earticle

영어

Drawing on the job demands-resources model (JD-R), the author investigates how customer equity affects customer engagement and whether service climate and customer confidence can be potential moderators of this relationship. There are three drivers to customer equity; value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity. These are produced through the interaction between customers and organizations. Customer affection is brought about by provided service quality. One of important constructs in this study is ‘service dominant logic’which is a new perspective dominantly focused on service rather than product as a fundamental basis of marketing. Service was originally considered secondary to product. This logic can be extended by merging product and service and considering services value added activities. This new perspective is called service dominant logic covering service and product itself. Service can make new values, so every company can be a service company. That is, companies should use their intangible resources such as knowledge, skills, and capabilities as well as their products so that they can gain sustainable competitive advantages. Another important construct is customer equity was viewed as similar concept as a financial asset measured and managed by organizations in previous studies. That is, organizational activities have an impact on customer brand preferences, and customers’ brand choices develop the basis of customer equity. This customer equity is developed from value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity. A company’s long-term value is decided by relationships with its customer. In other words, customer equity can be “the sum of discounted value of lifetime value of all customers.” According to an additional study, “customer equity is potential financial value that all customers have at present and in the future.”Brand equity is customer’s expectation and appraisal to the brand. Also, it is created through company’s marketing activities and affected by customer’s experiences and associations related to the brand. Value equity refers to what customers assess the objective value of the product or service provided by the company. Customers choose a productby calculating perceived quality, price, and utility of product compared to their expectation. This process is relatively objective and reasonable. Relationship equity is the customer’s tendencyto stick with the brand. Customer relationship can be made by repurchase, shift from other company, and new purchase. Companies can enhance the relationship with customers by various activities and relationship programs. Relationship equity can be attributed to these kinds of efforts. The last important construct is customer engagement behaviors. These behaviors are created though the relationship with organization. They can be described by cognitive response and emotional status. That is, customer engagement behaviors are spontaneous reaction based on the relationship with organization. This study defines customer engagement behaviors as five variables. First, cooperation refers to customer’s advice to the company for the better product or service based on their previous experiences. Cooperation-based behaviors canreduce workload of suppliers and spread positive services to other customers. The second variable is feedback. Customers give information and guideline so that the company can pursue high quality of product or service. Also, companies can find a better way to improve themselves. Third, compliance means that customers try to behavior complying with company’s structure, rules, and process. Not every customer can agree with the process of company, so only engaged customers show these behaviors. The fourth variable is customer’s behaviors helping other customers. That is, engaged customers are willing to give useful information and explain company’s process to other customer. These customers act like a second employee of the company. The last variable is word of mouth. Word of mouth is the passing of positive information from satisfied customers to other organizations or other customers. In this context, the author conducts a survey using developed measures. The sample consists of 300 dental device suppliers and their dentist customers who participated in Seoul International Dental Exhibition & Scientific Congress 2014 (SIDEX 2014). The author then analyzes the data to empirically test suggested hypothesis using structural equation modeling (M-PLUS 6.11). The results suggests that (1) customer equity that is related to the organization has a positive impact on customer affection and customer engagement, (2) perceived service climate can moderate the customer equity-customer engagement relationship, and (3) customer confidence does not significantly moderate this relationship. On the basis of the findings, the author highlights the service attributes of dental device suppliers and their impacts on customer engagement. This study extends the existing approach of organization performance and improvement to the interaction between suppliers and customers whose engagement is significantly important. This study also explores organizational behaviors in response to customer engagement in a specific condition, that is, dental device industry.

한국어

본 연구에서는 직무자원 및 요구모델에 근거하여 치과산업에서 치과의료인과 납품업체가 보유하고 있는 고객의 자산요인을 통한 고객의 감정과 고객 열의 행동 간 관계를 확인하고자 하였다. 또한 납품업체가 보유한 고객의 자산을 통해 고객의 서비스풍토 인식과 고객의 확신이 조절효과로서 유의미한 영향이 있음을 증명하고자 하였다. 먼저 치과의료인이 인식하는 납품기업의 고객자산은 기업의 가치와 브랜드, 관계성으로서 고객이 납품기업과의 상호작용을 통해 인식할 수 있는 자원을 의미하며 고객의 감정은 납품업체에서 제공되는 서비스 자원의 인식을 말한다. 이는 인식된 고객의 긍정적 감정을 통해 고객의 자발적 행동인 열의 행동에 영향이 있음을 설명할 수 있다. 기존의 척도를 바탕으로 작성된 설문지를 이용하여 국내에서 개최된 서울시 치과학술대회에 참가한 치과의료기기 전문 납품업체와 거래하고 있는 치과의료인 300명을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였다. 본 연구에서는 제시된 가설들을 검증하기 위하여 구조방정식(M-PLUS 6.11)을 이용하여 분석하였다. 분석결과 기업이 제공하는 고객자산인 기업의 가치, 브랜드, 관계성은 고객의 감정에 긍정적인 역할을 하였으며 고객 감정은 고객의 열의 행동에 긍정적인 영향이 있음을 증명하였다. 또한 고객이 인식하는 서비스 풍토는 고객자산과 고객감정에 유의적인 조절효과가 있음을 증명하였으며 고객이 인식하는 확신요인은 고객감정과 고객의 열의 행동 간 조절효과가 없음을 확인하였다. 이를 통해 본 연구에서는 치과의료기기 납품기업과 거래하고 있는 의료인이 인식하는 고객자산은 서비스 풍토를 통해 고객감정에 긍정적인 영향이 있다는 점과 또한 고객감정이 고객 열의 행동에 영향이 있지만 확신 요인이 고객 열의 행동에 미치는 조절효과는 기대할 수 없다는 점을 증명하였다. 따라서 본 결과를 통해 특수 산업시장이라고 할 수 있는 치과의료기기 유통시장에서 고객이 인식하는 납품기업의 독특한 서비스자원의 성격적 특성과 고객의 열의 행동에 대한 평가를 설명하였다.