determinants of customer satisfaction: a model of technology integration in thailand’s insurance...
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Determinants of Customer Satisfaction: A Model of Technology Integration in Thailand’s Insurance Industry
Ms. Ravipa Larpsiri Department of Marketing
Sripatum University 61 Phaholyothin Road
Bangkok, Thailand [email protected]
Dr. Mark Speece School of Management
Asian Institute of Technology Bangkok, Thailand [email protected]
Submitted to
ASIA ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT FOURTH CONFERENCE “Moving Forward: Leading Asia in a New Era”
Shanghai, China
December 16-18, 2004
Determinants of Customer Satisfaction: A Model of Technology Integration in Thailand’s Insurance Industry
Abstract Adoption of technology can aid salespeople by giving them quicker access to better information, particularly when interacting with customers. Although academic research has begun to examine sales force automation (SFA), the understanding from the customer viewpoint is still vague. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to examine the influence of SFA technology integration on both salespeople and external customer satisfaction. Technology integration is probably quite important in the relationship-based cultures of Asia, where customers are strongly familiar with interpersonal service. The specific context of the discussion here is Thailand’s life insurance industry.
Keywords: Technology Integration, Customer Satisfaction, Thailand, Insurance
Introduction
Research in the sales literature has increasingly recognized that using IT as a distribution
channel and medium of interaction is becoming a critical issue among practitioners (Gilbert
and Powell, 1999; Glynn, 1997). Companies which use IT well can gain advantages, while
organizations which do not learn and adapt to changing technology can face painful
competition. However, integrating technology can require substantial re-thinking of the exact
nature of customer relationships (Zineldin, 2000).
Some observers question whether technology can fully replace interpersonal
relationships in financial services, even in the West (e.g., Howcroft and Durkin, 2000). In
Asian countries, the strength of human relationships is much greater than in the West, and
customers place even more value on strong relationships in business. For example, key
account managers of banks operating in Hong Kong view a whole set of social interactions as
quite important in facilitating information exchange for building and maintaining customer
relationships (So and Speece, 2000). Thus, technology may need to integrate into
relationships, rather than replace them, as Srijumpa et al. (2002) hint.
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For high-level financial services, it is frequently difficult to separate technology from
the relationship between firms and their customers. Thus, the impact of technology on
customer satisfaction in the service interaction is a critical area of research. The context of
this discussion is the insurance industry, but the issues seem highly relevant for any high
level financial service, and many other services, where the customer interaction is critical.
The insurance industry in Thailand has shown very strong growth, and even fared well during
the economic downturn. However, IT usage in the industry is behind most of the developed
world, as in most developing countries, and thus, SFA implementation is relatively new.
Exactly how the salesperson uses such technology could have a big impact on how
customers perceive it. Thus, examining internal and external customer perceptions will
require attention to technology integration – the extent to which the technology is integrated
into interpersonal relationships, rather than substituting for them. Hence, organizations will
likely have to understand their salespeople’s and customers’ perceptions and adapt
technology implementation to those perceptions.
Therefore, this discussion contributes some awareness to both academics and
practitioners by proposing a conceptual framework for exploring the impact of technology
integration in SFA implementations on internal customer (salespeople) and external customer
satisfaction. Such understanding is especially critical in an Asian developing country context
such as Thailand, where customers embrace less technology in their daily lives and
interpersonal relationships are more important than in most developed Western countries.
Technology Integration
Technology has become one of the key forces driving the competitive process.
Although the future trend is likely to be towards more technology in the service encounter,
research is just beginning to pay more attention to careful evaluation of these technology-
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based service encounters (Joseph et al., 1999). The importance of understanding technology
implementation is indicated by frequent research findings that business cannot compete on
technology alone. For example, Powell and Dent-Micallef (1997) revealed that IT alone has
not produced sustainable performance advantages, but firms have gained advantages by using
IT to leverage intangible, complementary human and business resources, such as flexible
cultures, strategic planning – IT integration, and supplier relationships. Similarly, Sohal et al.
(2001) show that IT as a stand-alone resource does not create advantage. Technology alone
is not sufficient to ensure competitive advantage, partly because of its fast evolution.
Even though the trend toward technology-based services is increasing in some
developing countries, the lack of detailed knowledge about how customers feel about
emerging technology services could set companies up for failure. While some developing
Asian countries are making the transition to a higher technology environment, service firms
that have rushed to take humans out of the customer interaction might be causing their
customers to be dissatisfied with the self service technology (Srijumpa et al., 2002).
