Sven Tuzovic

Perceived quality of e‐health services

Purpose - Health service quality is an important determinant for health service satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate requirements of e‐health services and to develop a measurement model to analyze the construct of “perceived e‐health service quality.” Design/methodology/approach - The paper adapts the C‐OAR‐SE procedure for scale development by Rossiter. The focal aspect is the “physician‐patient relationship” which forms the core dyad in the healthcare service provision. Several in‐depth interviews were conducted in Switzerland; first with six patients (as raters), followed by two experts of the healthcare system (as judges). Based on the results and an extensive literature research, the classification of object and attributes is developed for this model. Findings - The construct e‐health service quality can be described as an abstract formative object and is operationalized with 13 items: accessibility, competence, information, usability/user friendliness, security, system integration, trust, individualization, empathy, ethical conduct, degree of performance, reliability, and ability to respond. Research limitations/implications - Limitations include the number of interviews with patients and experts as well as critical issues associated with C‐OAR‐SE. More empirical research is needed to confirm the quality indicators of e‐health services. Practical implications - Health care providers can utilize the results for the evaluation of their service quality. Practitioners can use the hierarchical structure to measure service quality at different levels. The model provides a diagnostic tool to identify poor and/or excellent performance with regard to the e‐service delivery. Originality/value - The paper contributes to knowledge with regard to the measurement of e‐health quality and improves the understanding of how customers evaluate the quality of e‐health services.

Global business services

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of global business services to improved productivity and economic growth of the world economy, which has gone largely unnoticed in service research. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on macroeconomic data and industry reports, and link them to the non-ownership-concept in service research and theories of the firm. Findings Business services explain a large share of the growth of the global service economy. The fast growth of business services coincides with shifts from domestic production towards global outsourcing of services. A new wave of global business services are traded across borders and have emerged as important drivers of growth in the world’s service sector. Research limitations/implications This paper advances the understanding of non-ownership services in an increasingly global and specialized post-industrial economy. The paper makes a conceptual contribution supported by descriptive data, but without empirical testing. Originality/value The authors integrate the non-ownership concept and three related economic theories of the firm to explain the role of global business services in driving business performance and the international transformation of service economies.

Quality in group service encounters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of service quality for settings where several customers are involved in the joint creation and consumption of a service. The approach is to provide first insights into the implications of a simultaneous multi‐customer integration on service quality.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper undertakes a thorough review of the relevant literature before developing a conceptual model regarding service co‐creation and service quality in customer groups.Findings – Group service encounters must be set up carefully to account for the dynamics (social activity) in a customer group and skill set and capabilities (task activity) of each of the individual participants involved in a group service experience.Research limitations/implications – Future research should undertake empirical studies to validate and/or modify the suggested model presented in this contribution.Practical implications – Managers of service firms should be made aware of the ...

Investigating the concept of potential quality

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine the concept of “potential quality” – that is, a companys tangible search qualities (such as the physical servicescape and virtual servicescape) – within the context of the real‐estate industry in the USA.Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative study collects data by conducting personal in‐depth interviews with 34 respondents who had been recent buyers or renters of property. The data are then coded and themed to identify quality dimensions relevant to this industry.Findings – The results indicate that a buyers perception of the overall service quality of real‐estate service consists of two components: the interaction with a realtor (process quality); and the virtual servicescape, especially the firms website design and content (potential quality). The study concludes that existing scales (such as SERVQUAL and RESERV) fail to capture the tangible component of service quality sufficiently in the real‐estate industry.Research limitations/implicat...

The link between marketing instruments and customer perceptions

Measuring marketing effectiveness is a major challenge for marketing academics and practitioners. An investigation that uses dependence analysis to examine the link between objective marketing instruments and subjective customer perceptions of them is missing from existing approaches. In examining this link, the present article redresses this deficit. A conceptual model is developed in order to structure and explain the effects of instruments on perceptions for 3 marketing instrument categories (value, relationship, and brand). The links are analyzed in an empirical study with bank customers. Instruments are measured by using objective internal data. Perceptions are measured based on a customer survey. The relationships between instruments and perceptions are examined using regression analysis. Most of the effects of instruments on perceptions are significant, signaling that the activities conducted are perceived as intended. In particular, some interesting results become evident, such as the negative effect on relationship perceptions of follow-up calls subsequent to direct mail services.

