Abstract

A research study was initiated to investigate the influence and impact of Emotional Intelligence (EI) on extended Service Profit Chain (SPC) model in a telecom service industry in Oman. The operations management literature frequently exhorts that in addition to quality compliance, customer satisfaction, retention some attention to be devoted to attributes like employees satisfaction and loyalty as well. Accordingly, the SPC integrates EI as a pivotal component and has been in wide use for studying mutual linkages between employees and customers. The present study empirically examines the suitability and usefulness of this model in telecommunications industry, by collecting feedback about various attributes associated with from entities in both upstream and downstream paths viz. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), Service Providers (SP) and Customers. Using a battery of carefully-crafted, inter-linked hypotheses by thorough statistical analysis of the survey data was made to validate the assumptions and the soundness of three-tier architecture of SPC. The proposed research framework demonstrated that Service Quality (SQ) of upstream OEMs increases in proportion to the SQ and employee loyalty of SPs, which in turn generates satisfaction and loyalty among downstream customers. Interestingly, loyalty among downstream customers diffuses or propagates upward, translating into higher sales and performance for upstream OEMs. These findings suggest that EI is a benevolent, binding force and plays an invisible hand, in enhancing internal performance of an organization. By embracing extended SPC model, service industries are bound to gain competitive advantage and unleash firm profitability.

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