Showing papers on "Service system published in 2011"

Value co-creation in service logic: A critical analysis:

Abstract: The underpinning logic of value co-creation in service logic is analysed. It is observed that some of the 10 foundational premises of the so-called service-dominant logic do not fully support an understanding of value creation and co-creation in a way that is meaningful for theoretical development and decision making in business and marketing practice. Without a thorough understanding of the interaction concept, the locus as well as nature and content of value co-creation cannot be identified. Value co-creation easily becomes a concept without substance. Based on the analysis in the present article, it is observed that the unique contribution of a service perspective on business (service logic) is not that customers always are co-creators of value, but rather that under certain circumstances the service provider gets opportunities to co-create value together with its customers. Finally, seven statements included in six of the foundational premises are reformulated accordingly.

Expanding understanding of service exchange and value co-creation: a social construction approach

Abstract: According to service-dominant logic (S-D logic), all providers are service providers, and service is the fundamental basis of exchange. Value is co-created with customers and assessed on the basis of value-in-context. However, the extensive literature on S-D logic could benefit from paying explicit attention to the fact that both service exchange and value co-creation are influenced by social forces. The aim of this study is to expand understanding of service exchange and value co-creation by complementing these central aspects of S-D logic with key concepts from social construction theories (social structures, social systems, roles, positions, interactions, and reproduction of social structures). The study develops and describes a new framework for understanding how the concepts of service exchange and value co-creation are affected by recognizing that they are embedded in social systems. The study contends that value should be understood as value-in-social-context and that value is a social construction. Value co-creation is shaped by social forces, is reproduced in social structures, and can be asymmetric for the actors involved. Service exchanges are dynamic, and actors learn and change their roles within dynamic service systems.

Crowd-Funding: Transforming Customers into Investors through Innovative Service Platforms

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the emerging crowd‐funding phenomenon, that is a collective effort by consumers who network and pool their money together, usually via the internet, in order to invest in and support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Successful service businesses that organize crowd‐funding and act as intermediaries are emerging, attesting to the viability of this means of attracting investment.Design/methodology/approach – The research employs a “grounded theory” approach, performing an in‐depth qualitative analysis of three cases involving crowd‐funding initiatives: SellaBand in the music business, Trampoline in financial services, and Kapipal in non‐profit services. These cases were selected to represent a diverse set of crowd‐funding operations that vary in terms of risk/return for the investor and the type of payoff associated to the investment.Findings – The research addresses two research questions: how and why do consumers turn into crowd‐funding ...

Multilevel Service Design: From Customer Value Constellation to Service Experience Blueprinting:

Abstract: The proliferation of complex service systems raises new challenges for service design and requires new methods. Multilevel Service Design (MSD) is presented as a new interdisciplinary method for designing complex service systems. MSD synthesizes contributions from new service development, interaction design, and the emerging field of service design. MSD enables integrated development of service offerings at three hierarchical levels: (a) Designing the firm’s service concept with the customer value constellation of service offerings for the value constellation experience; (b) Designing the firm’s service system, comprising its architecture and navigation, for the service experience; and (c) Designing each service encounter with the Service Experience Blueprint for the service encounter experience. Applications of the MSD method are described for designing a new retail grocery service and for redesigning a bank service. MSD contributes an interdisciplinary service design method that accommodates the cocreat...

First Step in Social Media - Measuring the Influence of Online Management Responses on Customer Satisfaction

Abstract: With the growing influence of online social media, firms increasingly take an active role in interacting with consumers in social media. For many firms, their first step in online social media is management responses, where the management responds to customers’ comments about the firm or its products and services. In this paper, we measure the impact of management responses on customer satisfaction using data retrieved from a major online travel agency in China. Applying a panel data model that controls for regression toward the mean and heterogeneity in individual preference for hotels, we find that online management responses are highly effective among low satisfaction customers but have limited influence on other customers. Moreover, we show that the public nature of online management responses introduces a new dynamic among customers. While online management responses increase future satisfaction of the complaining customers who receive the responses, they decrease future satisfaction of complaining customers who observe but do not receive management responses. The result is consistent with the peer-induced fairness theory.

