Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
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dependably and accurately, 2) responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and prompt service, 3) assurance 
is the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence, 4) empathy is the 
caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers, and 5) tangibles are the appearance of physical 
facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials. CRM is proposed to have a positive impact on some 
or all of the service quality dimensions because CRM strives to establish long-term relationships with customers 
through various strategies and channels. The first set of hypotheses is: 
Hypothesis 1a
: CRM will have positive influence on customer perception of reliability. 
Hypothesis 1b: 
CRM will have positive influence on customer perception of responsiveness.
 
Hypothesis 1c:
CRM will have positive influence on customer perception of assurance.
 
Hypothesis 1d:
CRM will have positive influence on customer perception of empathy. 
Hypothesis 1e:
CRM will have positive influence on customer perception of tangibles. 
However, customers’ privacy concerns may have a negative impact on assurance. Privacy concern is 
defined as concerns about possible loss of privacy as a result of a voluntary or surreptitious information disclosure 
(Dinev & Hart, 2005) and it would have a relationship with customer assessment of trust and confidence toward the 
service provider who utilizes customer information for tailored service. When tailored service via CRM is 
delivered, customers who have a negative attitude, or higher privacy concern, toward information utilization may 
wonder how much the company knows about his or her preference and may become fearful of information misuse or 
abuse. On the contrary, if the customer knows exactly how the company becomes knowledgeable (e.g. the company 
knows only information that the customer releases) or the customer understands the customized service via 
information technology as a trade-off, CRM may have a positive impact on his or her assessment of trust and 
confidence toward the service provider, or assurance. Therefore, 
Hypothesis 2
: Attitude toward information utilization by a restaurant service provider will have a positive 
relationship with customer perception of assurance. 
The perceived value in the model has four components: acquisition value, transaction value, in-use value 
and redemption value. CRM may have no relationship with acquisition value (the benefits that customers believe 
they are getting by acquiring a service) since the customer database is initiated after an initial service purchase 
occurs. However, the transaction value (the pleasure of getting a good deal), in-use value (utility derived from using 
the service), and redemption value (residual benefit at the time of termination) may positively relate to CRM. In 
addition to the proposed relationships among perceived service quality and the customized service via IT setting, 
perceived value may play a role as a moderator between perceived service quality and customer loyalty as 
Parasuraman and Grewal (2000) proposed. Therefore, the third hypothesis is: 
 
Hypothesis 3
: Perceived value will mediate between perceived service quality and customer loyalty.