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Paper info: Nature and role of customer satisfaction in the business of solutions’

Title


Nature and role of customer satisfaction in the business of solutions’

Authors


Frank Jacob, Ulrich Kleipass and Alexander Pohl

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 28th IMP-conference in Rome, Italy in 2012.

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Abstract


The paper focuses on the business of solutions (Ceci 2009) that has recently received a significant amount of attention in research (e.g. Evanschitzky, Wangenheim, & Woisetschlaeger 2011). Solutions are a strategy for suppliers to attain an enduring competitive advantage on business markets in particular by ""combinations of products and services that solve [customer] specific problems"" (Davies 2006). Although the concept was welcome by many companies and industry experts with enthusiasm (Johansson, Krishnamurthy, and Schlissberg 2003) empirical evidence on its effectiveness is not totally conclusive. In our paper we argue that a strategy of solutions can only lead a company to perform better on their market if it encompasses a direct and positive effect on customer satisfaction. This focus has been somehow neglected in extant literature. The challenge in solutions to cater for customer satisfaction, however, consists in their hybrid nature between products and service. We show that a very specific and decisive dimension of satisfaction within the business of solutions pertains to a supplier’s consulting capabilities. This is based on an increased amount of uncertainty for customers that typically goes along with a solution (Simonson 2005) and induces customers to quest for advice from the supplier of a solution (Helander and Moeller 2008). This line of arguments motivates us to put customer consulting satisfaction with respect to solutions into the focus of our research. We define the concept, identify antecedents and analyze its output as pertaining to competitive advantage. As recommended in service literature we applied a mixed-methods approach for the development of our overall research framework. Thus, a first step included a series of open interviews conducted with altogether 20 company professionals holding an IT background and some amount of experience in projects with IT solutions providers. Later, the interview material was transcribed, unitized, and coded what resulted in a list of 8 constructs anteceding consulting satisfaction: supplier expertise, project management capabilities, exchange of information, understanding, joint working, flexibility, selling orientation (reverse impact), and technical quality. Consequences of consulting satisfaction were developed theoretically based of the framework known as the service-profit chain (Heskett et al. 1994). They include direct as well as mediated links from consulting satisfaction on trust, loyalty, and overall customer satisfaction. Combining those results we were able to formulate our detail research model and posit a set of hypotheses. The latter was translated into a questionnaire based measurement instrument and submitted to a survey. Respondents to that survey came from IT functions in companies and were similar in profile to our original interview partners. Our efforts resulted in a sample of altogether 106 qualified responses suitable for an SEM analysis based on the PLS algorithm. Three of the constructs from our list of consulting satisfaction antecedents could not be supported by our study: expertise, understanding, and joint working. The remaining did. We present possible explanations for the discovered lack of support by pointing to frameworks looking at both satisfaction and solutions in a more differentiated way. With respect to consequences of consulting satisfaction all predicted links were supported. Research on solutions up to now was described as primarily descriptive in nature and often aiming at category building (Jacob and Ulaga 2008). With our approach we hope to tap a new dimension of solutions research, i.e. customer related drivers and obstacles. Satisfaction has been shown to be paramount for understanding buying behavior on business markets and consulting satisfaction is an appropriate starting point for more buying research within the domain of solutions. We present a conceptualization of consulting satisfaction as well as empirical evidence on project management capabilities, exchange of information, flexibility, selling orientation (reverse impact), and technical quality as antecedents. Industry decision makers can draw on these findings for the purpose of practically implementing provisions for more consulting satisfaction from their customers. This will help them to better plan their entry into the business of solutions and to ensure long-lasting success from the strategy