The performance implications of media richness in a business-to-business service environment: Direct versus indirect effects

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Vickery, SK; Droge, C; Stank, TP; Goldsby, TJ; Markland, RE
• 署名单位: Michigan State University; Michigan State University's Broad College of Business; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville; University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; University of South Carolina System; University of South Carolina Columbia
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1040.0248
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 1106-1119
• 关键词: MEDIA RICHNESS; service quality; relational performance; third-party logistics; customer satisfaction; customer loyalty

摘要

This research examines media richness by modeling face-to-face, telephone, and electronic media as one construct and testing its performance implications. The context is the third-party logistics industry, in which a customer firm allows a service provider to assume responsibility for all or part of a critical business process. This business-to-business service environment is characterized by high levels of complexity (uncertainty, variability, equivocality) and network interdependence, key contextual attributes that enhance media richness' impact. We found a direct effect of media richness on relational performance and through it, indirect effects on satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, we found a direct effect of media richness on loyalty, which suggests that service firms in networked relationships provide loyalty-inducing benefits the genesis of which is not in the satisfaction created by the service itself. While past studies have examined the relationship of richness-related constructs and performance, no significant link was found. Our study is the first to demonstrate that media richness can affect firm performance when businesses interact in a complex environment.