مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

A shopper walks into a retail store in a shopping center and tells the store manager that one of the elevators connecting the parking garage to the shopping area is broken. The manager apologizes to the shopper for the inconvenience and calls the shopping center management to notify them of the problem. The store manager also notifies his retail management so that they are able to track issues in the shopping center.

The store manager described in this vignette undertakes boundaryspanning activities intended to improve the customer experience both at the shopping center and at the store. This research investigates the boundary-spanning activities of retail store managers in shopping centers and their significance for customer value creation. The focus of such activities can be both internal (e.g., for the parent retail organization) and external (e.g., for the shopping center management and the customer). The general goal of this research is to move boundary-spanning literature beyond the dyadic retailer – customer perspective typical of many previous studies. To do so, the present study extends prior research into a service network context by empirically examining how managers act as boundary spanners in two further types of boundary-spanning relationships: (1) between the parent retail organization and the shopping center in which its store is located, and (2) between the shopping center and customers. Previous research has not investigated these two types of relationships, yet they are critical in terms of delivering value to customers, which ultimately leads to the success of the shopping center and the center’s businesses.

In today’s competitive omni-channel retail environment, brick and mortar retailers increasingly compete on the basis of the customer experience they can deliver. Part of this experience occurs in the store, but part depends on the experience customers have in the surrounding environment. In a shopping center that brings together a wide variety of retail, entertainment, and dining options, the experience that the center offers to customers has the potential to be very rewarding if the network of offerings can collaborate to create a rich and enjoyable customer experience. This study provides an improved understanding of the ways store managers can effectively serve as boundary spanners in this environment and lead to an enhanced customer experience.