Jean Philippe

Service encounter dimensions ‐ a dyadic perspective: Measuring the dimensions of service encounters as perceived by customers and personnel

Selling services supposes that customers and personnel meet. This service encounter is not haphazard. Behind each ordinary exchange, there are rules that everybody is supposed to follow. This paper looks at the different components of service encounter that are relevant for assessing service quality. A dyadic face‐to‐face survey undertaken in local branches of the ANPE Agency (the French National Agency for Employment) studies the perceptions of both personnel and customers. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, proposes a scale measuring the dimensions of service encounter.

Factors influencing consumer behaviour towards store brands: evidence from the French market

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate how consumer and image factors as well as store familiarity influence store brand (SB) purchase behaviour. SBs are now widely offered by European mass retailers. However, consumer behaviour toward SBs is not yet clearly understood in all European markets.Design/methodology/approach – The authors analysed data collected from 266 respondents and used structural equation modelling to test the main hypotheses. They then carried out ANOVA and MANOVA analyses to test the effect of store familiarity on SB purchase behaviour.Findings – Results indicate that store image perceptions, SB price‐image, value consciousness, and SB attitude have significant and positive influence on SB purchase behaviour. Store familiarity positively influences SB choice, but not SB purchase intention. None of the socio‐demographic variables (age, gender, household income, and family size) included as control variables have an effect on SB choice.Research limitations/implications – The study is l...

Service encounter in multi-channel distribution context: virtual and face-to-face interactions and consumer satisfaction

This article studies service quality and customer satisfaction in a context of multi-channel service distribution. The objective is to identify quality factors influencing the overall satisfaction of a multi-channel customer. A quantitative study was conducted among 445 customers mainly targeted on users of the traditional physical channel and online channel of a French retail bank. Using structural equation models with AMOS, the results show that perceived service quality in the virtual channel, perceived service quality in the traditional channel, and multi-channel integration quality have a positive influence on the overall satisfaction of the multi-channel customer.

Pre-assembled Nuclear Pores Insert into the Nuclear Envelope during Early Development

Summary Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) span the nuclear envelope (NE) and mediate nucleocytoplasmic transport. In metazoan oocytes and early embryos, NPCs reside not only within the NE, but also at some endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane sheets, termed annulate lamellae (AL). Although a role for AL as NPC storage pools has been discussed, it remains controversial whether and how they contribute to the NPC density at the NE. Here, we show that AL insert into the NE as the ER feeds rapid nuclear expansion in Drosophila blastoderm embryos. We demonstrate that NPCs within AL resemble pore scaffolds that mature only upon insertion into the NE. We delineate a topological model in which NE openings are critical for AL uptake that nevertheless occurs without compromising the permeability barrier of the NE. We finally show that this unanticipated mode of pore insertion is developmentally regulated and operates prior to gastrulation.

Influence of entry modes and relationship modes on business services internationalisation

This paper focuses on service firms trying to develop markets at an international level. Such strategies are more and more often adopted, even by small-sized firms in B-to-B activities. Entry modes on foreign markets are of paramount importance as they also define the modes of relationship established with foreign clients. The recent development of information and communication technologies also has an impact on growth opportunities in foreign markets. These technologies allow clients to be serviced without any local outlet but they also ensure swifter communications inside an international network and better quality-control operations. The research reported here tries to assess the performance of different entry modes in this new context.

Business services, the new engine of French regional growth

This article analyses the evolution of employment in the French regions, putting the accent on business service firms. A ‘shift and share’ type of analysis shows that a primary decentralisation in tertiary activities seems to emerge in the 1990s, essentially pertaining to ancillary producer services. An explanatory analysis backs up the general validity of the regional economic base theory: the basic activities, to which business services can quite legitimately be attached, certainly play a leading long-term role on global employment dynamics. Finally it shows that over the past 20 years, the regional offer of services to businesses has been the major discriminating variable between regions, greatly influencing the evolution of basic employment and thus confirming the vital driving force of this sector in regional dynamics.

Assessing ‘meta-services’: customer's perceived value and behaviour

‘Meta-services’ are delivered by firms cooperating together through a network. How customers perceive such services has been scarcely studied. The main assumption here is that, after experiencing services delivered by networked firms, the consumers synthesise their perceptions in terms of the perceived value of the network and that this global assessment will better announce behavioural intentions than the commonly used satisfaction index. Passengers travelling on long-haul flights with a global airline alliance experience such ‘meta-services’ and were questioned through a dedicated survey to test a structural equation model. Most hypotheses are not contradicted by the data. Unlike most recent studies referring to perceived value, this concept is seen here as one-dimensional and is measured by a rather simple scale. This allows distinguishing the value concept from its determinants. Specific variables, such as effective coordination, information and harmonisation, proved also to be useful when measuring customers’ valuation of ‘meta-services’.

Executives and Business Services: Key Factors of French Metropolitan Growth

France has experienced since the 1970s a huge change in employment trends concerning activity sectors but also location patterns. Research by the authors tends to show that the business service sector plays an effective driving role in these dynamics, particularly during the last decade. It seems that new geographical dynamics are now emerging: after a period characterised by an overwhelming tendency to concentrate on the Parisian pole, some diffusion shifts are appearing in favour of second rank metropolitan areas. Their attractiveness depends mainly on executives, particularly inside the business service sector. The variety of activities inside this sector, which was clearly playing the main role at the regional level, seems to be just a second rank variable when explaining the economic dynamism of the metropolis.

Services and high skills: a new challenge for developing medium-sized cities

Medium-sized cities are often considered as a valuable substitute to a large metropolis as they may promote better sustainable growth. However, these second rank conurbations do not benefit from economies of scale as do larger cities. They share some characteristics with a big metropolis, notably their spatial spreading on surroundings areas, but are not able to attract high-order service functions. The research reported here is supported by a statistical analysis of censuses from 1982 to 1999. It highlights the service-location patterns of medium-sized cities compared with metropolises, proposes a typology of medium-sized cities based on their economic structure and tries to explain through regression analysis the growth sources of their economy.

Transaction modes and the internationalisation of business service firms in the Haute-Garonne

This book provides one of the first interdisciplinary reviews of the relationship between services, globalisation and trade liberalisation as we enter the twenty-first century. Written by academics and policymakers, it contains a detailed analysis of the characteristics of service trade and of recent and current service trade negotiations.