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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a prominent topic of debate, and yet remains subject to multiple interpretations. Despite this ambiguity, organisations need to communicate their CSR activity effectively in order to meet varied stakeholder demands, increase financial performance and in order to achieve legitimacy in the eyes of clients and various stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to explore how CSR is communicated, and the impact such communication methods have on CSR practice. More specifically, it examines the disconnect between the rhetoric espoused in CSR reports and the actualities of the ways in which CSR is practiced.

A qualitative content analysis of 100 CSR reports published by nine construction contractors informed the design of qualitative interviews. In total, 17 interviews were then conducted with contractors and public body clients.

Strategic ambiguity explains how contractors circumvent the problem of attending to conflicting stakeholder CSR needs. However, this results in a paradox where CSR is simultaneously sustained as a corporate metric and driver, whilst being simultaneously undermined in being seen as a rhetorical device. By examining this phenomenon through the lens of legitimacy, the study reveals how both the paradox and subsequent actions of clients that this provokes, act to restrict the development of CSR practice.

This is the first study to use the lens of legitimacy theory to analyse the relationship between CSR reporting and CSR practice in the construction industry. In revealing the CSR paradox and its ramifications the research provides a novel explanation of the lack of common understandings and manifestations of CSR within the construction sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of “product‐service” (P‐S) strategies in the aerospace sector. Despite the widespread perception that aerospace organisations are advanced in terms of P‐S integration, little is known about the realities of P‐S provision in the sector. Much of the existing literature is normative and prescriptive, focusing upon what organisations aspire to do, but offers little insights into how attempts to integrate products and services occur or the challenges organisations encounter.

This paper presents an in‐depth case study of an international aerospace original equipment manufacturer, referred to as “JetCo”. A total of 18 interviews were conducted with key actors involved in the operationalisation of P‐S strategy within defence aerospace and civil aerospace divisions. In addition, analysis of internal company documentation was also undertaken.

This paper reveals that current P‐S strategy, which builds upon a long history of service offerings, initially evolved separately in each division in response to the particular markets in which they operate. However, there was evidence of a corporate‐wide strategy for P‐S provision being developed across divisions to improve co‐ordination. This was founded on the recognition that P‐S delivery requires the development of a stronger customer orientation, better knowledge and information management strategies and the engagement of employees. A key challenge concerned integrating the product and service parts of the business to ensure consistent delivery of a seamless value offering to customers.

The paper offers fresh empirical evidence into the development of P‐S in an organisation drawn from a sector often flagged as an exemplar of P‐S provision, and provides insights into the complex realities of P‐S implementation and delivery. Notably, it highlights the challenge of attempting to embed an organisation‐wide “service culture” in pursuit of integrated P‐S delivery, and questions the nostrums and overly simplistic models which pervade the current solutions discourse.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of product‐service systems (PSS). It uses a multiple method approach to analyse literature and cases and synthesise a framework for the understanding and investigation of PSS. It demonstrates the need to consider the “organisation” or network, of firms involved in defining, designing and delivering value through the PSS. This is conceptualised as a product‐service‐organisation (PSO).

The paper uses three complementary methodologies: a road‐mapping analysis, investigating industrial challenges for collaborating enterprises, a multidisciplinary literature review of PSS concepts and analysis of two cases.

The paper finds that value can be most effectively delivered by networks of collaborating firms, integrating the products and services they offer to create the value which customers seek. In short, creating value requires the simultaneous design of product, service and organisation – the PSO triangle.

The paper offers a new classification of PSS related literature, drawing on a broad review of research in marketing, design and operations management related to service and PSS. The framework helps researchers understand the organisational challenges of PSS and provides suggested future research directions and questions.

The framework provides the foundations for a process to develop PSS. It highlights the organisational challenges and suggests that a systematic yet iterative process can be devised to create and deliver value. This means defining customer value which can be profitably delivered; designing the PSS to create this value and identifying the required capabilities; and finally creating and managing the network of partners responsible for delivering value.

The major contribution is a link between the emerging PSS literature and previous research on virtual enterprises and other types of organisational networks. The paper argues that PSS often creates the need to identify and access capabilities through a collaborative network. This is conceptualised in the PSO triangle.

