The Role of Relational and Operational Performance in Business-to-Business Customers’ Adoption of Self-Service Technology

The authors explore whether and why business-to-business customers using service relationship designs—service delivery systems that promote repeated personal interactions between a customer and a specific service provider—will adopt self-service technology (SST). Their results show that these customers associate operational performance gains and relational performance losses with a prospective SST. Whereas perceived operational performance gains increase customers’ intention to adopt SST, perceived relational performance losses decrease it. However, these main effects are moderated by customers’ purchase frequency and their enacted service design, which refers to the way that customers actually experience firms’ intended service designs. Specifically, the positive effect of perceived operational performance gains on customers’ intention to adopt SST was weaker for customers with higher purchase frequency. Similarly, the negative effect of perceived relational performance losses on customers’ intention to adopt SST was strongest for customers who had enacted strong service relationships.