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1 – 10 of over 141000Scott E. Sampson and R. Bruce Money
Much has been written about the manifestations and managerial implications of customer co-production in service offerings. However, there have been relatively few references to…
Abstract
Purpose
Much has been written about the manifestations and managerial implications of customer co-production in service offerings. However, there have been relatively few references to issues of co-production in international service environments. Co-production is very relevant in international environments because of the requirements for interaction between producers and consumers, which interaction spans international borders and national cultures. The purpose of this paper is to apply an established theory of co-production, the Unified Service Theory (UST), to the international service context. This provides the authors with structured models for conceptualizing the co-productive nature of international service offerings and assessing-related managerial implications.
Design/methodology/approach
The UST provides a model of co-productive service delivery. Extending that model, the authors develop a taxonomy of international service based on the “four modes of service supply” provided in the General Agreement on Trade and Services instituted by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Then, using data from the WTO and World Bank, the authors propose and test six hypotheses for predicting service exporting focus corresponding to the co-production taxonomy.
Findings
Based on the analysis of empirical data, the authors find more service exporting focus in small, growing, high-wage economies that have a significant service base and focus in merchandise exporting. The strength of these effects differs for different modes of service supply.
Research limitations/implications
The authors also discuss cultural issues of international service, but the empirical analysis of culture effects is thus far inconclusive. Also, the analysis is limited to modeling and studying dyadic relationships, i.e., service providers in one country involved in an interchange with customers in another country. A natural extension would be to consider triads and more complex networks of co-productive service offerings.
Practical implications
This research shows how managerial implication of the UST can be extended to international service contexts. The authors review managerial implications pertaining to meeting variable demand, describing service characteristics, and pricing.
Originality/value
Co-production research is well-established in service management literature. This paper extends that research to international contexts by describing the WTO taxonomy in terms of the UST. This allows the authors to apply various insights of co-production to international service offerings.
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The purpose of this paper is to present a process architecture pattern for designing particular components of a complex service. The proposal emphasizes the design of the service…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a process architecture pattern for designing particular components of a complex service. The proposal emphasizes the design of the service production flow component, following modularity ideas, which determines the sequence of actions needed to generate a high quality and efficient service. The authors report its applications to the design of the flow in a single emergency department (ED) case.
Design/methodology/approach
In complex services, production design is usually lacking because production activities are not clearly defined and, in many cases, they are dynamically determined as the service is produced according a client’s particular needs. In health services, for example ED, this generates a chaotic production flow that uses resources very inefficiently. The methodology uses a reference architecture, integrating it with disciplines – modularity, analytics and evaluation methods – that provide ideas for formally designing these complex services. This is mainly justified by the fact that, in many such services, no formal design exits and their production processes are the result of practice evolution.
Findings
Methodology was applied to the ED of a large public hospital. The authors first analyzed ED’s production and performance data. The authors found two patients’ groups that used more than 90 percent of resources. Therefore, design focused on these groups, defining specialized production lines for them and with physical space remodeled by an architecture project, resulting in well-defined separated workflows for each production line. Design also includes coordination with complementary shared services, including specialists consultations’ requests and execution, and request, processing and reception of laboratory and radiology examinations. The authors implemented new workflows producing a decrease of 26 percent in patients’ delays. More detailed results based on three months of observations also showed, for example, a reduction in examinations waiting times of 80 percent and an increase in the consultation resolution for cardiological patients from 24 to 80 percent in the same day, which means a significant quality increment.
Research limitations/implications
Thus, the authors conclude the plausibility of the idea they proposed that an important design problem in health services, in terms of potential improvements in capacity utilization, is production design. This provides the opportunity to reduce investing large amounts of resources in new hospitals and to instead use the alternative to generate large amounts of capacity by production performance improvements.
Practical implications
The authors are replicating the approach in other hospitals with extensions to inpatient and ambulatory services.
Social implications
Approach produces better service in public hospitals, which is a problem in emergencies in the world.
Originality/value
Formal design approach in health production services is proposed that provides great value by generating capacity, due to better use of resources, that reduces investment needs in new facilities.
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María Dionisia Elche Hortelano and Ángela Gongález‐Moreno
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of innovation in services. First, service firms were classified according to the degree of customization of service…
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of innovation in services. First, service firms were classified according to the degree of customization of service product and technology, because it reflects the degree of interaction between producer and consumer. This is a key element in the process of production and, hence, in the innovation developed by these firms. Second, we identified four different modes of innovation in Spanish service firms, which reflect diverse patterns of innovation according to depth of changes introduced by firms. Finally, we examined how the innovation patterns are generalized by the type of service firms, confirming that there is a relationship between production and innovation strategies. This paper yields empirical evidence from Spanish services, showing that service firms develop innovations coherently according to their production strategy.
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Despite increasing interest in offshoring of knowledge-intensive services, it is still undetermined as to whether the sourcing of services truly creates the anticipated value for…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite increasing interest in offshoring of knowledge-intensive services, it is still undetermined as to whether the sourcing of services truly creates the anticipated value for clients. Moreover, even less is known about whether value is created for service providers in the process beyond the general service trade. This lack of knowledge is due to the challenges of capturing value creation, the unique production process of the services, and the impact of offshoring on both value creation and the production process. The purpose of this paper is to study offshored service production processes of knowledge-intensive services in order to identify direct and indirect value creation for clients as well as service providers in the process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies a multiple case study method and studies one conglomerate with three offshored service production processes. The chosen method allows for the investigation of the service production process and indirect/direct value creation within the process.
