Buyer (dis)satisfaction and process innovation: the case of information technology services provision

Ashok, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9827-9104, Day, M. and Narula, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4266-2681 (2018) Buyer (dis)satisfaction and process innovation: the case of information technology services provision. Industrial Marketing Management, 68. pp. 132-144. ISSN 0019-8501 doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.10.004

Abstract/Summary

Studying buyer satisfaction within business services is important because if buyer expectations are not addressed, it can endanger the relationship. Dissatisfied buyers can remain silent or switch supplier without notice, damaging the supplier-buyer relationship. Therefore, suppliers often invest substantial effort in collecting feedback with an expectation that it will foster improvements and innovation in processes. However, using a mixed method sequential research design, we find that there is no direct association between the level of dissatisfaction and process innovation: this poses questions about redundancy of feedback collection. We find that there is a time lag between dissatisfaction identification and problem resolution. We also find that there is a cognitive gap between a supplier’s interpretation of the buyer’s expectations and the buyer’s actual expectations. Further, existing processes that are improved repetitively using discontent feedback suffer from diminishing returns. Suppliers need to proactively seek solutions rather than reactively dealing with buyer problems.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/73127
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.10.004
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > International Business and Strategy Henley Business School > Digitalisation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Publisher	Elsevier
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