E-service flexibility: meeting new customer demands online

Purpose - – Business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic service (e-service) allows a company to decrease transaction costs, expedite delivery time, and serve more customers. Flexibility lets e-service providers improve their service without costly and time-consuming infrastructure overhauls to cope with the changing business environment. Little work has been done to associate flexibility with e-service. This paper aims to provide a conceptual taxonomy of e-service flexibility in line with the online purchase in a customer activity cycle (CAC), as well as a theoretical model to investigate the relationships among a company's internal flexibility, e-service flexibility, customer readiness and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach - – Based on an extensive review of e-service and flexibility literature, the paper develops a taxonomy of B2C e-service flexibility in a CAC framework and a conceptual model to show the influence e-service flexibility exerts on firm performance and the factors that support e-service flexibility. Findings - – This research identifies the important e-service flexibility in each CAC stage, discusses the influence of e-service flexibility on firm performance and an organization's internal flexibility supporting e-service flexibility, and argues that customer readiness has an important influence on firm performance as well. Research limitations/implications - – The conceptual model of e-service flexibility and propositions need further empirical validation. Practical implications - – This paper should help managers identify the critical e-service flexibility that satisfies their customers and the core internal flexibility that supports flexible e-service. It should help managers consider customer limitations when developing e-service flexibility. Originality/value - – This research sets some theoretical and research foundation for future empirical studies. First, the research provides a conceptual definition of e-service flexibility in line with the CAC. Based on the definition, measurements of e-service flexibility in each stage of CAC could be developed and the e-service flexibility construct could be validated. Second, the conceptual model outlines the relationships between a company's internal flexibility, e-service flexibility, customer readiness, and firm performance. The theoretical model provides the foundation for empirically testing the influences of interactions between a company and their customers on firm performance.