Quality--Speed Conundrum: Trade-offs in Customer-Intensive Services

Abstract: In many services, the quality or value provided by the service increases with the time the service provider spends with the customer. However, longer service times also result in longer waits for customers. We term such services, in which the interaction between quality and speed is critical, as customer-intensive services. In a queueing framework, we parameterize the degree of customer intensity of the service. The service speed chosen by the service provider affects the quality of the service through its customer intensity. Customers queue for the service based on service quality, delay costs, and price. We study how a service provider facing such customers makes the optimal “quality--speed trade-off.” Our results demonstrate that the customer intensity of the service is a critical driver of equilibrium price, service speed, demand, congestion in queues, and service provider revenues. Customer intensity leads to outcomes very different from those of traditional models of service rate competition. For instance, as the number of competing servers increases, the price increases, and the servers become slower. This paper was accepted by Sampath Rajagopalan, operations and supply chain management.

Supply Chain Network Operations Management of a Blood Banking System with Cost and Risk Minimization

Abstract: Blood service operations are a key component of the healthcare system all over the world and yet the modeling and analysis of such systems from a supply chain network optimization perspective has been lacking due to their associated unique challenges. In this paper, we develop a network optimization model for the complex supply chain of human blood, which is a life-saving, perishable product. In particular, we consider a regionalized blood banking system consisting of collection sites, testing and processing facilities, storage facilities, distribution centers, as well as points of demand, which, typically, include hospitals. Our multicriteria system-optimization approach on generalized networks with arc multipliers captures many of the critical issues associated with blood supply chains such as the determination of the optimal allocations, and the induced supply-side risk, as well as the induced cost of discarding the waste, while satisfying the uncertain demands as closely as possible. The framework that we present is also applicable, with appropriate modifications, to the optimization of other supply chains of perishable products.

Understanding service uncertainties in industrial product–service system cost estimation

Abstract: The global transition towards service orientation is posing challenges in cost estimation for manufacturers driven by the uncertainties that arise at the bidding stage of long-lasting performance-based contracts (i.e. availability). Service uncertainty is driven by the quality of information flow and knowledge across a given service network; however, it commonly suffers from the unavailability of useful data to assist cost predictions. Currently, consideration of cost uncertainty for an industrial product–service system is lacking in literature. To fill this gap, this paper combines literature in service and uncertainty in cost estimation to propose the components of a service delivery system, classification of sources of uncertainty based on supply and demand and the suitable uncertainty modelling methods for service cost estimation. The paper categorises service uncertainties in a demand and supply approach, whilst also allocating the types of uncertainty into aleatory and epistemic to propose suitable uncertainty modelling approaches. For future research, various areas such as consideration of a holistic approach to account for service uncertainties and development of a framework to support inter-linkages across a service network are proposed.

Service delivery system design: characteristics and contingencies

Abstract: Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore and empirically investigate the characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design.Design/methodology/approach – Informed by the service strategy triad, a single embedded case study was designed to explore empirical data on four target markets, four service concepts, and on the design characteristics of the corresponding four service delivery systems. Data were collected in a market‐leading organisation in the business‐to‐business sector within the power industry. The service delivery systems comprise processes that sell electricity contracts and processes that bill against those contracts.Findings – First, the findings indicate what design characteristics are contingent upon the degree of customisation of the service concept. The authors show how this contingency has implications for the extents of employee skills, employee discretion, task routineness, automation, and for front office (FO)‐back office (BO) configurations. Second, the authors...

Does Service-Dominant Design Result in a Better Service System?

Abstract: Purpose – Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the mechanisms and drivers of service exchange and value co‐creation. In particular, no study has compared a service system design informed by service‐dominant logic (SDL) with a service system design informed by goods‐dominant logic (GDL). The purpose of this paper is to address this knowledge gap. The research question is: does a service‐dominant system design result in a more favourable customer experience than a goods‐dominant service system?Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was carried out on a group of habitual bus travellers. The subjects were asked to plan a specific journey using two online journey planning systems. Two hypotheses were tested: first, an SDL informed service system will evoke a better overall customer experience than a GDL informed service system. Second, this better customer experience arises out of seven service system design characteristics. Both objective and subjective data were gathered to compare the c...

