"This book presents insights into marketing strategies and tactical perspectives in both large and small enterprises, exploring case studies, contemporary research, and theoretical frameworks in effective business management"--
Service products being intangible and experiential in nature are different to evaluate prior to purchase and consumption. Consumers perceive risk while purchasing services and rely on various information sources to make a purchase decision. In services, personal sources of information are considered more than non‐personal sources of information. The present study focuses on understanding the significance of supplementary services as nonpersonal source of information to consumers for pre‐purchase evaluation of credit card services. In other words, whether information regarding supplementary services can help consumers make pre‐purchase evaluation of credit cards. In addition to pre‐purchase evaluation, the impact of supplementary services is studied towards post‐purchase evaluation of credit card services. Supplementary services being a part of full service product offer by marketers can be utilised as a beneficial tool to create interest and developing awareness among consumers.
PurposeThis paper aims to uncover service worker behaviours and service setting facets contributing to satisfaction/dissatisfaction during critical service encounters in the context of interpersonal services in elaborate servicescape from consumers' perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThe study used the method of critical incident technique (CIT). In total, 371 critical service encounters were investigated. Actual service experience, with any one of the eight prominent interpersonal services, was collected from adult service consumers living in the national capital region of India.FindingsDominant worker behaviours and setting facets contributing to satisfaction/dissatisfaction in critical service encounters are identified. Analysis of behaviours confirms behavioural categories suggested by previous research, i.e. recovery, adaptability, spontaneity, courteous, information sharing, connecting and identified one additional category, namely professional behaviour. Service setting facets are ambient condition, interior, exterior and other tangibles.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected only from adult service consumers living in the national capital region of India (urban area) with a minimum education qualification of graduation. Initial encounters are not treated separately.Practical implicationsThe identification of dominant behaviours and service setting facets in this research will help the managers to better manage and monitor service encounters leading to more satisfied customers.Originality/valueThis is a pioneer empirical work which investigated the various employee behaviours and service setting facets that have resulted in consumers' satisfying/dissatisfying service experiences in the context of interpersonal services with elaborate servicescapes. This study has also identified one additional category of service worker behaviour and developed a reliable classification scheme, to analyze critical service encounters, which may be of use to future researchers.
Managerial and Business Economics (ME/BE) aims at using quantitative and computational methods to make an efficient (ideally optimal) assignment of the scarce resources owned by firms and organizations. In the current global market, characterized by a fierce competition, an optimal use of the available resources is more important than ever for guaranteeing the economical sustainability of organizations and enterprises of any size. Heuristic optimization algorithms and simulation methods have been successfully employed to analyze and enhance complex systems and processes in a myriad of ME/BE-related fields. This paper reviews recent works on the use of these methodologies in competitive markets, as well as in imperfect markets considering externalities. The paper also discusses open challenges and how state-of-the art methods combining optimization, simulation, and machine learning can contribute to properly address them.