The process based nature of services - Studies in management of industrial and business-to-business services

Saara Brax

The process based nature of services - Studies in management of industrial and business-to-business services

Julkaisun otsikon käännös: Palvelujen prosessiperusteisuus - Tutkimuksia teollisten ja osaamisintensiivisten palvelujen johtamisesta

Saara Brax

Tuotantotalouden laitos

Tutkimustuotos: Doctoral Thesis › Collection of Articles

518 Lataukset (Pure)

Abstrakti

Palvelutoiminnot ovat olennainen osa kaikkia talouden osa-alueita: palveluista johtuvaa kasvua tapahtuu paitsi varsinaisilla palvelusektoreilla, myös osana valmistavaa teollisuutta. Palvelututkimuksen traditiossa palvelut on todettu fyysisistä tuotteista eli tavaroista perusta-vanlaatuisesti erilaisiksi, mikä edellyttää erilaisia johtamisen ja kehittämisen periaatteita ja toimintamalleja. Yhtenäistä käsitystä palvelujen ja fyysisten tuotteiden eroavuudesta ja palve-lujen määrittelystä ei kuitenkaan ole saavutettu, jotta voitaisiin tunnistaa perimmäiset syyt toiminnallisten periaatteiden taustalla. Tarjoomien ja liiketoimintamallien monimutkaistu-essa palvelu- ja tavarakomponentteja yhdistellään ja integroidaan, mikä vaikeuttaa sopivien suunnittelu- ja ohjausmallien valintaa sekä päätöksentekoa käytännössä. Täten operaatio-johtamisen näkökulmasta palvelujen ja fyysisten tuotteiden peruserojen määrittely tarjooman (eli 'tuotteen') tasolla on edelleen aiheena ajankohtainen. Väitöskirja perustuu viiteen teollisuuden ja tieto-intensiivisiä liike-elämän palveluja käsittelevään julkaistuun tutki-musartikkeliin, joista neljä perustuu tapaustutkimusasetelmaan, ja yksi on konseptuaa-linen. Kirjallisuuskatsaus palvelujen määritelmiin osoittaa kaksi puutetta: kirjallisuudesta tunnistetaan kahdeksan eri lähestymistapaa määritellä palvelu, joten vakiintunut määrittely-tapa puuttuu edelleen, ja katsaus operaatiojohtamisen keskeisiin lehtiin osoittaa, että ope-raatiojohtamisen tutkijat välttävät eksplisiittisten palvelumääritelmien esittämistä. Tutki-muksessa luodaan nk. modulaarinen, prosessilähtöinen palvelumääritelmä. Johdanto-osassa esitellään artikkelien palvelullistumista ja osaamisintensiivisyyttä koskevat kontribuutiot ns. primäärisenä analyysitasona, ja raportoidaan tuloksia sekundäärisestä analyysista, jonka tarkoituksena on elävöittää ja testata kehitettyä määrittelytapaa. Konfirmoiva laadullinen meta-analyysi vastaa kahteen tutkimuskysymykseen: 1) miten palvelutarjoomien prosessi-perustainen luonne ilmenee teollisuuden palvelullistumisen ja tietointensiivisten liike-elämän palvelujen kontekstissa, ja 2) miten nämä havainnot tukevat prosessilähtöistä määrittelytapaa. Meta-analyysissä havaittiin kuusi palvelutarjoomien prosessiperusteisuutta ilmentävää piirrettä; vaihdanta ulottuu aikajänteen yli, niihin liittyy sekä palvelutarjoajan että asiakkaan suorittamia aktiviteettikulkuja, menetelmän tai tekniikan soveltaminen liittyy tarjooman ydinelementtiin, aktiviteettiketjut voivat olla luonteeltaan toisiinsa sekoittuvia ja epämääräisiä, ja mikrotason tarkastelussa rakenteesta voidaan havaita linkittyneiden responssien ketjuja. Näiden löydösten pohjalta tutkimuksessa kehitetään 15 elaboroivaa ja 6 validoivaa propositiota, jotka tukevat kehitettyä määrittelytapaa.

