Browsing by Subject "Scale development"

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Führung im Dienstleistungskontext : eine Betrachtung aus Unternehmens-, Mitarbeiter- und Kundenperspektive
(2018) Popp, Marion Claudia Helma; Hadwich, Karsten
In the past few years rapid technological development has fundamentally changed the interaction between companies and customers. Many existing companies used this technological progress as an opportunity to strategically realign their organization and reposition themselves in the market. As part of this development, companies increasingly focused on providing (high quality) services as a strategic opportunity to remain competitive in the future. Yet, in order to successfully provide services, organizations need to anchor and continuously demonstrate a "service orientation". Thereby, leadership represents an essential and vital practice to establish and maintain a service orientation within an organization. However, despite the high relevance of the topic for both research and corporate practice, research gaps in the area of leadership in the service context were identified, which are addressed in this thesis. Specifically, three research gaps – from the company, employee and customer perspective – are discussed. Overall, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the scientific as well as practical knowledge of leadership in a service context by means of a holistic view. The thesis is divided into five chapters. In Chapter 1, the relevance of the topic and a theoretical foundation is presented. Chapter 2 tests the applicability of selected leadership styles for the service transformation process. Therefore, the leadership requirements of the service transformation process are presented, whereupon selected leadership styles are evaluated with regard to the identified requirements of the service transformation process. Chapter 3 covers the conceptualization and operationalization of service-oriented leadership from an employee’s perspective. Performing a scale development process, it is identified that service-oriented leadership manifests in five behavioral characteristics. The developed measurement model is then further validated and empirically verified by additional investigations. Chapter 4 deals with leadership in customer contact from a customer’s perspective. The subject of the chapter is the empirical investigation of the effect of employees’ interaction behavior in different service situations, aiming to identify the employees interaction behavior that promises success for a specific situation. Chapter 5 demonstrates the conclusion of the thesis, whereby the key insights from the company, employee and customer perspective are presented and overarching insights and implications for research and corporate practice are listed. Overall, the work thus provides essential insights into leadership in the service context from a corporate, employee and customer perspective, from which further relevant research needs as well as implications for corporate practice can be derived.
A gendered perspective on online privacy and self-disclosure
(2024) Frener, Regine; Trepte, Sabine
In research on online privacy and self-disclosure, gender is commonly included as a potentially predictive variable. The results are heterogeneous and sometimes controversial; explanations are often lacking or based on stereotypical assumptions. With this dissertation, I seek to provide a gender-focused perspective on online privacy and self-disclosure by taking a closer look at gender effects in privacy-related outcomes, studying the implementation of gender as a research variable, and investigating how gender is related to people’s inherent need for privacy. To this end, I present a short introduction in the first chapter, followed by four publications: a book chapter on privacy and gender (Study 1), a systematic literature review (Study 2), an empirical investigation of gender effects in privacy behavior (Study 3), and the development of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S; Study 4). In Study 1, the book chapter, I summarize key theoretical advancements in gender and privacy research in line with the feminist movement. Further, empirical findings on gender disparities are presented from a communication science perspective. I discuss the ongoing gender-based digital divide as well as risks associated with automatic gender categorization. Lastly, I address the problems of conceptualizing gender as a binary, static variable, and propose alternative perspectives for more equitable treatment. In Study 2, my co-author Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte and I examine how scholars in the field of online privacy incorporate gender into their research. For n = 107 articles reporting gender effects (or a lack thereof), we assess whether gender theory is included, to what extent it is referred to, and what function it serves. The results show that in most studies, gender is undertheorized, resulting in reduced explanatory power and the risk of gender essentialism. To meet the need for gender theorization in online privacy research we identified in Study 2, I present an empirical investigation of the social web gendered privacy model (Thelwall, 2011) in Study 3. The model aims to link gender differences in online privacy concerns, data protection behavior and online self-disclosure and explain them via gender differences in offline factors. Using longitudinal data (n = 1,043), I found partial support for the relationships between the privacy-related variables as well as for the transfer from offline to online contexts. The expected gender differences did not arise consistently, which challenges the model’s claim that women constitute an especially vulnerable population regarding social media usage. To offer added value for the broader field of privacy-related research, my co-authors Jana Dombrowski and Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte and I present the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S) in Study 4. The NFP-S is a concise measure of the need for privacy as a personality trait, developed to be applied in any context. Against the theoretical backdrop of Burgoon’s (1982) privacy dimensions, we propose a second-order model with informational, psychological, and physical need for privacy as the first-order factors. In two large-scale surveys (Study 1: n1 = 3,278; n2 = 1,226; Study 2: N = 1,000), the scale was validated with regard to relevant personality traits, privacy-related cognitive criteria and behaviors as well as socio-demographic variables. With the goal of disentangling (biological) sex and gender, we include self-assessed femininity and masculinity. We find that congruity between participants’ perception of their femininity/masculinity and their sex is related to a higher need for privacy. In the overall discussion, I combine insights from the studies, provide ideas for future research, and offer societal and practical implications. Taken together, the four studies contribute to the field of online privacy by emphasizing the psychological perspective of gender as a socially constructed, multifaceted, and dynamic construct. Adopting this view is desirable for privacy researchers, as it helps to better understand privacy-related attitudes and decision-making, hence increasing overall validity. Furthermore, a differentiated understanding of gender is needed to prevent oversimplifications and stereotyping and to promote ethical and fair research.