Some observers of internet marketing argue that integrating the internet into
marketing competencies can play an important role in enhancing the productivity and
effectiveness of the sales force (Kalokota and Whinston, 1997). Such integration is related to
another issue of technology-based service encounters that must acknowledged. In the context
of the sales force, using the technology depends partly on the perceptions of the technology
users, i.e., salespeople, who must integrate technology into their interactions with their
customers and assess its impact on their customers’ satisfaction.
Recent research on financial services in Thailand has found that despite the preference
of some customers to interact with humans rather than technology-based services, they may
have negative attitudes towards human interaction if they lack confidence in the service
providers. But while some small proportion of customers prefer technology-based services to
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interpersonal ones, they always have the option to revert to the interpersonal encounter when
they wish (Srijumpa et al., 2002).
The situation is similar among corporate banking customers – even when corporate
customers use internet banking services they continue to conduct the majority of their
transactions interpersonally (Rotchanakittumnuai, 2004; Rotchanakitumnuai and Speece,
2003). In general, many customers may simultaneously have both technology and human
orientation, which affects how they evaluate service encounters (Srijumpa, 2002). Therefore,
firms can gain competitive advantage by integrating both interpersonal and technology
services to attract such people.
Despite beginning recognition that how technology is used in marketing and the sales
force is critical, almost no research has been devoted to examining the issue of technology
integration. The potential benefits of integrating the internet (including intranets and extranets)
into marketing have been described anecdotally (e.g., lower cost, quality, product variety,
customer service), but empirical examination of the impact of integration is rare (Prasad et al.,
2001). A major premise of this discussion is that integration of the technology into sales force
activities and interpersonal interactions, i.e., with the salespeople, would leverage the
influence of salespeople and ultimately directly influence customer satisfaction. Thus, we
can define the degree of technology integration as the degree to which salespeople use
technology when interacting personally with customers in their sales activities. Technology
used in other contexts (e.g., in the office for routine work) is not included.
Customer Satisfaction
Quite a lot of research has shown that service performance has a direct impact on
customer satisfaction, particularly in the high-involvement situation (e.g., Churchill and
Surprenant, 1982; Patterson, 1993). Sometimes also much satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) is
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with the service encounter, as services are partly defined by the encounter, so that the service
provider influences satisfaction. Salespeople are some of the key front line employees, so
understanding the performance of salespeople is important in understanding customer
satisfaction. Salespeople’s interaction with their customers plays a key role in organizational
success or failure (Schultz and Good, 2000), and customer satisfaction is a critical
performance indicator (Adsit et al., 1996). Simply assessing sales volume and/or market
share is not sufficient for thinking about how to retain customers or enhance the customer
relationship in a highly competitive marketplace.
Hence, successful service firms would focus their attention on both their customers
and their employees, since the employees are the people who interact with customers and
provide customer satisfaction. Piercy (1992) states that many organizations have increasingly
recognized the need to view service personnel as customers, and to focus on both internal and
external customer satisfaction. Thus, the front-line service employees would be viewed as
internal customers in order to enhance efficient customer contact.
In summary, to determine whether the SFA systems implementation works well, one
extremely important task is to investigate the attitudes of salespeople who use the SFA
technology. In addition, if service firms employ the SFA system during the seller-buyer
interaction, salespeople satisfaction toward using SFA can become a critical factor in external
customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction with service encounters with the salespeople
will depend partly on the technology they see directly, and also partly on the attitude of the
salespeople who are using the technology in the interaction.
Internal Customer Satisfaction (Individual Salespeople)
According to the internal marketing perspective, if the service organization wants its
contact employees to do a great job with its customers, it must be prepared to do a great job
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with its employees (George, 1990). Schneider (1980) found evidence that job satisfaction is a
primary reason that employees deliver quality service. The attitude of the employee is a
crucial factor in the performance of the customer-oriented company, not only in offering the
basic product but also in offering all extra services (Vranesevic et al., 2002). Thus, sales
force acceptance would seem to be critical for successful implementation of SFA systems in
many service industries, and usage of SFA does have an impact on sales performance.
Attitudes towards information technology among salespeople need to be better understood
since they are the main people to interact with external customers and they play a key role in
the external customer relationship.
Keillor et al. (1997) found positive attitudes among salespeople toward using
technology, which were measured and compared with level of experience and sales
productivity. Both less and more experienced salespeople agreed that using computers as a
part of their jobs made them more competitive and productive, and they perceived that
computers are a viable means of interacting with customers. They also generally agreed that
SFA technology contributes to their job satisfaction.
