Title: Integrating customer preferences and organisation strategy for resource allocation

Authors: Amit Sachan, Subhash Datta, A.P. Arora

Addresses: Management Development Institute, Mehaurali Road, Gurgaon 122001, India. ' Jaipuria Institute of Management, 1, Bambala Institutional Area, Sanganer, Jaipur – 302033, Rajasthan, India. ' Management Development Institute, Mehaurali Road, Gurgaon 122001, India

Abstract: The objective of the current research is to develop a resource allocation plan based on customer preferences and organisational strategy. The Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) service of the bank is chosen as the service in the current research. Conjoint experiments were used to identify choice patterns of customers. Customer share maximising service designs were obtained under three generic strategies, i.e., cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategy. Simulation is used to determine the effect of changing the level of policy attributes of optimal service designs on customer share. The effect of concentration of the bank|s ATM on the bank|s X customer share is determined by simulation for the three strategies. The results show how users trade off between various ATM attributes when choosing an ATM service. Various service designs were obtained under each strategy and then various scenarios were obtained by simulation. The paper provides the approach which will help managers in effectively managing resources.

Keywords: resource allocation; service design; optimisation; simulation; conjoint; customer preferences; organisational strategy; automatic teller machines; ATM services; banking; resource management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2008.017298

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2008 Vol.4 No.3, pp.345 - 367

Published online: 24 Feb 2008 *

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