Provider involvement in business service definition: A typology
Author
Summary, in English
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.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
1398-1410
Publication/Series
Industrial Marketing Management
Volume
42
Issue
8
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Transport Systems and Logistics
Keywords
- Service definition
- Sourcing capabilities
- Buyer-supplier interactions
- Contracting
- Business services
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0019-8501