Resource dynamics on service effectiveness: Evidence from the small business service industry in the United States
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Resource Dynamics on Service Effectiveness: Evidence from the Small Business Service Industry in the United States
Kuntal Bhattacharyya, Pratim Datta, Arup Maitra
Received: 4 June 2013 / Accepted: 29 October 2013 / Published: 30 November 2013 © The Society of Service Science and Springer 2013
ABSTRACT How can small business specialty service operations achieve service effectiveness without compromising customer satisfaction and revenue maximization? Empirically grounded in the operations of a two-physician specialty healthcare clinic in the mid-western part of United States, this paper simulates workflow efficiencies to surface resource use and operational limitations germane to similar small business service operations and discusses the impact of resource dynamics on service effectiveness in small business specialty service operations with appointment-driven deterministic throughput. By integrating design of experiments (DoE) with traditional simulation modeling, our study supports the fact that resources in throughput-constrained service settings suffer from the law of diminishing returns and we contend that the mix of resources in small business specialty service operations is constrained by a culture of specificity. Small business specialty service operations with controlled customer flow and facing constant resource constraints must scrutinize their resource selection and allocation carefully to achieve a desired level of service effectiveness. KEYWORDS Service Effectiveness, Scheduling, Discrete-Event Simulation, Asset Specificity, Appointment-Driven. Kuntal Bhattacharyya ( ), corresponding author Scott College of Business, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN USA 47803 e-mail: [email protected] Pratim Datta Kent State University, Kent, OH USA 44242 e-mail: [email protected] Arup Maitra Renal Consultants, Inc., Canton, OH USA 44708 e-mail: [email protected]
2 Kuntal Bhattacharyya, Pratim Datta, Arup Maitra
1. INTRODUCTION The ever-competitive sector of service provisioning in the United States is appended by a growing inclusion of specialty services as an integral part of the economy’s small business portfolio. Specialty services are designated as small businesses operating under the United States’ Small Business Administration (US SBA 2013) with standard guidelines of revenues less than $10 million. Examples of small business specialty services are plenty-from the “local” grocery store across the street, the franchised gas station, and the pediatric medical practice by a group of physicians two blocks away; to the company that specializes in installing special audio systems in your car, or even better, transforms the interior of your car to a livable home. With increased competition from retail chains, service effectiveness of these small business practices has become an imperative. What makes the issue interesting (while the concern is acute) is that these small businesses offer critical (specialty) services where the owner/partner is often actively employed and employs only a han
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