Applying the Service-Profit Chain to Internet Service Businesses英文文献资料.docVIP

J. Service Science Management, 2009, 2: 96-106 Published Online June 2009 in SciRes (www.SciRP.org/journal/jssm) Applying the Service-Profit Chain to Internet Service Businesses Jin-Woo Kim 1,* , Michael Richarme 1,2,# 1 2 Department of Marketing, College of Business, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA; Decision Analyst, Arlington, Texas, USA. * # Email: jkim@, richarme@ Received March 2 , 2009; revised April 7 , 2009; accepted April 28 , 2009. nd th th ABSTRACT Service-profit chain (SPC) is a powerful tool for evaluating the relationship between the degree of service effort and profit. This framework has been empirically tested in the banking, hospital, retail, and other brick and mortar service verticals. This paper extends the applicability of SPC to Internet-based businesses. The paper also investigates the moderating roles of customer satisfaction and advertising spending on the service operation efficiency (SOE) and profit relationship. Analysis of U.S. Internet service providers during a seven year period from 2000 to 2006 indicates that service operations efficiency is positively associated with a firm’s profit. However, the customer satisfaction and adver- tising spending constructs are negative moderators of the relationship between service operations efficiency and profit. Keywords: service-profit chain, service operations efficiency, customer satisfaction, data envelopment analysis 1. Introduction Service-profit chain (SPC) is a useful framework in ex- plaining the relationship between service operation and a firm’s profit. From the SPC literature, a service firm’s profit can be improved by effective service operational input through customer perception and actual behavior [1]. SPC has been empirically tested with bank se