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Service organisations do not always manage those items which affect customer satisfaction to the same level as manufacturing organisations, which indicates a possible mismatch between what customers think they are buying and what service organisations seem to be providing. Efficiency is certainly needed but too much emphasis on efficiency may be dysfunctional if it leads to over‐standardisation, or emphasis on the product at the expense of the process, when the customers think they are buying process elements. Effectiveness could be better achieved by emphasis on the processes rather than by trying to become more “product‐orientated”.

This study aims to present two new contingent frameworks that hypothesize the moderation role of managerial ties (MTs) in the international competitive strategy-export financial and strategic performance framework. The purposes of this study are to explore whether a common standardized or individual customized conceptualization consisting of MTs, international competitive strategy and performance can be used to achieve export financial and strategic performance; to offer contingent factors for the current international competitive strategy-export performance framework; and to generalize the roles of MTs in the developed vis-à-vis developing region.

This study uses the experience of 114 exporting firms operating in the European Union region to test its theoretical frameworks. MTs include both business and political ties.

Business and political ties have completely different moderation effects on the relation between international differentiation/low-cost strategy and export financial/strategic performance. Business ties have a positive influence on the international differentiation strategy-export strategic performance and international low-cost strategy-export financial performance dyads, but a negative effect in the international low-cost strategy-export strategic performance framework. In contrast, political ties are revealed to have a negative effect on the international differentiation/low-cost strategy-export financial performance framework.

This research advances extant international competitive strategy-export performance literature by revealing the bright and dark sides of business ties and the down side of political ties in the framework. Performance should be investigated in terms of financial and strategic performance. The moderation effect of business ties is more complex than that reported in the developing region; thus, a cross-regional generalization on these ties’ effects is more difficult to establish. In contrast, the dark side effect of political ties is consistent across developed and developing regions; a cross-regional generalization on these ties is more viable. Collectively, the results show that a standardized process for achieving both export financial and export strategic performances is not feasible, while a customized process for each export performance is needed.

While service scholars see modularisation as balancing the efficiency of standardisation with the value added through customisation the relationships between these concepts are under-theorised. In addition, although information and communication technologies can facilitate all three service strategies, the degree to which they codify service knowledge is not explicitly considered in the extant literature. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a model that examines service strategy trajectories by specifically considering the ICTs used and the degree of knowledge codification employed.

This study draws on three qualitative case studies of service departments of firms involved in cardiovascular applications, orthopaedic, spinal and neuroscience product development and information technology support. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews, document analysis and non-participant observation.

Findings show that ICTs were increasingly used to codify both standardised and customised services, though in different ways. For standardised services ICTs codified the service process, making them even more rigid. Due to the dynamic nature of customised services, drawing on experts' tacit knowledge, ICTs codified the possessors of knowledge rather than the service process they undertook. This study also identified a duality between the tacit development of customised services and modular service codification.

The model is validated using case studies from three companies in the medical and information technology sectors limiting its generalisability.

The importance of considering the degree of tacitness or explicitness of service knowledge is important for service codification. The paper provides managers with empirical examples of how ICTs are used to support all three strategies, allows them to identify their current position and indicates possible future trajectories.

The papers main contribution is the development of a model that integrates the literature on service strategies with knowledge management strategies to classify service standardisation, customisation and modularisation in terms of both service orientation and degree of ICT codification.

The aim of this paper is to characterize adaptation processes in business relationships. The nature of adaptive behavior is described by outlining activities and events in these relationships. The role of perceived product importance and complexity in the character of the adaptations processes is sought.

A case study approach is adopted and two long-term relationships between buyers and sellers of capital equipment in the mining industry are investigated. Perspectives from both sides of the dyad (buyer and seller) were attained through in-depth interviews.

Findings show that supplier-based adaptations occur more frequently than customer-based adaptations. The market antecedents of concentration and resource dependency are identified as drivers of adaptive behavior. Furthermore, product importance and complexity are key drivers to adaptation processes and the development of long-term relationships. Supplier's brand name and the choice of a direct channel strategy are identified as indicators of long-term commitment to the market. Moreover, two-task related factors were extremely relevant as selection criteria for capital equipment: the functional suitability and the degree of standardization/customization of the equipment.

The findings are specific to the market environment and recommendations are given for the realm of the mining industry. Multi-case studies in multi-contexts should be conducted to enable generalization and potential theory-building.

A number of important managerial implications for buyers and sellers of capital equipment in the mining industry are given.

This paper contributes to knowledge by providing rich descriptions of adaptation processes. This real life evidence enables the identification of major drivers of adaptive behavior and, consequently, the development of long-term successful relationships.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the role of servitization in the creative and cultural industries (CCI).

