• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.169-180
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• 2020

Globalization has led to a dramatic increase in intercultural service encounters between services providers and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds. This paper explores the causal relationship between service employees‟ cultural intelligence and adaptive sales behavior in intercultural service encounters, and the mediating effect of cognitive and emotional empathy on this relationship. A quantitative survey methodology was utilized to collect data on 341 salespeople at duty-free shops located on Jeju Island, Korea. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 18 and Amos 18. The results show that cultural intelligence has a significant impact on cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and adaptive sales behavior. Cognitive empathy has a positive impact on adaptive sales behavior, whereas the relationship between emotional empathy and adaptive sales behavior is not significant. Additionally, cognitive empathy mediates the relationship of cultural intelligence and adaptive sales behavior. This study has useful managerial implications for employee selection, training, and development in service firms engaged in intercultural service encounters. This study extends prior research on intercultural service encounters by exploring the direct impact of cultural intelligence on intercultural adaptation and the mediating effect of empathy, suggesting the presence of a cognitive mechanism that plays a key role in the impact of cultural intelligence on adaptive sales behavior.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.285-298
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• 2012

This study was undertaken to understand the interrelationships among customer's perceptions of service encounters, customer value, and behavioral intent in a family restaurant. Based on 331 samples obtained from empirical research, we reviewed the reliability and fitness of a research model and verified three hypotheses using a structural equation model. The results showed that physical environment (${\beta}$ = .418) and a customer interaction with the service provider (${\beta}$ = .265) had a significant effect on the customer's hedonic value. Additionally, physical environment (${\beta}$ = .126) and customer interaction with service providers (${\beta}$ = .264) had a significant effect on customer utilitarian value. Customer's hedonic (${\beta}$ = .538) and utilitarian value (${\beta}$ = .382) triggered by service encounters had a significant effect on their behavioral intent. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2015

Purpose - This research primarily assesses interactive quality in the service encounters of Ethiopian Telecom from the customer and contact personnel perspectives. Research design, data, and methodology - After reviewing the literature on service encounters and interactive quality, two separate questionnaires and structured personal interviews were conducted to collect the opinions of 400 customers and 100 employees of Ethiopian Telecom. The researchers used convenience sampling; the responses, measured on a five-point Likert-type scale, were analyzed through chi-square tests conducted on SPSS 17.0. Results - Regarding the outcome expected by customers, encounter effectiveness is very low. Regarding accessibility and materiality, the corporation's personnel are freely accessible, relatively well-dressed, and have access to sophisticated office equipment and physical facilities. Finally, with regard to agent satisfaction, the telecom's contact employees are shown to gain little professional satisfaction from service encounters. Conclusion - The study clearly presents the areas in which interactive quality strongly affects both telecom customers and employees; this will help the corporation take corrective action. This is of utmost contemporary importance for both practitioners and researchers.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.49-61
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• 2022

Advancements in technology and the proliferation of digital services have highlighted the importance of luxury brands in service environments. Based on the social exchange theory, this study investigated the interaction between customers and luxury brands in a traditional offline service encounter and a digital online service encounter. The interaction area was classified into three parts: human-human, human-digital, and human-physical environments. We qualitatively investigated the practitioners' working experiences with luxury brands. The study determined that both online and offline service encounter interactions between luxury brands and customers have become diverse. First, forming a special relationship with customers and frontline employees in traditional service encounters is important. Second, luxury brands should focus on the interaction among customers. Third, various digital tools should be considered to provide information about the brand to customers. Fourth, the exclusive benefits of offline service encounters should be maximized to stimulate positive experiences. The findings provide valuable insight to scholars and marketers on the new interaction phase between customers and luxury brands in the digital age.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.17-38
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• 2018

Branded service encounters, in which various aspects of frontline employees are strategically aligned with the firm's brand positioning, can be achieved along several dimensions such as employee appearance, manner, and personality. While previous research has mainly focused on behavioral traits of employees, this research examines the employee's physical appearance in association with the brand personality trait across two studies. Study 1 shows that salesperson look-brand personality congruence enhances brand affect by inducing positive affect. Specifically, a brand-congruent look of a salesperson increases positive affect among customers by confirming their prior expectations about what a salesperson of a certain brand should look like as a brand representative. Study 2 reveals that the positive impact of salesperson look-brand personality congruence on brand affect is significant only for customers with high social anxiety whereas this effect disappears for those with low social anxiety. These findings extend previous research on branded service encounters by showing why and when frontline employees' physical appearance shapes customers' affective responses toward the brand.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

