William Magnus Northington

The influence of supply chain management competency on customer satisfaction and shareholder value

Purpose – The relationship between supply chain management (SCM) competency and firm performance is not well established empirically. This is largely because proven metrics for quantifying the effects of SCM are scarce. Drawing on the strategic managerial concept of supply chain orientation as a source of competitive advantage, this paper aims to apply three independent sources of secondary data to examine the influence of SCM competency on two important firm performance metrics: customer satisfaction and shareholder value.Design/methodology/approach – SCM competency is assessed with data from the expert opinion element of Gartner Supply Chain Groups (formerly AMR Research) supply chain top 25 rankings; the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) database and the recently developed Economic Value Added (EVA) Momentum financial metric are utilized as outcome measures.Findings – Firms recognized by peers and experts for superior SCM competency exhibit higher levels of customer satisfaction and sharehol...

Frontline Service Employee Compliance With Customer Special Requests

As companies struggle to deliver excellent service, many find they need to understand and plan for a diverse array of customer requests. Some requests are unexpected and require employees to go beyond their usual job duties. These requests may be classified as special requests. Knowing how and when to comply with these requests is critical to the firm and the employee, given that failing to comply could negatively affect customer satisfaction, while complying may produce unwanted consequences for the firm. We use grounded theory and content analysis of critical incident special requests from frontline employees to develop a framework and classification scheme that categorizes customer special requests and employee assessments of these requests. Customer special requests were classified into four types of customer deficiencies—physical resources, knowledge, financial, and time. Employee assessments were categorized as positive compliance factors (motivations and ability) or deterrents to compliance, including policy or legal, potential risk, and lack of resources. These findings contribute to theory, as they represent the first effort to categorize customer special requests and employee responses to them. Companies need to be better informed about the types of requests employees receive so that employees can make the most appropriate decisions.

Employees’ Emotional Reactions to Customer Deal Requests

Customers are increasingly asking for discounts and deals while shopping in traditional retail stores. Using interviews and a survey of frontline employees, this article develops and tests a model that profiles the effect of customer deal requests on employees’ emotional reactions. The findings show that employees’ request self-efficacy and their positivity toward deal requesters increase their comfort with these deal requests. This comfort, along with the employee’s perceptions of the dominance of the customer’s approach style and the reasonableness of the request, impacts the employee’s affective reactions following deal requests. Script theory and motivated reasoning are used to explain this process, while the importance of employee comfort in this process is emphasized. Implications for theory and management are discussed.

Do Gambling Game Choices Reflect a Recreational Gambler’s Motivations?

Purpose Gambling is increasingly a global phenomenon, derided by some as exploitative and viewed by others as entertainment. Despite extensive research into gambling motivations, previous research has not assessed whether gaming choice is a function of one’s personal motivations or simply a desire to gamble in general, regardless of game choice among recreational gamblers. The purpose of this study is to explore this theme by considering “illusion of control” where luck and skill may moderate gambling motivation. Design/methodology/approach This study applies two motivation theories, hedonic consumption theory and motivation disposition theory, and examines heuristic perspectives related to gambling. Three stages of qualitative data collection were undertaken. Findings The findings indicate that for recreational gamblers, gaming choice is a function of personal motives. Hence, gamblers chose games that reflect their needs or motives, focusing on the game or games that best allow them to achieve their goals and desires. Research limitations/implications These findings shed light on an important topic and include an in-depth examination of recreational gamblers’ motivations. Further quantitative examinations should be considered. Practical implications This research could be used by practitioners or researchers in better segmenting the casino recreational gambling market. Originality/value While many researchers have examined gambling motivations and even gambling motivations by venue (e.g. casino versus online), few researchers have focused on gamblers’ choice of games and even fewer have studied recreational gamblers’ motivations with a qualitatively rich approach, resulting in some useful perspectives on drivers of recreational gamblers by personal motives.

Making inconsistent worlds: a conceptual framework for co-competition

This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of co-competition, within service-dominant logic, whereby multiple parties with mutually exclusive goals compete for the rights to co-create with a firm.,Within the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the paper uses a naturalistic inquiry approach guided by the core objectives of qualitative research provided by Belk et al. (2012). These objectives include understanding the construct of study, the antecedents and consequences of what is being studied and, finally, the process used by the consumer during the phenomena. Additionally, the results are presented within an idiographic framework.,This study finds that co-competition arises when heterogeneous segments of consumers attempt different co-creation strategies with the firm, an overlooked dark side of co-creation and co-production of value. Additionally, the study finds evidence that co-competition may have led to co-destruction of value for both consumer parties and the firm.,The outcomes of this process could have significant financial and reputational impacts for the firm resultant from alienating both types of consumers competing for the rights to co-create. The conceptual framework established here provides a guide through which further investigation of co-creative forces can occur.

Responding to Customers’ “Gray” Requests: The Service Employee Dilemma

This research examines how service employees make the decision to comply with customer requests. In this paper, a unique type of customer request is studied: the “gray” request, a request in which the employee is asked to do something that is outside of their job description or outside of what they would normally do to deliver the service (but not something that is fraudulent or illegal). This research develops the gray request concept and provides a conceptual model to explain the circumstances by which gray requests occur and employees comply. Twenty-three qualitative interviews with employees from two different service firms in different industries are conducted. Three main motivational categories relating to why employees respond favorably to gray customer requests emerge: (1) the desire to help others (2) the desire to help the company and (3) the desire to help themselves. The organizational, customer, employee, and situational dimensions that determine when and if employees will respond favorably include: (1) the organization’s culture, the norm of flexibility, and the reward/incentive system (2) the customer demographics (i.e., loyal customer; elderly) (3) the personality factors of the employee (i.e., allocentrism) and (4) the situational factors (ability, ease, legality, safety, time constraints, type of request, and urgency).

Trajectory-Based Segmentation of Loyalty Program-Type Data

The emergence of multiple marketing data sets available to marketers has created a need for the best way to analyze and interpret purchasing behaviors among varying segments of customers. In this paper, the loyalty card program of a U.S. mass merchandise retailer is segmented using a trajectory modeling approach. The trajectory modeling technique reveals seven distinct segments of customers within this loyalty card program that we named: (1) premiere, (2) early excitement but faded, (3) late bloomer, (4) moderate but steady, (5) disillusioned, (6) once-a-month visitors, and (7) moderate start but faded. These results provide evidence of the need to customize CRM strategies for multiple customer trajectory segments in order to maximize loyalty and profitability. Furthermore, this paper provides a unique methodological tool to identify and analyze unique customer segments based on their behaviors over time.

Examining Reactive Customer Engagement Strategies in Online Shopping Cart Abandonment: A Regulatory Fit Perspective

Online retailing is thriving as consumers become more comfortable shopping online (Cho 2004). In the USA alone, online retailing total revenue topped

Towards an Understanding of the Role of Context on the Psychological Meaning of Products and Brands

280 billion by the end of 2013 (Sehgal 2014), an increase of greater than 20 % from just 2 years ago. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been identified as an increasingly important component of marketing strategy and customer relations (Close and Kukar-Kinney 2010). Consequently, marketing scholars have acknowledged the need for new models and theories which contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of online consumer behavior (Kukar-Kinney and Close 2010).

Consider the Source: Comparing Customer Reactions to Hearing about a Company Transgression by Word-of-Mouth vs. through the Media

Meaning is all around us each and every day, yet the intricacies that determine these meanings for individuals are dependent upon many external components. Meanings are not only a part of the activities in which we participate and the products and services that we purchase, but may be contained in the objects and services around us that we do not purchase, or in activities in which we do not participate.