© Iris Vilnai-Yavetz – [email protected] 1 Meeting the challenge of service intangibility: Are Top universities more innovative in the design of their

© Iris Vilnai-Yavetz – [email protected] 1

Meeting the challenge of service intangibility:

Are Top universities more innovative

in the design of their homepages?

Iris Vilnai-YavetzSigal Tifferet

Department of Business AdministrationRuppin Academic Center

ISRAEL

The Art & Science of Service V Conference June 17-19, 2009, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, USA

© Iris Vilnai-Yavetz – [email protected]

Meeting the challenge of service intangibility

“Services marketing professionals are confronted with the problem of how to communicate the intangible qualities of a service” (Mittal,

1999).

Theoretical background


Services Marketing Mix

Product Price Place Promotion People Process Physical evidence

Service as a

product

Service as a

theater

(Booms & Bitner, 1981)



SERVQUAL Model

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985)

TangiblesReliability

Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy



The Internet offers many advantages to organizations interested in promoting their services. (Rust and Kannan, 2002).

Research context

Research context - Why Internet?

Since Internet web sites serve as initial (or only) contact points, between the customer and the company, clients' perceptions of the company are likely to be derived from their perceptions of the site (Gao, 2005).


Research context - Why academic services?

•The client and the organization choose each other.

•‘High involvement’ services.

•Academic institutions deal with a young, literate, and innovative audience, which actively consumes Internet services (Mechitov et al., 2001).

Research context


Previous Research

Customer reactions are higher/better in response to academic homepages with images than in response to academic homepages without images.

Research background

These reactions are higher/better in response to academic homepages with photos of buildings

(exteriors or interiors) than in response to homepages with photos of people (lecturers and students). (Vilnai-yavetz & Tifferet, 2009)


1. Describe and characterize the academic homepages of the top 500 universities.

Research objectives

Research objectives

3. Answer the question - are top universities more innovative than good universities, in the design of their homepages?

2. Answer the question - are images in academic homepages used in the way recommended by Vilnai-yavetz & Tifferet (2009)?


Method

• A preliminary survey of the web sites of the top 100 academic institutes in the world (Top100 list, 2005), for validity and reliability reasons.

• A survey of the homepages of the world's top 500 academic institutes (Top500 list, 2007)

• Research variables: type of images (e.g., students, buildings), colors and hues, technologies used (e.g., flash, video), functional features (e.g, search, RSS), information services (e.g., news, weather), etc.

Method


Method – coding process

• Seven teams -- two judges in each -- appraised the homepages.

• Among these judges were 4 IT professionals, 2 industrial designers, 4 business managers who operate their firm's website, and 4 business administration students.

• Each judge rated the amount of images, images content, dominant colors and hues, menu options, etc.

• Five teams were assigned 100 homepages each.

Method


Method - reliability

Reliability - 3 measures:1) A preliminary survey of the web sites of the top 100

universities was conducted in 2008. After collecting the data of the current - top 500 – survey, reliability was measured using a comparison of the results of the two surveys.

2) Every homepage was appraised by two team members who discussed the data and reached agreement before coding.

3) Two additional teams independently appraised 20 homepages each out of every 100, resulting in the reexamination of 200 of the 500 homepages. Inter-judge reliability was checked using Cohen's Kappas and correlations.

Method


MethodData about Total Quality Score of universities was

taken from: (Top500 list, 2007, http://www.arwu.org/rank/2007/ARWU2007TOP500list.htm)

This measure was calculated based on the following Indicators:

• Number of the alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals.

• Number of the staff winning Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics and Fields Medal in Mathematics.

• Number of highly cited researchers in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences.

• Number of articles published in Nature and Science 2002-2006.

• Number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index 2006.• Academic performance with respect to the size of an

institution

Method


Findings

Findings

0102030405060708090

68

35

53

2430

908286 P

ercentag

e of h

om

epag

es

Category of image

Categories of images - percentage of the homepages which use each category

96% of academic homepages present at least one image

Category of image or feature

Images and features


Findings

Findings

4.1

2.8

0

1

2

3

4

5

Am

ou

nt o

f imag

es

Excellent universities

Good universities

Rank of Universities

The difference between Top 100 universities and 400-500 universities in the amount of images in homepages

p<0.005


Findings

Findings

2

1.3

0

1

2

3

4

5

Am

ou

nt o

f ph

oto

s

Excellent universities

Good universities

Rank of Universities

The difference between Top 100 universities and 400-500 universities in the amount of Photos of students

p<0.05


Findings

Findings

In comparison to the 400-500 universities, the top 100 universities have more innovative homepages from a technological perspective…


Findings

Findings

Search options were more frequently used in the homepages of the top 100 universities than in the homepages of the 400 to 500 universities (Chi-square = 9.1, p < .005)


Findings

Findings

University news were more frequently presented in the homepages of the top 100 universities than in the homepages of the 400 to 500 universities

(Chi-square = 9.3, p < .005)


Findings

Findings

Glossary was more frequently used in the homepages of the top 100 universities than in the homepages of the 400 to 500 universities (Chi-square = 4.6, p < .05)


Findings

Findings

Feedback was more frequently used in the homepages of the top 100 universities than in the homepages of the 400 to 500 universities (Chi-square = 6.6, p < .05)


Findings

Findings

Weather data were more frequently presented in the homepages of the top 100 universities than in the homepages of the 400 to 500 universities (Chi-square = 4.8, p < .05).


Findings

Findings

In addition, dark hues were more frequently used in the homepages of the top 100 universities than in the homepages of the 400 to 500 universities

)Chi-square = 8.9, p < .05.(


Conclusions

Conclusions

1) Most academic homepages present at least one image and use advanced options, such as search engines. This fits the recommendations of Vilnai-Yavetz & Tifferet (2009) regarding the positive effect of images in homepages.


Conclusions

Conclusions

2) In contrast to the recommendation of Vilnai-Yavetz & Tifferet (2009), photos of buildings (exteriors or interiors) are used less than photos of people (lecturers and students) in the design of academic homepages.


Conclusions

Conclusions

3) Two design strategies were identified:

(a) The 'service oriented’' strategy characterizing the excellent universities.

This strategy apply SERVQUAL elements, aimed at measuring service quality (responsiveness, empathy, tangibles, etc.; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985), and create 'a service atmosphere' by focusing on service providers (lecturers), the interaction among them and their customers (students), the aesthetics of the decorations, and the capacities of the technological platforms (e.g., search engines).


Conclusions

Conclusions

(b) The 'practical oriented‘’ strategy characterizing the good universities. This strategy, in contrast, implement these parameters to a lesser extent, presenting a practical homepage containing information for prospective students but doing so with less images, less decorations, and less search options.


Conclusions

Conclusions

4) Innovative strategies which use image categories, hues, search options, university news, glossary, feedback and more for communicating service quality are indeed necessary for creating (or reflecting) a competitive advantage.


Thank you!

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© Iris Vilnai-Yavetz – [email protected] 1 Meeting the challenge of service intangibility: Are Top universities more innovative in the design of their