How financial markets reflect the benefits of self‐service technologies

Purpose – Self‐serve technologies (SSTs) provide many benefits such as speed, time and place convenience for the customer and reduced labour costs for the firm. The aim of this study is to consider whether these benefits are denoted by changes in the firms' stock price when SSTs are introduced. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from banking, retail (grocery and gas), and airline industries, this event study considers overall effects of SST implementation on stock price, and also considers effects in three sub‐categories: industry, time period, and scope of announcement (i.e. corporate vs. regional). Findings – SST announcements had a positive effect on firm value during the late 1990s. However, for the most part, financial markets do not respond to SST announcements. This is in line with the strategic necessity hypothesis and the resource‐based view of the firm, but may also be partly due to the phased rollouts that are typical of these implementations (which dilute the impact over time). Research limitations/implications – It proved quite difficult to locate original public announcements of SST investments in publicly traded companies; thus, the sample size is smaller than desired. However, a bootstrapping method was used to crosscheck the findings. Practical implications – Firms should not promise investors immediate increase in firm value, but rather demonstrate the benefits from a longer term, competitive and customer‐oriented perspective. Originality/value – This is the first study to consider the effect of implementing SSTs using event study methodology. Most prior SST studies have considered behavioural aspects of the implementation, while most prior event studies that have considered IT implementations have done so in a general sense, not focusing on a specific technology. Using a new dataset collected from two decades of SST implementations, this study focuses on the impact of SSTs from a different perspective.