consumer service experiences across nations and cultures. In this paper we review the relevant literature, address conceptual and methodological issues associated with extant cross-cultural consumer services research and suggest theories and approaches in regards to future research in the area. In addition, we introduce and discuss the concept of “cultural service personality” as a potential new theoretical perspective.
Recent attention in the national culture literature has been given to the question of applying sociological, group-level measures to psychological, individual-level phenomenon. The current study addresses this measurement issue by examining the most widely used measures of national culture values: those developed by Hofstede and his colleagues using the Value Survey Module (VSM) and an updated version, the VSM 94. Hofstede's country-level index scores are applied by some researchers on an individual level, which was never the intended use of the indices. In doing so, the unidimensional aspects of these indices fail to represent the multidimensional nature of an individual's cultural values. The current research involved two large studies, including data collected from over 1400 subjects in four countries. Analysis of the validity of the VSM 94 measures reveals a number of shortcomings. Our findings demonstrate the unsuitability of using measures designed for unidimensional constructs to represent multidimensional, individual-level traits.
The importance–performance analysis (IPA) is a widely used analytical technique that yields prescriptions for the management of customer satisfaction. IPA is a two-dimensional grid based on customer-perceived importance of quality attributes and attribute performance. Depending on the interplay of these two dimensions, strategies for satisfaction management can be derived. As theoretical and empirical work has shown, the relationship between attribute-level performance and overall satisfaction is asymmetric. These findings call into question the applicability of IPA. In this paper, an empirical study on customer satisfaction with a supplier in the automotive industry was undertaken. Using a regression analysis with dummy variables, the asymmetric relationship between attribute-level performance and overall satisfaction could be confirmed. Furthermore, it is shown empirically that the managerial implications derived from an IPA are misleading. Consequently, the traditional IPA needs to be revised.
The increasing globalization of business provides a compelling reason for understanding the cultural context of consumer behavior. The research reported here examines the impact of culture on consumers’ perceptions of service recovery efforts. In particular, we studied in an experimental setting, across East–West cultures, the combined effects of explanation and compensation in shaping customers’ attributions and post-recovery perceptions in a medium contact service—a restaurant setting. Our findings show that the differential sensitivity of East Asian and American consumers to situational constraints influence their attributions for service failures, and thus moderate their satisfaction with service recovery process. More specifically, the results suggest that a causal explanation for service failure decreases the likelihood of US consumers falling prey to the fundamental attribution error. Conversely, among East Asians, an explanation had minimal influence in attributional processes. Finally, our results indicate that attributional processes influence customer perceptions of employee effort, which in turn is linked to post-recovery satisfaction.
The design for Six Sigma (DFSS) framework places a strong emphasis on the need to conform to the customer needs or voices early in the design phase. The key problem, in the context of a rapidly changing environment due to influx of new technology and innovation, is that things may become obsolete much faster than ever. What now delights the customer will become an expected need in the near future. Such dynamics is, unfortunately, very often overlooked and has not been adequately addressed in the literature. To fill in this niche, this paper proposes a methodology to advance the use of the quality function deployment (QFD), as one of the widely accepted tools in products or services design process, with respect to Kano's model dynamics. Specifically, based on the information from Kano questionnaire, it provides a quantitative approach to observe and follow the change over time. Not only can it show how fast a certain Kano's category changes over time, but it can also forecast the future needs, which is useful to tackle the customer preference's change during product creation process. Afterwards, the forecasted customer needs can be used within an optimization framework for multiple product design. An illustrative example is provided to give some practical insights. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Web para el estudio de la geografía que destaca por los abundantes mapas e información de cada uno de los países.
Companies that want to improve their service quality should take a cue from manufacturing and focus on their own kind of scrap heap: customers who won't come back. Because that scrap heap can be every bit as costly as broken parts and misfit components, service company managers should strive to reduce it. They should aim for "zero defections"--keeping every customer they can profitably serve. As companies reduce customer defection rates, amazing things happen to their financials. Although the magnitude of the change varies by company and industry, the pattern holds: profits rise sharply. Reducing the defection rate just 5% generates 85% more profits in one bank's branch system, 50% more in an insurance brokerage, and 30% more in an auto-service chain. And when MBNA America, a Delaware-based credit card company, cut its 10% defection rate in half, profits rose a whopping 125%. But defection rates are not just a measure of service quality; they are also a guide for achieving it. By listening to the reasons why customers defect, managers learn exactly where the company is falling short and where to direct their resources. Staples, the stationery supplies retailer, uses feedback from customers to pinpoint products that are priced too high. That way, the company avoids expensive broad-brush promotions that pitch everything to everyone. Like any important change, managing for zero defections requires training and reinforcement. Great-West Life Assurance Company pays a 50% premium to group health-insurance brokers that hit customer-retention targets, and MBNA America gives bonuses to departments that hit theirs.
This paper provides a review of the main findings concerning the relationship between the cultural syndromes of individualism and collectivism and personality. People in collectivist cultures, compared to people in individualist cultures, are likely to define themselves as aspects of groups, to give priority to in-group goals, to focus on context more than the content in making attributions and in communicating, to pay less attention to internal than to external processes as determinants of social behavior, to define most relationships with ingroup members as communal, to make more situational attributions, and tend to be self-effacing.