Provider involvement in business service definition: A typology
(2013) In Industrial Marketing Management 42(8). p.1398-1410- Abstract
- This paper proposes a typology for provider roles in defining business services. The starting point of the study is the underlying rationale of much of the service purchasing literature that buyers have or can easily access the necessary know-how to procure business services. If this does not hold, the implication is that buying firms would shy away from buying complex services. An alternative perspective recognizes that purchasing business services requires its own set of sourcing capabilities, which may be lacking. Buying firms may have limited know-how in terms of defining and articulating their requirements or not be fully aware of them in the first place. However, the buyer's lack of sourcing capabilities need not be an injunction to... (More)
- This paper proposes a typology for provider roles in defining business services. The starting point of the study is the underlying rationale of much of the service purchasing literature that buyers have or can easily access the necessary know-how to procure business services. If this does not hold, the implication is that buying firms would shy away from buying complex services. An alternative perspective recognizes that purchasing business services requires its own set of sourcing capabilities, which may be lacking. Buying firms may have limited know-how in terms of defining and articulating their requirements or not be fully aware of them in the first place. However, the buyer's lack of sourcing capabilities need not be an injunction to internalize the service. In these circumstances, service providers step in, help buying firms specify their requirements and play a key role in defining what is procured and how. We build on this interactive view of service definition to undertake a comparative case analysis of four business service contracting situations arrayed along two dimensions buyer perceived uncertainty and provider's buyer-specific experience. We conclude that service providers play different roles in each case. These are classified as translating, re-engineering, developing, and fine-tuning roles. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4261666
- author
- Selviaridis, Kostas LU ; Spring, Martin and Araujo, Luis
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Service definition, Sourcing capabilities, Buyer-supplier interactions, Contracting, Business services
- in
- Industrial Marketing Management
- volume
- 42
- issue
- 8
- pages
- 1398 - 1410
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000329002800019
- scopus:84888197227
- ISSN
- 0019-8501
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.07.019
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 7147c1af-9b82-44d3-ba5e-f1b9fcc53271 (old id 4261666)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 14:53:17
- date last changed
- 2023-02-22 07:03:04
@article{7147c1af-9b82-44d3-ba5e-f1b9fcc53271, abstract = {{This paper proposes a typology for provider roles in defining business services. The starting point of the study is the underlying rationale of much of the service purchasing literature that buyers have or can easily access the necessary know-how to procure business services. If this does not hold, the implication is that buying firms would shy away from buying complex services. An alternative perspective recognizes that purchasing business services requires its own set of sourcing capabilities, which may be lacking. Buying firms may have limited know-how in terms of defining and articulating their requirements or not be fully aware of them in the first place. However, the buyer's lack of sourcing capabilities need not be an injunction to internalize the service. In these circumstances, service providers step in, help buying firms specify their requirements and play a key role in defining what is procured and how. We build on this interactive view of service definition to undertake a comparative case analysis of four business service contracting situations arrayed along two dimensions buyer perceived uncertainty and provider's buyer-specific experience. We conclude that service providers play different roles in each case. These are classified as translating, re-engineering, developing, and fine-tuning roles. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}}, author = {{Selviaridis, Kostas and Spring, Martin and Araujo, Luis}}, issn = {{0019-8501}}, keywords = {{Service definition; Sourcing capabilities; Buyer-supplier interactions; Contracting; Business services}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{8}}, pages = {{1398--1410}}, publisher = {{Elsevier}}, series = {{Industrial Marketing Management}}, title = {{Provider involvement in business service definition: A typology}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.07.019}}, doi = {{10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.07.019}}, volume = {{42}}, year = {{2013}}, }