3、Outsourcing the pain, keeping the pleasure：effects of outsourced touchpoints in the customer journey.pdf

ORIGINAL EMPIRICAL RESEARCHOutsourcing the pain,keeping the pleasure:effects of outsourcedtouchpoints in the customer journeyAnne-Madeleine Kranzbhler1&Mirella H.P.Kleijnen2&Peeter W.J.Verlegh2Received:15 August 2017/Accepted:4 July 2018/Published online:18 July 2018#The Author(s)2018AbstractFirms struggle to manage touchpoints in their customer journey that consumers perceive as dissatisfying.Based on attributiontheory and associative learning we examine branded outsourcing as a strategic means to reduce such touchpoints negativeimpact on brand evaluations.We find in the field and in a series of experimental studies that brands can reduce the detrimentalimpact of dissatisfying touchpoints.This effect is reversed for satisfying touchpoints.Importantly,we find that theexplanation for the effect of branded outsourcing goes beyond consumers responsibility attributions.Rather,we findevidence that branded outsourcing reduces the extent to which consumers mentally associate the focal brand with theoutsourced touchpoint,which results in a shift in brand evaluations.In an additional study we show that a strong third-party brand is not always more beneficial than a weak third-party brand,which further enhances the managerial relevanceof our findings.Keywords Brandedoutsourcing.Consumer-basedstrategy.BrandassociationsIntroductionImproving customer experience has been cited the top priorityof 72%of businesses(Forrester 2016).To achieve this,firmsoften analyze all of their potential interactions with customers(i.e.,firmcustomer touchpoints)in the customer journey(Edelman and Singer 2015;Kranzbhler et al.2018;Lemonand Verhoef 2016;Maechler et al.2016).A customer journeyconsists of a series of firmcustomer touchpoints that con-sumers perceive as satisfying or dissatisfying(or neutral)based on their execution or inherent nature.Thosedissatisfying and satisfying touchpoints are often referred toas pain and pleasure moments.In general,the straightforwardrecommendation to firms is to avoid or improve dissatisfyingtouchpoints(e.g.,Maechler et al.2016).However,improving dissatisfying touchpoints is often diffi-cult or costly.Here,we examine an alternative strategic option:outsourcing these touchpoints to another party.Firms that out-source a touchpoint can employ either a branded or unbrandedoutsourcing strategy.With branded outsourcing,the firm usesthe third-party brand for a touchpoint,so that the outsourcing ismadeexplicittoconsumers.Inunbrandedoutsourcing,thethirdparty is managing the touchpoint without being explicitly visi-ble to the consumer.Many potential outsourcing partners offerbothoptionstofirms:forinstance,paymentservicesPaySquareandWirecard,aswellasflightcomparisonwebsiteSkyscanner,offer cobranded solutions as well as fully customizable Bwhitelabel options.Another example is Mastercard,who states onits website that firms can Bchoose whether they want to brande-Commerce value added services as their own or leveragethe MasterCard Payment Gateway Services brand.Objectively,the use of branded or unbranded outsourcingshould not influence the impact of a touchpoint on the cus-tomers evaluation of their customer journey,nor their overallevaluation of the focal brand.Whether outsourced or not,touchpoints within the customer journey remain the responsi-bility of the focal brand.After all,it is the focal brand thatmakes the decisionwhether tooutsource ornot and selectstheRebecca Hamilton served as Special Issue Editor for this article.*Anne-Madeleine Kranzbhlera.kranzbuhleruva.nlMirella H.P.Kleijnenmirella.kleijnenvu.nlPeeter W.J.Verleghp.verleghvu.nl1University of Amsterdam,Nieuwe Achtergracht 166,1018,WVAmsterdam,The Netherlands2Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,De Boelelaan 1105,1081,HVAmsterdam,The NetherlandsJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science(2019)47:308327https:/doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0594-5outsourcing partner.However,we argue that the use of brand-ed(versus unbranded)outsourcing may alter the impact oftouchpoints on customer evaluations of the focal brand.Specifically,we propose that branded outsourcing benefitsfocal brand evaluations when used for dissatisfyingtouchpoints and lowers evaluations when used for satisfyingtouchpointseven if the service level provided is exactly thesame in both cases.We build on attribution theory(e.g.,Folkes 1988)and associative learning(Hofmann et al.2010)to provide a consumer research-informed approach to thisstrategic outsourcing decision,and empirically examine thisapproach using field data and three experimental studies.Ourresearch identifies(1)the underlying mechanism for this ef-fect,showing that the impact of branded outsourcing goesbeyond a mere attribution effect,and(2)theoretically andmanagerially relevant boundary conditions for this effect,in-cluding the strength of the third-party brand.This study addresses recent calls for research on the impor-tance of service network collaborations(Ostrom et al.2015),seamless and integrated customer experiences or the lack ther