Emeritus Professor Alison Dean

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to challenge service researchers to design for service inclusion, with an overall goal of achieving inclusion by 2050. The authors present service inclusion as an egalitarian system that provides customers with fair access to a service, fair treatment during a service and fair opportunity to exit a service. Design/methodology/approach: Building on transformative service research, a transformative, human-centered approach to service design is proposed to foster service inclusion and to provide a platform for managerial action. This conceptual study explores the history of service exclusion and examines contemporary demographic trends that suggest the possibility of worsening service exclusion for consumers worldwide. Findings: Service inclusion represents a paradigm shift to higher levels of understanding of service systems and their fundamental role in human well-being. The authors argue that focused design for service inclusion is necessary to make service systems more egalitarian. Research limitations/implications: The authors propose four pillars of service inclusion: enabling opportunity, offering choice, relieving suffering and fostering happiness. Practical implications: Service organizations are encouraged to design their offerings in a manner that promotes inclusion and permits customers to realize value. Originality/value: This comprehensive research agenda challenges service scholars to use design to create inclusive service systems worldwide by the year 2050. The authors establish the moral imperative of design for service inclusion.

This study investigates the nature of airport experience (AE) from the perspective of air travelers. This study elaborates experiential components within the airport context and highlights the associations among the components of this experience through text analysis. This study also aims to clarify how air travelers perceive airports in relation to destinations. The analysis of passenger reviews on Skytrax indicates that AE differs from the concepts of customer and tourist experiences, because hedonic and aesthetic consumptions are not primarily associated with the memorable feelings of consumers and tourists, but with aspects of functional experience and service personnel. This study reviews three aspects that air travelers associate airports with a destination. First, an airport is a representative of a destination. Second, an airport exhibits the positive characteristics of a destination. Finally, an airport is perceived as an internal component of tourism experience. This study provides theoretical and managerial implications for airport and tourism industries.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elucidate service-for-service benefits emerging from co-creation in everyday banking. It does so by identifying factors that constitute the joint provider/customer co-creation platform, distinguishing them from factors that facilitate customers¿ independent value creation; and exploring benefits and potential opportunities for each party. Design/methodology/approach: Insights were gained by using a qualitative approach involving 33 face-to-face interviews with bank managers (15) and their customers (18) in Saudi Arabia. Content analysis was performed on the data and the two sets of views integrated to compare the reality of service-for-service with theoretical assumptions. Findings: The analysis identified 65 topics, clustered to 12 themes. Three themes represented joint, collaborative activity (problem solving, relationship building, and knowledge and learning) whilst other themes identified facilitation actions by banks. Key opportunities to increase mutual value (service-for-service) emerge from extending interaction via the co-creation platform but additional benefits from these opportunities are not currently realized by participants. The authors thereby note the potential of a service focus but suggest that the locus of value creation will not readily shift from the provider to a collaborative process of co-creation. Research limitations/implications: The qualitative nature of the study limits generalizability. However, the authors expect that the hierarchy of service-for-service will be meaningful in other contexts. Future research may use it as a starting point for identifying innovations from co-creation, how actors realize and measure service-for-service, and how different business models may strengthen value opportunities. Practical implications: The findings provide managers with first, three areas of emphasis to gain and extend mutual service-for-service from direct interactions in everyday banking transactions. Second, the study emphasizes resource characteristics that will facilitate value enhancement for firms and customers by recognition of barriers to collaborative actions, and approaches for pursuit of service-for-service. Originality/value: This study establishes the joint and essential firm/customer co-creation platform in retail banking and distinguishes the platform from other customer value-facilitation actions. The authors integrate the findings with previous literature and present a conceptual framework for levels of service-for-service in exchange. This framework shows a hierarchy of key benefits for providers and customers, and highlights increasing complexities that hinder the reality of achieving service-for-service opportunities arising from the joint co-creation platform.

