Rohit Verma

Research Opportunities in Service Process Design

Abstract This paper presents an overview of the new issues and research opportunities related to four service operations design topics—the design of retail and e-tail service processes, design of service processes involving waiting lines and workforce staffing, service design for manufacturing, and re-engineering service processes. All four topics are motivated by new technologies (particularly web-based technologies) and require a multi-disciplinary approach to research. For each topic, the paper presents an overview of the topic, the relevant frameworks, and a discussion of the research opportunities.

An empirical analysis of management challenges in service factories, service shops, mass services and professional services

This study presents an empirical snapshot of management challenges among different types of service industries (Service Factory, Service Shop, Mass Service, and Professional Service). Based on data collected (sample size = 273; response rate 97.5 percent) from the managers of four services (Fast Food, Auto Repair, Retail Sales, Legal Services) we show how management challenges change with customer contact/customization and labour intensity. These results have important implications for understanding “real life” service operations, for process improvement, and for service design.

Self‐service technology and online financial service choice

Purpose – The application of self‐service technology in transaction‐based e‐service (e.g. online financial services) creates a challenge for firms: what combination of features should they offer to satisfy needs from different customer segments? This paper seeks to address the above question by highlighting similarities and differences of consumer preferences among self‐service, hybrid service and professional service segments for online financial services.Design/methodology/approach – This study employs a web‐based discrete choice experiment, in which 1,319 consumers were offered different account alternatives, which include features for self‐service and professional assistance, price per transaction, and promotion offers.Findings – The results demonstrate that overall, consumer preferences for features of online financial services differ across segments. Moreover, with the variation in the strength of self‐reliance, interesting trends regarding the relative importance of features are observed. With the ...

Effective Design of Products/Services: An Approach Based on Integration of Marketing and Operations Management Decisions

This paper presents an integrated framework for designing profit-maximizing products/ services, which can also be produced at reasonable operating difficulty levels. Operating difficulty is represented as a function of product and process attributes, and measures a firms relative ease or difficulty in meeting customer demand patterns under specified operating conditions. Earlier optimum product design procedures have not considered. operational difficulty. We show that optimum profit, market share, cost, and product profiles are dependent on operating difficulty level. Empirical results from the pizza delivery industry demonstrate the value of the proposed Effective Product/Service Design approach.

Service Design and Operations Strategy Formulation in Multicultural Markets

Abstract Businesses that service multicultural customer segments face unique challenges in developing the appropriate service strategy. While the strategic implications of expanding services from a domestic market to an international location have been well documented, multicultural customer segments at one location is a unique problem that has largely been neglected by researchers. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a conceptual framework and method for determining the extent of service product and process attribute standardization versus customization in these settings. The paper presents an approach for modeling the preferences of different cultural segments, evaluating the differences between the segments and determining the appropriate service strategy for service providers. We evaluate the effects of competitors adopting their revenue maximizing strategy both independently of each other and simultaneously while assuming the size of the market is viewed as a zero sum game. In an actual application at an international airport terminal, one food-service vendor implemented the suggested operations strategy and the result was a significant revenue gain over the previous year’s sales during the same period. The method has valuable implications for managers when developing strategies for delivering a service to multicultural customer segments.

Customer Preferences for Online, Social Media, and Mobile Innovations in the Hospitality Industry

The study discussed here summarizes the internet search preferences and mobile device use of 2,830 recent travelers. With regard to gathering information for a hotel stay, business travelers most often follow their company’s recommendation for a hotel, although many of them use search engines or online travel agents to learn more about available hotels. In contrast, recommendations of friends and colleagues are most important to leisure travelers, followed by travel-related websites, search engines, and OTAs. Once the information is gathered, however, travelers of all kinds turn more to such sources as the brand website, OTAs, and TripAdvisor. Late in the decision process, the respondents tended to land on the brand websites or go to an OTA, where they can book their room.

Statistical power in operations management research

Abstract This paper discusses the need and importance of statistical power analysis in field-based empirical research in Production and Operations Management (POM) and related disciplines. The concept of statistical power analysis is explained in detail and its relevance in designing and conducting empirical experiments is discussed. Statistical power reflects the degree to which differences in sample data in a statistical test can be detected. A high power is required to reduce the probability of failing to detect an effect when it is present. This paper also examines the relationship between statistical power, significance level, sample size and effect size. A probability tree analysis further explains the importance of statistical power by showing the relationship between Type II errors and the probability of making wrong decisions in statistical analysis. A power analysis of 28 articles (524 statistical tests) in the Journal of Operations Management and in Decision Sciences shows that 60% of empirical studies do not have high power levels. This means that several of these tests will have a low degree of repeatability. This and other similar issues involving statistical power will become increasingly important as empirical studies in POM study relatively smaller effects.

Configurations of low-contact services

Abstract This study uses a cluster analysis procedure to develop a classification model of low-contact services based on seven operations objectives. The effectiveness of the classification scheme is tested by demonstrating the link between the objectives, competitive priorities, and performance. This study also identifies eight underlying factors of competitive priorities in low-contact services. Furthermore, discriminant analysis on competitive priority dimensions shows that low-contact services consist of multiple groups and therefore should not be lumped into one group in any analysis scheme.

The Impact of Environmental Certification on Hotel Guest Ratings

In this article, we analyze the impact on hotels of the ISO 14001 environmental certification system from the customers’ perspective. Based on a comparison of customer ratings of 6,850 hotels in Spain with and without ISO 14001 certification, overall guests rate the hotels with ISO 14001 certification higher than those without the certification. These results are stronger for hotel comfort and hotel services compared with other hotel attributes. Moreover, the most significant differences were found in the upscale four-star hotels. While the study does not reveal causes for these findings, the implication is that the highest end five-star luxury hotels do not gain distinctive differentiation by having the ISO 14001 certification, while for three-star hotels, guests’ price sensitivity overrides environmental concerns. At the four-star level, however, hotels seem to be able to gain a distinct market advantage from environmental certification. For all hotels, the management discipline provided by ISO 14001 can provide a competitive advantage.

Exploring Resource Efficiency Benchmarks for Environmental Sustainability in Hotels

Successful environmental sustainability (ES) initiatives aim for simultaneous environmental and economic benefits. Benchmarking these initiatives must therefore account for environmental and economic outcomes. To this end, the authors propose to construct a cost-based resource efficiency measure for ES from reported financial data. This approach links the environmental and economic performance outcomes by extracting information from resource related expenses normalized by RevPAR (revenue per available room). Through exploratory factor analysis of an eight-year panel of 984 U.S. hotels, the authors identified two factors that drive resource efficiency in hotel operations, one of which is operations-centered and the other customer behavior–centered. This two-factor measure quantifies the weights that operations and customer behavior contribute to resource efficiency and measures the systematic variations across key hotel operating characteristics. Such resource efficiency benchmarks complement the practice-focused environmental management systems developed by individual hotel companies and guidelines proposed by government agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.