The Experience of Production: Essays on Customers in Service Operations

Abstract

Over time, the delivery of services has become increasingly co-productive (customers participate materially in the production of service outcomes) and inseparable from customer view. As a result, a distinctive aspect of service operations is that they feature production processes in which the experience of production influences customer behavior. In particular, operational choices intended to maximize firm profits may backfire if they diminish customer experiences and, in the process, alter whether and how customers choose to perform their role in the firm's operating system. In three studies, my dissertation empirically explores how two specific operational choices - 1) whether and how a firm automates service, and 2) the level of service quality a firm chooses to provide relative to its competitors - affect the experiences and behaviors of its customers, and in turn, the firm's performance.