Management of service supply chains with a service‐oriented reference model: the case of management consulting

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to explore the utility of the manufacturing biased supply chain operations reference (SCOR) tool in services and develops a reference model for use in service organisations.Design/methodology/approach – Services are considered as supply chain processes that are balanced around the capacity of the firm through the upstream sourcing processes. Empirical research is undertaken to model the design, creation and delivery processes of a management consultancy as a supply chain and to identify the potential application and benefits of the tool in a service context.Findings – The developed model conceptualises the capacity of service firms as a resource inventory to build a service offering. This inventory‐capacity duality that describes a service firm's capabilities is applicable across a wide spectrum of the service sector. Six major processes for the design and management of service supply chains are identified: plan, source, develop, adapt, operate, and recover.Research limitations/i...

Multi‐dimensional nature of service innovation: Operationalisation of the elevated service offerings construct in collaborative service organisations

Abstract: Purpose – Innovation in services is thought to be multi‐dimensional in nature, and in this context the purpose of this paper is to present and operationalise the concept of “elevated service offerings” (ESO) in collaborating service organisations. ESO stands for new or enhanced service offerings which can only be eventuated as a result of partnering, and which could not be delivered on individual organisational merit. ESO helps us expand our understanding of service innovation to include a service network or service system's dimension.Design/methodology/approach – A structural equation model is specified and estimated based on constructs and relationships grounded in the literature, as well as self‐developed constructs, using empirical data from 449 respondents in an Australian telecommunications service provider (SP) and its partnering organisations.Findings – Results show that ESO is a multi‐dimensional construct which was operationalised and validated through an extensive literature review, exploratory...

Method and system for realizing an avatar in a management operations center implemented in a global ecosystem of interrelated services

Abstract: A data processing system may be implemented as a program product embodied on a processing system readable medium for implementing a method for using mobile code for implementing a service in a global ecosystem of interrelated services in an enterprise. The enterprise may include a group of network domains, where each of the network domains further includes a group of servers; at least one service container running on each of the servers; and a group of interrelated services, where each of the interrelated services may run on any of the at least one service container. The program product may include instructions for loading mobile service code for implementing a service on a code server, where the code server is accessible to at least some of the servers in the enterprise; instructions for determining information related to the service, where the information related to the service includes configuration information and a proxy reference for the service, the proxy reference including a codebase containing an address for a code server holding the mobile service code of a proxy for the service; and instructions for launching the service in a network domain.

Exploring the alignment between service strategy and service innovation

Abstract: Purpose – Literature is relatively sparse on describing how companies should align their determinants for service innovations with their different types of service strategies. This study seeks to explore the alignment between three types of service strategies and determinants for service innovations.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, multi‐case research design on 12 Western European capital goods manufacturers including 24 service innovation projects was employed. The study is based on multiple sources of evidence: internal documentation of service innovation and development projects and, most importantly, interview data and participation in internal innovation workshops. Traditional inductive research methods were used to analyze the case studies.Findings – These indicate that aligning service strategies with determinants for service innovations is very complex. The configurations of the determinants are associated with the innovation success. Alternative configurations of determinants can crea...

Beyond service attributes: do personal values matter?

Abstract: Purpose – Service firms constantly look for ways to differentiate their offering. Recently, personal values have emerged as a way to understand how customers fulfill deeper needs when consuming a service. This paper aims to examine how personal values operate in the evaluation of higher education services. Like other services, marketing has become essential to higher education as universities compete aggressively for students and differentiate their service offerings. Although attribute‐based measures such as SERVQUAL provide useful information to service providers, personal values may offer a deeper understanding of how customers judge the quality and desirability of an educational institution's services. This study seeks to determine whether personal values in higher education affect perceptions of overall value, satisfaction, and behavioral outcomes including loyalty and intention to recommend.Design/methodology/approach – A survey measured student personal values, service quality, satisfaction, and be...

