Byron Keating

Differentiating between service quality and relationship quality in cyberspace

The onset of Internet marketing is revolutionising marketing practice. Although growth in sales of goods and services online has been dramatic, very little research has addressed the factors that lead to the delivery of superior service and the creation of effective marketing relationships. This paper explores and defines two related constructs – service quality and relationship quality – to ascertain whether consumers can meaningfully distinguish between the constructs. The research uses focus groups and an online survey to address this issue. The paper finds that, although service quality and relationship quality are distinct constructs, they overlap in the area of personal interaction and problem solving. The key drivers for the delivery of superior service and the creation of an effective relationship are reliability and trust emanating from service quality and relationship quality respectively.

A systematic review of Internet banking adoption

This paper presents a systematic review of 165 research articles published on the adoption of Internet banking (IB) between 1999 and 2012. The results show that interest in the topic of IB adoption has grown significantly during this period, and remains a fertile area for academic research into the next decade. The findings reveal that the IB adoption literature can be classified according to three main themes: whether the papers seek to describe the phenomenon (descriptive); whether they seek to understand the interplay between the factors that drive adoption (relational); or whether they seek to draw higher level conclusions through a comparison across populations, channels or methods (comparative). A comprehensive list of references is presented, along with an agenda for future research that targets identified gaps in the literature.

Service Research in the Hospitality Literature Insights from a Systematic Review

This study applies a Delphi analysis regarding the level of integration of service topics in the hospitality literature, as found in 539 service-related papers published in four hospitality journals from 1998 to 2012. The journals in question are Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. The number of service-related studies account for 16 percent of the total pool of articles in the four journals over the fifteen-year period, and the analysis records an increase in the number of service-based articles published over this period. Since then, the number of articles dealing with service-related phenomena has ebbed somewhat. Theory-testing papers dominated the hospitality literature during the study period, accounting for more than half of the papers, while theory-building papers accounted for a quarter of all papers, and around 15 percent had a conceptual purpose. The most popular topic for papers in this sample was service experience, followed by operations management, human resource management, and accounting.

Designing IS service strategy: an information acceleration approach

Information technology-based innovation involves considerable risk requiring foresight; yet our understanding of the way in which managers develop the insight to support new breakthrough applications is limited and remains obscured by high levels of technical and market uncertainty. This paper applies discrete choice analysis to support improved empirical explanation of how and why decisions are made in information systems (IS). A new experimental method based on information acceleration (IA) is also applied to improve prediction of future IS service strategies. Both explanation and prediction are important to IS research and these two behaviourally sound methods complement each other. Specifically, the combination of IA and discrete choice analysis removes misspecification artefacts from response variability and generates more accurate parameter estimates that better explain IS decision making.

Unpacking the RFID Investment Decision

Mandates aside, there are many reasons why firms decide to move forward with or delay investment in radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. In this paper, we use a theoretically-based, easy to implement methodology to empirically derive a relative importance scale of those factors that influence the decision to invest in RFID technology. More specifically, we compare the factors that matter most and least to a sample of firms that have adopted RFID technology with a sample of firms that have yet to embrace RFID technology. The theoretical and practical implications are that both RFID adopters and nonadopters are driven by the promise of greater data accuracy, improved information visibility, service quality, process innovation, and track-and-trace capabilities. What separates the adopters from the nonadopters is an opportunity to derive strategic benefits from RFID through improved decision making. Not surprisingly, the nonadopting firms are primarily concerned with the high acquisition and other ongoing costs associated with RFID technology.

A systematic review of the Chinese outbound tourism literature: 1983–2012

ABSTRACT This study follows the evolution of Chinese outbound tourism literature over a 30-year period, from 1983 to 2012. A systematic review is undertaken of articles published in the three leading tourism journals to identify research trends. The review uses an evolutionary metaphor to chronicle the main contributions over three distinct stages: crawling out (1983–1992), scurrying about (1993–2002), and walking erect (2003–2012). The article concludes with a discussion of the key findings and suggestions for future research. Walking erect is appropriate and suggests this body of knowledge is still developing and has a considerable way to go. It also denotes that Chinese outbound tourism is likely to impact on Western research and will increasingly make its own contributions to generating new theory within the broader international tourism domain.

Financial risk and its impact on new purchasing behavior in the online retail setting

This paper examines the effect of financial risk on perceptions of service quality and relationship-marketing quality in the online retail environment. Perceptions of financial risk were found to be negatively associated with service quality. In particular, a well-designed and attractive Web site was found to mitigate perceptions of financial risk during early trial-buy purchasing. Relationship-marketing quality was not affected by financial risk. This study adds to an enhanced understanding of how risk perceptions influence assessment of service quality and relationship-marketing quality. While the drivers of service quality and relationship-marketing quality have been examined extensively in the online setting, a surprising lack of research investigates the role of risk perceptions in the early stage, buy-trial purchasing behavior. This emerging area of research interest is deserving of more attention. Our findings provide valuable normative guidance to researchers interested in the affects of perceived risk (particularly financial risk) on new online shoppers, emphasizing the interdependency between Web site design and risk perceptions.

Mediating role of relationship quality in online services

This paper is the first to examine the mediating role of relationship quality in the online context. By investigating this major tenet of customer relationship management theory in this nascent service setting, this paper clarifies the interaction between service quality and relationship quality, as they impact on customer loyalty. The findings reveal some fundamental differences in the way that strong relationships and loyalty develop in the online setting vis-à-vis the offline setting. The findings of this empirical research support the existence of a partial mediating relationship. While effective service delivery was found to enhance the quality of customer-firm relationships, and consequently, the customers perceived loyalty to their main financial institution; there was also evidence of a concurrent link between service quality and loyalty. This finding suggests that a strong relationship does not make customers immune to poor future services, and that firms operating in the online environment should maintain high service standards if they are to enjoy continued loyalty from their customers.

Chinese Outbound Tourism: an Epilogue

ABSTRACT As an epilogue to this special issue, this paper offers a brief critical review of Chinese-outbound-tourism literature, developed so far in conjunction with the articles accepted in this special issue. In doing so, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge with regard to Chinese outbound tourism. Issues other than those presented in the special issue articles are also discussed and highlighted. These include the social and environment issues that could possibly prove not as positive as economic benefits in destination countries.

Inter-channel Effects in Multichannel Travel Services Moderating Role of Social Presence and Need for Human Interaction

Travel agents continue to offer traditional services, but as customers migrate to online sales channels, many traditional agencies have added their own online distribution channels. This study of the attitudes of 114 university students finds that excellence in offline service is associated with a favorable view of an agent’s online presence. Moderating this relationship is the effect of social presence (SP) on the website. That is, the respondents’ view of the website was improved by the availability of live chat or video chat interactions. The effect of SP also interacted with some respondents’ need for human interaction (NHI), although that effect was not strong. The study used a novel comic-strip format to depict the process of purchasing airline tickets and hotel accommodations with three treatments: offline, online with weak SP, and online with strong SP. The study compared the attitudes toward an agency’s online channel based on its in-person service quality, as moderated by the website’s SP and the respondents’ NHI.