Salespeople are satisfied with their higher sales performance when modern computer
technology allows them to produce more professional presentations, to provide more up-to-
date data and analysis for customers, and to improve the “professional image” of the sales
team (Engle and Barnes, 2000). Consequently, particularly in service industries, SFA
technology can enable salespeople to improve service productivity and responsiveness as
they interact with customers. Thus, implementing SFA technology in the sales force would
not only enhance the level of internal customer satisfaction, but also external customer
satisfaction. Customers would be influenced since salespeople could achieve customization
and flexibility, improve service recovery, and provide spontaneous delight to their customers
with SFA technology (Bitner et al., 2000).
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External Customer Satisfaction
In a highly competitive environment, the ability to retain satisfied customers
represents a tremendous competitive advantage for any sales organization. Sales effort which
emphasizes relationship building is more likely to generate satisfied customers (Kelley, 1992).
Technology, if it helps salespeople interact more effectively with their customers, can have
an impact on customer relationships and external customer satisfaction.
Both interpersonal interactions and self service technologies (SSTs) have their
strengths and also weaknesses. In Asian cultures, customers are more strongly familiar with
interpersonal service, and cultural values favor interpersonal relationships more strongly than
in the West, but some elements of interpersonal service interaction still cause customer
dissatisfaction (Srijumpa et al., 2002). In other words, interpersonal interaction alone is
frequently not sufficient, even in a strongly human relationship oriented Asian culture, to
fully meet customer needs and requests and respond to service failures, so that satisfaction is
maximized and dissatisfaction is minimized.
Similarly, even though technology-based services play a critical role in this digital era,
technology alone is frequently not sufficient to fully gain customer satisfaction. Even in the
West, Bitner et al. (2000) have pointed out that it is a dangerous strategy to force customers
to use technology in the service encounter without other viable options. Most Thai customers,
even if they are comfortable with technology, would switch service suppliers if forced onto
the technology alone. In high level financial services such as insurance, much of the
relationship with the company comes from trust in the salesperson (e.g., Rajatanavin and
Speece, 2004). For online stock brokerage services, the lack of human interaction is one
important determinant of customer dissatisfaction (Srijumpa et al., 2002).
However, drivers of satisfaction / dissatisfaction are somewhat different in human vs.
technology based interactions (Moutinho and Smith, 2000; Srijumpa et al, 2002). Thus,
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strengths of one could offset weaknesses of the other. Srijumpa (2002) discusses how
integrating the internet channel and the interpersonal interactions could enhance satisfaction
drivers for both interpersonal and SST interactions, and solve some limitations of each,
reducing dissatisfaction. With SFA technology, the technology is already mostly integrated
from the customer perspective, so it should be able to enhance sources of satisfaction and
reduce sources of dissatisfaction. Thus, if contact employees integrate the SFA into their
interpersonal interactions well, the technology could enhance perceptions that the salespeople
are competent and customer oriented, while reducing the level of customer dissatisfaction
with service delivery failures that come from the interpersonal side.
For example, in insurance sales, some customers do not trust technology to process
their money, so they might prefer to interact with humans directly in transactions involving
money transfer. In Thailand, the insurance salespeople might go to see the customers, who
prefer to pay the policy payment directly to the salesperson they trust. (This is still common
in Thailand, although payment at banks for deposit into the insurance company account is
more common.) With SFA, the insurance salesperson can immediately enter the payment
into the system when it is received, i.e., the integrated technology becomes a positive element
enhancing the interpersonal interaction, rather than a negative as in a stand-alone SSTs.
Conceptual Framework Development
This review has so far summarized the key concept of technology integration and
looked at satisfaction of both the external customers and internal customers – the salespeople.
These are the basis of the conceptual model proposed here. Beyond this core part of the
model, the moderating influence of technology readiness must be examined. Customers are
different in how they perceive technology, as well as in their willingness to interact with
technology. Hence, understanding the perceptions of both internal and external customers
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toward technology is a challenge, since it may influence how much or how little the degree of
technology integration influences the internal and external customer satisfactions.
Degree of Technology Integration and Salespeople Satisfaction.
Some of the major benefits that salespeople perceive from SFA systems
implementation are that it gives them quicker access to better information, particularly when
initiating customer contact (Engle and Barnes, 2000), as well as increases effectiveness
through better customer targeting, time management, and call planning (Weeks and Kahle,
1990). A coherent management policy to integrate SFA technology also contributes to the
salespeople’s ability to be customer oriented, because the system supports customer
orientation. Then, of course, customer oriented salespeople are more likely to be more
satisfied when they integrate SFA technology during interactions with their customers,
because customers like customer oriented salespeople better.
In other words, a higher degree of technology integration should lead to higher
salespeople satisfaction. The salespeople will feel that they are doing a better job when they
are able to integrate the technology more. Presumably degree of technology integration may
enhance the level of satisfaction of salespeople, thus:
H1: The greater the degree of technology integration by the salesperson, the higher the
salesperson satisfaction with his/her job.