End-of-Life Inventory Decisions of Service Parts

Abstract: textWith the spurt of technology and innovation the life cycles of parts and products have become shorter and service parts enter their final phases earlier. Final phase of a typical service part starts once the part production is ceased and ends when the last service or warranty contract expires. One popular tactic, in practice, to sustain service operations is placing a final order. The prime challenge of a firm while deciding a final order quantity is to minimize inventory-carrying costs together with the risk of obsolescence at the end of the planning period. In this study, end-of-life inventory decisions for an array of products including both consumer electronics and capital-intensive products are investigated. For consumer electronics we show that considering an alternative service policy, such as swapping the defective product with a new one, besides a regular repair policy improves cost efficiency. Moreover, for capital-intensive products we study systems with phase-out returns and systems with customer differentiation in the end-of-life phase. Our analysis reveals that taming the uncertainty associated with phase-out arrivals engenders a remarkable efficiency improvement. Moreover, including rationing decisions in the end-of-life phase enhances the performance of the system by a significant reduction in cost and risk of obsolescence.

Managing Retention in Service Relationships

Abstract: Consider a firm that can actively manage and customize the service offered to customers in a repeat business context. What is the long-term value of such flexibility, and how should firms manage the service relationship over time? We propose a dynamic model of the firm-client relationship that relies on behavioral theories and empirical evidence to model the evolution of service quality expectations and their impact on customer retention and profitability. We find that firms can extract higher long-term value by managing service experiences and expectations over time. Varying service in the long run is not optimal, however. We characterize the optimal dynamic service policy and show that it converges to a steady-state service level. Loss aversion expands the range of constant optimal service policies, suggesting that behavioral asymmetries limit the value of responsive service. Sensitivity results characterize the effect of customer margin, loyalty, and memory on policies and profits.

Investigating issues and challenges for customer involvement in business services innovation

Abstract: Purpose – The paper aims to investigate how customers may contribute to radical innovation in consultancy services and the conditions needed for customers to be involved in such radical service innovations.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a qualitative case study approach including rich descriptions based primarily on interviews to investigate an extreme example of successful customer involvement in the development of radical service innovations at Ramboll, a leading Scandinavian engineering consultancy.Findings – The study reveals that customers may be involved in radical innovation processes to different degrees. However, actively involving customers in radical services innovation require a relationship between the customer company and the service provider that might be described as a partnership in which ongoing learning takes place to develop new solutions. The findings reveal that unsolved problems as well as personal trust are key in making customers involved in radical service innovatio...

System for managing resources in virtual environment and implementation method thereof

Abstract: The invention discloses a system for managing resources in a virtual environment. The system comprises an OSS (Operation Support System), a TMN (Telecom Management Network), a service delivery system, a master, a slave, a network switch and shared storage equipment, wherein the TMN is connected with the OSS; a virtual machine runs on the slave; the service delivery platform is connected with the OSS and requests resources from the master; the master is connected with the network switch and the slave respectively and is used for receiving a request signal sent by the service delivery platform and controlling the slave and the virtual machine running on the slave; the slave is connected with the network switch, the shared storage equipment and the TMN; and the shared storage equipment serves as a shared storage and is connected with the network switch, the slave and the master respectively. By adopting the system, virtual machine resources, virtual storage resources and virtual network resources can be efficiently and reliably managed uniformly, so that management of transaction levels of various resources in the virtual environment is realized.

Ubiquitous Healthcare Service System with Context-awareness Capability: Design and Implementation

Abstract: The rises of the life index quality together with the medical technology improvement lead to a longer life expectancy. Thus a better health care program, especially for elderly, is needed. The common health problems facing those senior citizens are changed from acute diseases to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. Along with these changes, medical tourism is becoming the trend of the future. In this paper, we propose a decision support systems, the Ubiquitous Context-aware Healthcare Service System (UCHS), which uses micro sensors integrate RFID to sense user's life vital signal, such as electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), blood pressure (BP), blood sugar (BS), and temperature and light. The UCHS is composted of Situation-Aware Medical Tourism Service Search Subsystem (SAMTS^3), Healthy-life Map Guiding Subsystem (HMGS), Intelligent Curative Food Decision Support Subsystem (ICFDSS), and 4D Emergency Indication and Ambulance Dispatch Subsystem (4DEIADS) to provide relevant nature medicine recommendations to its user. The UCHS built upon an integrated service platform in which medical experts' knowledge and all position and negative influence of the proposed therapy are inferred by using semantic network.

