Harnessing technology in global service businesses

Changes in the banking sector – the case of Internet banking in the UK

“…Several authors (e.g. Birch and Young, 1997;Mathe and Dagi, 1996;Gandy and Brierley, 1997) have carried out research on customer requirements. Time, privacy, control and economy are among the important aspects that customers are concerned with.…”

The impact of IT news on hospitality firm value using cumulative abnormal returns (CARs)

“…Several contributing factors further clarify the rationale behind this increased scrutiny. These include (1) the rising complexity and scope required for organizational integration, (2) a greater number of IT decisions being made by management outside a company's information systems/technology organization, (3) an incipient sense of frustration with the perceived returns from IT investment, (4) the desire for greater accountability in linking IT investments with strategic business goals, (5) the complexity associated with architectural planning and migration activities, (6) the escalating cost of investment required and the uncertainty of recouping these investments, (7) the difficulty of quantifying and measuring intangible benefits, (8) the pace at which technology becomes obsolete, (9) the absence, within a firm, of the expertise needed to develop, maintain, and implement these technologically sophisticated systems and applications, (10) the perceived risk and market uncertainty, (11) prior projects that did not perform as expected, and (12) the elongated time to market (Mathe and Dagi, 1996;Mata et al, 1995;Strategic Consulting Group, 1992).…”

Options of strategic decision making in services

“…Automated teller machines (ATMs) were among the first visible vehicles of service technology, but they were perceived almost as punishments among customers (Rayport and Sviokla, 1994; Lewis, 1985). Currently, banks are moving towards home and virtual reality banking with new activities, like personal financial assistant services (Mathe and Dagi, 1996). In our opinion, this success has been guaranteed by the banks’ ability to train their customers to use new automated services, whereas Nivaro (1993) confirms that insurance‐policy machines have not gained customers’ acceptance.…”

“…From the strategic perspective, one of the main reasons for using technology is to make service operations more profitable and more feasible. This is largely achieved by streamlining and reorganising back‐office functions (Mathe and Dagi, 1996). Even in the front line, new technology can provide more information more quickly to promote better customer service.…”