Internal Customers (Salespeople) and External Customer Satisfaction
Berry and Parasuraman (1991) suggest that in understanding customer satisfaction,
organizations should consider customer expectations, how customers perceive service
delivery relative to these expectations, and whether this confirms their expectations or not.
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Since most of the service which is easily visible to the customer is delivered during the
customer interaction, this satisfaction is highly dependent on the service interaction. The
quality of the customer and salesperson interaction, as perceived by the buyer, is important in
determining customer satisfaction.
Critical incident research, for example, has shown that when customers are confronted
with pleasant, unexpected actions, the result is high levels of customer satisfaction (Bitner,
1990; Bitner et al., 1990). Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction act on each other
as cause and effect (Vranesevic et al., 2002). Ryan and Schmit (1993) found that customer
satisfaction was positively related to employee perceptions of a manageable workload, lower
stress, and opportunities for training and development.
Piercy (1995) suggests the need to further investigate the internal market aspects of
the customer satisfaction issue, and to examine how to use internal marketing as an
operational approach to handle the implementation issues implicit in external customer
satisfaction. Salespeople are internal customers – they must be satisfied with the technology
integration system if it is to be used well. Generally, salespeople have the most direct contact
with the customer, and, as noted, the satisfaction of internal service personnel affects external
customer satisfaction. Salespeople who are satisfied in their jobs are also happy to provide
services to customers, which leads to enhanced customer satisfaction as well.
H2: The greater the salespeople satisfaction with their jobs, the higher the levels of customer
satisfaction which will be achieved.
Degree of Technology Integration and External Customer Satisfaction
The interactive nature of many sales technology applications may also enhance the
relationship process through customer empowerment (Keillor et al., 1997). The increasing
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role of technology can provide substantial benefits for customers, but only if implemented
well and if customers like dealing with the firm through technology. In SFA applications,
though, the customer can gain many of the benefits without dealing directly with the
technology. The degree to which technology is integrated into sales force activities can
therefore influence the satisfaction level of external customers.
Customers are greatly satisfied with unexpected elements of a service encounter if the
service employee pays special attention to the customer without having been requested
(Bitner et al., 1990; Bitner et al., 1994). Customers could derive their satisfaction from
interacting with salespeople who have integrated technology into their sales activities. Hence,
integrating the technology into the human service encounter is likely to enhance the level of
customer satisfaction.
H3: The degree of technology integration will positively influence external customer
satisfaction.
These elements are fundamental issues in thinking about SFA systems. However,
one additional elementmust be included in the proposed model: technology readiness, which
is about customer perceptions toward technology.” Some people like technology quite a lot,
some do not, and these attitudes are likely to affect the nature of the relationship between
technology integration and satisfaction for both internal and external customers.
Technology Readiness in Service Industries
In general, customers have different views in how they perceive technology and in
their willingness to interact with technology (e.g., Mick and Fournier; 1998; Parasuraman,
2000), as do salespeople (Parthasarathy and Sohi, 1997). Hence, understanding customer and
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salespeople perceptions toward SFA technology in the salespeople – customer interaction is a
challenge to the present study, necessary for better conceptualization of the issues here.
On the practical level, understanding perceptions toward technology is also important
in managing implementation of SFA systems. There is evidence of increasing frustration
among both internal and external customers in dealing with technology-based systems.
Technology can facilitate feelings of intelligence or efficacy, but it can also lead to feelings
of ignorance or ineptitude (Mick and Fournier, 1998). Consequently, internal and external
customers may have positive and / or negative feelings about technology.
Parasuraman (2000) has proposed the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) to measure
such customer perceptions of technology. The TRI is a multiple-item scale that companies
can use to gain an in-depth understanding of the beliefs and attitudes toward technology
which indicate readiness among customers (both internal and external) to interact with
technology. Parasuraman (2000) defined technology readiness as people’s propensity to
embrace and use new technologies for accomplishing goals in home life and at work. In his
conceptualization of TR, customer perceptions of technology fall into four broad dimensions:
optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity.
Each customer has a different level of willingness to embrace and use new
technologies, resulting from interaction between drivers (optimism, innovativeness) and
inhibitors (discomfort, insecurity) of technology readiness. When customers’ net perception
of technology is positive, they will use technology more than they did in the past. These
optimistic and innovative customers (internal and external) enjoy using technology since it
allows them to be more effective and/or efficient in their jobs and personal lives. On the other
hand, pessimistic internal and external customers want to see the benefits to technology
proved before they make a decision to use it. Many pessimistic customers believe that the
benefits of new technologies are often overstated. Such customers who perceive technology
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negatively may prefer to deal with interpersonal services rather than use SSTs in business
transactions (Srijumpa, 2002).
