The No-Service Economy

For all the talk about the importance of service, it seems that retailers are going in the opposite direction. The "Wal-Mart-ization" of the retail industry puts low price ahead of anything else. It's fine for a no-frills operation like, well, Wal-Mart.

But as Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer blogs, it has spread even to upscale retailers like Nordstrom's.

If service is so important, why is it so scarce? To me, it seems to be a vicious cycle. Retailer loses money. To cut cost, retailer cuts employees. Fewer employees means less service. Less service means lower customer satisfaction. Lower satisfaction means lower financial performance. And so it goes.

Snow Day! (Ice, Actually)

Is it wrong to still be a little happy when the university closes down for the day?

Supposedly we've got a big ice storm moving into the DFW area, so classes are canceled. I don't see any ice yet, but the map shows a big front north of us.

(I resisted the urge to use the headline "Ice, Ice Baby.")

A Publication and a Conference Paper

Two new additions to the vita:

Last Friday, I received my acceptance letter for the Academy of Marketing Science 2009 Conference. My paper, “Real-Time Service Encounters And Customer Satisfaction: Online
Monitoring Of Core Service Delivery", was accepted for the services marketing track. I'll be presenting it in Baltimore in May.

Today, received an acceptance letter from the Electronic Commerce Research Journal. The paper, “Privacy Concern And Online Personalization: The Moderating Effects of Information Control and Compensation,” was co-authored by Dr. Donna Davis of Texas Tech and Dr. Ravi Jillapalli of Texas State. The article will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal.

Circuit City, R.I.P

In case you missed it, Circuit City announced today that it is going out of business. Wow. At one time, I was a big fan of the chain. Not so much over the past five years or so, but back in the day, I very much preferred Circuit City over its "evil twin", Best Buy. Now I shop Best Buy often, but can't remember the last time I was in Circuit City.

What happened? Of course the consumer electronics market is brutal, but Circuit City made some bone-headed moves. While Best Buy adapted to the changes in the marketplace, CC didn't. Best Buy expanded (or at least maintained) its product selection, CC cut theirs. Even in a down economy, people need to replace washing machines and refrigerators. Computers and big-screen TVs? Not so much. Best Buy acquired Geek Squad to beef up their service; Circuit City fired their senior salespeople.

A lot of the blame goes to the Wal-Mart factor. But there's always room for competition that provides service and knowledge, as well as the bare-bones Wal-Mart cost approach.

I hope that Home Depot and Circuit City have demonstrated that cutting service is NOT the way to compete with Wal-Mart. At one time, both were known for knowledgeable and helpful associates, but their respective CEOs opted to sacrifice service to beef up the bottom line.

R.I.P., Circuit City.

The 'Break' Is Almost Over

In academia, I suppose you eventually get used to the questions.

• "You only teach two classes a week? What do you do the rest of the time?"
• "It must be nice to only work nine months a year."
• "Wow! I wish I had a month off for Christmas."
  

Over the 5-week winter "break", here's what I've done:

• Completed and submitted two journal articles
• Analyzed data for another study and wrote it up in a manuscript to be submitted to a conference
• Read four books on qualitative research, transcribed and analyzed six hours of focus group video for another study, and then overhauled that manuscript (still working on it)
• Reviewed articles for the 2009 AMS Annual Conference and a special issue of an e-marketing journal
  
• Still working on data analysis for another pilot study
• ... and I'm not done yet!
  

In summary, over this "break" I've taken exactly four days off: the weekend after the semester ended, Christmas and New Year's. Meanwhile, friends and family who are so envious of my 5-week "break" have taken entire weeks off.

Not that I'm complaining; I love what I'm doing. But it's a lot of work. A lot.

Is It Cold In Here, or Is It Just Me?

For those of us who have classmates, colleagues or coworkers who are always cold, Dilbert is spot-on, as usual.

Read it here.