Abstract
Throughout times of market turbulences and even a financial crisis the service sector has established itself as the most important economic sector with a predicted ongoing growth in industrialized countries (Busse & Wagner, 2008; Leseure, 2010; Bouwman & De Vos & Hakker, 2008; Schniering, 2009; Walters 2012). With this there is also a growth in competition within the sector as well as an enlargement and enrichment of customer requirements (Peschl, 2010; Schroedl, 2011; Camarinha & Afsarmanesh & Koelmel, 2011). But these requirements are not a one-way-street: interdependencies between customers and service suppliers make relationships within the market of services very complex (Kotler & Keller, 2008). The study described in this article aims to shed light on these interdependencies that will later define, if a collaboration between a professional service company and its customer is successful and what the measures of success are in terms of evaluating and intangible product. Also these interdependencies will be translated into success factors that both customers and suppliers must apply in order to secure an attractive market position.
Highlights
1.1 Introduce the ProblemIn a world of globalization, speed-up in development cycles as well as growing multi-level competition for producing companies, outsourcing has been and still is a way to for example stay flexible, gain knowledge or improve quality (Melzer-Ridinger & Neumann, 2009; Mohr & Sengupta & Slater, 2010; Walters, 2012)
The study described in this article aims to shed light on these interdependencies that will later define, if a collaboration between a professional service company and its customer is successful and what the measures of success are in terms of evaluating and intangible product
Professional service companies that are marked by highly trained professionals and excellent process management know-how as well as the ability to manage challenging face-to-face interaction with customers through the ability to customize their service products have developed (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2008; Lowendahl, 2009)
Summary
1.1 Introduce the ProblemIn a world of globalization, speed-up in development cycles as well as growing multi-level competition for producing companies, outsourcing has been and still is a way to for example stay flexible, gain knowledge or improve quality (Melzer-Ridinger & Neumann, 2009; Mohr & Sengupta & Slater, 2010; Walters, 2012). There are a use and need for these abilities because customer requirements include solution management through the service supplier (vs just offering “extended workbenches”) This includes the need to design delivery models that include e.g. a contract form that will allocate financial responsibility for the result of the service delivery on the side of the supplier instead of just leasing out employees for a particular job and a particular hourly fee (Peschl, 2010; Schroedl, 2011; Camarinha & Afsarmanesh & Koelmel, 2011). Throughout this process professional service companies are being purposefully included in the core processes of producing companies and an interdependence has developed. Mismatches such as opportunistic behavior or the expectation that “plug and play” with new suppliers will just work without proper management will quickly lead to a lack of success within this particular supply chain (Arshinder & Kanda & Deshmukh, 2011; Brito & Nogueira, 2011)
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