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Service delivery system design for risk management in sharing-based product service systems: a customer-oriented approach

Simon Hazée (Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations (LouRIM), Université catholique de Louvain, Mons, Belgium)
Yves Van Vaerenbergh (KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium)
Cécile Delcourt (HEC Liège - Management School of the University of Liège, Liège, Belgium)
Sertan Kabadayi (Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University, New York, USA)

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

ISSN: 0144-3577

Article publication date: 20 May 2020

Issue publication date: 19 June 2020

1239

Abstract

Purpose

Organizations increasingly develop and offer sharing services enabled by means of product-service systems (PSS). However, organizations offering sharing-based PSS face a unique set of design challenges and operational risks. The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers and practitioners with customer-based insights into service delivery system design and risk management for sharing-based PSS operational success.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study combines in-depth interviews with supplementary, multidisciplinary literature and secondary firm data. In total, the authors conducted 56 semi-structured interviews with diverse customers across different business-to-customer (B2C) PSS settings.

Findings

First, the authors develop an integrative conceptual framework that reveals what structural and infrastructural design choices customer expect organizations to make for mitigating risks and enhancing customer-perceived value in the sharing economy. These design choices may influence customers' trust and control perceptions in all actors involved in the service delivery system. Second, the results suggest that sharing value proposition, customer-perceived level of consequentiality and level of customer-supplied resources are contingency factors that need to be considered when making design decisions for risk management in the sharing economy.

Originality/value

This study extends Sampson's Unified Service Theory by proposing that, with sharing-based PSS, production flows from customers to customers. This situation creates unique challenges for operations management. This paper extends current understanding of the role, characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design for risk management in the sharing economy. In doing so, authors challenge common wisdom and suggest understanding both the organizational and customers' individual contexts is critical for (contingency) theory and practice.

Keywords

Citation

Hazée, S., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Delcourt, C. and Kabadayi, S. (2020), "Service delivery system design for risk management in sharing-based product service systems: a customer-oriented approach", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 459-479. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-08-2019-0581

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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