Linking organizational service orientation to retailer profitability: Insights from the service-profit chain

Elten Briggs, Sandro Deretti and Heitor Takashi Kato

Journal of Business Research, 2020, vol. 107, issue C, 271-278

Abstract: This study examines how service orientation influences profitability in retail trade contexts. The authors develop a conceptual model based on the service-profit chain (SPC) framework suggesting that employee satisfaction and customer relationship performance (i.e., customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and store image building) function as intermediate steps linking service orientation to retailer profitability. The model is tested with a matched sample of retail managers and employees from Brazil. Results demonstrate that service orientation directly influences employee satisfaction and customer relationship performance. Consistent with the traditional SPC framework, the analyses did not support a direct relationship between employee satisfaction and customer relationship performance when controlling for the effects of service orientation. Finally, customer relationship performance fully mediated the influence of service orientation on retailer profitability. Collectively, study findings support the notion that service orientation is reflective of both internal and external service quality. Managerial recommendations for implementing a service orientation are provided.

Keywords: Service orientation; SERV*OR; Organizational climate; Service-profit chain; Retail trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318304223
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:107:y:2020:i:c:p:271-278

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.038

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().