Sally K. Widener

Drivers of Service Satisfaction Linking Customer Satisfaction to the Service Concept and Customer Characteristics

The “service-dominant logic” focuses on the firm and the customer cocreating value, as defined by the customer. Achieving this orientation requires firms to understand which components of the service concept are most important to different subsets of customers. However, research on the relative importance to customers of core and peripheral service components has produced mixed results. Using data from the U.S. airline industry, the fact that the relative influence on customer satisfaction of core (e.g., operational performance) and peripheral (e.g., service interactions and physical setting) service components is moderated by customer characteristics is demonstrated. Consistent with Vargo and Luschs premises that “the customer is always a co-creator of value” and that value is “uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary,” the conclusion that a parsimonious model of customer satisfaction demands consideration of both the service concept and customer characteristics is reached.

An empirical investigation of the relation between the use of strategic human capital and the design of the management control system

Abstract This study integrates transaction cost economics and contingency theory to investigate how differences in the use of strategic human capital are associated with the design of a firms management control system (MCS). The use of strategic human capital is hypothesized to positively influence the use of personnel and nontraditional controls while negatively influencing the use of traditional controls. Using survey data from 107 respondents, this study finds that the data do not support the hypothesized structural equation model. An alternative model is proposed that suggests only that the use of strategic human capital positively influences the use of personnel and nontraditional controls. This model is supported by the data.

The Impact of Service Operations Failures on Customer Satisfaction: Evidence on How Failures and Their Source Affect What Matters to Customers

Research in consumer psychology shows that customers seek reasons for service failures and that attributions of blame moderate the effects of failure on the level of customer satisfaction. This paper extends research on service operations failures by hypothesizing that attributions of blame also affect what matters to the customer during service failures. Specifically, we hypothesize that the relative weights that customers assign to key service elements in reaching an overall assessment of customer satisfaction are affected by customer attributions of blame for service failures. We use the U.S. airline industry as a quasi-experimental research setting to investigate the components of customer satisfaction for three samples of customers who experience (1) routine service, (2) flight delays of external (i.e., weather) origin, and (3) flight delays of internal origin. Although the level of customer satisfaction is lower for all service failures, we find that the key components of satisfaction differ between delayed and routine flights only when customers blame the service provider for the failure. Specifically, when delays are of external origin satisfaction is lower than for routine flights, but there is virtually no difference in the weight that customers assign to the components of customer satisfaction (including employee interactions). In contrast, when delays are of internal origin, satisfaction is lower than for either routine flights or flights delayed by external factors, and employee interactions have a significantly diminished role in customer satisfaction evaluations. Contrary to the popular view that employee interactions take on a greater role in determining customer satisfaction during service failures, we find that the opposite is true if the customer attributes blame to the service provider. Our findings highlight the important role of customer attributions during service failures and present more nuanced evidence on the role of employee-customer interactions in mitigating the effects of service failures on customer satisfaction.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING RESEARCH: INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE

Although the “new economy” once again resembles the old economy, the drivers of success for many firms continue to be intangible or service-related assets. These changes in the economic basis of business are leading to changes in practice which are creating exciting new opportunities for research. Management accounting still is concerned with internal uses of and demands for operating and performance information by organizations, their managers, and their employees. However, current demand for internal information and analysis most likely reflects current decision making needs, which have changed rapidly to meet economic and environmental conditions. Many management accounting research articles reflect traditional research topics that might not conform to current practice concerns. Some accounting academics may desire to pursue research topics that reflect current problems of practice to inform, influence, or understand practice or influence accounting education. This study analyzes attributes of nearly 2,000 research and professional articles published during the years 1996–2000 and finds numerous, relatively unexamined research questions that can expand the scope of current management accounting research. Analyses of theories, methods, and sources of data used by published management accounting research also describe publication opportunities in major research journals.

The Performance Effects of Using Business Intelligence Systems for Exploitation and Exploration Learning

ABSTRACT: Accounting researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the performance effects of business intelligence (BI) systems in their role as management control systems. Extant research focuses on the performance effects of adopting and implementing such systems. However, there is less known about how organizations use the information in BI systems for management control once implemented, and whether the use of this information translates into organizational performance. We utilize the theoretical connection between information systems and organizational learning to explain the performance effects of BI system use through organizational learning. Evidence from recent literature indicates the need for organizations to engage in exploitation and exploration learning in pursuit of organizational ambidexterity. Our study draws on agenda setting and framing theories to provide insights that will enable organizations to strategically use the information in two fundamental BI systems to emphasize eithe...

Market valuation of intangible resources: The use of strategic human capital

Economic theory posits that production factors that are both difficult to imitate and capable of creating organizational efficiencies can generate economic rents and sustain long-term competitive advantage. Using survey data for 106 firms, we measure four dimensions of strategic human capital and find that the market values strategic human capital that has the capability to create efficiencies in the organization and is also difficult for competitors to imitate. We discuss implications for the reporting of human capital in intellectual capital reports and offer suggestions for future research.

The Intersection of "Bad Apples," "Bad Barrels," and the Enabling Use of Performance Measurement Systems.

ABSTRACT A performance measurement system (PMS) consists of data transformed into performance measures, which is used to control operations and employee behavior. As such, a PMS is embedded within the broader accounting information system (AIS). Existing literature suggests organizations benefit from using a PMS in a way that employees perceive enables them to better perform their job tasks. However, those benefits may not always be realized depending on individual and unit-level ethical characteristics that interact with the use of AIS. The purpose of this study is to examine the intersection of AIS and business ethics by focusing on how a specific type of AIS is used; namely, the PMS. We integrate the extent of perceived amoral manipulation and the ethical work climate with the extent to which the PMS is perceived to be enabling. We document instances when the enabling use of a PMS is not always beneficial, offer implications for organizations in terms of managing the level of counterproductive work beh...

The Complex World of Control: Integration of Ethics and Uses of Control

Originality/value Our research investigates the intersection between management control and ethics. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to delve into this critical area.