CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR CUSTOMER
4.4 The Design Logic of the U2EX System
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interacting with the modules of exhibition journey dispatch, customer expectation management and expectation tactics selection according to particular needs and requirements.
Consequently, the U2EX system can dynamically and immediately deliver appropriate service experiences to visitors for customer expectation management based on above systematical control procedures. Meanwhile, the core design of the U2EX system is an iterative process that the processing information of service experiences design and management can be stored and responded to the system. The U2EX system, thus, can be further modified and improved through the past information. After describing the idea of the core design of the U2EX system, the design logic of the U2EX system for the Exquisite Technology will be addressed in next section.
4.4 The Design Logic of the U2EX System
This research is to build a systematic and integrative approach for designing and managing service experiences and operations through controlling and optimizing the service interaction design regarding the psychological states (expectation and emotion) of customer, service encounter situation, and the strategic goals of service providers.
Figure 4-7 shows the design logic flow of the U2EX system.
In the beginning of an exhibition, an organizer defines the KPIs (i.e. key performance indictors) of the exhibition in order to accomplish the mission for the exhibition. Hence, an organizer has its own Determinant Weighting according to the KPIs. As a result of the central research, Journey Generation is the end production which made of a chain of service encounters for exhibitors to interact with visitors.
Local Determinant Weighting then transforms the KPIs of each exhibition into corresponding weights therewith stored in Expectation Matrix Knowledge Base in
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order to decide heuristic weights of determinants of expectation. In addition, the information of every service encounter in Encounter Data (e.g. exhibitors and visitors data, service duration, and transaction data) (as conceptualized in Figure 4-8) is together with Expectation Matrix Knowledge Base to identify exhibitors and visitors own added values (such as time, convenience, control, clarity, adaptation, competition, automation, amusement, profitability, or peace-of-mind) during the Added Values Identification process.
Furthermore, exhibitors and visitors have their role perspectives to view the control power between visitor expectation and emotion and exhibitor capabilities.
Both of the exhibition players consider their competitive and cooperative efforts and added values to make them benefit from the designed dynamic interactions of the appropriate demand functions. Once the added values are distinguished, Expectation-Emotion Optimization & Control would be subsequently executed finding which determinants could be more influential within an interactive game.
Here we regard each interaction among exhibitors and visitors as a round of game so that all of them need to maximize self-advantages in each round of the interactive game to have better performance. In other words, the demand functions results from the analysis of critical determinants of expectations (required to achieve the specific expectation/emotion objectives) and choose determinants following Expectation Measurement (that computes the expectation scores to check if the expectation and emotion objectives are satisfied based on the selected expectation determinants and their corresponding tactics, i.e. expectation tactic, list used for selecting suitable service components and assemble a variety of significant service components in an very flexible way). As long as the exhibitors abide by the service tactics along with related Service Components, they can easily generate the pleasant and expected
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interactions to form personalized exhibition journeys for visitors.
To sum up, the innovative service interaction design logic constructs a set of systematical approaches to aid exhibitors to manage service operations in the exhibition context and facilitate exhibitors‟ activities in order to build atmospheric surroundings for appropriate service experiences in the exhibition. Consequently, this research is to develop a systematical and integrative approach that effectively not only manages customer expectation but also design satisfactory service experiences by managing service operation precisely to fulfill customer needs for achieving 4D core values of the Exquisite Technology in a service experience ecosystem.
Users
Figure 4 - 7 Design logic flow of exhibition services
4.5 Summary
In order for high-quality service experiences, service providers should pay attention to the process from service experience design to delivery that must be optimized by utilizing the systematical approach. However, the most important
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consideration within service experience delivery is still the human being, especially customers. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a systematical and integrative approach of service experience and operation design and management based on a novel notion of the Exquisite Technology via subsuming the customer‟s mental status. This study used U2EX as an application to demonstrate the feasibility of the Exquisite Technology in dynamic environments. According to properly customer expectation management within service experience delivery, service providers can deliver innovative and appropriate services to customers through the systematical mechanism of the U2EX system.