Practice and experience are central concepts in service logic (SL), and research has provided increasingly sophisticated accounts of their role within value creation. However, to date, they have been largely treated separately and despite acknowledgement that they are intertwined, the precise nature of their relationship remains unclear. To respond to this problem, we introduce Bourdieu¿s recursive triad of practice¿habitus¿field as a theoretical lens to articulate how sensemaking processes incorporate an explicit link between practice and experience. We then utilize the theoretical lens to examine value creation for participants of a self-reliance training course. Our article contributes to the theorization of value creation by showing how it is dependent upon the temporal intertwining of practice and experience; how the unconscious or anticipated/foreseen nature of practice and experience become manifested in value creation and how zooming in and zooming out can be simultaneously achieved to acknowledge the individual and contextual influences upon value creation. We present a dynamic model of practice-experience links in value creation, which both extends the theory of SL and provides a basis for further work. The article concludes with managerial implications.

Service logic emphasises value co-creation, although mostly contending that the customer alone creates actual value. Value co-creation and co-production imply customer and supplier participation, but the literature mostly omits participation issues. This paper disentangles notions of production and co-production from the creation and co-creation of value propositions, and from the assumptions underlying value-in-use. The focus is on participation in exchange by customers and suppliers and their contributions at various stages of the value creation process. The paper uses service logic to develop a process model of customer and supplier participation in exchange with three phases (production, negotiation and usage), explores why suppliers allow customer participation in value proposition creation, and the motivations compelling customers to participate. Understanding how supplier and customer participation impact on value proposition creation and on value-in-use, provides an impetus for improved targeting practices, enhanced supplier ability to compete, and more focused research.

Reported studies on call centers emphasize efficiency and control, with possible implications for service priorities, customer orientation and service quality. However, there is little empirical research to test assumptions from the customer¿s perspective. This study aimed to establish whether customers expected (predicted) low levels of service from a call center, how this level compared to the minimum level they considered adequate, and whether the perceived customer orientation of the call center was related to service quality expectations. Data were collected in Australia from two sources: End consumers (n = 289) of an insurance provider, and business customers (n = 325) of a bank. Key findings were similar for both samples. First, customers had very high levels of adequate (minimum) expectations, and adequate expectations behaved independently from predicted (forecast) expectations. Second, customer orientation was associated with predicted expectations but not adequate expectations. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research and managerial implications. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Studies in services management from the different perspectives of marketing, operations, human resources and psychology support the existence of a variety of links between organisations and their customers. The basic premise asserts that organisational characteristics and practices are linked to employee attitudes that are reflected in service quality outcomes, customer satisfaction and loyalty and, consequently, profit. Empirical studies support many of these associations and streams of research link them into linear sequences. However, the evidence is not unequivocal and this review challenges it by highlighting the complexity and non-linearity of many of the proposed links, and the existence of reciprocity between certain variables. In synthesising the evidence in relation to the proposed links, the paper also identifies conceptual and methodological issues, unanswered questions and potential future research. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The increased use of contracting for service delivery involves new challenges in ensuring that quality is maintained. Performance monitoring involves both efficiency (costs) and effectiveness (quality) measures; however, there is little guidance from the literature to indicate the best approaches in different contexts. This paper therefore reports on an exploratory study in which approaches to performance monitoring, and respondents' views on best practice, were explored in contracted services. Key findings are that organisations rely on inspections by their own employees or contractor checklists, but that these practices are in conflict with their views on best practice. However, the respondents agreed that performance monitoring has a large effect on quality outcomes. Using both the literature and the study, a model has been developed that provides managers with a framework for improving their performance and quality monitoring practices, and highlights areas for future academic research. © MCB UP Ltd.

