• Korean small business review
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.19-37
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this research is to explore differences between small and medium-sized companies and large-sized companies in the impact of human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. Although learning orientation has long been considered as a key factor influencing good performance of a business, little research was devoted to exploring the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. In this study, it is investigated whether there is a synergy effect between innovative human workforce and learning orientation corporate culture, in addition to each by itself, to generate good business performance as well as a success of new innovations in the market. Research hypotheses were as follows, including H1) human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and interactions of HRI and LO(HRI-LO interaction) positively affect innovation effect, H2) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect between large-sized and small-sized companies, H3) HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect positively affect business performance, and H4) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, and innovation effect on business performance between large-sized and small-sized companies. Data were obtained from 479 practitioners through a web survey since the web survey is an efficient method to collect a national data at a variety of fields. A single respondent from a company was allowed to participate in the study after checking whether they have more than 5-year work experiences in the company. To check whether a common source bias is existed in the sample, additional data from a convenient sample of 97 companies were gathered through the traditional survey method, and were used to confirm correlations between research variables of the original sample and the additional sample. Data were divided into two groups according to company size, such as 352 small and medium-sized companies with less than 300 employees and 127 large-sized companies with 300 or more employees. Data were analyzed through t-test and regression analyses. HRI which is the innovativeness of human resources in the company was measured with 9 items assessing the innovativenss of practitioners in staff, manager, and executive-level positions. LO is the company's effort to encourage employees' development, sharing, and utilizing of knowledge through consistent learning. LO was measured by 18 items assessing commitment to learning, vision sharing, and open-mindedness. Innovation effect which assesses a success of new products/services in the market, was measured with 3 items. Business performance was measured by respondents' evaluations on profitability, sales increase, market share, and general business performance, compared to other companies in the same field. All items were measured by using 6-point Likert scales. Means of multiple items measuring a construct were used as variables based on acceptable reliability and validity. To reduce multi-collinearity problems generated on the regression analysis of interaction terms, centered data were used for HRI, LO, and Innovation effect on regression analyses. In group comparison, large-sized companies were superior on annual sales, annual net profit, the number of new products/services in the last 3 years, the number of new processes advanced in the last 3 years, and the number of R&D personnel, compared to small and medium-sized companies. Also, large-sized companies indicated a higher level of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect and business performance than did small and medium-sized companies. The results indicate that large-sized companies tend to have more innovative human resources and invest more on learning orientation than did small-sized companies, therefore, large-sized companies tend to have more success of a new product/service in the market, generating better business performance. In order to test research hypotheses, a series of multiple-regression analysis was conducted. In the regression analysis examining the impact on innovation effect, important results were generated as : 1) HRI, LO, and HRI-LO affected innovation effect, and 2) company size indicated a moderating effect. Based on the result, the impact of HRI on innovation effect would be greater in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies whereas the impact of LO on innovation effect would be greater in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. In other words, innovative workforce would be more important in making new products/services that would be successful in the market for small and medium-sized companies than for large-sized companies. Otherwise, learning orientation culture would be more effective in making successful products/services for large-sized companies than for small and medium-sized companies. Based on these results, research hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported. In the analysis of a regression examining the impact on business performance, important results were generated as : 1) innovation effect, LO, and HRI-LO affected business performance, 2) HRI by itself did not have a direct effect on business performance regardless of company size, and 3) company size indicated a moderating effect. Specifically, an effect of the HRI-LO interaction on business performance was stronger in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. It means that the synergy effect of innovative human resources and learning orientation culture tends to be stronger as company is larger. Referring to these result, research hypothesis 3 was partially supported whereas hypothesis 4 was supported. Based on research results, implications for companies were generated. Regardless of company size, companies need to develop the learning orientation corporate culture as well as human resources' innovativeness together in order to achieve successful development of innovative products and services as well as to improve sales and profits. However, the