Cooperating for service excellence in multichannel service systems - An empirical assessment

In today's technological environment, rapid advances have considerably increased the number of service delivery options available to companies. Consequently, in addition to the traditional network of channel intermediaries, many firms have established customer interaction centers (CICs) to optimize their pre- and post-sales service offering to the external customer. As CICs take over service provision functions that have been the exclusive domain of middlemen, the superimposition of CICs in existing service delivery channels causes conflict and frustration among channel partners, usually resulting in low cooperation. This study addresses the issue of ensuring multiple service channel cooperation by identifying the determinants of channel intermediaries' willingness to cooperate with a CIC. The results indicate that three groups of antecedents-service quality, partnership quality and image quality-lead to performance satisfaction and/or trust. Trust, in turn, directly enhances channel partners' willingness to cooperate, which finally makes it possible to leverage the potential of partnerships within service delivery systems. (C) 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.