Fabrizio Zerbini

The Cost of Customer Satisfaction: A Framework for Strategic Cost Management in Service Industries

Abstract Customer satisfaction has long been considered a milestone in the path towards company profitability. Although it is widely acknowledged that customer satisfaction leads to higher and more stable revenues, the relationship between customer satisfaction levels and the costs that the company incurs in producing and delivering customer services has received far less attention, and the research results vary significantly across sectors. In fact, there seems to be little guidance for linking company costs to the key elements involved in providing customer satisfaction in services, thereby diminishing the ability of a company to manage its activities accordingly. In this paper, we propose and test a framework to analyse and manage the relationship between company costs and customer satisfaction in service industries. Based on a case study from the tourism industry, we show how service components can be used as a key medium to link customer satisfaction to the cost of service production and delivery. In doing so, we provide guidance for identifying specific sources of customer satisfaction and assessing their cost, thereby extending to service industries previous research on strategic cost management.

Assessment of destination performance: a strategy map approach

Purpose – Notwithstanding a growing interest on destination management, little is known about the formation and evaluation of destination managers’ strategies. Strategy assessment is essential to understand whether, and how, destination managers allow the reconciliation of the diverse stakeholders’ interests within an integrated destination plan, pursuing the development of the destination. The purpose of this paper is the exploration and building of a strategy assessment approach. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology is adopted, to identify key dimensions of strategy assessment and their combination within an integrated destination plan. Data come from the city of Turin, and the destination management organization developed for 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Findings – The use of balanced scorecard approaches points out how a financial dimension is key in meta-management contexts, notwithstanding the public interests of the destination supply system. Also, this work discloses the formative process that characterizes strategic planning within supply networks of tourism destination. It describes the hierarchy of strategy assessment, taking into consideration externalities emerging from integrated supply systems developed at the destination level. Research limitations/implications – Limitations are intrinsic to case study methods, and points on findings generalizability. Practical implications – The paper offers insights on developing analytical capability within meta-management organizations, to diagnose value creation and competitiveness gaps. Also, it gives insights on developing co-ordination capabilities, allowing different strategic goals to be drawn into an integrated design. Originality/value – The paper offers a novel approach for developing a strategy map, and contributes to prior research on strategy assessment in meta-management.

Competence-based value framing for business-to-business customers

This paper shows how business suppliers set up processes allowing the translation of their competencies into value for the customers. As such, this paper seeks to complement the dominant view in which competencies are seen mainly as valuable for the firm owning the competencies but not for that firms customers. In so doing, the paper seeks to contribute to two bodies of research: the notions of core competencies in strategic management and of value for customer in business marketing. These two bodies of research interact infrequently thus far, leaving the question of how value is transferred unanswered. This question is relevant because competencies are immaterial, tacit, and non-tradable assets. Hence, the research question underlying the present paper becomes: How can competencies translate into valuable outputs and be made accessible to the customer? To answer this question, a qualitative approach is used that involves a multiple-case study analysis aimed at exploring the competence-based process of value supplying in business markets. Specifically, this paper suggests the following propositions: (1) Competence-based value analysis, where suppliers anticipate customers’ competence needs, require an end-market orientation. (2) Competence-based value creation implies an accumulation of know-how that overlaps with customer competencies. (3) Competence-based value communication builds on live communication tools that allow customers to get an ongoing experience of the value potential of competencies. (4) Competence-based value delivery is based on bundles of suppliers’ competencies into tradable means and direct access to competence tools.

The Impact Of Liberalization On Cooperative Strategies

This paper deals with the diffusion of cooperative strategies under uncertainty conditions. Starting from a Resource Dependence approach, we analyze the impact of liberalization on alliance formation in the public utilities industry in Italy between 1999 and 2001. The study is based on a longitudinal analysis conducted using social network analysis methods. Results show a growing diffusion of strategic alliances both at aggregate level and per different classes of alliances, besides a tendency of local public utilities to strengthen ties with partners of previous alliances. Based on these findings, we highlights some limits of Resource Dependence approach in explaining the diffusion of strategic alliances, suggesting an integration with the market power approach and the resource based view.