Effects of retail employees' behaviours on customers' service evaluation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test a conceptual model of the effects of customer and service orientation (SO) behaviours of individual retail employees on individual customers’ perceptions of service encounter quality (SEQ), service quality (SQ), value, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions (BI). Design/methodology/approach – The sample (n ¼ 271) was customers of a supermarket in central India, and they completed questionnaires following mall intercept. To test the hypotheses, structural equation modelling using LISREL 8.7 was employed. Findings – It was found that: service and customer orientation (CO) behaviours are positively related to SEQ and SQ; SEQ is positively related to SQ and customer satisfaction; SQ is positively related to value perceptions and customer satisfaction; and customer satisfaction is positively related to retail customers’ BI. However, value is not related to customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – More research is needed on customer perceptions of value in non-Western contexts and service evaluation frameworks in other cross-cultural contexts. Practical implications – Retail managers need to train or select retail personnel who are able to perform their roles in a service-oriented and customer-oriented way, and value does not appear to be as important to Indian retail customers as it is to Western retail customers. Originality/value – This paper extends current service evaluation frameworks by including SO and CO as antecedents, and it analyses an Indian retail context. Keywords India, Retailing, Customer satisfaction, Service levels, Employee behaviour.

Herman Chinery-Hesse:the Bill Gates of Ghana?

Herman Chinery-Hesse considers his plans for a new venture, a virtual mall that would enable African producers to sell their products worldwide through a new international payment system based on mobile phones and pre-paid scratch cards. In 2010, his operating company, Black Star Lines (BSL) Ghana Ltd is considering plans to launch shopAfrica53.com, and associated payment and distribution services in Ghana and the UK. This case teaches new approaches to poverty reduction through the realisation of entrepreneurial opportunities at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) and is suitable for courses on social enterprise, entrepreneurship in general, and development studies seeking to incorporate more private sector approaches. It can also be adapted for courses such as international strategy or technology business.