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The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of how individually designed services are actually developed in small companies.

This study focuses on a small number of enterprises over a relatively long period. The study has been using a qualitative method based on repeated interviews.

The findings in this study show that there is no such thing as formal and/or structured development processes within the companies that were studied. The development process is more focused on how to, in an informal way, get hold of knowledge and other resources that are needed in order to create the new service. The development process can therefore be described as an intellectual and interactive process that involves cooperation within and between a changing set of actors and intervening parties, who all strive to create the knowledge that is needed in order to form new service offerings.

The main contribution of this study is to bring new perspectives into the service development area, and thereby highlight other aspects that the traditional service development literature has been focusing on, i.e. intra-organisation service development.

This paper is about service innovation processes and especially about how an idea about a new service proposition is realized and gradually transformed during the process. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the process by which the idea of what should be developed is formed.

Empirically this study is built on two case studies from the public transport context. The cases studied are long-term and involves a number of different actors from different organizations put together to deliver a new system solution regarding information- and ticketing systems.

The findings indicate that the service ideas gradually develop throughout the service innovation process; some of the changes are that distinct that they could be described as turning points. The reasons for the changes of the ideas are sometimes the renewed awareness that the involved actors get from communicating and learning from each other's, other times the turning points occur as a result form confrontation with the outside world, and what is their perceived as necessary and possible to do.

The study is novel in several respects: the notion of the transformation of the service idea during a service innovation process is introduced; it provides an empirical analysis of the knowledge transformation process during a service innovation process, and it applies traditional innovation perspective in a new context.

The purpose of the study is to create an initial understanding of how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services based on the research question considering “which different actor takes part in small companies’ service development processes in order giving access to the resources needed and what roles do they play?”

Due to the lack of previous studies within the area, the focus in this study has been to use a qualitative method to reach a deeper insight about how small companies’ service development could be described, as seen from an actor’s perspective.

Based on the empirical analysis, the study identifies seven main categories of actors who were involved in the service-development process that contributes with different types of resources and their role varies during the development process. The actors and their roles are presented in a model giving initial understanding how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services.

Using a qualitative approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Instead, the findings should be seen as an initial starting point for further studies.

The paper’s highlight a number of actor roles that need to be handled to create possibilities for small companies’ service development.

The paper fills a research gap in the service innovation research. Traditionally, this research has been focused on larger companies, with a focus on what happens inside the companies.

The purpose of this study is to describe how parted or divided service development is carried out, where interactions and cooperation need to take place with other actors in order to create the foundations for the service, in the form of a coherent specification of the extended service concept.

This study builds empirically on an in‐depth longitudinal case‐study approach using data from a development project within the public transport sector. By the time this study is published, the phase that deals with the development of the system requirements and specifications will be in its final stages, while the next phase – the actual creation of the technology‐based systems and the test launch – will have been initiated.

In this study, three important groups of actors were identified. The first group, the information carriers, are the actors from the different organisations participating in the project who possess the important knowledge that should be tapped out and translated. The second group is the translators who are the ones that gather the knowledge from the other actors and interpret and translate this knowledge. In order to make this possible and to facilitate the process, the third group, the supporting actors or facilitators, plays an important role.

This study provides an alternative view of new service development from a knowledge transfer perspective, which is in contrast to the highly structured and sequenced models that have characterised most of the existing research on service development.

The aim of this study is to achieve a better understanding of how small business develops personalised business‐to‐business services.

In‐depth interviews are conducted with representatives of 11 small Swedish companies in the service sector. Qualitative data from the interviews are coded and sorted according to themes.

Service development in the firms studied is an unstructured, incremental, and relatively informal process that proceeds as part of the firms' day‐to‐day interactions with their customers. It is essentially an iterative learning process by which individuals develop new knowledge and competencies to enhance the capacity of their firms to solve the specific problems of customers.

In contrast to the highly structured and sequenced models that have characterised most of the existing research on service development, this study provides an alternative view of new service development as a relatively informal learning process.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of contracts in long‐term relationship building comparing public and private contexts. In order to investigate this, the paper addresses literature about relationship building, negotiation process and the role of contracts.

This paper takes a qualitative approach and is based on comparative studies between the private and public sectors with the main focus on four companies within the public transport and paper industry. The unit of analysis is the enterprise's use of contracts in relationships. The analysis is based on the empirical material received from interviews and contextual analysis of the actual contracts. Internal and external documents have also been used in the analysis. The paper has categorized the material into different areas in relation to the relationship building.

In this paper the authors highlight the importance of contracts in the interaction between companies in different business situations. The findings in this study show that contracts function as cornerstones in relationship building. The conclusions also indicate that the type of contract used is depending of the uncertainty in the business relationship due to the relationship lifecycle. A main contribution from the study is that contracts affect the relationship building. In the private sector the relationship forms the contract while in the public sector the contract forms the relationships.

Previous research has mainly focused on how to manage long‐term relationships where the relationship is the result of a gradual development process between the parties and where there are few or next to no regulations regarding the interactions between the parties, for example who are involved or how the counterparty should be selected. Consequently, the results of this study adds to the literature the importance of contracts in long‐term relationship building comparing private and public contexts. Further, previous research has acknowledged that there is a need for more empirical research concerning the nature and form of contractual arrangements.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

It would seem that the nature of the service‐development process in small businesses is significantly influenced by the typical characteristics of many small companies – including limited resources, the dominant role of individuals, proximity to individual customers, and informal and effective internal communication patterns and working methods.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how contracts are used to build and develop long‐term relationships in contexts where trust cannot be expected in advance – i.e. there is a lack of initial trust.

This paper is based on a qualitative approach, while the present study used a documentary study focusing on 21 formal contractual dyads between contractors and fulfillers within the public transport sector.

The analysis of contracts in the public sector reveals the importance of formal contracts in relationship building, as a result of a number of factors that characterize this setting, including: the highly detailed specification of terms, legislation having an effect on the design of the contract, the bidding process, in situations where there is no negotiation process, no scope for further discussion after signing contracts, no learning processes, and contracts being used to conduct day‐to‐day business.

This research acknowledges the fact that there is a lack of empirical investigation into the nature and form of contractual arrangements, while the study contributes to this area by using formal contracts in a public context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the arena concept is used in sports marketing. The prevailing situation and the development of the arena concept require a combination between sport, business and entertainment.

To fulfil the aim of this study, we have used a qualitative method in the form of a case study. Secondary data and personal interviews were mainly used. Even though an interview guide was used, the key informants were allowed to tell their stories freely and discuss the development of the arena concept over time. Field observations have also been an important input in the process.

In delivering the sport event, there is a complex set of actors that must interact and intervene with each other. This paper contributes to the sport marketing field by analyzing the market situation in a network perspective. It also gives an idea of the relative positions of the organisations making up the network. When a sport club is delivering a sport event, there is a complex set of actors that must interact and intervene with each other, which those actors are and what they bring to the network depends on if you consider the network from a non-commercial sport point of view, or from a business and commercial point of view. In a traditional perspective, the side of the network that is based on the non-commercial or sport side consists of actors that are volunteers and engaged in the team for the fascination of sport.

The arena concept has been an important part in building relationships with different business actors in relation to the surrounding actors and the community. The activity-resource-actor model provides the analytical tools for analyzing the actors, resources and activities for developing the marketing strategy for a sport club.

This paper provides a unique insight into how a sports club has been able to use different resources to create a successful incubation from primarily being a non-profit organisation. The arena concept has been an important part in building relationships with different business actors in relation to the surrounding actors and the community.