Jill Sweeney | The University of Western Australia (original) (raw)

Papers by Jill Sweeney

Journal of service theory and practice, Sep 14, 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to capture the richness of customer perceived value by dete... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to capture the richness of customer perceived value by determining its benefit and cost dimensions in a complex service setting. Perceived value is argued as equivalent to value-in-use; that is value that emerges for or is created by the customer.Design/methodology/approach– A series of in-depth interviews was conducted with a diverse group of clients of financial planning services as well as with financial planners in Australia.Findings– Six benefit and four cost dimensions of complex service are identified, namely expertise, education, motivation, support, relationship and convenience benefits, as well as monetary, time and effort, emotional and lifestyle costs. The results also indicate proposed outcomes of these dimensions, along with relevant moderators, leading to a broad conceptual framework for future empirical validation.Originality/value– This study contributes to the sparse conceptual development of value perceptions, or value-in-use, in a complex service context. In particular, the authors identify the benefit and cost dimensions, specifically addressing aspects of value that are linked to the long-term relationship between provider and customer. The authors also develop a conceptual model of value, including both outcomes and situational moderators of the various value dimensions. Finally, the conceptualization of perceived value is discussed with respect to the value co-creation literature.

Journal of Service Research, Feb 3, 2020

Enthusiastic customer endorsements can significantly influence buying decisions and drive sales. ... more Enthusiastic customer endorsements can significantly influence buying decisions and drive sales. In service contexts, advocates are especially important because the specific and complex characteristics of services make personal recommendations very effective. Customer advocacy communications differ from other positive word of mouth (PWOM), though literature on advocacy is surprisingly sparse and inconsistent. Notably, advocacy is strong, passionate, explicit, and ongoing, with an explicit goal of positively influencing others’ views. As its central theoretical contributions, this article defines advocacy; identifies advocacy as a distinctive form of PWOM; conceptualizes advocacy according to a hierarchy of behaviors, which increase in intensity and effort; and develops a robust, reliable advocacy scale. By investigating positive behavioral outcomes of different levels of advocacy, this study also reveals the importance of identifying strong advocates, rather than just those who give PWOM, as well as salient drivers of advocacy. Accordingly, this article establishes a platform for further investigations of the importance of advocates, as well as recommendations to help managers identify these potentially valuable advocates.

Journal of Service Research, Mar 10, 2015

Transformative service research is particularly relevant in health care where the firm and custom... more Transformative service research is particularly relevant in health care where the firm and customer can contribute to individual as well as societal well-being. This article explores customer value cocreation in health care, identifying a hierarchy of activities representing varying levels of customer effort from complying with basic requirements (less effort, easier tasks) to extensive decision making (more effort, more difficult tasks). We define customer Effort in Value Cocreation Activities (EVCA) as the degree of effort that customers exert to integrate resources, through a range of activities of varying levels of perceived difficulty. Our findings underscore the importance of viewing health care service as taking place within the customer's service network which extends well beyond the customer-firm dyad to include other market-facing as well as public and private resources. Moreover, we demonstrate the transformative potential of customer EVCA linking customer EVCA to quality of life, satisfaction with service and behavioral intentions. We do so across three prevalent chronic diseases-cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Our findings highlight how an integrated care model has benefits for both customers and providers and can enhance customer EVCA.

This paper examines consumers' motivations to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) and its in... more This paper examines consumers' motivations to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) and its influences on the cognitive and affective aspects of the WOM message. A sample of 201 consumers was collected from an online survey. Regressions show that four motivations had significant relationships with cognitive and affective aspects of positive messages and two in the case of negative messages. Cognitive and affective aspects were both found to be positively related to message effectiveness, although the former had a greater influence. Findings suggest that consumers use both positive and negative WOM to achieve their objectives, but are more selective when engaging in negative WOM. Managers should encourage consumers to share more factual information about their consumption experience with others through WOM. Managers will gain a better understanding of WOM by analyzing individual messages for its content and delivery.

Journal of Service Research, Mar 9, 2023

In managing a chronic illness, customers have the opportunity to play an active role in their hea... more In managing a chronic illness, customers have the opportunity to play an active role in their healthcare—by cocreating value. For example, customers can adhere to medical advice, seek out information about their condition(s), manage their diet, and interact with family and friends. Moreover, across an extended treatment period, customers may dynamically adjust their level of value cocreation. In this study, we examine 307 healthcare customers receiving treatment for cancer, with 12 value cocreation activities tracked longitudinally over 4 survey waves. Using a hidden Markov model, we reveal three latent states of customer value cocreation: low, moderate, and high. We then determine which of the 12 value cocreation activities are most strongly associated with transitions among cocreation states. Finally, we show that transitioning to a cocreation state with a higher level of cocreation activity positively correlates with customer and marketing outcomes, including customer quality of life and satisfaction. Our findings show that an increase in six cocreation activities—actively sharing information, compliance with medical requirements, interacting with staff, maintaining a healthy diet, interacting with others who receive treatment, and maintaining a good physical appearance—yields positive gains for both customer and marketing outcomes. In contrast, an increase in emotion regulation negatively affects customer outcomes.