Consequently, this thesis attempts to illustrate the feasibility of combining the concept of customer expectation management with a service system in real time (namely, the U2EX system). We introduce the background and purposes of the U2EX system and have a comparison with four existing service systems which obviously shows the competitive position in the market. We also represent the architecture of the U2EX system that can be related to the 4D core values of the Exquisite Technology.
Furthermore, the U2EX system includes four core engines (namely, Hawk-Dove Game, Coopetition, PSO, and FCM) and customer expectation measurement model to implement service experiences design and management. At last, the core design and the design logic of the U2EX system can be considered as a series of systematical procedures for designing and managing service experiences and operations.
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Figure 4 - 8 Ontology of the U2EX system
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CHAPTER 5
THE EVALUATION OF THE THEORETICAL CONCEPT
In this chapter, we aim to evaluate the theoretical concept which is built by applying the expectation theory and the emotion theory mentioned in Chapter 4. The theoretical concept is to emphasize that high customer satisfaction is resulted from well customer expectation management based on the positive customer emotions. Hence, service providers have to carefully pay attention to customer expectations and emotions when they would like to offer appropriate services to their customers in order to achieve customer satisfaction.
Accordingly, we propose three propositions to evaluate the above theoretical concept. In this study, we employed a multimethod study approach by using the U2EX service system as a case and conducting several interviews, simulations and some questionnaire results to collect empirical data for testing the propositions. The empirical evidences, which are classified to three analytical dimensions of customer cognition, customer emotion and customer satisfaction, supported our propositions.
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5.1 Interview Design
In order to evaluate the proposed theoretical concept (as shown in Figure 3-5), we attempt to utilize the quantitative and qualitative methods, such as a multimethod, to investigate the phenomenon and customer experiences. Hence, we use the multimethod study to analyze a single case study and perform several simulations, interviews, and surveys for deeply evaluation (Kaplan and Duchon, 1988; Dube and Pare, 2003; Mingers and Brocklesby, 1996; Hellstrom and Nilsson, 2006; Shanks, 2002). Since the real-world problems are extremely complicated and multi-dimensional and either quantitative or qualitative methods deal with different aspects of these problems, the multimethod is a good approach that aids researchers to gain synergies, adjust weaknesses and evaluate the relative strengths of each method.
For instance, the single case study helps researchers deeply understand the real-world phenomena and investigate the possible relations and variables of specific situations.
The single case study is to explore “how” or “why” some problems are being emerged from particular events (Yin, 2003). However, the single case study approach is hard to imitate and reconstruct the actual situations and events. The simulation method can aid researchers to develop a model of a real-world phenomenon based on the findings of the single case study in order to predict, train, proof, perform, or explore the likely results (Hellstrom and Nilsson, 2006). Accordingly, researchers firstly conduct the single case study to scrutinize existing problems of a phenomenon and then utilize the simulation method to generate the imitated behaviors and events for testing the aforementioned findings. In this study, since the theoretical concept is also a complex and multi-dimensional issue, the multimethod is a suitable approach to evaluate it. We will use the single case study to explore the existing and potential problems of the U2EX service system in the exhibition by conducting literatures reviews, interviews,
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and questionnaire surveys. Meanwhile, the simulations are performed to examine if the findings of the single case study are good enough to explain and support the behaviors of stakeholders in the exhibitions.
5.1.1 Case Introduction
As mentioned earlier in Chapter 4, we would like to develop the Ubiquitous 2.0 Exhibition Service System which will be applied to the exhibition service context. We have the opportunity to co-work with Taiwan External Trade Development Council (that is, TAITRA). Since TAITRA is an important organization to hold and arrange either international exhibitions or domestic meetings in Taiwan, it also wants to alter the traditional way to offer innovative services for the participants (including exhibitors and visitors). Accordingly, the creative idea of customer expectation management and the concept of Exquisite Technology are all attractive to TAITRA. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the U2EX service system in the real exhibition service context, we have selected Taipei International Sporting Goods Show (i.e.
TaiSPO) which was held in the TWTC Nangang exhibition hall from 4/29 to 5/2 in 2010. TaiSPO is a medium scale show (e.g. 385 exhibitors, 1715 booths and 1865 overseas visitors) and the Nangang exhibition hall is also a square environment, so we can handily set up the hardware and software in the exhibition context for testing the performance of the U2EX service system.
