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Patterns of service strategy changes in manufacturing companies
ISBN
978-0956112200
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2008-06-05
Author(s)
Abstract
The importance of service strategies has highly increased lately. Increasing competitive intensity and decreasing product margins drive more and more manufacturing companies to move along the product-service continuum towards extending their service business. While widely agreed that services offer new growth potentials, the literature falls short of explaining if service strategies are stable, and if and how companies move between them over time. Based on three longitudinal samples from a 1997, 2001 and 2004 surveys on 97 European manufacturing companies, we identified service strategies using factor and cluster analysis, which served as input for studying strategic changes in the service strategies. Identified service strategies comprise customer service strategy (augment product offerings with customer service), after-sales service providers (basic services for the installed base to ensure proper product functioning), customer support service providers (advanced preventive services to optimize product utilization), outsourcing partners (assume risk and responsibility for customer's operating processes), and development partners (use development competencies to co-produce R&D services with customers). Our research shows that while initially existing strategy types are rather stable, new additional types emerge during the second half of the study. Also, results indicate that many companies change strategy and which patterns of change predominate.
Language
English
Keywords
Service strategy
strategic management
strategic change
manufacturing companies
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Book title
Proceedings of the AMA SERVSIG International Research Conference
Publisher
University of Liverpool
Publisher place
Liverpool
Event Title
Services Marketing Special Interest Group (ServSig) International Research Conference 2008
Event Location
Liverpool
Event Date
05.-07.06.2008
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
48816