This study expands upon previous research on the antecedents (job demands and job resources) and outcomes of frontline employee burnout, and examines the role of customer orientation (CO) in the burnout process. Using data from frontline bank employees in New Zealand, we investigate both the direct relationships of CO to burnout and job outcomes (job performance and turnover intentions) and the buffering role of CO concerning the relationships between job demands, burnout, and job outcomes. The study results show that burnout mediates the effects of job demands and job resources on job performance and turnover intentions. Besides being directly related to burnout and job performance, CO also buffers the dysfunctional effects of job demands on burnout and job outcomes. Implications of the results are discussed and future research avenues are offered.

The concept of customer orientation is becoming increasingly more important to managers, especially in service industries. Given the premise of the study that a customer-oriented employee has a critical role in enhancing service quality, little research has investigated the antecedents of the customer orientation construct. The objective of this study was to develop a theoretical model of customer orientation, and to test the hypothesized relationships between customer orientation and its antecedents of empowerment, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. To measure these hypothesized relationships at the individual level of analysis, 217 employee responses from a multi-unit chain restaurant were analyzed. The model was evaluated using structural equation modeling (SEM) utilizing SAS CALIS (SAS system 1989). Evaluation was conducted using a two-stage procedure, in which the construct measurements (a measurement model) were evaluated first, and then the structural relationships (a structural model) between the constructs were evaluated. Results indicated that empowerment and job satisfaction were found to have positive, direct effects on customer orientation, whereas job involvement had a negative, direct effect on customer orientation. Job satisfaction was found to be a positive antecedent of organizational commitment. Employee empowerment was found to positively influence job satisfaction. Moreover, the path from empowerment to organizational commitment, which was not hypothesized in the initial model, was found to be positively significant. However, the direct relationship between job involvement and organizational commitment, as hypothesized in this study, was not supported. The findings contribute to a better understanding of customer orientation by identifying antecedents of customer orientation among employees in the hospitality industry. The managerial implications of these research findings were discussed. The limitations of the study were explored, and suggestions were given for future research. / Ph. D.

Uppsatsens titel: Kundvärde inom tjänsteföretag – En studie som belyser likheter och skillnader inom kundvärde utifrån kunds och företags perspektiv  Datum: 8 Jan 2016  Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 högskolepoäng  Instution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, EST, Mälardalens Högskola  Författare: Melda Duru & Shehla Mohammad  Titel: Kundvärde utifrån kundens och företagets perspektiv  Handledare: Magnus Linderström  Nyckelord: Tjänstemarknad, kundvärde, kundlojalitet, illojalitet, kundorientering, marknadsmix.  Frågeställning: Hur skiljer sig kundvärdet mellan en advokatbyrå och en mäklarbyrå?  Vilka är likheterna och olikheterna?  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka likheter och olikheter det finns på kundvärde mellan en advokatbyrå samt en mäklarbyrå. För att kunna få svar på detta kommer uppsatsförfattarna även att undersöka vad som ger kundvärde för kunden utifrån kundens och företagets perspektiv.  Metod: Material samlades in genom att söka på olika begrepp som redovisas i teoriavsnittet. Kurslitteraturer samt högskolans databas var två viktiga verktyg som uppsatsförfattarna arbetat med för att samla in teorier. Vidare kontaktades respondenterna och därefter genomfördes totalt åtta intervjuer som redovisas i bilagan. Åtta intervjuer, varv två med respondenterna och två kompletterande intervjuer med respondenterna samt fyra med kunderna.   Slutsats: Det finns både likheter och olikheter på kundvärde inom advokat samt mäklarbyrån. / Title: Customer value in service companies- A study that highlights the similarities and differences in customer value from a customer and company perspective  Date: 8 Jan 2016  Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits  Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University  Authors: Melda Duru 930521 & Shehla Mohammad 921015  Tutor: Magnus Linderström  Keywords: Service marketing, customer value, loyalty, disloyalty, customer orientation, marketing mix.  Research questions: How does the customer value differ between a law firm and a real estate agency? What are the similarities and differences.  Purpose: The purpose of the study is to inspect the similarities and differences of customer value between a law firm and a real estate agency. To be able to answer this, the article author will also inspect what gives the customer a customer value from the customer and companies perspective.  Method: Material was collected by looking up different concepts that are shown in the theory section. The course literature and the universities database were two major tools that the article author worked with for the theories. The respondents were contacted and after that eight interviews were completed that are shown in the appendix. A total of eight interviews were two conducted with respondents, two complementary with the respondents and four with clients/customers.  Conclusion: There are similarities and differences when it comes to customer value at both law firms and real estate agencies.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Deborah Canter / Chihyung Ok / As the number of older adults increases so does the demand for housing and personal care needs. The continuing care retirement community is unique from other senior care facilities as it provides a continuum of housing and care that caters towards an individual’s need. Foodservice is often utilized to attract older adults into retirement facilities. Such service would give residents additional opportunities to socialize with service workers as well as other patrons of the restaurant. Yet, few studies have focused on the roles of food and dining service on resident’s satisfaction with foodservice and their quality of life. Study 1 examined the relationships between residents’ perception of individual customer orientation of service employee dimensions: technical skills, social skills, motivation, and decision-making authority, with relational benefits, satisfaction and subsequent behavioral outcomes: repurchase intention and word-of-mouth. Study 2 explored the moderating effects of resident’s activity involvement and food involvement on the relationships between rapport, dining-need satisfaction and resident’s quality of life. To achieve the objectives of these studies, 412 continuing care retirement community residents from five facilities completed a self-report questionnaire. Of these, 354 were used in study 1 and study 2. Findings of the structural equation modeling (Study 1) suggested that resident’s perception of foodservice employee’s technical skills, social skills and motivation were important determinants of confidence and social benefits that led to residents’ overall satisfaction with foodservice. Satisfied resident-consumer is likely to engage in word-of-mouth and repurchase intention. Results of hierarchical multiple regressions (Study 2) revealed that perceived rapport and resident’s dining-need satisfaction are positively related to resident’s quality of life. This study also found that activity involvement and food involvement moderated the relationships between rapport and dining-need satisfaction with quality of life respectively. That is, the more involved resident has an improved quality of life.