5.1.2 Scenario: B2B
Because TaiSPO is an international exhibition that is also a commercial platform for international and domestic enterprises to communicate and interact with each other, it can attract a lot of international buyers (i.e. visitors) to take part in. The exhibition scenario is B2B. For exhibitors, before the opening of the TaiSPO exhibition, they can easily set up all kinds of service information (including promotion data, production information etc.) via the U2EX service system. Meanwhile, in order to serve visitors,
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the U2EX service system can help exhibitors dynamically and automatically provide visitors with suitable services according to visitors‟ preferred information and needs during the running of the exhibition. For visitors, when they finish registering, they can borrow a handheld device (so-called Orbi) delivering services through the U2EX service system. Accordingly, visitors can receive, search and collect all services (such as, recommendation service: exhibitor recommendation, reminder service: activity alert, collaborative service: ranking service) through using the Orbi. In other words, the Orbi can be regarded as an attentive and intelligent secretary to support and remind the visitor for a high-quality service experience of the exhibition journey. In order to investigate the relevance between the theoretical concept and the actual experience of visitors, we will conduct several interviews on the international visitors, who are willing to use the Orbi, to deeply understand and aggregate their experiences of using the Orbi. Hence, the international visitors will be the target interviewees of this study.
5.1.3 Propositions
In this research, we try to combine the expectation theory with the emotion theory to establish a new theoretical concept. According to the expectation theory, service providers can employ the determinants of expectation to influence customer expectations (i.e. adequate and desired expectations). Service providers expect to implement different expectation management strategies (e.g. to narrow the zone of tolerance by increasing the adequate expectation and decreasing the desired expectation) for their strategic goals (such as increasing the threshold of the market entrance). In other words, service providers can have the appropriate zone of tolerance of customers by managing adequate and desired expectations based on the suitable expectation management strategy. Customers can change the original zone of
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proposition P1 is to test this expectation and derived as follows:P1: The better the level of customer expectation management, the more appropriate the level of the zone of tolerance.
Figure 5-1 The propositions in between expectation theory and emotion theory Haber (1958) indicated there is a unidirectional relationship between customer expectation and customer emotion. If customers have high expectations and can‟t perceive the service well, customers easily get negative emotions. On the other hand, when customer perception highly exceeds customer expectation, customers can have the positive emotional status. Service providers should pay attention to customer expectation management in order to build positive customer emotions in service contexts. Accordingly, customers have higher expectations will lead to have significant influence on their emotions. Service providers have to manage customer expectations to closely fulfill customer needs and have good perception of services for generating positive emotions. We try to use proposition P2 to verify this relevance.
P2: Positive customer expectations evaluate the level of customer emotions.
As mentioned earlier, even though customer expectation management is a critical way to aid service providers to create the opportunity which customers can easily acquire suitable services, there is no guaranty that customers can actually take on the Determinants of
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positive behaviors (e.g. using the service, purchasing the service, or changing the cognitive decision) in service contexts. However, if service providers can manage customer expectation to generate positive customer emotions, customers can have the positive behaviors and achieve high customer satisfaction. That is, service providers can simply provide customers with suitable services to meet customer needs for customer satisfaction when customers have the appropriate zone of tolerance to perceive the delivered services. Furthermore, when customers have many positive behaviors in service contexts, customers can have the higher satisfaction. When service providers can dynamically manage customer expectation and enable customers to have positive emotions, they can acquire high customer satisfaction.
Accordingly, we propose proposition P3 to investigate this argument.
P3: A positive relationship exists between the level of appropriate customer expectations on the basis of good customer emotions and the level of customer satisfaction.
Table 5-1 The brief information of interviewees
Code Name Gender If Had Exhibition Experiences If Used A Handheld Device Continent
TOP-1001 Male Yes No Asia
TOP-1008 Male Yes No South America
TOP-1014 Female Yes No Asia
TOP-1034 Male Yes No Asia
TOP-1688 Male Yes No Europe
5.1.4 Data Collection 5.1.4.1 Interviewee
The interviewees are selected from the international visitors who are willing to experience and use the Orbi in the TAISPO exhibition. In this study, we conduct the interviews by interviewing five international visitors. Their brief background information is as follows (as shown in Table 5-1).
