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Recent literature within public service logic has called for more explicit conceptualisation of customer value in public services. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how the customer value approach can be applied in the management of public health care services.

This study is a qualitative case study of management of public health care services in Finland. The authors interviewed 17 regional health care service developers and analyzed the interview data using thematic analysis.

The study suggests five propositions for applying customer value approach from the marketing literature in public health care service management. The study enables a deeper understanding of customer value creation in this context and improvement of public health care services.

This study contributes to the public management research in general and public service logic research in particular by suggesting what constitutes customer value in public health care services.

This paper aims to examine the strategy, selection and perception of facility management (FM) services and the effect it may have on perceived building quality.

Data was collected through a survey distributed to board members of cooperatives for newly constructed buildings in Sweden. Responses from 394 cooperative boards were included in the data set and analysed. The difference in cooperative choice of FM strategy and satisfaction with FM services was examined with non-parametrical Kruskal–Wallis tests and the effect of FM strategy and satisfaction with FM services on perceived building quality was examined with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test.

The results suggest information asymmetry and indicate urgent need for an objective accreditation system for FM services, which will inform and assist housing owners in the FM selection process. The study validates the hypothesis that facilities management strategies applied by housing cooperatives have a significant effect on perception of building quality.

The findings will assist developers, facility and property managers to understand the needs and services valued by the housing cooperative. The findings highlight the information asymmetry, restricted techniques and weak signalling methods among FM services, and advocates promoting an objective accreditation system for FM services.

The study contributes to the discussion on the concept of building quality and the results presented provide a better understanding of facilities management strategy on perception of building quality.

The proliferation of customer-related data provides companies with numerous service opportunities to create customer value. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework to use this data to provide services.

This study conducted four action research projects on the use of customer-related data for service design with industry and government. Based on these projects, a practical framework was designed, applied, and validated, and was further refined by analyzing relevant service cases and incorporating the service and operations management literature.

The proposed customer process management (CPM) framework suggests steps a service provider can take when providing information to its customers to improve their processes and create more value-in-use by using data related to their processes. The applicability of this framework is illustrated using real examples from the action research projects and relevant literature.

“Using data to advance service” is a critical and timely research topic in the service literature. This study develops an original, specific framework for a company’s use of customer-related data to advance its services and create customer value. Moreover, the four projects with industry and government are early CPM case studies with real data.

The objective of this article is to propose a panel of management performance evaluation indicators at operator level. This panel would be the tool to be made available to an observatory that should be set up by regulation. The proposal comes at the right time given that Morocco is planning a major reform of the sector very soon. A framework law has already been promulgated for this purpose (Law 51-21 relating to the reform of public establishments).

The proposed panel is the result of (1) a review of the literature dealing with public management theories, in particular those relating to industrial and commercial public services and whose character is captive. The management of the latter requires a great deal of caution to preserve their economic balance and consequently their sustainability. (2) A review of experiences of countries is chosen because of contextual their similarities with Morocco like France having a similar legal background, Tunisia and Algeria chosen for geographical and economic similarities. The British experience is also discussed for what it represents as a liberal model in the management of public water and sanitation services, as opposed to the German model also studied and which stands as the only country where the management of public services has almost always been a communal prerogative. The analysis of these models has made it possible to identify management evaluation practices that could be adapted to the Moroccan context. (3) Research work by practitioners and reports from specialized international institutions (International Water Association [IWA]). (4) A critical analysis of a multitude of management and activity reports from 12 autonomous authorities and 4 private delegates covering 16 million inhabitants of the urban environment. A total of 15 indicators are developed. They aim to assess the effectiveness of management in terms of saving drinking water and preserving the natural environment from the pollution of water resources.

Approximately, 15 indicators for assessing water resource management in public water and sanitation services are proposed. These indicators relate to the efficiency of pipe networks, the performance of storage systems and losses in users' homes. Indicators specific to liquid sanitation systems, particularly with regard to the control of wastewater overflows into the public highway and their treatment before discharge into the natural environment, are also proposed.

The application of the results of this research could be confronted with its appropriation by the operators. Indeed, the investment involved in setting up the proposed evaluation system, as well as the conflict of interest that may arise in the process of formalizing and standardizing the system at the national level, may slow down the process of setting it up.

In practice, the implementation of a system for evaluating the performance of water resource management in public drinking water and liquid sanitation services would make it possible to optimize the volume of water to be mobilized. Substantial savings are expected both at the level of the resource itself and at the level of the investments that accompany the realization of the mobilization and distribution infrastructures. These savings will be very useful for the creation of other similar services and to serve more people.