<p>With the presumption of change as an inevitable phenomenon, the aim of this study is to explore ways in which insurance companies can enhance their ability of meeting the constant changes in customers’ preferences in an increasingly competitive environment. In order to conduct this study, we have used a qualitative research strategy to gain a better understanding of young customers’ preferences about the services provided by insurance companies. Based on these preferences we provide useful suggestions for insurance companies. Existing theory suggests that customers change their preferences according to their life circumstances and while certain preferences are well-defined others can be inconsistent. In an increasingly competitive environment, where insurance companies fight for the same customers, having a customer-oriented culture is extremely important not only to retain customers, but also to acquire new ones. This study presents various theories on the changes in customers’ preferences as well as theories regarding organizational strategy and change.</p><p>The empirical data has been collected through two focused group interviews with students under 28, in Västerbotten, Sweden and through a group interview with leading representatives of a dominant insurance company in the county. The findings suggest that young consumers’ preferences regarding insurance services are based on their life situation. Price is a decisive factor in the choice of insurance company and their services. The results also showed that many of the respondents are skeptical towards the intentions of and services provided by insurance companies. The complex nature of insurances and the intangibility of services in general, can be possible explanations. Strengthening the evidence in existing studies, we also conclude that there is a vast amount of information insurance-takers would like to have access to before, during, and after purchasing insurance. Additionally, customers would like flexible insurance bundles with the possibility to add and subtract components as life situations change. Finally, based on these results, we suggest how insurance companies could turn these findings into opportunities. We suggest how and when to meet the customers, and how to build long lasting, trust-based relationships which could lead to increased customer loyalty over time.</p>

<p>Background: The company Skandia desired for its marketing function to be reorganised to become customer oriented, joint, co-ordinated and homogenous in order to gain market shares. These aspects are both structural and strategic. The question of whether the way that Skandia has chosen to reorganise the new and joint marketing function, in terms of choices of structure, is preferable in order to obtain a high overall business performance emerged.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, from a structural and manager perspective, explore and explain the structure of the marketing function in a customer oriented organisation.</p><p>Method: The thesis is a case study of Skandia. The empirical findings constitute of sex interviews with managers from various positions and functions along with e-mail interviews with twenty-three co-workers. The result from the empirical findings is a comprehensive image of the marketing function.</p><p>Result: The new marketing function in Skandia turned out to have structures of, for instance, increased centralisation, higher vertical formalisation and increased degree of specialisation, all in order to act customer oriented. The result shows that it seems preferable that the marketing function in a company as Skandia would configure the structure in this way. The explanation is that no matter whether structure follows strategy or the other way around, there are strong indications that it is the combined configuration of structure and strategic behaviour (in this case customer orientation) that forms a marketing function’s organisational archetype. This type in conjunction with the selected overall company business strategy implies an either high or low overall business performance. In the case of Skandia it is proved high.</p>

<p>Through the years customer orientation is an area of marketing that has received much attention. One of the key aspects of customer orientation is the “ability of the salespeople to help their customers”. There has been research on how salesperson’s behavior influences customer orientation. However, previous research has been conducted on the business unit level. At the moment there is no research done on how a salesperson’s individual behavior affects a company’s overall customer orientation. Therefore, this dissertation will try to fill the research gap on how salesperson’s individual behavior affects overall customer orientation.The study is performed on the three major electronic retail stores in the Swedish market. Twelve types of behaviors were selected and were tested with the mystery shopper method and observations of customers in the stores. Two other behaviors of salespeople were discovered. The results show that many of the behaviors described in theories do apply to salesperson’s individual behavior. However, there are some behaviors that are more common than others. The conclusion is that even though there are some common salespeople behaviors, it is very individual how salespeople behave towards customers.</p>

