Dishonest Behavior at Self-Service Checkouts

Self-service technology could be argued as creating less personal transactions when compared to traditional checkouts involving a sales assistant for the entire transaction process, which may affect customer behavior. The aim of our study was to investigate the perceived influence of social presence at self-service checkouts by staff and its perceived effect on dishonest customer behavior. Twenty-six self-service checkout staff took part in a series of semi-structured interviews to describe customer behaviors with self-service. With respect to actual physical social presence, staff reported that more customer thefts occurred when the self-service checkouts were busy and their social presence was reduced. Staff also reported that perceived and actual social presence is likely to reduce thefts. Future research will elaborate to which extent the perceived social presence via technological systems might support staff in their task to assist customers and reduce dishonest behavior.

[1]  K. Siddiqi,et al.  Interrelations between Service Quality Attributes, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in the Retail Banking Sector in Bangladesh , 2011 .

[2]  D. Farrington,et al.  Examining the relationship between low empathy and self-reported offending , 2007 .

[3]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[4]  Mark R. Leary,et al.  Social sources and interactive functions of emotion: The case of embarrassment. , 1992 .

[5]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Toward a More Robust Theory and Measure of Social Presence: Review and Suggested Criteria , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[6]  Sheryl E. Kimes,et al.  Only If It Is Convenient , 2013 .

[7]  Andrew Willis,et al.  CONTEXT-SPECIFIC MEASURES OF CCTV EFFECTIVENESS IN THE RETAIL SECTOR , 2006 .

[8]  Ulrike Gretzel,et al.  Differences in Social Presence Perceptions , 2012, ENTER.

[9]  Adrian Beck,et al.  Self-scan checkouts and retail loss: Understanding the risk and minimising the threat , 2011 .

[10]  B. Sternthal,et al.  Ease of message processing as a moderator of repetition effects in advertising. , 1990 .

[11]  O. Goodenough,et al.  Why do Good People Steal Intellectual Property , 2008 .

[12]  Waldemar Toporowski,et al.  Why do customers use self-service information technologies in retail? The mediating effect of perceived service quality , 2014 .

[13]  Barbara F Brice.  Understanding customer expectations of community pharmacy services , 2000 .

[14]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters , 2000 .

[15]  P. Cuijpers,et al.  Supportive Accountability: A Model for Providing Human Support to Enhance Adherence to eHealth Interventions , 2011, Journal of medical Internet research.

[16]  A. L. Beaman,et al.  Self-awareness and transgression in children: two field studies. , 1979, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  Eleonora Pantano,et al.  Frontline employees׳ attitudes towards self-service technologies: Threats or opportunity for job performance? , 2014 .

[18]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Choosing among Alternative Service Delivery Modes: An Investigation of Customer Trial of Self-Service Technologies , 2005 .

[19]  M. Capella,et al.  The Impact of Social Presence on Technology Based Self-Service Use: The Role of Familiarity , 2009 .

[20]  Lauren Wispé,et al.  History of the concept of empathy. , 1987 .

[21]  Garner Clancey.  Closed Circuit Television in Public Places , 2007 .

[22]  M. Bateson,et al.  Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting , 2006, Biology Letters.

[23]  Shanyang Zhao,et al.  Toward a Taxonomy of Copresence , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[24]  D. Romano,et al.  BASIC: A Believable Adaptable Socially Intelligent Character for Social Presence , 2005 .

[25]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Empathy and its development , 1987 .

[26]  Clifford Nass,et al.  The media equation - how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places , 1996 .

[27]  Hyun-Joo Lee,et al.  Interpersonal service quality, self-service technology (SST) service quality, and retail patronage , 2013 .

[28]  Liz Jamieson,et al.  Cognitive dissonance: progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. Edited By Eddie Harmon‐Jones & Judson Mills. American Psychological Association distributed by The Eurospan Group, 1999, ISBN 1‐55798‐565‐0 , 2001 .

[29]  Michael Chih-Hung Wang,et al.  Determinants and consequences of consumer satisfaction with self‐service technology in a retail setting , 2012 .

[30]  Tim Hughes,et al.  Adopting self-service technology to do more with less , 2013 .

[31]  D. Cross,et al.  Cyberbullying Versus Face-to-Face Bullying A Theoretical and Conceptual Review , 2009 .

[32]  E. Harmon-Jones,et al.  Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. , 1999 .

[33]  Kuang-Jung Chen,et al.  Technology-Based Service and Customer Satisfaction in Developing Countries , 2005 .

[34]  R. Baumeister.  A SELF-PRESENTATIONAL VIEW OF SOCIAL PHENOMENA , 1982 .