Sunil Sahadev

Modelling the consequences of e‐service quality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model the consequences of achieving better service quality in e‐services.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model is developed though a survey of literature on e‐services and allied domains and validated through a survey of users of job‐portals in India.Findings – The conceptual model finds significant support based on the empirical study. It is seen that the four components of e‐service quality: efficiency, fulfilment, system availability, privacy, are linked to trust and satisfaction.Practical implications – The study underscores the need to focus on service quality in the context of e‐services. The positive linkages should motivate practitioners to invest more to achieve greater service quality.Originality/value – By focusing on the consequences of e‐service quality, the study contributes to the growing stream of e‐service quality literature. This is also one of the few studies to look at other categories of e‐services apart from e‐tailing.

Role of switching costs in the service quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction and customer retention linkage

Purpose – The study attempts to chart out the role of switching costs in the interrelationships between perceived value, perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. The mediating role of switching costs as well as its direct impact is explored among customers of mobile telephone service providers in India.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model is developed based on the existing literature and then the model is validated through the analysis of data collected from customers of mobile services in India.Findings – The mediating role of switching costs is found to have adequate statistical support and the other direct linkages are also found to be valid. The findings suggest that service firms may benefit from pursuing a combined strategy of increasing customer satisfaction and switching costs both independently and in tandem, depending upon the product‐market characteristics.Originality/value – The study extends the knowledge about customer retention by bringing in s...

Economic satisfaction and relationship commitment in channels: The moderating role of environmental uncertainty, collaborative communication and coordination strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the linkage between economic satisfaction and relationship commitment in distribution channels. The moderating effects of three variables are considered: the use of behavior based coordination strategy; the perceived level of environmental uncertainty; and the use of collaborative communication strategy.Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses are tested through a sample survey among 101 channel partners of mobile service providers in a state in India.Findings – The results indicate the moderating variables act as quasi moderators wherein they both directly and indirectly impact the dependent variable.Research limitations/implications – Limitations of the sampling methodology and sample size restricts the scope for generalizing the hypothesis. Further, data were collected from only one side of the dyad.Originality/value – The paper endorses and attempts to establish the view that channel satisfaction is a multidimensional concept and there are differe...

Managing the distribution channels for high‐technology products

The effects of variations in the external environment on channel member behaviour have been widely acknowledged in marketing channel literature. This paper focuses on the behavioural issues associated with the management of distribution channels dealing in high‐technology products in India. The marketing task environment associated with high‐technology products being highly dynamic and unpredictable, the attendant channel management functions become extremely challenging. The paper presents a conceptual model for managing the distribution channels operating in highly dynamic and unpredictable environments. The conceptual model is validated through a sample survey conducted among computer hardware dealers.

A comparison of international HRM practices by Indian and European MNEs: evidence from Africa

By comparing the HRM practices in Indian and European MNE subsidiaries located in four of the Southern African Development Community countries, this paper tests the relevance of the country-of-origin effect and analyses the strength of institutional and firm-level influences. Examining data from 865 MNE subsidiaries obtained from the World Bank enterprise survey data, the paper finds that Indian MNEs have higher labour costs in relation to total sales than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs make more use of temporary labour than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs invest in less training than their European counterparts. No support is found for the hypothesis that Indian MNEs have a lower ratio of skilled workers in comparison to European-owned subsidiaries. The study shows that country-of-origin effects are weakened if they are not consistent with host country ideology and that as economies evolve so too do their expectations of HR policy and practices.

Exploring the antecedents of quality commitment among employees: an empirical study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the major factors that impact the quality commitment of employees in organizations.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a cross‐sectional design and the propositions are validated through two sample surveys conducted in two separate organizations in Turkey.Findings – The study presents four independent variables as the major factors affecting quality commitment of employees, viz. the leadership commitment towards quality; the quality orientation of the organization; team effectiveness and effectiveness of quality‐related communication. The four hypotheses are found to be valid.Originality/value – The paper attempts to contribute towards the literature on quality commitment of employees. So far, studies on quality commitment have been quite limited and hence this effectively fills a gap in the literature. Examination of data collected from a government ministry and a manufacturing company reveals some significant findings, which contributes to quali...

A comparative analysis of employment practices among post-communist and capatilist countries in South Eastern Europe

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the level of convergence in employment practices among firms in the post‐communist countries and capitalist countries in South Eastern Europe. Firms from a total of ten countries were included in the post‐communist block and firms from Greece and Turkey were included in the capitalist block. The main purpose was to verify whether employment practices in firms in the post‐communist countries now resemble that of firms in the capitalist countries after almost a decade of transition.Design/methodology/approach – The study analyzed the employment practices in terms of the skill ration, employment of temporary workers and the education level of employees of about 8,000 firms in the region.Findings – In terms of skill ratio and the education level significant levels of divergence was found between firms in post‐communist countries and capitalist countries. However, in terms of employing temporary workers significant levels of convergence was detected.Research implications/li...

Application of data mining techniques in the on‐line travel industry

Purpose – To describe the process of customer segmentation by data mining and expert judgment in a real‐world setting.Design/methodology/approach – Data collected in four case studies of on‐line enquiries via one web‐based intermediary and customer profiling were used as the input to K‐means clustering calculations relating to four tourist destinations in Thailand, two already familiar internationally and two less so.Findings – The case study illustrates the use of data mining techniques to unravel the basic pattern of customer enquiries across various attributes, as an input to actionable strategies.Research limitations/implications – The methodology limits inferences to the single organization studied across the four destinations.Practical implications – The findings suggest a practical planning strategy for customer segmentation in similar on‐line situations. The methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative phases, and can be easily be applied in practice.Originality/value – The paper, fo...

Modeling quality commitment in service organizations: an empirical study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt to model the antecedents and consequences of quality commitment among employees in a service organization.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model based on extant literature on quality commitment is validated through a study among employees in a consultancy organization in Turkey involved in servicing SMEs.Findings – The conceptual model finds reasonable support through the study. All the proposed antecedents and consequences are found to be linked positively as per the propositions.Research limitations/implications – The study is based on a single organization, which could impact the generalizability of the results. Further two of the constructs are measured using two item scales, affecting the scale validity.Originality/value – This paper introduces a model of quality commitment, which focuses on the outcomes of quality commitment, and validates it in the context of a service organization.

Visual service scape aesthetics and consumer response : a holistic model

This paper aims to introduce subjective dimensions of appraising visual servicescape aesthetics and to empirically test their influence on the consumer’s affective responses and preference, thus providing a holistic model to evaluate visual servicescape aesthetics from consumer’s viewpoint. It also tests the moderating role of service contexts in the modelled relationships.,Data was collected from 350 respondents using a laboratory-like experimental design, with one-shot treatment using photographic surrogates of services capes in four different service contexts.,Results indicate the visual servicescape aesthetics dimensions significantly and positively influence consumers’ affective states of arousal and pleasure. Also, service context moderates the relationship between servicescape aesthetics and affective responses.,As the subjective dimensions of visual servicescape aesthetics are borrowed from environmental psychology and introduced in marketing literature, it is likely to trigger a stream of research in service marketing domain.,Findings provide marketing practitioners insights into servicescape design, evaluation and selection decisions to improve return on such investments.,The study contributes to theory by introducing more appropriate holistic servicescape aesthetics variables borrowed from environment psychology and empirically establishing relationships between them, consumers’ affective responses and preference to the servicescape.