Increasingly sophisticated and price conscious consumers have combined with forces of globalisation and electronic commerce to create new challenges for travel agents. To maintain efficiency and profitability, travel agents need to know the links between service quality and customers¿ willingness to pay more (WTPM). These links are explored through measuring customer perceptions (N = 122) of service quality, loyalty and WTPM. The results revealed firstly that while many consumers were able to pay more for travel services, fewer were willing to do so. Secondly, overall service quality and its underlying dimensions were positively associated with selected WTPM items. These findings support and extend previous studies on the service quality-behavioural intentions link and provide practical implications for the travel industry in relation to a differentiated price and service strategy. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

There have been many research studies conducted in the Australian manufacturing industry to test the relationship between quality management practices and organizational performance. However, there is a significant gap in the literature of similar studies in the services sector. This paper therefore reports on a cross-sectional study conducted in the A ustralian services sector in which the extent of implementation of quality management practices with customers and suppliers, and the links between specific practices and performance outcomes are considered. The sample for the study (N = 141) is drawn from small to medium-sized service organizations. Overall, the findings indicate that quality management practices are not widely implemented with customers and suppliers in services. However, when the relationship between specific quality practices with customers and suppliers, and performance outcomes are explored by Multiple Regression Analysis, the most significant predictor of improved systems, improved responsiveness, increased quality of service and improved competitive advantage, is the involvement of suppliers in system change and improvement. Other significant factors include the use of customer satisfaction surveys, and the existence of strategic alliances. The implication of these findings for managers in service organizations, who are seeking more value from their customer/supplier interface, is that organizations should involve suppliers in their system changes and improvement projects.

Many customer satisfaction studies have concluded that there is a significant relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty, but this finding has been questioned in that most of the studies focus on measuring the cognitive component of customer satisfaction. This study includes the cognitive component, but focuses on the affective component. It explores the role of emotions in satisfaction, and then compares the predictive ability of the cognitive and affective elements. Key findings are that both positive and negative emotions, and the cognitive component of satisfaction correlate with loyalty. Regression analysis indicates that the affective component serves as a better predictor of customer loyalty than the cognitive component. Further, the best predictor of both overall loyalty and the most reliable dimension of loyalty, positive word of mouth, is positive emotions. Thhe theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This article reports on a study in which an interactive computer-based learning resource consisting of a tutorial with a decision support system and simulations, is evaluated in the context of a distance education business degree course. The primary purpose of the study was to develop and test an instrument for evaluation of the learning resource, with particular reference to simulations. The instrument adds further dimensions to factors such as learner support and engagement, to incorporate elements of motivation and transfer. Consequently, the scales that comprise the instrument include three key areas: features of the computer package, the effect on students¿ motivation, and the impact on their ability to transfer knowledge to the workplace. As a result of the analysis, a reliable and valid evaluation instrument that includes components of these three areas is provided. It is expected that other researchers will be able to develop and refine this instrument to evaluate various forms of computer-based educational resources. © 2000, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper reports on a study that investigates the applicability of a modified SERVQUAL instrument as a means of measuring service quality in two types of health service environments; medical care and health care (incorporating medical, social, cognitive and emotional elements). The research confirms a four factor structure that is stable for both environments, and similar to the service quality dimensions recognised in the literature. However, the relative importance of the dimensions of quality is inconsistent for the two types of health services. These results confirm the suggestion that importance values should be part of the measurement tool. Finally, the extra diagnostic advantage achieved by the use of gap scores to measure service quality, when compared to perception only scores is demonstrated. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Examines the dimensions of service quality in the hospitality industry by extending the SERVQUAL scale to include eight new items that specifically pertain to the hospitality industry, subsequently referred to as HOLSERV. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed at five mid-luxury hotels in Australia during July to October 1998 and a response rate of 15.5 per cent achieved. Key findings of the study are that service quality is represented by three dimensions in the hospitality industry, relating to employees (behaviour and appearance), tangibles and reliability, and the best predictor of overall service quality is the dimensions referred to as ¿employees¿. The findings also show that the one-column format questionnaire provides a valid and reliable, but much shorter, survey. The major implication for managers is that improvements in the behaviour and appearance of their employees is most likely to enhance consumer perceptions of service quality. © 1999, MCB UP Limited

This paper reports on a study which determines the relative importance of factors that contribute to a high-quality program in human resources, and which explores the effectiveness of distance education as the vehicle for deliv ery. The study considers the views of students and their industry employers and finds that they both place most importance on the distance education product, when compared to service and outcomes; and on the acquisition of knowledge when compared to other outcomes. Key challenges that emerge include the need for providers to align programs closer to industry require ments, the need for industry to support their personnel who are engaged in education, and for students to address issues related to their personal abilities and the nature of distance education.

