Rita Di Mascio

The Future of Sales Training: Challenges and Related Research Questions

This paper discusses four key challenges and related research questions that will be critical to the future success of sales training in three major areas: content development, delivery, and evaluation. The four challenges are the changing roles of salespeople, the intensified emphasis on accountability, the enhancement of technological capabilities, and the importance of cultural diversity. To examine these issues and develop future research questions, the paper draws from reports of industry practices and academic literature in sales training, the sales/service interface, customer-oriented selling, social media, self-directed learning, and multicultural communications competency.

The economic assessment of process control quality using a Taguchi-based method

Abstract This paper derives a measure of dynamic control quality within the Taguchi framework (G. Taguchi, E.A. Elsayed, T. Hsiang, Quality Engineering in Production Systems, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1989) which estimates product quality (in economic terms) by the losses incurred when specified product characteristics depart from their nominal values. In this sense, a control system may be viewed as a “product” with stability and performance properties as its required characteristics. The degree to which system inputs and outputs depart from their nominal values is used to give an estimate of stability and performance quality, respectively. Displaying control quality graphically with stability and performance qualities as the two axes can be used to highlight the trade-off between these two characteristics. This technique was used to evaluate the quality offered by four model-based controllers on a distillation column model responding to a typical disturbance, and how the presence of measurement and valve dynamics affected control quality. It is anticipated that the measures derived in this paper (being both time-based and economic) may prove useful in conveying control quality in a common language understood by engineers, operators and management.

A method to evaluate service delivery process quality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to evaluate the quality of service delivery process designs, based on how closely they meet process requirements of key stakeholders while taking variability into account.Design/methodology/approach – A Monte Carlo computer simulation of the flowchart of the service delivery process is used to capture the effects of multiple types of variabilities and parametric uncertainties on process variables of interest, and the Taguchi quality loss framework is applied to estimate overall process quality. As an example, a proposed modification to a patient‐treatment process in a hospital emergency department is evaluated.Findings – This paper demonstrated a method that service managers can use to evaluate the quality of service delivery process designs.Practical implications – This method can evaluate modifications to various aspects of a service delivery process, and can assist managers to fail‐safe the entire process. Furthermore, it characterises process ...

Service process control: conceptualising a service as a feedback control system

Abstract This paper shows how a service process can be recast into a feedback control structure and how chemical process control principles can be applied. The outputs of the ‘service plant’ are process characteristics that meet the requirements of the plants various stakeholders; the manipulated and disturbance variables are those variables that are within and outside a service managers control respectively; the model is a process flowchart; and the controller is the service manager. Good stability, performance and robustness are also required because customers value reliability, responsiveness, and consistency of service in the face of variations caused by involvement of people in the service delivery. To illustrate these concepts, a patient treatment process within an emergency ward was recast as a control system, and an off-line model-based optimal controller was applied to this stochastic process. The benefits of recasting services as feedback control systems flow both ways: service design and operation will be improved by the application of engineering principles; and chemical process control will benefit from techniques specially developed to handle market fluctuations.

Modelling roles of commitment on rapport and satisfaction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of calculative, affective and normative commitment on bank employee-customer rapport and customer satisfaction. The mediating effect of rapport between each of the three types of commitment and customer satisfaction is also examined. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modelling by Partial Least Square method is used for analysing the data on 212 bank customers in Bangladesh. Findings – Results indicate that affective and normative commitment of customers has strong influence in developing rapport, whereas the impact of customers’ calculative commitment on rapport was found to be non-significant. The study also found that rapport has a complementary mediation effect between the three types of commitment and customer satisfaction. Practical implications – While providing training to front line employees, bank management should make them aware that not all customers may have the same level of positive attitude or cooperation for the ...

Firms’ adoption of self-service technology: how managerial beliefs shape co-production decisions

The level of service co-production offered to customers through self-service technologies (SSTs) is an important marketing decision. The extant literature reports numerous benefits of SSTs for firms, such as increasing efficiency, reducing costs, boosting loyalty, and reaching new customer segments. However, industry evidence suggests that firms vary in their adoption of SSTs. This article utilizes a managerial cognition perspective to relate the level of SST-based co-production to configurations of beliefs about desired organizational outcomes, customers, and knowledge. The resulting belief model illuminates why firms vary in their utilization of SSTs, and has implications for the judgment of newness of SST-based services, the ethics and politics of customer representation in SST design, and epistemologies of SST-based market exchanges.

Mobile learning adoption for tourism education in a developing country

Since developing countries are gradually introducing mobile-based tourism education, it is a growing demand to understand the students’ intention to adopt mobile learning. The study used partial least squares-based structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from 176 questionnaires at three tourism education institutes in Bangladesh. The study contributes to the theory of planned behaviour by examining the antecedent impact of innovativeness and moderating effect of self-efficacy. Results confirmed innovativeness as a significant antecedent on the attitude–intention relationship; however, the moderating effect of self-efficacy has not been supported. The study has marketing implications for tourism education institutes and government bodies.

Modelling satisfaction-commitment relationship in developing country context

Purpose – Considering the significance of customer satisfaction and commitment in the competitive banking industry of developing countries, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the alternative relationships of satisfaction with various types of commitment, benefits, quality and trust. It also attempts to identify the interrelationships among three types of trust, namely, competence, contractual and goodwill, as well as affective, calculative and normative commitment. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modelling (AMOS-based) is used to analyse data collected from a survey of 212 bank customers in Bangladesh. Findings – Findings show that satisfaction has a significant impact on affective, calculative and normative commitment, as well as on competence, contractual and goodwill trust. While core and relational service qualities, and confidence and social benefits influence the level of satisfaction, tangible service quality and special treatment benefit seem to have no significant effec...

Whose Version of Customer Service am I Getting

This study found three distinct conceptualizations of customer service among service employees. These were customer service as (a) a ‘means to an end’; (b) forming of a relationship for mutual benefit; and (c) meeting customer’s stated needs efficiently and courteously. These conceptualizations were related to self-reported competence and customer orientation.

Exploring the Effect of an Instruction to be Creative on Problem Solving in the Classroom

This research found that instructing students to ‘be creative’ while solving a business problem enhanced the number and novelty of ideas suggested, but reduced the relevance of the ideas to the problem.