PhD Dissertations - DO NOT EDIT
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/25207
2024-03-28T13:37:03ZDYNAMIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31717
DYNAMIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
As a fundamental managerial tool for sales management, sales controls have received researchers’ attention for a long time. However, current research on sales controls has mainly adopted a static perspective to examine the roles of sales controls. To overcome this limitation, I propose a new construct, dynamic sales control systems, to extend the static research on sales controls to a dynamic perspective. This dissertation includes two papers. Paper 1 focuses on dynamic control systems’ antecedents and boundary conditions and their impacts on sales team performance. In Paper 2, I have investigated the mediating mechanisms between dynamic control systems and sales performance at the individual level. These two papers have enriched people’s understanding of dynamic control systems and provided sales managers with critical managerial implications.
2023-07-31T00:00:00ZThe Role of Emotions and Collective Satisfaction in the Customer Journey from Service Experience to Customer Engagement
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31690
The Role of Emotions and Collective Satisfaction in the Customer Journey from Service Experience to Customer Engagement
Service providers serving business customers face some unique challenges in assessing and building customer satisfaction. These challenges arise when service providers have to deal with a team or a group of people within the client’s organization. Each of these individuals, depending on their role in the service provision, go through a unique customer journey and have a distinctive service experience. Imagine yourself in a situation with several bosses with different expectations and evaluations. Not only is it challenging to meet their expectations, but it is also hard to know if they are truly satisfied with you. This dissertation explores the above challenges and develops a comprehensive view of customer satisfaction in a business-to-business (B2B) services context. In the first essay, we conduct a meta-analysis on the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction and investigate the inconsistencies from previous research. There is a need to examine the antecedents of satisfaction as it is difficult to prioritize attributes that drive overall customer satisfaction or know which antecedent(s) has the strongest effect on satisfaction. We also find it necessary to look at the outcomes of satisfaction, which include, attitudinal loyalty and direct and indirect customer engagement (purchase intention and WOM/recommend). This study will examine these relationships in addition to moderating variables that affect the strength of the antecedent-satisfaction-outcomes relationships. The second essay elaborates on the research shortcomings identified in the first essay. To address them, we develop a conceptual framework for evaluating collective satisfaction of all client’s team members, hereafter called overall firm satisfaction (OFS). We first propose that OFS should be based on a weighted average of the individual satisfactions of all actors in the customer firm with a vested interest in service provision. We then explore how overall firm OFS changes over time due to interpersonal interactions. Furthermore, we dig into the relationships between decision makers and other actors, and propose that they will influence the overall satisfaction of one another over time. Finally, we explore when the OFS framework is applicable and when other approaches provide a satisfactory understanding of customer satisfaction. The third essay further develops and empirically tests some of the ideas put forth in the conceptual framework. We shed light on the role emotions have in a B2B context, how they exist and what are their consequences. To get a better understanding of how customers experience and evaluate the service, we studied group interactions among clients’ team members. We conducted a series of scenariobased role-playing experiments. Our sample included 160 undergrad students who were assigned to three-member teams. Our study showed that group dynamic elements influence group members’ emotions and behaviors towards the firm. We contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the importance of a multi-perspective evaluation of a service provider as opposed to the common single informant approach.
Designing Better Experiences Through Storytelling: Two Essays Examining the Application of Storytelling in Service Design and its Impact on Customer and Service Offering-Related Outcomes
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31458
Designing Better Experiences Through Storytelling: Two Essays Examining the Application of Storytelling in Service Design and its Impact on Customer and Service Offering-Related Outcomes
**Please note that the full text is embargoed until 8/12/2024** ABSTRACT: The service literature has long recognized that storytelling can be applied in the design of service offerings and their associated customer journeys. The literature also suggests that applying storytelling in service design can enhance the customer experience. However, the customer and firm outcomes that result from applying storytelling in service and customer journey design have not been addressed by the literature. The underlying mechanisms through which storytelling enhances the customer experience and other customer outcomes when applied in service design have also not been addressed by the literature. In addition, there is a shortage of research that addresses the application of storytelling in service design from a customer journey perspective, and even less research that addresses service or customer journey design for experiential services. Using experiential services as a research context, the two essays in this dissertation address the above-identified knowledge gaps in the literature by conceptually and empirically exploring the customer and service offering-related outcomes associated with the application of storytelling in service and customer journey design and the mechanisms leading to these outcomes. Potential moderators of the effectiveness of storytelling as an approach to service and customer journey design are also conceptually and empirically examined. This dissertation also provides guidelines for managers of experiential services on how to apply storytelling in service and customer journey design to enhance the customer experience, customer affective responses, and customer behavioral intentions towards a firm’s service offerings. Overall, the findings of this dissertation contribute to the literature by providing a richer understanding of the effects of applying storytelling in service and customer journey design, the mechanisms leading to these effects, and potential moderators of the observed effects. It also empowers service firms generally, and experiential service firms specifically, to leverage the power of storytelling to design and deliver better experiences for customers that translate into favorable firm outcomes.
2022-08-12T00:00:00ZHOW DOES GLOBAL-LOCAL IDENTITY IMPACT CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31337
HOW DOES GLOBAL-LOCAL IDENTITY IMPACT CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING
Globalization has exacerbated the birth of the sharing economy on a global scale, and it has made global–local identity essential in understanding consumer decisions. For example, an emerging literature has uncovered the effects of global–local identity on various consumer responses, including price sensitivity, preference for local/global products and brands, preference for eco-friendly products, and a tendency to use price as a signal of product quality. Extending the literature, this dissertation aims to advance the understandings of the effect of global-local identity on various consumer behavior. Specifically, in the first essay, consumers face the decision as to whether to choose a sharing option versus an owning option. However, our understanding of how consumers’ global–local identity may influence their willingness to share is rather limited. I fill this knowledge gap by proposing that consumers high in global identity (“globals”) are more willing to share than those high in local identity (“locals”). Such effects are mediated by consumers’ consumption openness mindset. Consistent with the “consumption openness mindset” account, I find that when the desire for openness is enhanced by a contextual cue, locals’ willingness to share is elevated, whereas globals’ willingness to share is unaffected. However, when the desire for openness is suppressed by a contextual cue, globals’ willingness to share is reduced, whereas locals’ willingness to share is unaffected. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. In the second essay, six studies examine the effect of consumer’s local-global identity on their intention to purchase experiential consumption and material possession and show that consumers high in local identity show greater intention to purchase experiential consumption (vs. material possession), whereas consumers high in global identity show indistinguishable intention to purchase experiential consumption and material possession. This is mainly because consumers high in local (vs. global) identity tend to have a greater need for social connectivity. When the need for social connectivity is externally enhanced, consumers high in global identity (but not local identity) enhance their intention to purchase experiential consumption, and when the need for social connectivity is externally suppressed, consumers high in local identity (but not global identity) reduce their intention to purchase experiential consumption. The third essay uses a meta-analytic approach and examines the relative impact between guilt and shame on prosocial behavior. Previous literature documents mixed findings regarding the relative impact of shame and guilt on prosocial behavior: while some studies reported that guilt has a greater influence than shame, others showed the opposite. In a synthetic overview, this meta-analysis shows that situational factors that shift consumers’ attentional focus from the self to others, such as local (vs. global) identity, public (vs. private) task settings, and helping the victim (vs. unhurt others), can explain these mixed results.
2021-08-05T00:00:00Z