Tipping, Disrupted: The Multi-Stakeholder Digital Tipped Service Journey

Abstract

The shift from analog to digital point-of-sale systems (e.g. Square) and app-based service platforms (e.g. Uber) disrupted frontline services by creating new tipping processes that occur in an ever-expanding range of service contexts and involve new stakeholders. The increasing importance of tipping in the global economy and the uncertainty regarding tipping practices suggest the need for a comprehensive framework that accounts for evolving tipped service networks. We introduce the multi-stakeholder service journey lens to build a conceptual framework that accounts for the competing interests of customers, employees, frontline service managers, technology providers, and other stakeholders in emergent tipped services. This framework examines interactions between stakeholders at different points along the tipped service journey, while accounting for the technologies and contexts that shape stakeholder interactions and the sometimes divergent outcomes that result. Stakeholder interactions at each stage of the tipped service journey suggest theoretically rich research questions, such as “How do digital tipping technologies diffuse into and realign cultural practices?”, and important practical questions, such as “Which tip request framing and formatting choices result in the highest tips, most customer satisfaction, and optimum employee outcomes?” Our conclusion emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholder service journey perspectives for examining digitally disrupted services.