The purpose of this paper is to investigate how frontline employee self-disclosure influences consumers’ reciprocal behavior. To investigate the effects of frontline employee self-disclosure, two experiments were conducted with a total sample of 475 participants. The results show that when frontline employees disclose personal information in one-time encounters, they are perceived as less competent and more superficial. The results also show that self-disclosure negatively affects reciprocal behavior, but that this is mediated through liking, competence, superficiality, and satisfaction. These findings suggest that it is not always beneficial for employees to use self-disclosure as a strategy for garnering a consumer's trust or satisfaction, which counters previous research that suggest that disclosure of personal information is a good way to positively influence consumers in the retail environment.

This study concerns the effect that music has on consumer behavior in two different retail contexts during regular opening hours. Two studies were conducted in a field setting with consumers (N=550). Consumers were recruited to answer questions regarding behavioral measures, attitudes, and mood during days when background music was played. The conclusions from the two studies are that music affects consumer behavior, but also that the type of retail store and gender influences both the strength and direction of the effect

Purpose – The research concerns the effect of frontline employees’ averted or direct gaze on consumers’ evaluation of the encounter. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that in normal interactions, a direct or averted gaze affects people’s evaluation of others. The question was whether this finding would hold true in commercial interactions.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted three experiments using a written scenario with a photograph among a total sample of 612 participants.

Findings – This research showed that consumers’ social impression of the frontline employees mediated the effect of the employees’ gazing behaviour on consumers’ emotions and satisfaction with the encounters. The findings also showed that averting gaze had a negative effect on consumers’ first impression of the frontline employee, which affected consumers’ satisfaction with the encounter. The findings also showed that a direct gaze had a negative effect on encounter satisfaction when consumers sought to purchase embarrassing products.

Originality/value – The research demonstrated that the effect of gaze on encounter satisfaction was mediated by the social impression and moderated by consumers’ approach/avoidance motivation.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for understanding service design and how service design relates to central concepts within service marketing. Design/methodology/approach - For companies, service design is growing in importance and has become a crucial capability to survive in the service-dominant economy. Service design increases the capacity to improve not only service experiences but also organizational design. On this premise, the authors propose a conceptual framework. Findings - By relating service design to research efforts within service marketing, dual value creation can be enhanced. As such, the conceptual framework portrays service design as an enhancer of customer experience and organizational performance. Originality/value - To the authors knowledge, service design has not been discussed in the service marketing literature. Thus, this is the first attempt to see service design in light of well-established service marketing models such as SERVQUAL and an updated version of the Service-profit-chain.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the expectations and experiences regarding a robotic shower, from a dual user perspective. Design/methodology/approach This was an explorative qualitative study in which elderly and personnel were interviewed before the robotic shower was installed and again after four or five months of usage. Findings The elderly participants found the robotic shower empowering. The personnel's experiences encompassed their own work conditions, as well as the user value for the elderly. A shared experience for both user groups was a more independent shower situation for the elderly. Originality/value This study presents a dual user experience of a DAT in an intimate care situation and shows the importance of including both elderly and personnel to fully understand the value of DATs.

This study focuses on how fitness technology services can be designed in order to support the co-creation of motivation to sustain a healthy behavior. The study used an exploratory qualitative design in which we interviewed eight seasoned runners about their running routines and their use of fitness trackers. The result shows that the fitness routines require careful planning and deliberation, and that the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle relies more on what happens between the activities than during said activity. Thus, fitness trackers should focus on feedback that allows users to co-create motivation during intermissions between health promoting behaviors. 

This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of how to integrate customerswithinservicedevelopment by assessing different methods of obtaining use information. The article reviews and classifies methods for customerintegration and it also presents a new framework that suggests four modes of customerintegration in which data is classified either as insitu (data captured in a customer's use situation) or exsitu (data captured outside the use situation) and as either incontext or excontext. Context is defined as a resource constellation that is available for customers to enable value co-creation. Accordingly, incontext refers to methods in which the customer is in the actual use context and has access to various resources, while excontext refers to a situation in which the customer is outside the use context and, therefore, has no direct access to the resources.