International Journal of Educational Management, Aug 22, 2019

Purpose In recent times, many universities have been pressured to become heavily involved in univ... more Purpose In recent times, many universities have been pressured to become heavily involved in university branding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ perceptions of different international universities (brands) in terms of important university attributes, including the country in which the university’s main campus is located and educational programs are designed (COD) and the method by which the educational services are distributed internationally (DM). Design/methodology/approach Using a conjoint simulation procedure, this paper predicts the impact that university attributes have on Malaysian and Chinese students’ preferences for international universities. Findings The results suggest that, although COD and DM are important factors, the extent to which these factors dominate student preference differs significantly across students according to nationality. Research limitations/implications The simulation suggests how international universities can improve their branding strategies, and highlights the need to understand students’ preferences when developing marketing strategies. Originality/value Past research has compared the importance of university attributes across countries from the perspective of students, but failed to assess this issue in the light of existing university brands (at an institutional or country level). Such knowledge can provide an indication of student preferences and competitive performance, which are of great interest to education marketers. The present study predicts the impact of various university attributes on Malaysian and Chinese students’ preferences for specific international universities (brands) in four different countries, and changes in preference that occur when the style of delivery or course suitability is altered.

Australasian Marketing Journal (amj), Dec 1, 1998

This study examines the dual effect of country-of-origin (in terms of the country of source or ma... more This study examines the dual effect of country-of-origin (in terms of the country of source or manufacture and country of brand) on Australian consumer evaluations of uni-national and bi-national products. The product selected for this study was an apparel item, a shirt, which can be described as a relatively low involvement product category. The country of manufacture was found to have a dominant influence on product evaluations, suggesting that product quality perceptions generated by the brand do not compensate for the effect on image when production is sourced in less developed countries. Strategic implications are discussed.

Journal of Service Research, Aug 20, 2016

This article investigates the professional service provider’s role in the customer resource integ... more This article investigates the professional service provider’s role in the customer resource integration process for value creation, by drawing on research in the areas of resource integration, service experience, and role theory. Roles are flexible, in that behaviors associated with a role may vary according to the situation, expectations, and learned behaviors of the actors involved. In the context of professional service providers who support a customer’s resource integration, these role variations accordingly can be termed resource integration styles. Grounded in managerial practice, the current study relies on in-depth interviews to determine the styles that professional service providers use to support customer resource integration in a financial planning setting. The proposed typology of five styles (delegate, mentor, partner, coach, and validator), termed professional service providers’ resource integration styles (PRO-RIS), can be described by eight resource integration activity dimensions: participation ratio, frequency of interaction, deliberation, decision-making, updating, educating, connecting, and motivating. This research thus provides rich qualitative insights into how professional service providers can support customers’ resource integration processes, through the provision of appropriate resources. Notably, professional service providers can offer distinct benefits by varying the combination of resources provided to facilitate value creation. No single, best style exists; professional service providers should leverage the various styles described by PRO-RIS and adapt the eight resource integration activities as needed to support their customers.

Psychology & Marketing, 2006

Abstract With the proliferation of products and brands in the marketplace, brand personality has ... more Abstract With the proliferation of products and brands in the marketplace, brand personality has emerged as an important means of brand differentiation and thus of increasing consumer preference. However, little research has investigated this important construct, ...

Australasian Marketing Journal (amj), Jun 1, 2007

The Service Dominant Logic has generated a great deal of debate in the marketing domain, in parti... more The Service Dominant Logic has generated a great deal of debate in the marketing domain, in particular within services marketing. However, the logic is still in its infancy, thus there is a raft of questions and issues relating to its relationship with other paradigms, its further conceptualisation and its measurement. These points are briefly addressed in this paper. The paper concludes that the paradigm may be more appropriate in some contexts than others and that a multi-paradigm approach is required in most cases. Focussing on the central S-D logic tenet of customers coproducing the service, thus cocreating value, evidence is presented from two consumer research projects on customer empowerment and customer participation that may assist in future operationalisation of the S-D logic.

Journal of Service Research, Mar 22, 2013

Although frontline customer service employees play a vital role in many firms, their part in serv... more Although frontline customer service employees play a vital role in many firms, their part in service delivery is often underappreciated. The interaction between frontline employees and customers creates an impression of what is to come in the service experience. A key question is whether this interaction spills over to other unrelated aspects of the business. We conduct a quasi-experiment across two medical clinics, one of which had its frontline employees trained to improve their interpersonal skills. We find that not only does the training create positive perceptions of the service provided by frontline employees, but also increases perceptions of service quality attributes not related to these employees. That is, customer perceptions of the interpersonal skills of frontline employees “spillover” to other service quality attributes. However, this spillover effect does not impact all service attributes uniformly; rather, it is restricted to only credence attributes which customers find difficult to evaluate. We term this a selective halo effect. This finding demonstrates that customer perceptions of the interpersonal skills of frontline employees extend well beyond the range in which they perform their expected duties. Our article builds on attribute evaluability theory and information economic theory by demonstrating the existence of a selective halo effect. Further, we develop a classification system that managers can use to predict which attributes are most likely to be influenced by a selective halo effect. We encourage managers to think of frontline employees as “barometers of the business,” and to invest in continued training for these key personnel.

Journal of Service Research, Aug 1, 2006

Understanding the contribution of marketing to economic and social outcomes is fundamental to bro... more Understanding the contribution of marketing to economic and social outcomes is fundamental to broadening the focus of marketing. The authors develop a comprehensive model that integrates the impact of service quality and service satisfaction on both economic and societal outcomes. The model is validated using two random samples involving intensive health services. The results indicate that service quality and service satisfaction significantly enhance quality of life and behavioral intentions, highlighting that customer service has social as well as economic outcomes. This is an important finding given the movement toward recognizing social and environmental outcomes, such as emphasized through triple bottom-line reporting. The findings have important implications for managing service processes, for improving the quality of life of customers, and for enhancing customers' behavioral intentions toward the organization.