Findings
The study finds that there is direct value creation for the client and the service provider towards the end of the production processes as expected. However, more importantly, it finds additional indirect value creation in various production stages. The indirect value is reflected in enhanced understanding of problems and own operations for the client and increased knowledge about clients and problem-solving approaches for the service provider.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to offshoring literature by providing a comprehensive understanding of value creation in service offshoring for clients as well as service providers. It also contributes to the service management literature as a study of direct and indirect value creation in services, particularly within the production process of the services.
Practical implications
The study allows practitioners to gain insights on the value creation logic of offshored services and the value created beyond that logic. More specifically, it allows client firms to gain details of various values and benefits of service offshoring and service provider firms to gain a focused perspective on value creation in their own service production that can lead to competitive advantages.
Originality/value
The paper is novel and original through its approach to study offshoring from a value creation logic perspective, including not only the client but also the service provider perspective. It also applies a service production process perspective that is novel in offshoring literature.
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Andrews Agya Yalley and Harjit Singh Sekhon
The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the production process within services from the dominant manufacturing-based production process, with the objective of delineating…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the production process within services from the dominant manufacturing-based production process, with the objective of delineating the production process in services and highlighting its implication for service productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study critically reviewed the extant literature on the production processes in manufacturing and services from a multidisciplinary perspective and proposed a framework for the service production process and its relationship with service productivity.
Findings
The production process for services differs from the dominant manufacturing-based production process and entails an input, transformation process and outcome dimensions. Therefore, any advancement in services, particularly the conceptualisation and measurement of service productivity, is dependent on the application of a service-specific production process.
Research limitations/implications
The understanding and delineation of the production process in services would further scholarly understanding of what is means to be productive in services and the impact on the validity of the conceptualisation and measurement of service productivity and other service-related concepts.
Practical implications
The proposed service-based production process can further managerial understanding of the measurement and management of productivity in services.
Originality/value
This paper delineates the production process in services and highlighted its implication for service productivity. This study, therefore, is a step forward in developing service-specific concepts and measures, particularly service productivity.
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Per Engelseth, Jan-Åke Törnroos and Yufeng Zhang
The purpose of this research is to detect, through applying a process-based view, how to manage economisation of the maintenance and modification operations in offshore petroleum…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to detect, through applying a process-based view, how to manage economisation of the maintenance and modification operations in offshore petroleum logistics operations.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study of engineering services, more specifically, maintenance and modification service operations, on a Norwegian Sea oil platform reveals the dynamics of building network capabilities in a consistent network structure. Two layers of coordination are studied: the engineering process and its context, represented by its network of interconnected firms. This case study empirically grounds how engineering service involves managing reciprocally interdependent exchange processes in the network structure.
Findings
Pooled interdependencies are vital in understanding the nature of service provision and use, and sequential interdependencies are vital in narrating the timing of processes to reveal the nature of process emergence to coordinate strings of production events. Furthermore, the network structure, when characterised by multiple interdependent projects, is also dynamic but at a slower pace.
Originality/value
Through the case study, operations management is revealed to be associated with project emergence at two levels: the core process level regarding daily continuous change, including the changing interaction of multiple different and interdependent projects, and the contextual level, where features of interdependency and integration change, affecting engineering service production. This provides guidance as to the economisation of engineering services. They change not only interactions in the flow of production but also its context.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the popular policy assumption of co-production is feasible in secure psychiatric settings.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the popular policy assumption of co-production is feasible in secure psychiatric settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The assumptions of co-production are listed and then used as a basis for an immanent critique to test the feasibility described in the purpose of the paper. An explanatory critique exploring consumerism in the welfare state then follows. These forms of critique are derived from the philosophy of critical realism.
Findings
A distinction is made between the co-production of knowledge about mental health services and the actual co-production of those services. It is concluded that the former has emerged but the latter is not feasible, given the limitations on citizenship imposed by psychiatric detention.
Research limitations/implications
Evidence for the co-production of mental health services (rather than the co-production of knowledge about those services) remains sparse.
Practical implications
The contradictions about citizenship created by the existence of mental health legislation and the social control role of mental health services requires ongoing honest reflects by mental health professionals and those responsible for the development of mental health services.
Social implications
As described above, mental health legislation pre-empts confidence in the co-production of mental health services.
Originality/value
Whilst there is a small literature on co-production and mental health services, alluded to at the outset, this paper uses immanent and explanatory critiques to deepen our understanding of the topic.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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Overview All organisations are, in one sense or another, involved in operations; an activity implying transformation or transfer. The major portion of the body of knowledge…
Abstract
Overview All organisations are, in one sense or another, involved in operations; an activity implying transformation or transfer. The major portion of the body of knowledge concerning operations relates to production in manufacturing industry but, increasingly, similar problems are to be found confronting managers in service industry. It is only in the last decade or so that new technology, involving, in particular, the computer, has encouraged an integrated view to be taken of the total business. This has led to greater recognition being given to the strategic potential of the operations function. In order to provide greater insight into operations a number of classifications have been proposed. One of these, which places operations into categories termed factory, job shop, mass service and professional service, is examined. The elements of operations management are introduced under the headings of product, plant, process, procedures and people.