The following sections are included: Introduction Service Innovation as a Change in the Customer Value Creation Process What is a Service Team? Different Configurations of Service Teams Service Teams and Their Understanding of Customer Value Creation Conclusion References

Purpose

– Customer co-creation is becoming increasingly popular among companies, and intensive communication with customers is generally seen as a determinant of the success of a new service or product. The purpose of this study is to analyze customer co-creation based on four dimensions of communication – frequency, direction, modality, and content – in order to understand the value of customer co-creation in service innovation. One of the key aims of the study is to investigate whether all dimensions of customer co-creation have an effect on product and market success, and if the effect depends on the degree of innovativeness of a development project.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors conducted a study including 334 managers with experience in new service and product development to examine how development projects applied customer co-creation in terms of communication in order to address future customer needs. Data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS). The first analysis was performed with a sub-sample of 207 development projects regarding incremental innovations. A subsequent analysis was performed with a sub-sample of 77 development projects on radical innovations.

Findings

– A total of three of the four dimensions of customer co-creation (frequency, direction, and content) have a positive and equally significant effect on product success when developing incremental innovations. For radical innovations, frequency has a positive effect and content has a negative significant effect on product success. These findings suggest that co-creation and innovation can be combined, but that the choice of methods for co-creation differs depending on whether incremental or radical innovations are developed.

Originality/value

– Despite a general consensus that co-creation with customers is beneficial, there is a lack of agreement regarding how and why. The present article addresses this shortcoming and shows that co-creation is largely about communicating with customers in order to understand their future needs. On the other hand, a company working on radical innovations may wish to limit customer input that is too concrete or solution based.

Creative ideas bring impetus to innovation. The ‘early idea’ phase stands out as critical to increased new product development performance. Nevertheless, the management of creativity, despite persistent competitive advantage for enterprising organisations, remains one of the least understood aspects of innovative endeavour. In the present investigation, the extent to which computer-mediated communication may affect the creative performance of small groups (Studies I and II) and how external communication in terms of user involvement may yield original and valuable ideas (Studies III and IV) was studied. In Study I and Study II, two experiments were carried out in order to assess the effects of two modes of computer-mediated communication (Chat and Video conference) versus face-to-face upon creative performance. In study I, the results regarding the creative product indicated that groups in the face-to-face condition generate more ideas. Regarding the creative process, the Video conference condition scored significantly lower on incubation. Participants in the face-to-face group reported themselves to be more satisfied with both their product and process than the participants in the computer-mediated groups. In study II, the face-to-face group proved to have a better preparation phase. Furthermore, the small groups produced significantly more incubations than the individuals in the creative process and, in line with this, they also showed significantly higher flexibility. Accordingly, the participants in the face-to-face group reported themselves to be more satisfied with the process, but not with the product, than the participants in the computer-mediated conditions. In Study III and Study IV, the merit of user involvement for purposes of innovation was investigated experimentally. In Studies III and IV, different types of users and professional product developers were given the task of creating ideas for future mobile phone services. In Study III, the results indicated that creativity-trained users generated significantly more original ideas than professional developers. In Study IV, the results indicated that ordinary users generate significantly more original ideas than professional developers and advanced users. Professional developers and advanced users created more easily realizable ideas and ordinary users the most valuable ideas. The findings of each of the four studies are discussed in the context of how divergent thinking may be facilitated in order to improve the management of new product and service development.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for understanding, predicting and analyzing how future service technologies can lead to value co-creation at different stages of a value chain. Design/methodology/approach For organizations, future service technologies are growing in importance and will become a crucial means to survival. It is clear that future service technologies will increase the opportunity to reduce costs and create efficiency, but it is not equally clear how future service technologies enable value creation for customers and users. On this premise, the study proposes a conceptual framework. Findings The framework illustrates how future service technologies can lead to value creation for customers. The paper also portrays opportunities and potential pitfalls with future service technologies for organizations. Originality/value Several researchers are focusing on innovative technologies. Many business companies are talking about how to implement them and increase their profit. However, less attention is devoted to the ways in which future service technologies will lead to benefits and the experience of service for customers and users using them. This paper represents an original attempt to illustrate that.

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