Jjl Jeroen Schepers

A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model: Investigating subjective norm and moderation effects

We conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of previous research on the technology acceptance model (TAM) in an attempt to make well-grounded statements on the role of subjective norm. Furthermore, we compared TAM results by taking into account moderating effects of one individual-related factor (type of respondents), one technology-related factor (type of technology), and one contingent factor (culture). Results indicated a significant influence of subjective norm on perceived usefulness and behavioral intention to use. Moderating effects were found for all three factors. The findings yielded managerial implications for both intra-company and market-based settings.

Leadership styles in technology acceptance: do followers practice what leaders preach?

Purpose – Service firms recognize the need to introduce new technologies to stay in the market, or to retain their competitive advantage compared to their rivals. Introducing new technologies in an organization is by no means easy and poses many challenges like the acceptance and adoption of new technologies by employees. The technology acceptance model (TAM) has often been applied to explain individual technology use. In previous studies, the model has been extended with many different constructs, including personal and technology related factors. Also management support and training have been shown to positively influence technology acceptance. However, the influence of leadership style in this context has not been studied before. This study models and tests two leadership styles (transactional and transformational) as antecedents to perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of new technologies.Design/methodology/approach – This is an empirical study in a service setting.Findings – In the surveyed ...

Principles and principals: Do customer stewardship and agency control compete or complement when shaping frontline employee behavior?

This article introduces customer stewardship control (CSC) to the marketing field. This concept represents a frontline employees felt ownership of and moral responsibility for customers’ overall welfare. In two studies, the authors show that CSC is a more encompassing construct than customer orientation, which reflects a frontline employees focus on meeting customers’ needs. They provide evidence that the former is more potent in shaping in- and extra-role employee behaviors. Moreover, they highlight how CSC operates in conjunction with an organizations agency control system: Stewardships positive influence on in- and extra-role behavior is weaker in the presence of high agency control. They offer actionable advice about how to solve the resulting managerial control dilemma. Finally, the authors show that CSC depends on drivers that reside at the individual level (employee relatedness), the team level (team competence), or both levels of aggregation (employee and team autonomy). These findings show how to effectively design a frontline employees work environment to ensure optimal frontline performance.

Psychological safety and social support in groupware adoption: A multi-level assessment in education

In this paper, the authors propose that psychological safety, a sense of interpersonal trust and being valued in a work team, is an important determinant of groupware technology adoption in an educational setting. They develop and test a model of antecedents and consequences of psychological safety. Data were collected from 361 university students, organized in 36 teams. Results of multi-level regression analysis reveal positive individual-level effects of perceived tutor support and perceived peer support on psychological safety. Furthermore, our findings show a positive unique group-level effect of perceived tutor support on psychological safety, where an individuals level of self-consciousness strengthens this positive impact. In addition, findings of structural equation modeling demonstrate that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use partially mediate the positive effect of psychological safety on groupware usage. Psychological safety also shows a positive direct effect on groupware usage. Finally, a students offline communication frequency with his tutor and peers appears to strengthen the impact of psychological safety on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and groupware usage.

Brand advocacy in the frontline: how does it affect customer satisfaction?

Purpose Many organizations expect their service engineers, or frontline employees (FLEs), to behave as brand advocates by engaging in favorable communication about the brand and its offerings toward customers. However, this approach is not without risk as customers may be disappointed or even frustrated with brand advocacy behavior in many service encounters. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of FLEs’ brand advocacy on customer satisfaction with the service encounter, and identify the conditions under which the effects are detrimental. This paper specifically considers service issue severity and product newness as contingency conditions. Design/methodology/approach Building on social identification theory, the paper builds a conceptual model, which is empirically tested using a data set that matches data from service engineers, customers, and archival records from the after-sales service department of a globally operating business-to-business print and document management solutions provider. Findings This paper finds that brand advocacy behavior harms customer satisfaction especially in service encounters that involve simple service issues (e.g. maintenance) for products that are new to the market. Fortunately, brand identification can compensate this negative effect under many service conditions. While the joint effect of brand identification and advocacy is most beneficial for severe service issues of new products, no effect on customer satisfaction was found for established products. Practical implications This paper identifies those service situations in which brand advocacy is advisable and guides managers toward achieving more favorable customer evaluations. Originality/value Past research has considered several FLE branding activities in the frontline but the effects of brand advocacy have not been isolated. In addition, most studies have assumed the effects of employee brand-related behaviors on customer satisfaction to be universally positive rather than negative and focused on antecedents and not on moderators and consequences.