Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 34-46 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | European management journal |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 31 Oct 2021 |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2023 |
Abstract
Growing digitization is accompanied by a concomitant increase in customer integration, making the customer an even more integral part of service settings, to the extent that customers even may replace employee labor. Customer integration can have positive effects for service firms and customers, but it also threatens some negative effects that have not been studied closely. This study proposes silent endurance as a neglected outcome of customer integration, caused by violations of customer fairness perceptions. In line with fairness heuristic theory, providing more input for the same output may reduce perceptions of distributive fairness. Four studies test this theorizing (one critical incident study and three experiments) to investigate the effect of being integrated on customers’ distributive fairness and silent endurance. Stable results across studies show that distributive fairness mediates the link between customer integration and silent endurance; offering monetary advantages can offset integration-induced losses of fairness perceptions. These findings thus have both theoretical and managerial implications.
Keywords
- Customer integration, Digitization, Fairness heuristic theory, Fairness perceptions, Non-complaining, Silent endurance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business, Management and Accounting(all)
- Strategy and Management
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In: European management journal, Vol. 41, No. 1, 02.2023, p. 34-46.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Customer integration, fairness perceptions, and silent endurance in digital versus human service interactions
AU - Schaarschmidt, Mario
AU - Walsh, Gianfranco
AU - Dose, David B.
AU - Christ-Brendemühl, Sonja
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Growing digitization is accompanied by a concomitant increase in customer integration, making the customer an even more integral part of service settings, to the extent that customers even may replace employee labor. Customer integration can have positive effects for service firms and customers, but it also threatens some negative effects that have not been studied closely. This study proposes silent endurance as a neglected outcome of customer integration, caused by violations of customer fairness perceptions. In line with fairness heuristic theory, providing more input for the same output may reduce perceptions of distributive fairness. Four studies test this theorizing (one critical incident study and three experiments) to investigate the effect of being integrated on customers’ distributive fairness and silent endurance. Stable results across studies show that distributive fairness mediates the link between customer integration and silent endurance; offering monetary advantages can offset integration-induced losses of fairness perceptions. These findings thus have both theoretical and managerial implications.
AB - Growing digitization is accompanied by a concomitant increase in customer integration, making the customer an even more integral part of service settings, to the extent that customers even may replace employee labor. Customer integration can have positive effects for service firms and customers, but it also threatens some negative effects that have not been studied closely. This study proposes silent endurance as a neglected outcome of customer integration, caused by violations of customer fairness perceptions. In line with fairness heuristic theory, providing more input for the same output may reduce perceptions of distributive fairness. Four studies test this theorizing (one critical incident study and three experiments) to investigate the effect of being integrated on customers’ distributive fairness and silent endurance. Stable results across studies show that distributive fairness mediates the link between customer integration and silent endurance; offering monetary advantages can offset integration-induced losses of fairness perceptions. These findings thus have both theoretical and managerial implications.
KW - Customer integration
KW - Digitization
KW - Fairness heuristic theory
KW - Fairness perceptions
KW - Non-complaining
KW - Silent endurance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118720662&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.emj.2021.10.010
DO - 10.1016/j.emj.2021.10.010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118720662
VL - 41
SP - 34
EP - 46
JO - European management journal
JF - European management journal
SN - 0263-2373
IS - 1
ER -