Although there has been considerable research about service failure in the last 15 years, scholars have only recently started to examine its impact on relational constructs. This study proposes a holistic model that jointly investigates the role of company image and trust in response to service failures and their impact on the customer value-loyalty process across routine and service failure scenarios. Using survey data of a sample of 552 airline customers, the empirical results find evidence of a relational protective layer for the firm. This layer protects the customer value-loyalty process from the negative impact of service failure by exerting a halo effect on customer value and loyalty, which is concurrently magnified by this negative impact. Further analysis also indicates the diverse roles of company image and company trust in service failures, which reveals the coexistence of the buffering and magnifying effects. The findings underline that company image is the most versatile asset of the firm, and it can serve as an indicator of how service failures will affect the company. Company trust, as opposed to its passive role in routine situations, acts like a safety net in service failures by enhancing the customer's value perception.

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PurposeCollaboration between frontline employees (FLEs) and frontline robots (FLRs) is expected to play a vital role in service delivery in these increasingly disrupted times. Firms are facing the challenge of designing effective FLE-FLR collaborations to enhance customer experience. This paper develops a framework to explore the potential of FLE-FLR collaboration through the lens of interdependence in customer service experience and advances research that specifically focuses on employee-robot team development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a conceptual approach rooted in the interdependence theory, team design, management, robotics and automation literature.FindingsThis paper proposes and defines the Frontline employee – Frontline robot interdependence (FLERI) concept based on three structural components of an interdependent relationship – joint goal, joint workflow and joint decision-making authority. It also provides propositions that outline the potential impact of FLERI on customer experience and employee performance, and outline several boundary conditions that could enhance or inhibit those effects.Practical implicationsManagerial insights into designing an employee-robot team in service delivery are provided.Originality/valueThis study is the first to propose a novel conceptual framework (FLERI) that focuses on the notion of human-robot collaboration in service settings.

Purpose Institutional arrangements for collaborative purposes have gained increasing attention within research on service ecosystems. For collaborations to be effective, actors need to undertake institutional work that will result in new institutional arrangements. When institutional work takes place across service ecosystems, actors may be confronted with non-harmonious or conflicting institutional arrangements, which need to be reconciled by translating the incompatible views of diverse ecosystems. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of boundary objects as a means of facilitating institutional work across ecosystems, and present their mechanism in undertaking institutional work. Design/methodology/approach Longitudinal qualitative interviews were conducted with three key actors (funding agency, service provider and clinicians) in providing home-based support services (HBSS). The data were analyzed by undertaking a thematic analysis of the transcripts, which helped to identify the actors’ views on the nature of HBSS and its impact as a boundary object within the implementation of the case-mix system, and thus to empirically illustrate the theoretical assumptions. Findings The data assisted in the creation of a conceptualization that maps out the process of boundary objects facilitating (disrupting and creating) institutional work. This study supports that boundary objects disrupt boundaries between actors’ ecosystems, which was a sufficient condition to dismantle institutional support for the practices of individual fields. Furthermore, the object has changed the type and extent of interaction between actors in an ecosystem to allow these actors to redefine their identity and role in the new institutional arrangement. Originality/value This work has developed a novel conceptualization for a boundary object-led translation process in facilitating institutional work. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the processes and mechanisms of boundary objects in facilitating institutional work across ecosystems.