Customer service understanding: gender differences of frontline employees

Abstract: Purpose – Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of employees to the success of service firms, research into how well frontline service staff understand service remains scarce. This study aims to investigate what constitutes good customer service from the viewpoint of frontline service employees and to explore gender differences in particular.Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from 876 frontline employees across a wide range of service industries. An automated text analysis using Leximancer explored general and gender‐specific patterns in employees' customer service understanding.Findings – Irrespective of gender, frontline service staff share the perception that the pillars of good customer service are listening skills, making the customer happy, and offering service. Males have a more functional, outcome‐oriented interpretation of customer service; females focus more on the actual service interaction and emotional outcomes.Practical implications – By acknowledging gender...

Cross-training performance in flexible labor scheduling environments

Abstract: Cross-training effectively pools multiple demand streams, improving service levels and, when demand streams are negatively correlated, boosting productivity. When services operate for extended hours, however, those benefits are intermittent because employees take their skills home with them at the end of their shift. This study explores how cross-training and workforce management decisions interact to affect labor costs and service levels in extended hour service operations with uncertain demand and employee attendance. Using a two-stage stochastic model, we first optimally staff, cross-train, schedule, and allocate workers across departments. We then simulate demand and attendance and, as needed, re-allocate available cross-trained workers to best satisfy realized demand. Comparing the performance of full- and partial cross-training policies with that of dedicated specialists, we found that cross-training often, but not always, dominated the performance of a specialized workforce. When cross-trained work...

Complex service recovery processes: how to avoid triple deviation

Abstract: Purpose – This article seeks to develop a new framework to outline factors that influence the resolution of unfavourable service experiences as a result of double deviation. The focus is on understanding and managing complex service recovery processes.Design/methodology/approach – An inductive, explorative and narrative approach was selected. Data were collected in the form of narratives from the field through interviews with actors at various levels in organisations as well as with customers in a high‐touch service industry. The data form the analysis of double and triple deviation situations and complex service recovery processes.Findings – The study identifies four factors that influence complex service recovery processes and outcomes in double deviation situations: communication, competence, time, and service system. The resulting theoretical conceptualisation of the recovery process from the customer's perspective emphasises customer perceived control, sense of coherence, and meaning. Together, these...

QoS-Driven proactive adaptation of service composition

Abstract: Proactive adaptation of service composition has been recognized as a major research challenge for service-based systems. In this paper we describe an approach for proactive adaptation of service composition due to changes in service operation response time; or unavailability of operations, services, and providers. The approach is based on exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) for modelling service operation response time. The prediction of problems and the need for adaptation consider a group of services in a composition flow, instead of isolated services. The decision of the service operations to be used to replace existing operations in a composition takes into account response time and cost values. A prototype tool has been implemented to illustrate and evaluate the approach. The paper also describes the results of a set of experiments that we have conducted to evaluate the work.

A New Model of Accelerating Service Innovation with Sensor-Cloud Infrastructure

Abstract: Cloud computing service is a model of a shared network-delivered service in which users focus only provided services and need not worry about the implementation of the services. The service model and life cycle become changing by cloud computing service. The paper proposes a new type of approach to accelerate the service innovation with Sensor-Cloud Infrastructure which provides IT resources and sensors as cloud computing service. Service provider prepares service templates. Service requesters can get service instances quickly when they require. Service requesters can use service instances themselves or extend service instances for creating new services. This paper describes a service model with the Sensor-Cloud Infrastructure, accounting, service life cycle and service innovation with use case scenarios.