At the Intersection of Service Quality and Online Reputation: How High-Quality Digital Experiences and Internet Footprint Drive Strategic Financial Outcomes in Service Sector Nonprofit Organizations

This dissertation comprises three cross-disciplinary essays on information systems, marketing, and financial outcomes research for nonprofit service organizations. In our first essay, we explore service quality impacts on the constructs of positive and negative word of mouth, developing and validating a new measurement scale, testing it empirically, and finding support for our hypotheses that the quality of the digital services experience has a significant impact on positive and negative word of mouth. In a new branch of service-oriented word-of-mouth research, we find the opinion of the unrestricted use of generative artificial intelligence also affects positive word-of-mouth. In essays two and three, we examine online reputation, exploring how internet footprint and reputational constructs of prominence and perceived quality impact operational revenue and philanthropic donations. In both essays, we find a significant impact of online reputation on strategic financial outcomes for nonprofit service organizations. Our research uses a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate our hypothesized relationships comprehensively. This approach allows us to explore these relationships in both explanatory and confirmatory manners, enabling us to evaluate new variables and relationships while also exploring potential emergent impacts. We aim for a robust analysis that intentionally seeks completeness, expansion, and triangulation in assessing the effects of our hypothesized relationships on our dependent variables. By integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches, we enhance our empirical statistical findings with a deeper understanding of the underlying causal mechanisms, which provides evidence of consistent patterns that facilitate robust and non-accidental generalizations. Essay One: From Experiences to Advocacy: Exploring Service Quality and Word-of-Mouth Recommendation for Nonprofit Service Sector Organizations. Service quality excellence may lead to a competitive advantage for nonprofit services firms. This study examines nonprofit higher education services and their impact on driving positive and negative word-of-mouth recommendations. We develop and validate a new scale to test the relationship between service quality and positive and negative word of mouth. Importantly, we test positive and negative word of mouth as separate constructs, as neither a mirror image of one another nor mutually exclusive. Additionally, this research stakeholder opinion of unrestricted generative artificial intelligence in higher education. Through empirical analysis, we confirm our hypothesized relationships, finding digital service quality positively and significantly impacts both positive and negative word of mouth. This research explores student opinion on emerging broad student, faculty, and administration use of generative artificial intelligence and is, at the time of writing, the only academic paper that considers generative artificial intelligence use as a significant driving factor in positive and negative WoM sharing. Finally, we present a validated instrument and theoretical framework to study digital service quality and WoM in any service industry, not just higher education. Essay Two: "Exploring Financial Resilience in the Nonprofit Service Sector During Times of Crisis: The Role of Online Reputation." Online reputation is an important intangible asset that nonprofit services firms can leverage to increase demand and drive revenue. During disruptive times of crisis, online reputation alone may not be enough to sustain financial performance; however, it may afford protection, and serve as a buffer to negative financial impacts. First, our research empirically tests and finds support for new online reputation variables and internet signaling antecedents as they impact financial performance. Second, our study explores these relationships and their financial impact during the global COVID-19 pandemic, finding online reputation alone was not enough to protect from financial loss due to the pandemic. We also find nonprofits with stronger online reputations financially fared better than those with lesser online reputations, providing evidence a strong online reputation may afford financial protection and can be leveraged to minimize financial loss. Finally, to better understand the underlying mechanisms at work in our constructs and explore phenomena identified in our empirical analysis, we use semi-structured expert interviews and thematic coding to gather and analyze qualitative response data, resulting in insight, justifications, and boundaries for our reputational relationships. Essay Three: Inspiring Generosity: The Influence of Online Reputation on Philanthropic Giving for Nonprofit Service Sector Organizations During Times of Crisis. Furthering our research into online reputation, we explore how online reputation impacts philanthropic giving for nonprofit service organizations. In a cross-disciplinary exploration of information systems and broadened marketing, our research examines the constructs of online reputation and how it impacts charitable giving to U.S.-based higher education institutions before and after the onset of the COVID-19 global health crisis. Through quantitative analysis, we find a significant positive impact on the strategic financial outcome of donations using new quality- and awareness-signaling antecedent internet footprint variables, and reputational prominence and perceived quality variables. Through qualitative analysis, we explore the underlying mechanisms of our empirical relationships, using expert case studies to understand how online reputation positively impacts strategic financial outcomes, both during times of normal operations and crisis. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]