2.4 Technology in the Digital Age

Marketers continue to struggle with understanding consumers’ personalization preferences and how to effectively reach and engage consumers. As consumers increasingly adopt ad blockers, use private browsers, or take other actions to proactively limit data tracking, marketers must simultaneously address the deprecation of third-party cookies, app tracking transparency, and privacy regulations that further restrict data collection and personalization efforts. Conflicting evidence also exists on the effectiveness of brands’ personalized marketing efforts and how consumers react when presented with brands’ personalized and non-personalized marketing content. Marketers must therefore enhance the effectiveness of digital marketing personalization across a host of interactive marketing touchpoints. Regression analysis of 436 Generation Z consumer survey responses explores the differential effects leading to reactive vs. proactive marketing avoidance across nine interactive marketing communications. The study contributes to the limited knowledge on Generation Z consumers’ preferences and personalized marketing across various digital marketing touchpoints.

Self-service technology (SST) has become a staple feature in technology-centric retail environments, providing customers with convenient and efficient service options. However, its implications for frontline employees (FLEs) and customer interactions have received little attention. This research explores the influence of SST implementation, referred to as SST readiness, on employee outcomes necessary for customer interactions. To investigate this problem, the authors adopt a mixed-method approach, combining structural equation modeling (SEM) and survey-implemented field studies. The data collection process involved frontline employees from retail establishments offering various SSTs – kiosk and mobile-based platforms. Survey respondents were also given a series of hypothetical scenarios describing customer encounters in self-service environments. The findings from the study illustrate the significant impact of a firm’s SST readiness on employee job outcomes and customer interactions. Specifically, the authors find that employees of SST-ready firms reported higher levels of job satisfaction and satisfaction toward customer interactions. Also, employees with customer-orientated personalities were better positioned to handle SST interactions effectively. These findings underscore the importance of SST beyond its primary focus on customers, as it demonstrates the significant impact this technology has on frontline employees in self-service retail environments. For retail managers, the study provides valuable insights into navigating the self-service environment; thus, allowing them to make more informed decisions that foster a positive work environment and enhance the service experience.

Salespeople depend on sales-related technologies to make themselves more efficient and effective. The extant sales-technology research tends to examine specific sales technologies in sales settings with the emphasis on the impact on salespeople. With the growth of technological capabilities, sales technology has become more integrated, thus making it harder to separate individual technologies from one another. Findings support the positive relationship between perceptions of sales-stack effectiveness and salesperson outcomes. However, low sales-stack adopters make the relationship between sales-stack effectiveness and outcomes negative compared to their high adoption counter parts. Thus, sales managers need to make sure their organizational sales-stack is not only effective but also utilized to ensure salesforce success.