<p>The companies of today figures on a hardly competitive market. This makes it necessary for the company to find new way to create competition advantages. Since it is no longer enough to compete with the technical quality of the product the companies are forced to also enhance the functional quality. To accomplish this it becomes necessary for producing companies to be customer oriented. A customer oriented company culture can be reached with the help of internal marketing in which different activities work to inform and teach the employees about the company strategy and also about their own role as part-time marketers.</p><p>This thesis examines Electrolux, a company which is currently striving to develop a customer oriented company culture. Electrolux works with “Consuming Innovation Program” which is a project that acts to implement a new process, “Product Management Flow”, in the company. This thesis aim at examine how Electrolux has used the activities of internal marketing to develop a customer oriented company culture.</p><p>The thesis concludes that Electrolux successfully has started the implementation of the desired customer oriented company culture and the implementation has partly succeeded. There are although still some items of the internal marketing that needs to bee improved to enable an optimized result.</p> / <p>Dagens företag verkar på en marknad med hård konkurrens där det blir nödvändigt att finna nya sätt att skapa konkurrensfördelar. Då det inte längre är tillräckligt att konkurrera med produktens tekniska kvalité tvingas de producerande företagen till att även förbättra den funktionella kvalitén. För detta krävs det att de producerande företagen blir kundorienterade. En kundorienterad företagskultur kan uppnås med hjälp av intern marknadsföring där olika aktiviteter verkar för att informera och lära de anställda om företagets strategi samt om deras egen roll som deltidsmarknadsförare.</p><p>I denna uppsats undersöks Electrolux, ett företag som idag genomgår en förändring mot en kundorienterad företagskultur. Electrolux arbetar med ”Consuming Innovation Program” vilket är ett projekt som verkar för att implementera en ny process, ”Product Management Flow”, i företaget. Uppsatsen syftar till att ta reda på hur Electrolux använder sig av den interna marknadsföringens aktiviteter för att uppnå en kundorienterad kultur i företaget.</p><p>Uppsatsen kommer fram till att Electrolux framgångsrikt har startat implementeringen av den önskade kundorienterade företagskulturen och även till viss del lyckats med detta. Det finns dock vissa punkter i den interna marknadsföringen som bör förbättras för att ett optimalt resultat ska kunna uppnås.</p>

Through the years customer orientation is an area of marketing that has received much attention. One of the key aspects of customer orientation is the “ability of the salespeople to help their customers”. There has been research on how salesperson’s behavior influences customer orientation. However, previous research has been conducted on the business unit level. At the moment there is no research done on how a salesperson’s individual behavior affects a company’s overall customer orientation. Therefore, this dissertation will try to fill the research gap on how salesperson’s individual behavior affects overall customer orientation.The study is performed on the three major electronic retail stores in the Swedish market. Twelve types of behaviors were selected and were tested with the mystery shopper method and observations of customers in the stores. Two other behaviors of salespeople were discovered. The results show that many of the behaviors described in theories do apply to salesperson’s individual behavior. However, there are some behaviors that are more common than others. The conclusion is that even though there are some common salespeople behaviors, it is very individual how salespeople behave towards customers.

The companies of today figures on a hardly competitive market. This makes it necessary for the company to find new way to create competition advantages. Since it is no longer enough to compete with the technical quality of the product the companies are forced to also enhance the functional quality. To accomplish this it becomes necessary for producing companies to be customer oriented. A customer oriented company culture can be reached with the help of internal marketing in which different activities work to inform and teach the employees about the company strategy and also about their own role as part-time marketers. This thesis examines Electrolux, a company which is currently striving to develop a customer oriented company culture. Electrolux works with “Consuming Innovation Program” which is a project that acts to implement a new process, “Product Management Flow”, in the company. This thesis aim at examine how Electrolux has used the activities of internal marketing to develop a customer oriented company culture. The thesis concludes that Electrolux successfully has started the implementation of the desired customer oriented company culture and the implementation has partly succeeded. There are although still some items of the internal marketing that needs to bee improved to enable an optimized result. / Dagens företag verkar på en marknad med hård konkurrens där det blir nödvändigt att finna nya sätt att skapa konkurrensfördelar. Då det inte längre är tillräckligt att konkurrera med produktens tekniska kvalité tvingas de producerande företagen till att även förbättra den funktionella kvalitén. För detta krävs det att de producerande företagen blir kundorienterade. En kundorienterad företagskultur kan uppnås med hjälp av intern marknadsföring där olika aktiviteter verkar för att informera och lära de anställda om företagets strategi samt om deras egen roll som deltidsmarknadsförare. I denna uppsats undersöks Electrolux, ett företag som idag genomgår en förändring mot en kundorienterad företagskultur. Electrolux arbetar med ”Consuming Innovation Program” vilket är ett projekt som verkar för att implementera en ny process, ”Product Management Flow”, i företaget. Uppsatsen syftar till att ta reda på hur Electrolux använder sig av den interna marknadsföringens aktiviteter för att uppnå en kundorienterad kultur i företaget. Uppsatsen kommer fram till att Electrolux framgångsrikt har startat implementeringen av den önskade kundorienterade företagskulturen och även till viss del lyckats med detta. Det finns dock vissa punkter i den interna marknadsföringen som bör förbättras för att ett optimalt resultat ska kunna uppnås.