Service firm capabilities and performance: Contingent analysis of customer contact

From the competence-based view, this study contributes to understanding how service firm capabilities affect firm performance. The study examines managerial capabilities, organizational capabilities, marketing capabilities, and service quality capabilities. This study investigates whether interaction between these capabilities and their contribution to firm performance differ depending on the service's customer-contact level. To do so, the study analyzes data from a sample of Spanish service firms. Results show that managerial and organizational capabilities strengthen service quality and marketing capabilities. In addition, service quality and marketing capabilities significantly and directly affect firm performance. For services with high customer contact, marketing capabilities significantly and positively affect firm performance. For low customer-contact services, service quality capabilities significantly and directly affect performance. Results contribute to the literature by providing additional evidence that service management should differ depending on the level of customer contact that service firms require.