The distribution of drinking water and liquid sanitation is a vital human need. These services are extremely captive. They are key factors in the socioeconomic development of the territory and the citizen. The impact is transversal and affects the lifestyle of the populations. On the one hand, it favors the sedentarization of the populations and on the other hand, preserves their health by fighting against the diseases of water origin. In addition, the comfort that it provides in the daily life of users is highly coveted when they are delivered in a modern way and arranged with modern technologies.

The regulation of public drinking water and liquid sanitation services in Morocco is the weakest link in the sector. The Ministry of the Interior is legally responsible for setting up a standard system for evaluating the management of these services to fill this gap (organic law 113-14 on municipalities). Unfortunately, this initiative is not yet underway. The opportunity to apply the results of this research is well timed. Morocco plans to launch a global reform of the sector starting in 2022–2023 (Law 50-21 on the reform of public institutions).

The purpose of this study is to describe primary health-care managers’ perceptions of management competencies at different management levels in digital health services using the management competency assessment program as a framework.

A secondary analysis study involving 21 semi-structured individual interviews was conducted among Finnish primary health-care managers at different management levels (frontline, middle and senior). The deductive framework method was used to analyze the data.

Similarities and differences were found in management competencies between different levels of management. Competencies related to the use of digitalization were highlighted by managers at all management levels. Managers at all management levels were involved in developing digital solutions and supporting employees in using digital solutions in their work. Frontline and middle managers emphasized more issues related to day-to-day management and communication with employees, whereas senior managers highlighted the management of large entities.

In the secondary analysis, data were used for purposes other than originally intended. Therefore, the data are subject to limitations of the methodology applied and should be transferred to other contexts with caution.

Identifying the management competencies needed to manage digital health services is important to target managers’ training according to needs in the future.

The results could be used to develop the management of digital health services, as well as improve digital health services and their deployment.

Previous literature mostly examined managers’ informatics competencies and paid little attention to other management competencies. This study discusses more broadly the management competencies that digital health services require from managers at different levels of management.

The proliferation of (big) data provides numerous opportunities for service advances in practice, yet research on using data to advance service is at a nascent stage in the literature. Many studies have discussed phenomenological benefits of data to service. However, limited research describes managerial issues behind such benefits, although a holistic understanding of the issues is essential in using data to advance service in practice and provides a basis for future research. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap.

“Using data to advance service” is about change in organizations. Thus, this study uses action research methods of creating real change in organizations together with practitioners, thereby adding to scientific knowledge about practice. The authors participated in five service design projects with industry and government that used different data sets to design new services.

Drawing on lessons learned from the five projects, this study empirically identifies 11 managerial issues that should be considered in data-use for advancing service. In addition, by integrating the issues and relevant literature, this study offers theoretical implications for future research.

“Using data to advance service” is a research topic that emerged originally from practice. Action research or case studies on this topic are valuable in understanding practice and in identifying research priorities by discovering the gap between theory and practice. This study used action research over many years to observe real-world challenges and to make academic research relevant to the challenges. The authors believe that the empirical findings will help improve service practices of data-use and stimulate future research.

The paper aims to compare the efficiency of alternative municipal solid waste (MSW) management business models: a single provider against multiple providers.

In this paper the drivers of MSW management costs are analysed to test the impact of the scale and scope of MSW management services on the average cost. While the business-as-usual scenario foresees a single provider, the alternative scenario foresees multiple providers.

Based on the empirical data on municipal waste management costs, on average, the size and the average cost of the service are inversely related. This trend is supported using sub-sets defined by the quantity of waste managed. Multiple factors aid in explaining this result, and among others, due to scale and scope, factors such as transition costs increase with the number of players running different services.

The provision of public services of economic interest should favour the participation of more companies wherever possible to the extent that social surplus is produced. However, pursuing this principle to the detriment of efficient service delivery is not ideal. This paper demonstrated that a single-provider waste management business model is efficient under specific conditions, as in this article.

This paper presents an original research methodology for comparatively analysing waste management service efficiency in urban areas and provides adequate evidence using alternative measures of costs according to the phase of the waste management chain, the scale and ultimately the scope of MSW management services.