Technology Readiness of Internal Customers
Though advances in IT have resulted in important changes for all functional areas in
service firms for several years, there has not been very extensive examination of determinants
and degree of technology acceptance by employees who directly implement technology (e.g.,
Davis 1989; Venkatesh and Davis 1996). In a sales context, a Singapore survey shows that
salespeople believe IT is important for many applications in interaction with customers, but
the strength of this belief depends on which product categories their firm is most involved in
(Speece, 2000). Parthasarathy and Sohi (1997) show that less experienced salespeople would
be more accepting of changes toward computer technology than experienced and traditional
salespeople. Higher performance salespeople were more likely to feel that technology can
make them more competitive and productive.
Technology Readiness of External Customers
Many observers view information technology as a strategic resource that facilitates
major changes in competitive behavior, marketing, and customer service in service firms.
Where customers see the technology, this can bring positive benefits if customers are
positively inclined toward technology. Customers might have a positive view of technology
and belief that it facilitates feelings of more control over things (Dabholkar, 1996). However,
technology can also lead to feelings of ignorance or ineptitude (Mick and Fournier, 1998), so
some customers may dislike it when it is brought into the service interaction. Srijumpa (2002)
shows that TR affects customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with both interpersonal
service interactions and SSTs.
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The Moderating Effects of Technology Readiness
As Mick and Fournier (1998) suggest, both internal and external customers may have
positive and negative feelings about technology. Different salespeople have different views
toward technology; some like it more and some dislike it. The impact of degree of
technology integration on salespeople satisfaction might be influenced by the technology
readiness of salespeople. Salespeople who like technology should be more strongly satisfied
when they integrate it than those who do not like it.
H4: Technology readiness of salespeople will moderate the relationship between degree of
integration and individual salespeople satisfaction. In other words, technology readiness
influences H1, and more TR should lead to a stronger relationship.
As also noted, customers see something of the technology when the salesperson uses
it, and can tell if it is integrated into the salesperson’s interaction with them. However, the
salesperson is an intermediary between the technology and the customer, and customers do
not have to deal with the technology directly. Some salespeople even assess how receptive
customers are to technology, and adapt the way they use technology in the customer
interaction (Larpsiri and Speece, 2004). Thus, satisfaction with salespeople using technology
should not depend on how much technology readiness the customers might have. Thus:
H5: Technology readiness of customers will not moderate the relationship between degree of
integration and customer satisfaction. In other words, TR of customers has no impact on
the relationship in H3.
These five proposed hypotheses are summarized schematically in Figure 1.
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Customer Satisfaction
Technology Readiness of
Customer Direct Impact
Interaction Effect
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
Salespeople Satisfaction
Technology Readiness of Salespeople
Degree of Technology Integration
Figure 1: Conceptual model: technology integration and customer satisfaction Conclusions
The most prominent contribution of this discussion is proposing a way to
conceptualize the role of SFA technology in contributing to customer satisfaction. The SFA
literature has rarely examined the customer satisfaction side directly, and it rarely looks at
how salespeople use SFA, as opposed to how much they use it. Thus, the model proposed
here motivates the inclusion of SFA technology into models predicting internal and external
customer satisfaction, and, importantly, suggests that the amount of technology used is not
the only issue. The way the technology is used is quite important.
Technology integration allows technology to improve interpersonal interactions and
enhance personal relationships, which is especially critical in high level financial services. In
fully integrated SFA systems, customers might not even think about the technology at all,
because it becomes simply a routine part of their interpersonal interaction. This is critical, as
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is the need for the salesperson him/herself to play an important role in this integration. SFA
integration, then, is about salespeople using SFA to enhance relationships with customers, not
about using technology to replace the salesperson’s role in the customer interaction.
Further, many customers who are strongly familiar with interpersonal services may
never be satisfied with purely technology-based services. This is probably even more
important in the relationship-based cultures of Asia. Customers seem to want technology to
be integrated into interpersonal relationships, not to replace them, regardless of their own
personal technology readiness. Larpsiri and Speece (2004) even cite cases of IT mangers
who, despite their own very high technology competence, want the human relationship with
insurance salespeople. The perception of customers is that salespeople can use technology to
solve their problems, helping to develop a sense of trust and satisfaction that is likely to
extend their relationship. The salespeople are the critical element in the interaction and
relationship, and technology’s role is a support element that helps them develop their
relationships.
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