Julkaisun otsikon käännös	Palvelujen prosessiperusteisuus - Tutkimuksia teollisten ja osaamisintensiivisten palvelujen johtamisesta
Alkuperäiskieli	Englanti
Pätevyys	Tohtorintutkinto
Myöntävä instituutio	Aalto-yliopisto
Ohjaaja	Lillrank, Paul, Vastuuprofessori
Kustantaja	Aalto University
Painoksen ISBN	978-952-60-5109-3
Sähköinen ISBN	978-952-60-5110-9
Tila	Julkaistu - 2013
OKM-julkaisutyyppi	G5 Artikkeliväitöskirja

Tutkimusalat

palvelut
palveluoperaatiojohtaminen
teollisuuden palvelut
osaamisintensiiviset palvelut
palvelumääritelmä

Pääsy asiakirjaan

http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-5110-9

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@phdthesis{0e7d5a2a95cf4d289a620815274ac1f2,

title = "The process based nature of services - Studies in management of industrial and business-to-business services",

abstract = "Services are an integral part of all economic activities. Services related growth is seen in the service sectors but also in manufacturing industries. A long tradition of research considers that service offerings and physical goods are essentially different and therefore demand different management, operational, marketing and development approaches. Yet, full understanding of the essential difference has not been reached, and therefore there is no consensus about the way in which services can be defined and identification of the root cause that could explain the differences. Increasingly complex offerings and business models integrate service and physical components, which complicates managerial decision-making about which design principles to apply. Thus, from the operational point of view the need to understand the basic difference is, again, topical. This study focuses on the definitional problem in the level of the service offering (i.e. the service {\textquoteleft}product{\textquoteright}). This article dissertation is based on five published research papers on industrial and knowledge intensive business services; four papers are based on case research design and one paper is based on conceptual analysis. The study reviews existing service definitions and reveals two gaps: firstly, eight different definitional approaches are recognized, indicating the lack of a common definition, and secondly, an overview of leading operations journals shows that authors in operations management usually do not explicate a definition. In the theoretical framing, this study builds a definitional approach labeled as a modular process-based definition of services. In addition to presenting the contributions in the context of servitization and the increasing knowledge-intensity of services, based on the published articles, the compilation part of the Dissertation reports a secondary analysis attempting to elaborate and validate the modular process-based definition of services. This confirmatory, qualitative meta-analysis of the original articles focuses on two research questions: 1) how does the process-based nature of service offering manifest itself in industrial and knowledge-intensive business-to-business services contexts, and 2) what support do these findings provide for the process based view of services. The key manifestations of the process-based nature of service offerings, as found in the meta-analysis, are extending the exchange over time, activity flows associated with both the provider and the customer, application of method, methodology or technique as part of the core offering; the intertwining (or fuzzy) nature of some task flows, and chains of responses as the micro-level structure of service activity flows. Based on the findings, the study develops 15 elaborative propositions and 6 propositions that indicate validating support for the developed definition.",

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author = "Saara Brax",

year = "2013",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-952-60-5109-3",

series = "Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS",

publisher = "Aalto University",

number = "60",

address = "Finland",

school = "Aalto University",

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TY - BOOK

T1 - The process based nature of services - Studies in management of industrial and business-to-business services

