Published: 2008-02-15
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
The trend in manufacturing firms towards the provision of services related to the produced goods has been highlighted by several authors (e.g. Henkel et al.; 2004; Howells; 2004). Services can be critical for nurturing the customer relationship and for enabling more sophisticated; process-orientated offerings with higher margins than product sales (Mathieu; 2001; Oliva and Kallenberg; 2003). Besides; new industrial services represent a key source of growth for many firms (de Brentani; 1995). However; when analyzing the service operations of manufacturers it is not enough to focus on the internal service organization (e.g. front and back office) as the customer also is a source of product inputs (Hill; 1977); and a participant in the service production process (Grönroos and Ojasalo; 2004). New technology is an important driver for new offerings and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications can be used to improve manufacturing firms’ existing service processes and develop new; more advanced services and solutions (Kowalkowski; forthcoming). ICT may initiate a radical transformation of traditional customer-provider interfaces (Nambisan; 2002) and the firm’s internal service processes through standardization (Sundbo; 1994). Nevertheless; the impact of ICT on industrial service processes is insufficiently examined as most studies do not focus on B2B relationships (cf. Ritter and Walter; 2006) and if so; focus is often on product salesmen; not on service personnel (e.g. Hunter and Perreault; 2007; Ledingham et al.; 2006; Tanner and Shipp; 2005). This paper fills this gap by exploring how ICT is affecting and driving changing service processes and customer interfaces of capital goods manufacturers. A framework for analyzing service organizations developed by Larsson and Bowen (1989) serves as the theoretical basis of this study and two in-depth case studies illustrate the phenomenon.
Service processes; Industrial services; Customer-provider relationships; Front office; Back office; Information and communication technologies
Anderson; E.; C. Fornell and R. Rust (1997). "Customer Satisfaction; Productivity and Profitability." Marketing Science 16(2): 129-145.
Ballantyne; D. and R. Varey (2006). ” Creating value-in-use through marketing interaction.” Marketing Theory 6(3): 335-348.
Bitner; M.J.; W. Faranda; A. Hubbert and V. Zeithaml (1997). "Customer contributions and roles in service delivery." International Journal of Service Industry Management 8(3): 193-205.
de Brentani; U. (1995). "New Industrial Service Development: Scenarios for Success and Failure." Journal of Business Research 32(2): 93-103.
Dubois; A. and L-E. Gadde (2002). "Systematic combining: an abductive approach to case research." Journal of Business Research 55(7): 553-560.
Gallouj; F. and O. Weinstein (1997). "Innovation in services." Research Policy 26(4/5): 537.
Ghoshal; S. and C. Bartlett (1990). "The Multinational Corporation as an Interorganizational Network." Academy of Management Review 15(4): 603-625.
Ghoshal; S. and N. Nohria (1989). “Internal Differentiation within Multinational Corporations.” Strategic Management Journal 10: 323-337
Grönroos; C. and K. Ojasalo (2004). "Service productivity: Towards a conceptualization of the transformation of inputs into economic results in services." Journal of Business Research 57: 414-423.
Gummesson; E. (2000); Qualitative Methods in Management Research (Second ed.). Sage Publications; Thousand Oaks; CA.
Henkel; C. Bendig; T. Caspari and N. Hasagic (2004). Industrial Services Strategies: The quest for faster growth and higher margins; Monitor Group.
Hill; T. P. (1977). "On Goods and Services." Review of Income and Wealth 23(4): 315-338.
Howells; J. (2004). "Innovation; Consumption and Services: Encapsulation and the Combinatorial Role of Services." Service Industries Journal 24(1): 19-36.
Hunter; G. and W. Perreault (2007). "Making Sales Technology Effective." Journal of Marketing 71(1): 16-34.
Kowalkowski; C. (2007; forthcoming). "Service Productivity Gains through Information and Communication Technology Applications: A Service Marketing Approach." International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies.
Larsson; R. and D. Bowen (1989). "Organization and Customer: Managing Design and Coordination of Services." Academy of Management Review 14(2): 213-233.
Ledingham; D.; M. Kovac and H. Locke Simon (2006). "The New Science of Sales Force Productivity." Harvard Business Review 84(9): 124-133.
Mathieu; V. (2001). "Service strategies within the manufacturing sector." International Journal of Service Industry Management 12(5): 451-475.
McAfee; A. (2006). "Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology." Harvard Business Review 84(11): 141-149.
Nambisan; S. (2002). "Designing Virtual Customer Environments for New Product Development: Towards a Theory." Academy of Management Review 27(3): 392-413.
Normann; R. (2001); Reframing Business - When the Map Changes the Landscape (First ed.). John Wiley & Sons; Chichester; UK.
Normann; R. and R. Ramírez (1993). "From value chain to value constellation: Designing interactive strategy." Harvard Business Review 71(4): 65-77.
OECD (2005); OECD Factbook 2005: Economic; Environmental and Social Statistics. OECD Publishing.
Oliva; R. and R. Kallenberg (2003). "Managing the transition from products to services." International Journal of Service Industry Management 14(2): 160-172.
Ritter; T. and A. Walter (2006). "Matching high-tech and high-touch in suppliercustomer relationships." European Journal of Marketing 40(3/4): 292-310.
Sundbo; J. (1994). "Modularization of Service Production and a Thesis of Convergence Between Service and Manufacturing Organizations." Scandinavian Journal of Management 10(3): 245-266.
Tanner; J. and S. Shipp (2005). "Sales technology within the salesperson’s relationships: A research agenda." Industrial Marketing Management 34(4): 305-312.
Yin; R. (2003); Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Third ed.). Sage Publications; Thousand Oaks; CA.
