JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Abstract

With the growth of customer-technology interaction in the retail industry, several interactive technologies have invented. Notably, for point-of-sales, self-service technologies are prominent. Mainly, the Self-Checkout Kiosk (SCOK) was the only SST that is employed globally. However, in the last five years, several eye-catching SST’s emerged, Just-Walkout Technology (JWOT) is one of them.

In literature, the service quality of SCOK’s had studied extensively by researchers. The results depict it is a useful technology for achieving the satisfaction and loyalty of customers. However, there is still a gap related to the effectiveness of JWOT to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Similarly, studies comparing self-service technologies and their impacts on customer behavior is also unexplored. Thus, this study aimed to compare the self-checkout kiosk and just-walkout technology and examined how these technologies influence customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Nine dimensions of service quality of SST’s are obtained from the theory, to compare both technologies and their corresponding impacts on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Based on the literature, the research framework was made, later validated through Structural Equation Modelling, by using Amos 26.0. The scales and items used in the survey have opted from earlier studies. The survey was measured on a sample size of 108 for JWOT and 117 for SCOK.

The result shows five out of nine dimensions (speed, entertainment, customization, privacy, and superior functionality) are found significant for measuring the service quality of SCOK, whereas, for JWOT four dimensions (speed, entertainment, privacy, and control) are significant. Further upon comparison, the result indicates, just-walkout technology and self-checkout kiosk have almost identical positive impacts on customer satisfaction. However, there is one dimension of SCOK, superior functionality, which has a strong negative impact. Thus, the overall effect of the service quality of JWOT is more significant on customer satisfaction than SCOK. Similarly, the effects on loyalty are examined, depicting the influence of service quality JWOT is larger than SCOK.

Further, to the best knowledge of the researcher, this study is the first study that empirically compared self-service technologies and analyzed their impacts on customer behavior. The findings highlighted in this research are of great importance both from a theoretical and practical perspective.