AU - Brax, Saara

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Services are an integral part of all economic activities. Services related growth is seen in the service sectors but also in manufacturing industries. A long tradition of research considers that service offerings and physical goods are essentially different and therefore demand different management, operational, marketing and development approaches. Yet, full understanding of the essential difference has not been reached, and therefore there is no consensus about the way in which services can be defined and identification of the root cause that could explain the differences. Increasingly complex offerings and business models integrate service and physical components, which complicates managerial decision-making about which design principles to apply. Thus, from the operational point of view the need to understand the basic difference is, again, topical. This study focuses on the definitional problem in the level of the service offering (i.e. the service ‘product’). This article dissertation is based on five published research papers on industrial and knowledge intensive business services; four papers are based on case research design and one paper is based on conceptual analysis. The study reviews existing service definitions and reveals two gaps: firstly, eight different definitional approaches are recognized, indicating the lack of a common definition, and secondly, an overview of leading operations journals shows that authors in operations management usually do not explicate a definition. In the theoretical framing, this study builds a definitional approach labeled as a modular process-based definition of services. In addition to presenting the contributions in the context of servitization and the increasing knowledge-intensity of services, based on the published articles, the compilation part of the Dissertation reports a secondary analysis attempting to elaborate and validate the modular process-based definition of services. This confirmatory, qualitative meta-analysis of the original articles focuses on two research questions: 1) how does the process-based nature of service offering manifest itself in industrial and knowledge-intensive business-to-business services contexts, and 2) what support do these findings provide for the process based view of services. The key manifestations of the process-based nature of service offerings, as found in the meta-analysis, are extending the exchange over time, activity flows associated with both the provider and the customer, application of method, methodology or technique as part of the core offering; the intertwining (or fuzzy) nature of some task flows, and chains of responses as the micro-level structure of service activity flows. Based on the findings, the study develops 15 elaborative propositions and 6 propositions that indicate validating support for the developed definition.

AB - Services are an integral part of all economic activities. Services related growth is seen in the service sectors but also in manufacturing industries. A long tradition of research considers that service offerings and physical goods are essentially different and therefore demand different management, operational, marketing and development approaches. Yet, full understanding of the essential difference has not been reached, and therefore there is no consensus about the way in which services can be defined and identification of the root cause that could explain the differences. Increasingly complex offerings and business models integrate service and physical components, which complicates managerial decision-making about which design principles to apply. Thus, from the operational point of view the need to understand the basic difference is, again, topical. This study focuses on the definitional problem in the level of the service offering (i.e. the service ‘product’). This article dissertation is based on five published research papers on industrial and knowledge intensive business services; four papers are based on case research design and one paper is based on conceptual analysis. The study reviews existing service definitions and reveals two gaps: firstly, eight different definitional approaches are recognized, indicating the lack of a common definition, and secondly, an overview of leading operations journals shows that authors in operations management usually do not explicate a definition. In the theoretical framing, this study builds a definitional approach labeled as a modular process-based definition of services. In addition to presenting the contributions in the context of servitization and the increasing knowledge-intensity of services, based on the published articles, the compilation part of the Dissertation reports a secondary analysis attempting to elaborate and validate the modular process-based definition of services. This confirmatory, qualitative meta-analysis of the original articles focuses on two research questions: 1) how does the process-based nature of service offering manifest itself in industrial and knowledge-intensive business-to-business services contexts, and 2) what support do these findings provide for the process based view of services. The key manifestations of the process-based nature of service offerings, as found in the meta-analysis, are extending the exchange over time, activity flows associated with both the provider and the customer, application of method, methodology or technique as part of the core offering; the intertwining (or fuzzy) nature of some task flows, and chains of responses as the micro-level structure of service activity flows. Based on the findings, the study develops 15 elaborative propositions and 6 propositions that indicate validating support for the developed definition.

KW - services

KW - service operations management

KW - industrial services

KW - knowledge-intensive business services

KW - definition of services

KW - palvelut

KW - palveluoperaatiojohtaminen

KW - teollisuuden palvelut

KW - osaamisintensiiviset palvelut

KW - palvelumääritelmä

KW - services

KW - service operations management

KW - industrial services

KW - knowledge-intensive business services

KW - definition of services

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

SN - 978-952-60-5109-3

T3 - Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS

PB - Aalto University

ER -

The process based nature of services - Studies in management of industrial and business-to-business services

Abstrakti

Tutkimusalat

Pääsy asiakirjaan

Sormenjälki

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