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The authors develop a taxonomy of electronic service products, defined as bundles of physical goods, offline services, and digital content. The taxonomy is founded on a conceptual classification scheme in the form of a 2 2 matrix—namely, the electronic service product structure—that differentiates electronic service products according to their digital content (either static or dynamic) and target market segment (either unique or broad). The cells of the matrix correspond to four categories of service products: niche market (static content-unique market), market extender (dynamic content-broad market), dynamic mass market (dynamic content-broad market), and customized megamarket (dynamic content-unique market). Two hypotheses are proposed that posit that the ordering of the service product categories in the sequence that was just stated will be positively associated with customer satisfaction and loyalty. The results of the empirical analysis of data from 255 electronic food retailers, the study sample, support the two hypotheses.

Electronic business-to-customer (B2C) operations are making it possible for companies to deliver service products—conceptualized as bundles of physical goods, offline services, and digital content—to customers almost anywhere and at any time. In this article, the authors develop a product-process matrix for electronic B2C operations. The building blocks of the matrix are an electronic service product structure and an electronic service process structure. The electronic service product structure, characterized by the digital content of service products and the target market segment, defines four service product categories. The electronic service process structure, characterized by the flexibility of process technologies, defines four service process stages. Positions on the matrix capture the product-process interrelationships in electronic B2C operations. The authors present propositions relating customer value to positions on the product and process structures and on the matrix. They also present illustrative applications of the matrix to examine the B2C operations of two electronic food retailers.

ABSTRACTThis article examines demand, manufacturing, and supply factors proposed to inhibit manufacturer delivery execution. Extant research proposes many factors expected to harm delivery performance. Prior cross‐sectional empirical research examines such factors at the plant level, generally finding factors arising from dynamic complexity to be significant, but factors arising from detail complexity to be insignificant. Little empirical research examines the factors using product‐level operating data, which arguably makes more sense for analyzing how supply chain complexity factors inhibit delivery. For purposes of research triangulation, we use longitudinal product‐level data from MRP systems to examine whether the factors inhibit internal manufacturing on time job rates and three customer‐oriented measures of delivery performance: product line item fill rates, average delivery lead times, and average tardiness. Our econometric models pool product line item data across division plants and within distinct product families, using a proprietary monthly dataset on over 100 product line items from the environmental controls manufacturing division of a Fortune 100 conglomerate. The data summarize customer ordering events of over 900 customers and supply chain activities of over 80 suppliers. The study contributes academically by finding significant detail complexity inhibitors of delivery that prior studies found insignificant. The findings demonstrate the need for empirical research using data disaggregated below the plant‐level unit of analysis, as they illustrate how some factors previously found insignificant indeed are significant when considered at the product‐level unit of analysis. Managers can use the findings to understand better which drivers and inhibitors of delivery performance are important.

PurposeThe impact of information technology (IT) on mass customization (MC) capability has been implied in the literature but seldom subjected to empirical examination. This study seeks to theoretically relate four types of IT applications with MC capability and empirically examines these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study identifies four types of IT that potentially support MC capability, including product configurator IT, new product development IT, manufacturing IT, and supplier collaboration IT. Drawing on organizational information processing theory, this study associates the four IT types with a manufacturer's MC capability. A structural equation model is tested using survey data collected from a sample of manufacturing plants that focus on product customization.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that two of the four IT types strongly support a manufacturer's MC capability.Research limitations/implicationsNo strong relationship between configurator IT and MC was observed, which calls for further investigation. Data used are cross‐sectional in nature. A set of refined IT measures should be developed in future studies. In addition, future studies could control for the effects of more variables that may impact IT use by mass customizers.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies managerial opportunities for investing in IT to support or enhance MC capability.Originality/valueThis study provides a theoretical foundation for the IT‐MC relationship and develops a classification framework of IT applications in manufacturing plants. The study is one of the first efforts that empirically examines the impact of multiple types of IT applications on MC.

ABSTRACTThis article examines how customer value may be affected by deploying radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies within service environments. Business articles promote operational cost savings and improved inventory management as key benefits of deploying RFID. In response, service firms are using RFID to reengineer service transactions and customer touchpoints. Customers may view these RFID applications to offer both benefits and drawbacks. This article demonstrates that individuals will recognize far more value from RFID service applications than just cost savings and inventory availability. The article analyzes qualitative survey responses on the value gained from RFID to identify a broad list of value objectives—benefits and drawbacks—associated with RFID service applications. The article contributes to academic literature by providing salient value dimensions for return on investment models of service RFID applications and for future empirical analyses of means‐ends and value‐profit chain models. Managers can use the list of dimensions to develop rich business cases for evaluating the benefits and costs from enhancing service operations with RFID. The identified drawbacks also provide managers with a resource for understanding potential risks of RFID applications.

ABSTRACTWe examine the impact of three classes of Web site functions (foundational, customer‐centered, and value‐added) upon e‐retailer performance. Using secondary panel data for 2007–2009 on operating characteristics of over 600 e‐retailers, our econometric analysis finds that only the value‐added service functions are positively associated with changes in e‐retail sales revenues across time. We also observe a decreasing marginal impact of deploying additional value‐added service features. To account for possible alternate explanations, we control for firm‐ and time‐specific fixed effects, merchant types, merchandise categories, and order fulfillment strategies. By further decomposing e‐retail sales revenues into Web site traffic, conversion rate, and average order value, we find that Web site functions affect e‐retail sales revenues mainly through their impact on Web site traffic. Our investigation demonstrates the empirical research usefulness of the Voss conceptual e‐service sand cone model. Our results identify for managers where to focus ongoing e‐retailing system development efforts, yet suggest that focusing too many retailing capabilities on exploratory and experimental value‐added service features may backfire, potentially leading to worsening e‐retailer performance.

ABSTRACTHospitals today are posed with many requirements arising from government regulations and financial incentives to improve patient experiential quality. An administrative challenge thus results from hospital complexity, which can circumvent efforts to enhance experiential quality. This study examines associations of two dimensions of hospital complexity (i.e., hospital safety and patient case mix) with patient‐level experiential quality. The study also investigates how health information technology (IT), via clinical IT and administrative IT, differently mitigates the two dimensions of complexity. Using unique proprietary secondary data sources, we assemble a patient‐level experiential quality dataset. The dataset enables us to simultaneously examine hospital and individual patient factors that may affect experiential quality of individual patients. The findings indicate that a hospital's service variety and case mix are both negatively associated with experiential quality. Although not directly affecting experiential quality, administrative IT mitigates the negative associations of both types of complexity with experiential quality. Post hoc analyses reveal nuanced relationships between hospital complexity, IT, and disaggregated experiential quality dimensions.