Monthly Papers

This is a working paper by Ornella Benedettini, Morgan Swink and Andy Neely. In this study, we suggest that the impact of a service orientation on a firm’s likelihood of survival depends on the presence of certain preconditions within the firm. In other terms, we ask: what are the differences between failing and surviving service-oriented product firms regarding important characteristics that are intertwined with the deployment of service resources and capabilities? It indicates characteristics that firms should try to protect when they expand into services if they do not want to incur greater risk of failure.

This is a Working Paper by Jonathan Trevor and Peter Williamson. Today, many CEOs recognise that their companies face three opposing pressures simultaneously: to re-organise to become more agile while at the same time maintaining relentless focus on efficiency and remain true to a consistent purpose that engages and motives their people. In order to look for answers to this problem this paper reminding us what the 21st Century organisation needs to deliver in order to achieve superior performance. It highlights that today’s organisational solutions, whether they are traditional bureaucracies, matrix structures, “ambidextrous” organisations, or the customer focused company don’t seem to be delivering on the two key demands of the 21st Century business environment: efficient integration and flexible adaptation.

This is an strategic tool that in a simple map shows the wide spectrum of service types. Organisations generally use it to map their current services offerings and plan future ones – e.g. the strategic move to the next services. The classification illustrates how other organisations (including competitors) are competing with different services in different markets. By Paolo Gaiardelli, Barbara Resta, Veronica Martinez, Oberto Pinto, Pavel Ablores.

This is a working paper by Mohamed Zaki and Andy Neely. This paper reports a study which provides a series of implications that may be particularly helpful to companies considering ‘big data’ for their businesses. Considerable research effort has been expended on understanding how firms create and capture value from analytics in single organisations, focusing only on technical issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a diagnostic framework for optimising and improving complex services in organisations. The framework addresses key factors such as enablers, contextual barriers beyond the technical issues, value and benefits, and key dimensions of data necessary to optimise the delivery of their complex services. More specifically, the study focuses on understanding how asset heavy firms can make better use of data to optimise repair service delivery by using proactive condition monitoring services.

This is a working paper by Jingchen Hou and Andy Neely. This paper explores the effects of social capital (supplier-customer relationships) on risks taken in outcome-based contracts (OBC) by suppliers. In particular we explore risks of OBC, construction and development of social capital and effects of social capital on risks taken by suppliers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in seven firms. Based on interviews, risks of OBC are identified and how structural, relational and cognitive social capital are constructed and developed is analysed. Social capital is identified to prevent and mitigate risks. This research can facilitate outcome-based contracts managers to think of risks of their contracts and the effects of customer-supplier relationships. In this way it contributes to firms’ risk management and customer relationship management in providing services by OBC.

This is a working paper by Ruth Bolton, Anders Gustafsson, Janet McColl-Kennedy, Nancy Sirianni, David Tse. This paper argues that service organisations have focused too much on their core service performance and too little on designing the customer journey that enhances the entire customer experience. We argue that when performance levels become too similar in an industry, then the only competitive weapon is price and that in order to break this deadlock, firms should focus on the small details that make big differences to customers.

This is a working paper by Peter Fielder, Adrian Roper, Bill Walby, Joe Fuse, Andy Neely and Chris Pearson. Many organizations spectacularly fail to design and deliver their current value propositions that underpin their core business models; thus identifying their future value propositions becomes an unimaginable task. In this paper by Veronica Martinez and Trevor Turner the authors present a case study where they traced the value propositions’ shifts of a single firm over 40 years.

This is a working paper by Veronica Martinez and Trevor Turner. This paper presents a case study where we traced the value propositions’ shifts of a single firm over 40 years. The firm’s strategic decisions, market adaptation and influencing factors triggering the shift to new offerings are discussed. Then, the paper introduces a value proposition framework for organizations to diagnose the design and delivery of service value propositions. This framework could trace the endurance and adaptability of value propositions in the market at a longer term.