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Show moreIn our global economy where companies are often required to serve customers of many different cultures, there is a need to understand how culture affects service satisfaction. In this paper the author presents a model and hypotheses for understanding the mechanism underlying the effect of cultural distance between the customer and the service provider on service satisfaction when a service failure is encountered. The model synthesizes the type of service failure, the context in which the service is provided, the customer’s cultural disposition, and the customer’s attribution processes. The model and hypotheses are tested using a quasiexperimental, web-based research design employing multi-media stimuli.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreThe search for key factors that influence consumer satisfaction and loyalty in financial advisory relationships, originating in consumer behavior theory, suggests that consumer/financial advisor similarity and superior investment portfolio performance may be key drivers of client satisfaction. Conversely 70% of respondents in this study indicated that similarity played no role at all in their satisfaction with advisors, and 20% of respondents asserted that they specifically selected advisors for their dissimilarity. Our results suggest three discrete, potentially important, drivers of consumer satisfaction- client self-efficacy, client financial self-worth and financial advisor interpersonal performance. In conclusion, we discuss how these findings may enhance client relationship commitment by financial advisors.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreInvestment in self service technology (SST) is transforming the customer service encounter in virtually all industry sectors, pushing interpersonal service to a more automated and self initiated process. While firms are more familiar with operational implementation and customer acceptance factors of SST, there is much to learn concerning the cumulative implications of shifting customers from an interpersonal to a SST based service encounter. Of particular importance is what happens to trust between student and school the more students use self service technology to meet their financial aid service requests. Two groups of undergraduate students – some predisposed to SST based service and the other students predisposed to interpersonal based service - were studied using grounded theory, semi-structured qualitative interviews. Data analysis and coding resulted in a conceptual model that provides a contextual explanation of how SST impacts brand trust within the context of financial aid administration. The perceived attributes of “anticipation” and “education” are identified as key mediating variables. Within higher education administration, service encounter research is extended to contextual precision. Given the small sample of this study, large scale hypothesis testing is needed.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreSelf-service technologies (SSTs) and customer-vendor participation (co-production) are important features in the service encounter, yet there is much to learn about these service features relationship to customer satisfaction. The literature is rich with evidence of SSTs importance to forming customer satisfaction, but there is scant empirical evidence pointing to the role of co-production in forming customer satisfaction in online service encounters. It is hypothesized that within the online service encounter, features of co-production are significant predictors of customer satisfaction. Survey data show that customers differentiate the service features of co-production from the service features of SSTs. Furthermore, these two service features have identifiable drivers to customer satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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