The design literature offers two design process models as alternatives for acquiring and using knowledge in design. The best established is the rational problem solving model which calls for technical recommendations. The reflective practitioner model is appropriate to softer, controversial issues that call for ideological prescriptions. We view these models as complementary, not alternative, strategies which can assist in understanding knowledge integration in the design process. This paper offers a more holistic perspective upon design than that commonly found in the Design Studies literature. Our conceptualisation of design as knowledge integration capability suggests that effective design decision making integrates knowledge contributions and reconciles disparate values to a common purpose. The quality of design decision making increasingly depends on the effective integration of knowledge from a range of sources. This is especially true in the knowledge intensive sectors which we have studied. We offer illustrations from biotechnology and note that technical knowledge inputs can not alone ensure a successful outcome. This has implications for the management and practice of design in multidisciplinary project teams. Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999.

Punctuated change is usually defined as a discontinuity in organizational development and is traditionally associated with environmental turbulence; it is also associated with step changes in the performance of an organization. Starting from Gersick (1991), we discuss the foundations of the punctuated-incremental change paradox, and lay out hypotheses regarding the moments when such change is adopted and its economic effect. We explore these ideas through a study of the UK water industry: a contrived macro experiment. Following privatization, the ten major companies all faced similar pressures to adjust, but adopted widely differing responses. We find that the response to privatization was not always punctuated change, and that punctuated change processes were not necessarily superior to continuous processes. We contrast our findings with Romanelli and Tushman (1994), exploring the reasons why our results are so dissimilar.

This paper is based on a cross-sectional study of 550 medium to large Australian service organisations to determine the effect of quality management practices on various dimensions of service quality outcomes (productivity, competitive advantage, customer relationships, and employee morale). These outcomes were used as dependent variables in a series of regression analyses in order to test several hypotheses. The results demonstrate the importance of including quality in the strategic planning process, customer involvement, empowerment of the workforce, and including quality indicators as part of key performance indicators. On the other hand, integrating quality systems and procedures into the organisation had a significantly negative relationship with increases in productivity. Based on the findings of this study, we conclude that the ¿soft¿ practices based on empowerment, at all levels of the organisation, strategic planning and customer/supplier involvement are the most significant predictors of high quality service organisations. © 1998, MCB UP Limited

Punctuated change is usually defined as a discontinuity in organizational development and is traditionally associated with environmental turbulence; it is also associated with step changes in the performance of an organization. Starting from Gersick (1991), we discuss the foundations of the punctuated-incremental change paradox, and lay out hypotheses regarding the moments when such change is adopted and its economic effect. We explore these ideas through a study of the UK water industry: a contrived macro experiment. Following privatization, the ten major companies all faced similar pressures to adjust, but adopted widely differing responses. We find that the response to privatization was not always punctuated change, and that punctuated change processes were not necessarily superior to continuous processes. We contrast our findings with Romanelli and Tushman (1994), exploring the reasons why our results are so dissimilar.

Studies on call centres suggest that there is a focus on efficiency at the expense of effectiveness, where effectiveness is indicated by characteristics such as customer orientation, service priorities and quality. It therefore appears that customers will expect and experience low levels of service quality from call centres, with possible implications for their loyalty to the providing organisation. These issues are the focus of this study. A mail survey was conducted of recent clients of two call centres in Australia. The respondents were individual consumers in an insurance company (n = 284, 14 per cent) or business customers of a bank (n = 325, 16 per cent). Key findings are similar for the two samples. Both perceptions of quality and customer orientation of the call centre were related to loyalty to the providing organisation, and perceptions of quality partially mediated the customer orientation to loyalty relationship. The discussion includes managerial implications and potential future research. © 2002, MCB UP Limited