A conceptual model is proposed based on five elements: servitization drivers (digitalization in particular), agents, modes (based on the standardization/customization dynamics), servitization mechanisms (the authors provide a new classification) and service experiences.

CCI is not considered a natural part of the service sector. They drive economic and social development and are part of the innovation ecosystem. They are confronting a set of emerging dynamics in which servitization plays a leading role. Servitization is a way to move toward value co-creation by transforming existing business models. Servitization – with digitalization facilitates the co-creation of CCI-based experiences for customers, users and other stakeholders.

In terms of further research implications, these theoretical and managerial considerations call for empirical research of the servitization of CCI to investigate how and how much it develops.

CCI companies need new business models that combine servitization, digitalization and value co-creation in the right mix. “One size fits all” does not work. Business models have to consider the right mix.

The proposed conceptual model provides a novel understanding of servitization and CCI and changes the focus from the “production” or push side (e.g. artistic creativity and messages) that has characterized much CCI theory toward the demand or pull side and buyers’ (users) increased power.

By standardizing the marketing effort over similar worldwide segments and differentiating it across dissimilar worldwide segments, the international marketing manager is able to reap the advantages of both standardization and customization. The choice of the variables by which to segment the global market is crucial. Traditionally, purely environmental bases (geographic, political, economic, and cultural) were used as bases for international market segmentation. Proposes that international marketers group relevant markets based on both environmental as well as marketing management bases. The marketing management bases are classified as: (1) product‐related; (2) promotion‐related; (3) price‐related; and (4) distribution‐related. Derives number of propositions with direct implications for international marketing strategy and segmentation with respect to these bases. Highlights the managerial implications of the variables encompassed by these bases. Proposes the empirical investigation of the derived propositions as a research agenda for the future.

Modularity has been identified as one of the most important methods for achieving mass customization. However, service models that apply varying levels of modularity and customization also exist and are appropriate for various business situations. The objective of this paper is to introduce a framework with which different customer service offerings, service production processes, and service production networks can be analyzed in terms of both modularity and customization.

The paper builds theory and offers a systematic approach for analyzing service modularity and customization. To illustrate the dimensions of the framework, the authors also provide service examples of the various aspects.

In the previous literature, the concepts of modularity and customization have often been discussed in an intertwined manner. The authors find that when modularity and customization are regarded as two separate dimensions, and different perspectives– such as the service offering, the service production process, and the service production network – are combined we can create a useful framework for analysis.

Rigorous testing is a subject for future research.

The framework helps companies to analyze their service offerings and to compare themselves with other companies. It seems that in practice many combinations of modularity and customization levels are used in the three perspectives.

This paper develops a framework for analyzing service offerings in terms of modularity and customization. The framework provides a basis for analyzing different combinations of these two aspects from the three perspectives, and herein lies its value.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the deployment of family‐themed control in McDonaldized service outlets. More specifically, the paper aims to contribute to the debate about the nature of the service encounter and the type of management control employed by organizations in the hospitality sector.

The paper adopts a case study approach, focusing on a UK restaurant chain. A total of 55 interviews were conducted with area managers, restaurant managers and employees in seven of the company's restaurants.

The evidence shows that the case study company employed a family‐based type of control which aimed to address the perennial issue of high labour turnover, which is common in hospitality. The relative success of normative control in this case is explained by the fact that it did not co‐exist with other, more militaristic forms of control, as is often the case in fast‐food outlets.

The study is based on a single organization. Further research is needed into the rationale behind the deployment of normative control by service factories.

This study addresses limitations in previous research which discusses types of management control in hospitality organizations within a framework informed by the notion of “best fit” between service archetypes and HRM styles. The paper shows that the adoption of specific types of management control is related not only to the nature of the service encounter but also to broader sectoral issues.

Shared services are often viewed as a single type of business model but in reality, shared services can be organized in different ways. The goal of this research is to understand the factors influencing the shaping of shared services business models.

Inductive case oriented research is conducted by investigating three different types of shared services arrangements using Al-Debei and Avison's unified framework for business models.

A total of 12 different factors were identified that influence the shape of shared services business models including the path dependency, legal/regulatory driver, customer orientation, target segment, strategic importance, ICT/business orientation, IT governance structure, change strategy, degree of outsourcing, integration potential, economic rationale and the business value.

The level of customization and standardization can influence the potential benefits that can be gained from bundling services and it is important to understand the factors that influence this dimension.

The appropriate configuration of these factors can be helpful to design shared services arrangements with a balanced degree of standardization and customization. The choices regarding the configuration of these factors could result in a more or less effective functioning business model and could influence the governance processes and mechanisms that need to be put in place.

There is no prior research that addresses the shared services business model from a holistic perspective and this research provides a first conceptual model for shared services business models.