本學術論文擬比較另類的都市固體廢物管理模式的效率, 比較的對像是:單一服務提供者和多個提供服務者。

研究人員分析都市固體廢物管理成本和價格的動因, 以測試有關的管理服務之規模和範圍對平均成本的影響。若在一切照常的情況下, 我們會預見單一服務提供者, 唯在不尋常的情況下, 我們則會預見多個提供服務者。

根據都市廢物管理價格和成本上的實證數據, 平均而言, 服務的規模與其平均成本是成反比的。我們使用了以所處理之廢物量來界定的子集來支持這趨勢。多重因素會幫助解釋和說明這研究結果, 其中包括:因規模和範圍的關係, 諸如過度成本等的因素, 會按著提供各種不同服務的主要參與者的數目而增加。

在能達創造社會剩餘的前題下, 會帶來經濟效益之公共服務的提供, 應有利於在可行範圍內有更多公司的參與; 但如果實行這原則而因此有損於服務提供的效率的話, 則這是不理想的。本文展示了在特定的情況下, 單一服務提供者的廢物管理商業模式是高效率的, 本文已說明這些特定情況。

本文為以比較分析法去探討城市地區廢物管理服務的效率、提出了一個新穎的研究方法, 並根據廢物管理鏈的階段、都市固體廢物管理服務的規模、以及最終其範圍, 考慮了成本和價格的另類測量方法, 繼而提供充分的證據, 以支持這些測量方法。

Gridded management in the public service supply is still in the experience exploratory stage, and this paper aims to analyze the inherent logic and operation mode of the gridding mechanism of the public supply based on the existing theory study and practices, and verify its efficiency so as to come to the conclusion whether it could be promoted to a wider range.

The methodology applied in this paper was case study/deductive induction.

The grid model in the public service supply needs to be demonstrated completely in theoretical logic and operation principles before it is promoted across the country. Meanwhile, full support of the government is required in terms of service concept, function distribution, technical parameters and infrastructure.

The inherent logic and operation mode of the gridding mechanism of the public service supply needs enough practice tests. The practical test of efficiency analysis of the gridding mechanism of the public service supply is not enough.

This paper validated whether the gridding mechanism that originated from China’s urban management can be promoted to all over the country in the public service supply. It provides references for government policy.

This paper constructs a gridded management model for public service provision in urban and rural areas on the basis of an analysis of the plight of traditional model of public service provision, thus delivering the same standard of public service for both urban and rural areas through optimization of resource allocation without requiring more supply and fundamental change to the content of service.

Total quality management is a valuable approach to continuously improve the quality of organizations; however, scholars debate its applicability to services, which require specific best practices that are different from those related to manufacturing. Moreover, digitization is pervading all kinds of services, but little has been written about total quality service practices in digital-based companies. For this purpose, the authors provide a holistic model of total quality service that reflects the peculiarities of such companies, guided by the question: how do total quality service practices change in digital-based service organizations?

The authors conduct an illustrative case study on Healthware Group, a global integrated digital health organization, to evaluate theoretical assumptions about total quality service practices in the digital environment.

The findings allow to validate the model provided. In addition, the study enables them to observe the changes the authors are witnessing in service provision in the digital era and the consequent transformation of best practices. To be accurate, the authors cannot refer to a full transformation in digital-based companies but rather to the enrichment and extension of TQS practices. The best illustration of these conclusions has been summarized in a set of propositions corresponding to seven of the key levers of a TQS model.

The paper represents the first attempt to discuss the relationship between total quality service and digitalization, offering a set of propositions for academics and insights for practitioners. The model can be used as a tool to visualize the different levers that successful implementation of TQS in digital-based services companies can rely on.

To build a more comprehensive understanding of factors affecting the success of service contracting, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of service complexity, contract structure and contracting process on the buyer-perceived supplier performance in business-to-business (B2B) services.

A research model is developed based on transaction cost economics and the research on service contracting. The model is tested by the survey data collected. Professional focus groups on LinkedIn are used to generate the list of potential respondents. The sample consists of 177 purchasing professionals from 25 countries.

The results indicate that three major contract dimensions and follow-up management practices positively influence buyer-perceived supplier performance. Furthermore, service complexity amplifies the effects of incentives designed in the contract and the buyer’s follow-up contract management on perceived supplier performance.

The sample consists of respondents from 25 countries and provides good geographic coverage. However, the results should be generalized with caution because not all countries were represented equally.

The study suggests a framework and guidelines for purchasing managers to improve the design and management of service contracts to secure good performance from their supplier.

This paper contributes to understanding the performance-enhancing aspects of designing and monitoring service contracts in B2B contexts. It also adds to the knowledge of the role of service complexity in successful B2B service purchasing.