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We collected the major data by conducting interviews with five international visitors (Table 5-1) by using an evolving protocol (see Appendix B and C). We also used direct observations, simulations, and questionnaire results to infer and conclude our findings. In order to enhance the rigor of this qualitative study, we employed the quantitative methodological guidelines (Lee, 1989; Yin, 1994) to ensure the validly and reliability of this study (as depicted in Table 5-2).
Table 5-2 Rigor of the study Criterion Guidelines from the literature
(Lee, 1989; Yin, 1994) Whether/how the guidelines were followed in this study Internal
validity
Pattern Matching Predictions derived from propositions were matched with empirical patterns
Construct validly
Using multiple sources of evidence
Multiple interviews with different interviewees at diverse time; simulation results; questionnaire results
Having key informants review the case study report
The industry advisers
Establish a chain of evidence Detailed narrative developed; some cross-referencing with transcripts
External validity
Increasing degrees of freedom Multiple observations for each prediction
Reliability
Creating/maintaining a case study database
Case study documents; case study narrative Developing a case study
protocol
An evolving set of literature review; questionnaire.
5.2 Deductive Testing
According to the interview results, we try to deeply classify the results to three dimensions including the customer cognition analysis, the customer emotional status analysis and the customer satisfaction analysis for deeply analyzing and testing aforementioned three propositions. The customer cognition dimension is to investigate if service providers effectively influence customer expectations in order to
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result in suitable zone of tolerance. The customer emotional status dimension is to examine if customer expectations affect customer emotions. The customer satisfaction dimension is to explore if good customer expectation management based on positive customer emotions can apparently achieve customer satisfaction.
5.2.1 Customer Cognition Dimension
P1: The better the level of customer expectation management, the more appropriate the level of the zone of tolerance.
As mentioned above, customer expectation is an important factor to influence a customer‟s mental cognition. When service providers can offer suitable services to serve customers, customer expectations could be affected and they could also change their mental cognition to possibly generate unanticipated behaviors. For example, a visitor originally would like to call on specific exhibitors that were planned before attending the exhibition. While this visitor can find other potential exhibitors via the platform of the U2EX service system, the visitor can additionally visit these optional cooperative exhibitors rather than only visit the scheduled exhibitors. The visitor (TOP-1014) indicated this point as follows:
In our company, although we had several meetings to discuss and analyze which exhibitors to visit before attending the TAISPO exhibition, the Orbi device can give us the additional and useful services and information of related exhibitors. This really help us to have many good opportunities to contract and visit unexpected exhibitors for the cooperation in the future.
Besides, the visitors are the representatives of their companies to find the potential exhibitors and try to contact with them in the exhibition. In the past, the visitors had to make more effort to collect any kinds of commercial information
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convinced that it would be significant to change the visitor behaviors when the Orbi services were helpful and useful for visitors to deal with the effort:While using the Orbi, I do not need to write any notes and bring any kinds of exhibitor advertisements in the TAISPO exhibition. It is really a novel service for visitors and exhibitors and also will influence the visiting way of visitors in the future.
Figure 5-2 The expectation variation of a visitor in the exhibition
Consequently, the delivered services of the U2EX service system are useful to serve visitors to deal with pre-existing problems. It could have high possibility to affect customers‟ cognition to alter their traditional behaviors in the exhibition.
Although visitors already had their business purposes in the exhibitions, exhibitors can manage visitor expectations to alter their cognitive thinking and considerations
D: 7.8
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via the U2EX service system. P1 can be sufficiently supported.
In addition, we also conducted several simulations of visitor‟s journeys in the exhibition in order to not only enhance the rigor of this case but also examine the possible customer mental status. Figure 5-2 exemplifies a visitor‟s journey in which
In addition, we also conducted several simulations of visitor‟s journeys in the exhibition in order to not only enhance the rigor of this case but also examine the possible customer mental status. Figure 5-2 exemplifies a visitor‟s journey in which