Time: 10:AM-11:30AM, Oct. 10, 2015 (Saturday)

Venue: Room 104 Li Da San Building

Presenter: Dr. V Kumar

Short Bio of the presenter:

V. Kumar (VK) is the Regents’ Professor, Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair & Professor, Executive Director, Centre for Excellence in Brand and Customer Management at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA; Chang Jiang Scholar, HUST, China; and Lee Kong Chian Fellow, Singapore Management University, Singapore. 

Abstract:

In this study, we discuss the need for a multidimensional strategy and develop a new strategy by reviewing the literature, interviewing managers, and analyzing popular press articles to better understand the status of the various strategies used by the firms in the marketplace. We then develop the new multidimensional Strategy - Engagement that comprises of Customer Engagement (CE) and Employee Engagement (EE). We discuss the definitions of these two constructs, capture the multidimensionality of each of these constructs, develop scales for customer engagement and refine scales for employee engagement. We also propose that the relationship between CE and EE is moderated by employee empowerment, whether it is a B2B or B2C firm, and whether it is a manufacturing or service firm. Further, in linking Engagement to Performance, we propose that an increase in CE and EE increase firm performance; and that this increase is higher for B2B (vs. B2C) firms and Service (vs. Product) firms. We also provide strategies for firms to improve their levels of customer and employee engagement to improve the performance. To demonstrate the usefulness of the framework, we implement the Engagement framework in multiple firms.  We collect data at two time periods from 120 companies to link Engagement to Performance and show that the proposed framework works in the real world.