effectiveness of the HRI-LO interaction would be varied by company size. Specifically, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was stronger to make a success of new products/services in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies. However, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was more effective to increase business performance of large-sized companies than that of small and medium-sized companies. In the case of small and medium-sized companies, business performance was achieved more through the success of new products/services than much directly affected by HRI-LO. The most meaningful result of this study is that the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance was confirmed. It was often ignored in the previous research. Also, it was found that the innovativeness of human workforce would not directly influence in generating good business performance, however, innovative human resources would indirectly affect making good business performance by contributing to achieving the development of new products/services that would be successful in the market. These findings would provide valuable managerial implications specifically in regard to the development of corporate culture and education program of small and medium-sized as well as large-sized companies in a variety of fields.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.111-137
• /
• 2010

The basic purpose of this study is to investigate perceived quality and service personal value affecting the result of long-term relationship between service buyers and suppliers. This research presented a constructive model(perceived quality affecting the service personal value and the moderate effect of NFC) in the on off line and then propose the research model base on prior researches and studies about relationships among components of service. Data were gathered from respondents who visit at the education service market. For this study, Data were analyzed by AMOS 7.0. We integrate the literature on services marketing with researches on personal values and perceived quality. The SERPVAL scale presented here allows for the creation of a common ground for assessing service personal values, giving a clear understanding of the key value dimensions behind service choice and usage. It will lead to a focus of future research in services marketing, extending knowledge in the field and stimulating further empirical research on service personal values. At the managerial level, as a tool the SERPVAL scale should allow practitioners to evaluate and improve the value of a service, and consequently, to define strategies and actions to address services for customers based on their fundamental personal values. Through qualitative and empirical research, we find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a second-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has two subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. Although the service personal value may be found in researches that explore individual values and their consequences for consumer behavior, there is no established operationalization of a SERPVAL scale. The inexistence of an established scale, duly adapted in order to understand and analyze personal values behind services usage, exposes the need of a measurement scale with such a purpose. This need has to be rooted, however, in a conceptualization of the construct being scaled. Service personal values can be defined as a customer's overall assessment of the use of a service based on the perception of what is achieved in terms of his own personal values. As consumer behaviors serve to show an individual's values, the use of a service can also be a way to fulfill and demonstrate consumers'personal values. In this sense, a service can provide more to the customer than its concrete and abstract attributes at both the attribute and the quality levels, and more than its functional consequences at the value level. Both values and services literatures agree, that personal value is the highest-level concept, followed by instrumental values, attitudes and finally by product attributes. Purchasing behaviors are agreed to be the end result of these concepts' interaction, with personal values taking a major role in the final decision process. From both consumers' and practitioners' perspectives, values are extremely relevant, as they are desirable goals that serve as guiding principles in people's lives. While building on previous research, we propose to assess service personal values through three broad groups of individual dimensions; at the self-oriented level, we use (1) service value to peaceful life (SVPL) and, at the social-oriented level, we use (2) service value to social recognition (SVSR), and (3) service value to social integration (SVSI). Service value to peaceful life is our first dimension. This dimension emerged as a combination of values coming from the RVS scale, a scale built specifically to assess general individual values. If a service promotes a pleasurable life, brings or improves tranquility, safety and harmony, then its user recognizes the value of this service. Generally, this service can improve the user's pleasure of life, since it protects or defends the consumer from threats to life or pressures on it. While building upon both the LOV scale, a scale built specifically to assess consumer values, and the RVS scale for individual values, we develop the other two dimensions: SVSR and SVSI. The roles of social recognition and social integration to improve service personal value have been seriously neglected. Social recognition derives its outcome utility from its predictive utility. When applying this underlying belief to our second dimension, SVSR, we assume that people use a service while taking into consideration the content of what is delivered. Individuals consider whether the service aids in gaining respect from others, social recognition and status, as well as whether it allows achieving a more fulfilled and stimulating life, which might then be revealed to others. People also tend to engage in behavior that