This paper proposes a new approach to operations and supply strategy in the light of recent developments in the analysis of the respective roles of products and services in delivering benefits to customers.

Reviews and synthesises concepts from operations management (OM), marketing, economics and related areas. Examples of product and service combinations are considered, drawing attention to the ways in which services may be distinguished from products. An institutional basis for defining services is favoured over IHIP. A corollary of this is how services are made tradable: the modularity theory of the firm is used to do this. The paper then outlines, considers and compares various approaches to the combination of products and services: “service‐dominant logic”, support services, product‐service systems, systems integration, performance‐based logistics, bundling and, finally, the notion of “the offering”.

It is found that the notion of the business model is useful as an integrating concept. This focuses on four areas: network structure, how transactions are made, how revenue models and incentives interact and how capabilities are accessed. Implications for future research in OM are considered.

Hitherto, operations strategy (OS) has concentrated on intra‐firm capabilities, which is only part of one of the four areas identified. Therefore, an extensive agenda for research into inter‐firm capabilities and the other three areas identified is presented.

This is among the first papers in OM to break completely with IHIP as a basis for service definition and to work through the implications for OS. It is also the first to develop systematically an understanding of how the emerging concept of the business model can inform OM.

This paper aims to present a framework that will help manufacturing firms to configure their internal production and support operations to enable effective and efficient delivery of products and their closely associated services.

First, the key definitions and literature sources directly associated with servitization of manufacturing are established. Then, a theoretical framework that categorises the key characteristics of a manufacturer's operations strategy is developed and this is populated using both evidence from the extant literature and empirical data.

The framework captures a set of operations principles, structures and processes that can guide a manufacturer in the delivery of product‐centric servitized offering. These are illustrated and contrasted against operations that deliver purely product (production operations) and those which deliver purely services (services operations).

The work is based on a review of the literature supported by data collected from an exploratory case study. Whilst it provides an essential platform, further research will be needed to validate the framework.

The principal contribution of this paper is a framework that captures the key characteristics of operations for product‐centric servitized manufacture.

The purpose of this paper is to explain why the historical integration of manufacturing with service was quickly seen as advantageous in some circumstances, but not so in others.

The paper reviews the history of manufacturing companies in the USA during the last half of the nineteenth century, categorizes them, and ties them to theory.

The bundling of manufactured goods to downstream‐available services was led by companies with new products but with no great manufacturing strengths, as a way to establish barriers to entry. Companies with significant manufacturing capabilities were not as quick or as complete in their integration of manufacturing and service.

This paper shows that servitization has antecedents that go back 150 years.

This paper analyzes two manufacturing firms entering condition based maintenance business reveals the complex nature of establishing integrated solutions. Existing literature on integrated solutions is contrasted critically against empirical findings.

Descriptive, comparative case study focuses on solution offerings in two different companies. The data consist of 57 thematic interviews of both manufacturer and customer representatives and company documents.

In integrated solutions, value is created incrementally through the customer‐provider co‐production process. Building integrated solutions business requires managing the interdependence of the solution components – both within the provider company and the offering, and between the provider and the client – to enable this collaborative process.

The case studies were first conducted separately and later compared. However, despite some minor differences in case methodologies, no problems were encountered in the comparative analysis of the data sets.

The paper departs from the canons of earlier literature as it proposes a revised definition for integrated solution offerings; it emphasizes balanced amalgamation of multiple perspectives instead of just replacing the old ones; it questions the view of solutions development as a straight‐forward implementation process; and it switches perspective from the manufacturer to the business of the client as the main system.

The sheer volume of decisions taken within the public sector procurement process prevents perfect and complete information being obtained and applied to every best value tender analysis that is carried out. As such, uncertainty must be accepted as a feature of the best value decision‐making process. This paper reports research which is developing a methodology for utilising the uncertainty component in best value tender analysis in order to create a more transparent decision making process. The main output of the research is the production of a robust support tool which aids the multi objective decision making process within the public sector of the UK construction industry by provoking rational discussion with respect to; the industry’s key performance indicators (KPIs), the client’s attitude to risk and provides a transparent audit trail of the decisions taken. The underlying rationale for the support tool is based on a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Multi‐Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) and Whole Life Costing (WLC). The paper demonstrates the practical utility of the methodology of the tool through a tender decision process.