Wohlbefinden als neue Erfolgsgröße im Dienstleistungsmanagement : eine Analyse von Kunden- und Mitarbeiterwohlbefinden im Dienstleistungskontext
(2019) Falter, Mareike; Hadwich, Karsten
Currently, a paradigm shift from a customer-centered mindset to humanistic marketing takes place in science and practice. Thereby, individual, collective and social wellbeing plays a significant role. In service management, the subject area of transformative service research, which serves as a starting point for social transformation with regard to improving our society and environment, has been established. However, current research about wellbeing as a new success factor in the service context is very limited or incomplete. The present study’s central aim is therefore to make a scientific contribution to the topic of wellbeing in the service context, and to give practical implications for service managers, companies and political decision-makers with regard to service design, in order to create a positive impact on individual and social wellbeing. Subsequently, chapter 2 includes an analysis of wellbeing in the context of internal service marketing. This article aims to analyze the effects of digitalization in the work environment on employee wellbeing. The results show that with a high degree of digitalization in an employee’s work environment, the fulfilment of the basic needs competence, autonomy and human relationships decreases, as opposed to a work environment with a medium or low degree of digitalization. Mediation analysis reveals that employee satisfaction is not only influenced by digitalization in the work environment. These findings suggest that looking beyond indicators for employee satisfaction and taking psychological employee wellbeing as a new success factor into account benefits service management. Thus, by surveying employee wellbeing, additional determining factors can be identified in order to further explain employees’ reactions and behavior, and to create a pleasant work environment that serves employees and their individual needs. In the third chapter, wellbeing is considered as a new success factor in external service marketing. The study aims to analyze the effect of buying from social enterprises on consumer wellbeing, as in comparison with buying from other business models. Four experiments were conducted. The results of the variance analysis clearly show that buying products or services from a social enterprise increases consumer wellbeing, in comparison to buying from profit-oriented companies or companies with CSR activities. Accordingly, the present study gives an indication that a social enterprise not only represents a suitable business model for improving societal wellbeing or protecting the environment, but also brings wellbeing to the consumers themselves. Moreover, the results show that consumer wellbeing depends on the mission, or the objective of the business model. No significant differences between the purchase of products or services regarding consumer wellbeing occur. This finding especially widens the discussion about whether consumption of material goods as opposed to experiences increases wellbeing. The authors emphasize the significance of social enterprises and encourage managers and political decision-makers to invest in social enterprises. Chapter 4 contains an analysis of wellbeing in interactive service marketing. Its objective is to conceptualize and operationalize customer wellbeing in customer-employee-interaction in the service context, and thus develop a suitable measurement tool. Along the scale development process by Churchill (1979), the customer service wellbeing scale is developed. Hence, the measurement tool customer service wellbeing consists of the following five dimensions: positive emotions during the service process, engagement during the service process, (good) relationships with the service employees, meaning and accomplishment of the service, and absence of negative emotions during the service process. The results show that the customer service wellbeing scale, as compared to established dimensions, yields an important explanatory contribution in the service context. Furthermore, the study provides valuable findings regarding the scientific discourse on the bottom-up-spillover theory, and the suspected connection of individual consumption situations affecting superordinate areas of life, and therefore contribute to people’s overall life satisfaction. In chapter five, the author finally takes up all findings obtained, and illustrates how relevant it is to incorporate wellbeing as a new success factor in service management. It is emphasized that a consideration of wellbeing in the service context allows for further developing the design of sustainable services, for promoting services with a social value and impact, for creating a suitable work environment for employees, and last but not least for valuing individuals with their personalities and needs, instead of merely focusing on a calculable consumer.