دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی کارمند فعال در طبقه فروشگاه و تاثیر بر رضایت مشتری - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

The present study examines employee proactivity (i.e., the employee initiates face-to-face contact with the customer on the floor of the store) and its impact on customer satisfaction. Two empirical studies (one survey and one field experiment) were conducted in a grocery retailing context. Both studies showed that employee proactivity boosted customer satisfaction. Moreover, the impact of employee proactivity on satisfaction was sequentially mediated by perceived employee effort and perceived employee performance. In relation to previous studies showing that many characteristics and behaviors of the employee in the service encounter influence the customer, the present study contributes by adding that the way in which the service encounter begins is causally potent, too.

5. General discussion

5.1. Contributions

The findings in the present study should be seen in the light of previous research documenting that copious characteristics and behaviors of employees influence customers in service encounters. Employee proactivity in a no service failure situation, and in terms of initiating a service encounter, however, has been an under-researched issue. Therefore, the findings add an additional employee variable – employee proactivity – to the portfolio of employee behaviors with implications for the customer's overall evaluation of a firm. The findings also contribute to the literature on employee proactivity in organization theory (e.g., Grant and Ashford, 2008; Thomas et al., 2010) by providing evidence regarding the effects of proactive employee behavior in the service encounter. Evidence for a positive employee proactivity–customer satisfaction link at the firm level has been provided by Raub and Liao (2012), and the present study complements that attempt by providing additional explanations and mediating variables at the customer level of analysis – and by examining the specific case of proactivity in initiating service encounters. In addition, given that employee proactivity requires empowerment, the present study adds to the empowerment literature, in which it is assumed that empowered employees will generate prosocial customer-oriented behavior (Peccei and Rosenthal, 2001).