Lance A. Bettencourt

Customer voluntary performance: Customers as partners in service delivery

Abstract Customers contribute to service quality through their roles as promoters of the firm, co-producers of the firm s service and consultants to the organization. A model of customer voluntary performance (CVP) is developed and empirically tested with a sample of grocery customers. Customer voluntary performance refers to helpful, discretionary customer behaviors that support the ability of the firm to deliver service quality. Global customer satisfaction, perceived support for customers and customer commitment are considered as antecedents of CVP. Interrelationships among these variables are also considered. The results provide support for eight of the twelve hypothesized relationships. Implications of the study are discussed for researchers and managers.

Contact employees: Relationships among workplace fairness, job satisfaction and prosocial service behaviors

Abstract Contact employees deliver the promises of the firm, create an image for the firm and sell the firm s services. Leading firms and scholars propose a possible relationship between the fair treatment of these employees and excellence in service delivery. This important proposition, however, lacks much more than anecdotal evidence. An empirical investigation is presented which offers support for positive relationships between contact employee fairness perceptions and their prosocial service behaviors (customer service behaviors and cooperation with fellow employees) and job satisfaction. Fairness of job supervision, pay and promotion rules and supervisor administration of these rules emerge as the key predictors of contact employee prosocial service behaviors and job satisfaction. The paper concludes with a discussion of research and managerial implications.

A comparison of attitude, personality, and knowledge predictors of service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors.

Attitude, personality, and customer knowledge antecedents were compared in their predictive ability of 3 service-oriented forms of employee organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs): loyalty, service delivery, and participation. For the 1st study, 236 customer-contact employees provided data concerning their OCBs and the attitude, personality, and knowledge antecedents. The 2nd investigation relied on data provided by 144 contact employees from a network of university libraries. Using hierarchical regression in both studies, the authors found that each of the 3 types of service-oriented OCBs was best predicted by different subsets of the antecedents. Job attitudes accounted for the most unique variance in loyalty OCBs, personality accounted for the most unique variance in service delivery OCBs, and customer knowledge and personality jointly were the best predictors of participation OCBs.

Lifestyle of the Tight and Frugal: Theory and Measurement

Who has not known a tightwad? Yet this pervasive consumer trait--being frugal--has been ignored in the scholarly consumer behavior literature. This research articulates the nature of this overlooked consumer trait and then develops, evaluates, and empirically applies a multi-item scale of frugality. The results from a six-study program of empirical research are reported. These studies describe (1) the psychometric properties of a frugality measure, (2) demonstrations of how frugality assists the empirical study of consumer usage and acquisition behaviors, and (3) frugality scale norms from a probability sample of the general adult population. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.

Customization of the service experience: the role of the frontline employee

Emphasizes that customizing the delivery of service on the frontline is a key to customer satisfaction. Offers insight into frontline customization by offering specific research propositions to guide future empirical inquiry. Explores the issues of how frontline employees classify customers, enact specific behavioural strategies, and perceive personalization efforts. Presents the findings from an exploratory qualitative study to provide illustrative support for the literature‐based propositions. Offers managerial implications for firms to take advantage of the employee customization opportunity.

A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage:

Marketing needs a new mindset to fulfill its proper role in creating and sustaining strategic advantage. To extend its influence beyond the boundaries of current offerings, the firm, and conventional practice, marketing and markets must be viewed through a service lens. This lens allows marketing to take a lead role in assisting the enterprise to enable value co-creation by customers who have jobs to be done. This article offers four new premises to guide marketing thought and practice for achieving and sustaining strategic advantage.

Reference Diversity in JCR, JM, and JMR: A Reexamination and Extension of Tellis, Chandy, and Ackerman (1999)

Results of a reference analysis led Tellis, Chandy, and Ackerman ([1999][1]) to conclude that Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ) was not as diverse in its references as Journal of Marketing ( JM ) and Journal of Marketing Research ( JMR ). We reexamine the Tellis et al. conclusions with a reference analysis comparison of JCR, JM , and JMR from 1976 to 1995 using an expanded set of reference diversity indicators at the article level of analysis. Our reexamination reveals small or nonsignificant differences among the journals in discipline and journal variety. The results also indicate that JCR articles are more likely to rely on sources that are more conceptually distant from marketing and business than are articles in JM or JMR , regardless of time period. Trends over time reveal that whereas reference diversity among JCR articles has remained relatively stable, reference diversity among JM and JMR articles has increased and decreased, respectively, for two out of three diversity factors. We also extend the findings of Tellis et al. ([1999][1]) with a test of the assumption of a positive relationship between reference diversity and subsequent article influence using all 228 articles appearing in JCR from 1991 to 1995. Interestingly, we find that reference diversity has both positive and negative effects on article influence. [1]: #ref-19

The Impact of Article Method Type and Subject Area on Article Citations and Reference Diversity in JM, JMR, and JCR

It has been argued that the scientific status of the marketing discipline is reflected in both the ability of its articles to be cited and the degree to which its articles draw from a diverse set of reference sources. We combine a content analysis of a sample of 561 JM, JMR, and JCR articles with a citation analysis and reference analysis of those same articles to investigate the impact of article method type and subject area on article citation rates and reference diversity. Our results reveal that verbal-theory and field study papers are both more likely to be cited and more likely to draw from a wide variety of journal and disciplinary reference sources. The results also reveal that services/customer satisfaction and general theory and philosophy of science articles are generally more likely to be cited than other subject areas, although services/customer satisfaction articles are also less likely to rely on a diverse set of references.

The Impact of Voice and Justification on Students’ Perceptions of Professors’ Fairness

Empirical research consistently demonstrates support for a relationship between fairness by professors and important educational outcomes. The structure of a college-level marketing course can create many situations that raise issues of justice or fairness in the minds of students. In this study, the authors examine the impact of grade outcomes and two procedures that are frequently employed in the classroom by professors—voice and justification—on students’perceptions of instructor fairness. Results of an experiment with 451 students are reported. Results suggest that voice, justification, and grade outcomes relate significantly to students’ perceptions of professor fairness (although not in the exact pattern that was predicted).

Service Innovation—A Jobs-to-Be-Done Guide

True service innovation requires a shift in focus away from what the company sells to what the customer is trying to achieve–their job(s)-to-be-done. This chapter offers four fundamental truths about customer jobs-to-be-done to guide service innovation. Based on these truths, the chapter then introduces a framework for identifying distinct customer jobs that can guide meaningful service innovation. The chapter concludes by presenting an unbounded view of ways a company can help customers get their jobs done more successfully.