People receive support from others to solve problems that are difficult to solve on their own. During service encounters, customers also receive help from other customers. Inter-customer helping is a type of Customer Citizenship Behavior (CCB), which has become more prevalent with increased use of self-service technologies (SSTs). However, not all helps are created equal. The current research investigates the effects of the two types of help, autonomy- and dependency-oriented help during service encounters. Autonomy-oriented help refers to a partial hint to the problem, whereas dependency-oriented help refers to the full solution to the problem. Through experimental studies, we provide evidence that depending on the types of help received during service encounters, customers show different levels of satisfaction toward the firm. The results from Studies 1A and 1B show that autonomy- (vs. dependency-) oriented help leads to higher customer satisfaction. In addition, the current research demonstrates the mechanism for such effect. The results from Study 2 show that the relationship between the types of help and customer satisfaction is mediated by instrumentality and anxiety, which represent cognitive and affective paths respectively.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.333-342
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• 2014

As for the dimensions of service quality, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles are the main factors that determine the company's service quality. To improve quality of service, companies emphasize the balance among the dimensions of service quality. These emphases improve definitely customer satisfaction and intention of reusing service, while communication at customer encounters give direct affects in customer satisfaction and intention of reusing service. This study shows how communications at customer encounters affect intention of reusing service and be affected by the dimensions of service quality. It especially analyzes how IT-based communications, one of physical one, such as phones, emails, messengers, and SNSs affect and be affected. In addition, it analyzes car repair service. This research uses a factor of communications at service encounter as for intermediate parameter and analyzes how it relates to dimensions of service quality and intention of reusing service. With following research model, it will analyze how IT-based communication affects intention of reusing service and be also affected by dimensions of service quality.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.63-70
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• 2008

The service sector is growing and service is complicated with various customer needs in the competitive markets. Bill Hollins urges that services must be designed. I believe that service experiences must be designed with servicescape as an environment surrounding services. Servicescape is the physical and social environments of service. Service experiences do not depend only on the aesthetic impression of physical servicescape. One of the main characteristics of services is that the most value of services are accomplished from interaction between customer and service encounters. The design of physical servicescape affects the interaction between customer and service encounters and the behavior of both customer and service suppliers' including social factors such as display emotions and the interpersonal distance between customers. Servicescape design should control tangible and intangible area of service events. In addition servicescape design creates customer's good experiences in the servicescape. This research proposes the possibilities and proper design process of servicescape design. Servicescape Design should control the activities including interrelations of participants, efficient service delivery process, and the united images of services for creating the satisfied service experience values.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.35-45
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• 2020

Purpose: Do close linkages among employees during service encounters always enhance customer satisfaction? Drawing on literature in social psychology, this research argues that under certain circumstances close linkages among employees undermine customer satisfaction. More specifically, this research explores a service failure context and shows that higher task interaction among employees during service encounters leads to higher perceived firm entitativity, resulting in an individual employee's service failure being detrimental to customer satisfaction with the firm. Data and research methodology: A series of experiments using scenarios across different service contexts was used in order to test hypotheses. Data was collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk and the models were tested using Hayes PROCESS. Results: The results show that interactions among employees during service result in 1) lower satisfaction with the firm and 2) lower revisit intentions in the future when there is a service failure by an individual employee. Following the main effects analysis, mediation analysis shows that the effect of employee interaction on customer satisfaction with the firm and revisit intention is mediated by perceived firm entitativity. Implications: By examining contexts where employee interaction may be detrimental to firms, this research provides novel insights on how to manage communications among service employees.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.85-94
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• 2017

Purpose - Owing to economic development and rapid globalization, the number of people traveling abroad has increased dramatically in recent years. For instance, according to data from World Tourism Organization, approximately 1,724 million tourists traveled abroad in 2016. This phenomenon has resulted in a change for domestic markets, as they no longer serve only domestic customers but also serve foreign customers as well. Therefore, intercultural service encounters between services providers and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds are becoming more frequent. Especially in the field of retailing, salesperson's customer oriented selling behavior is particularly important for the successful interactions. However, it is hard to find some factors that can improve salesperson's customer oriented selling behavior in intercultural sales encounters. Research design, data, and methodology - A quantitative survey methodology was utilized to collect data on 312 salespeople at duty-free shops located on Jeju Island, Korea. As a tourism-based region, Jeju Island has attracted a large number of foreign tourists since being designated as an international free city in 2002. Owing to this phenomenon, intercultural sales encounters between salespersons and customers from different cultures have become commonplace. Compared to other salespeople, salespeople working in duty-free shops have more frequent intercultural interactions, as over 90% of their total customers are from foreign countries. Additionally, regular professional training programs for salespeople help cultivate cultural intelligence. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 20. Results - This paper explores the role of empathy and cultural intelligence in intercultural sales encounters using a theoretical model incorporating the causal relationships between empathy(cognitive empathy and emotional empathy) and customer oriented selling behavior, as well as the moderating effects of cultural intelligence in these relationships. Conclusions - This study is almost the first to explore the influence of empathy and cultural intelligence in intercultural sales encounters. Thus, this study provides a meaningful contribution to the application of empathy and cultural intelligence in the retailing field and will draw the attention of personal distribution practicers and researchers to the importance of empathy and cultural intelligence. Additionally, this study has useful managerial implications for employee selection, training, and development in retailing firms engaged in intercultural sales encounters.