Integrating customer orientation, employee compensation and performance management: A conceptual framework

Compensation systems are an essential tool to link corporate goals such as customer orientation with individual and organisational performance. While some authors demonstrate the positive effects of incorporating nonfinancial measures into the compensation system empirically, companies have encountered problems after linking pay to customer satisfaction. We argue that reasons for this can be attributed to the measurement of customer satisfaction as well as to the missing link between customer satisfaction and customer retention and profitability in theses cases. Hence, there is a strong need for the development of an holistic reward and performance measurement model enabling an organisation to identify cause-and-effect relationships when linking rewards to nonfinancial performance measures. We present a conceptual framework of a success chain driven reward system that enables organisations to systematically derive a customer-oriented reward strategy. In the context of performance evaluation, we propose to rely on integrated and multidimensional measurement methods.

How do innovators stay innovative? A longitudinal case analysis

Purpose How can some companies be the innovation leader in their industry over prolonged periods of time, whereas others cannot? The purpose of this study is to understand a firm’s capability to be a successful serial innovator and to generate a constant stream of industry-leading innovations. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a longitudinal case study approach to gain an understanding of what and how Singapore Airlines sustained service innovation for over 30 years. The study uses triangulation, whereby the core data from in-depth interviews with senior and middle management and frontline employees were complemented with academic research, case studies, annual reports, observations and archival documents. In total, 240 single-spaced pages of interview transcripts with over 130,000 words were analyzed and coded using MAXQDA for identifying repeated patterns of meaning. Findings The authors identified three key institutional foundations for service innovation: innovation climate (i.e. leadership and service culture), human capital (i.e. recruitment, training and development and engagement and incentives) and resource configurations (i.e. systems, structure and processes). These foundations enabled the organization to build the following four service innovation-related dynamic capabilities: embrace ambidexterity, institutionalize learning and knowledge integration, orchestrate collaboration and reinvent customer value. Interestingly, these institutional foundations and capabilities remained largely stable across 30 years; what changed were the contexts and specifics, not the foundations and capabilities. Research limitations/implications Data were collected only from one company. Because of the method of thematic analysis, the generalizability of the findings needs further investigation. Originality/value This study is the first to investigate the drivers of industry-leading sustained service innovation over a prolonged period of time. The proposed framework provides a fuller and more integrated picture of sustained service innovation than past cross-sectional studies.

Developing a framework of service convenience in health care: An exploratory study for a primary care provider.

ABSTRACT From retail health clinics and online appointment scheduling to (mobile) kiosks that enable patient check-in and automate the collection of copays and open balances, convenience has become an important topic in the health care sector over the last few years. While service convenience has also gained much interest in academia, one common limitation is that authors have adopted a “goods-centered” perspective focusing primarily on retail settings. Results of this exploratory study reveal that health care service convenience encompasses seven different dimensions: decision, access, scheduling, registration and check-in, transaction, care delivery, and postconsultation convenience. Implications and future research suggestions are discussed.

Conversational Commerce – A New Era for Service Business Development?

Digitization, the rise of the Internet and mobile devices have changed the way people interact with each other and with companies. In recent years, the voice interface has become a growing feature in mobile devices. Industry reports indicate that in mid-2016, 20 percent of Android searches were voice-based and Siri received two bn. requests per week. ComScore predicts that by 2020, 50 percent of all searches will be voice searches. Furthermore, it is anticipated that voice will become the default method to control a variety of interfaces including mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) appliances, and automobiles.

The Quantified Self: The Role of Consumers’ Smart Wearables Perception Offered by Insurance Companies: An Abstract

The Quantified Self movement initially started in the Silicon Valley and rapidly became a mainstream phenomenon of self-tracking practices. In particular, the wide adoption of commercial activity trackers such as Fitbit HR, Xiaomi Mi, and Garmin Vivo made it possible for consumers to collect their biometrics and also track their physical activity throughout the day. The huge amount of data generated by consumers became highly interesting not only for online-based companies like Google or Amazon but also for the more traditional industries such as car manufacturers and insurance companies, which also started to pay attention to the Quantified Self data.