Executive Summary:
Service relationships are characterized by interactions between customers and identified providers. They are essential to cultivating repeat business and referrals in service delivery but are expensive to build and maintain. When firms introduce Internet-based, self-serve technology (SST) to complement service relationships, they are not only introducing a more cost-effective service channel but also changing their psychological contracts with customers. Therefore, customers will reassess their psychological contract in evaluating whether the use of Internet-based, SST will benefit them. We investigated the influence of this assessment on customers’ intention to adopt Internet-based, SST. Our results show that customers perceive Internet-based, SST both as a threat to their service provider and relationship and as an enhancement to their productivity and work performance. While previous research has demonstrated the complementarity of information technology and service relationships at the organizational level, this study demonstrates the tension inherent in relationship-SST complementarity at the dyadic interaction level. |