receives social recognition and to avoid behavior that leads to social disapproval, and this contributes to an individual's social integration. This leads us to the third dimension, SVSI, which is based on the fact that if the consumer perceives that a service strengthens friendships, provides the possibility of becoming more integrated in the group, or promotes better relationships at the social, professional or family levels, then the service will contribute to social integration, and naturally the individual will recognize personal value in the service. Most of the research in business values deals with individual values. However, to our knowledge, no study has dealt with assessing overall personal values as well as their dimensions in a service context. Our final results show that the scales adapted from the Schwartz list were excluded. A possible explanation is that although Schwartz builds on Rokeach work in order to explore individual values, its dimensions might be especially focused on analyzing societal values. As we are looking for individual dimensions, this might explain why the values inspired by the Schwartz list were excluded from the model. The hierarchical structure of the final scale presented in this paper also presents theoretical implications. Although we cannot claim to definitively capture the dimensions of service personal values, we believe that we come close to capturing these overall evaluations because the second-order factor extracts the underlying commonality among dimensions. In addition to obtaining respondents' evaluations of the dimensions, the second-order factor model captures the common variance among these dimensions, reflecting the respondents' overall assessment of service personal values. Towards this fact, we expect that the service personal values conceptualization and measurement scale presented here contributes to both business values literature and the service marketing field, allowing for the delineation of strategies for adding value to services. This new scale also presents managerial implications. The SERPVAL dimensions give some guidance on how to better pursue a highly service-oriented business strategy. Indeed, the SERPVAL scale can be used for benchmarking purposes, as this scale can be used to identify whether or not a firms' marketing strategies are consistent with consumers' expectations. Managerial assessment of the personal values of a service might be extremely important because it allows managers to better understand what customers want or value. Thus, this scale allows us to identify what services are really valuable to the final consumer; providing knowledge for making choices regarding which services to include. Traditional approaches have focused their attention on service attributes (as quality) and service consequences(as service value), but personal values may be an important set of variables to be considered in understanding what attracts consumers to a certain service. By using the SERPVAL scale to assess the personal values associated with a services usage, managers may better understand the reasons behind services' usage, so that they may handle them more efficiently. While testing nomological validity, our empirical findings demonstrate that the three SERPVAL dimensions are positively and significantly associated with satisfaction. Additionally, while service value to social integration is related only with loyalty, service value to peaceful life is associated with both loyalty and repurchase intent. It is also interesting and surprising that service value to social recognition appears not to be significantly linked with loyalty and repurchase intent. A possible explanation is that no mobile service provider has yet emerged in the market as a luxury provider. All of the Portuguese providers are still trying to capture market share by means of low-end pricing. This research has implications for consumers as well. As more companies seek to build relationships with their customers, consumers are easily able to examine whether these relationships provide real value or not to their own lives. The selection of a strategy for a particular service depends on its customers' personal values. Being highly customer-oriented means having a strong commitment to customers, trying to create customer value and understanding customer needs. Enhancing service distinctiveness in order to provide a peaceful life, increase social recognition and gain a better social integration are all possible strategies that companies may pursue, but the one to pursue depends on the outstanding personal values held by the service customers. Data were gathered from 284 respondents in the korean discount store and online shopping mall market. This research proposed 3 hypotheses on 6 latent variables and tested through structural equation modeling. 6 alternative measurements were compared through statistical significance test of the 6 paths of research model and the overall fitting level of structural equation model. and the result was successful. and Perceived quality more positively influences service personal value when NFC is high than when no NFC is low in the off-line market. The results of the study indicate that service quality is properly modeled as an antecedent of service personal value. We consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations. In sum, by knowing the dimensions a consumer takes into account when choosing a service, a better understanding of purchasing behaviors may be realized, guiding managers toward customers expectations. By defining strategies and actions that address potential problems with the service personal values, managers might ultimately influence their firm's performance. we expect to contribute to both business values and service marketing literatures through the development of the service personal value. At a time when marketing researchers are challenged to provide research with practical implications, it is also believed that this framework may be used by managers to pursue service-oriented business strategies while taking into consideration what customers value.