Service-oriented Firms Research Articles

Roles of organizational flexibility and organizational support on service innovation via organizational learning – A moderated mediation model

The study aims to determine if organizational flexibility and support generate innovation in IT solutions, providing firms with enhanced competitiveness. It also explores the mediating role of organizational learning in its flexibility and innovation dynamics and the moderating influence of employees' perceived organizational support on its flexibility and learning. The paper argues that the inimitable internal resources of flexibility, learning capabilities, and a supportive climate can help service-oriented firms innovate to enhance their competitive advantage. A quantitative approach was adopted to conduct a cross-sectional survey of 1350 IT solution-providing companies concentrating on Software Export zones based in India. The structural equation modeling technique was adopted to test the validity and reliability of the measurement models, followed by the proposed direct, mediating, and moderating relationships among organizational flexibility, learning, support, and service innovation. The findings illuminate the significant positive influence of firm-level resources of organizational flexibility on learning, leading to amplified innovation in its services. Additionally, perceived support from the organization's side towards the employees mitigates the positive relationship between organizational flexibility and organizational learning, indicating a negative association. This study also highlighted the untested influence of organizational support as a mitigator of learning in flexible organizations.

Building a Hierarchical Enablers Framework for Service Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Performance: Evidence from Ghana’s Electricity Sector

Selecting an appropriate business model innovation for sustainable performance is a complex decision that requires a decision support tool. However, despite the importance of business model innovation (BMI) for sustainable performance, there has been limited investigation into how a hierarchical enabler framework grounded in service-dominant logic contributes to the sustainability of service firms. This study examines the critical enablers of service business model innovation (SBMI) for sustainable performance within the utility sector, particularly the electricity supply sector in Ghana. Using the best–worst method (BWM), this study identifies and prioritizes three main enablers and eleven sub-enablers, addressing a notable gap in understanding their impact on sustainable performance. The findings reveal that service value creation innovation is the most critical primary enabler, with human capital, technological platforms, and value-based pricing constituting the top three sub-enablers for sustainability performance. This study contributes to the service-dominant logic and BMI discourse by providing a novel hierarchical framework that aids managerial decision making in service-oriented firms, particularly in developing economies. The results underscore the need for utility companies to prioritize investments in key areas, such as human capital, technological advancements, and customer-centric approaches, to drive sustainable business practices and improve overall performance.

Organizational unlearning and service innovation of Chinese service-oriented firms: the moderating role of knowledge integration

ABSTRACT In the context of constructing an ecosystem-oriented business model, this study uses 276 questionnaire data from Chinese service-oriented firms for empirical analysis. After developing a theoretical model associate to the impact of organizational unlearning on service innovation, this study explores the moderating effect of knowledge integration. The results indicate that organizational unlearning has a positive effect on service innovation while knowledge integration has a moderating effect on this relationship. This study not only enriches the analytical framework of knowledge integration from the perspective of organizational unlearning, but also provides valuable insights for firms to optimize service innovation.

Implications of dynamic capabilities on triple bottom line performance after the COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical insight from B2B marketing perspective

Triple bottom line (TBL) is a concept of business which highlights that firms should not measure their business success based only on their financial performance, but they should also measure their social and environmental impacts. In other words, the concept of triple bottom line also includes people, planet, and profit. Also, dynamic capabilities help a firm to address rapid environmental changes, and studies have shown that they can improve a firm's sustainability performance. Other studies have shown that TBL initiatives can also improve a firm's sustainability performance. But no studies have investigated how dynamic abilities as well as TBL initiatives could simultaneously impact sustainability performance of B2B firms in the post COVID-19 period. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the implications of dynamic capabilities on TBL performance after the COVID-19 pandemic, especially from the B2B marketing perspective. Drawing on dynamic capability view (DCV), TBL theory and the extant literature, a conceptual research model was developed which was subsequently validated with the PLS-SEM technique using 377 responses from different manufacturing and service-oriented firms. This is the first study to extensively analyze the combined impacts of these two dimensions on firms' sustainability performance, and thus it has enriched the literature related to DCV, TBL, and sustainability.

Decoding the context of servitization: socio-technical pivots on the journey to service-oriented business models in manufacturing firms

Servitization has been discussed in academia and practice for decades, but there is still a lack of concrete guidance for manufacturing firms to orchestrate their servitization journeys. This study addresses this deficiency by analysing 88 annual reports of manufacturing firms. Using a multi-cycle inductive coding approach, six pivotal factors in servitization journeys were derived in order to decode their context. The pivotal factors represent fields of action in which manufacturing firms are currently active on their servitization journeys. They include both frontstage (e.g. market proposition) and backstage (e.g. process excellence) factors and predominantly emphasise technological over social activities. This exploratory study contributes to a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of the transformation of manufacturers into service-oriented firms. More importantly, this study sheds new light on servitization research by applying a socio-technical perspective and proposes a practical structuring of the servitization journey with tandems to navigate the journey.

High-performance work system in service sector: review and framework development

ABSTRACT Considering the emerging role of high-performance work system (HPWS) in service-oriented firms, the present review has consolidated the recent trends in HPWS literature in the service sector. The systematic literature review methodology is applied to extract 82 articles from 2006 to 2022. The MAXQDA software is used for the qualitative content analysis of the texts in the articles. Based on the literature review and qualitative content analysis, the framework is developed to conceptualize the positive and negative outcomes of HPWS in service-oriented firms. The proposed framework is backed by the resource-based view and job demand-resource model and provides insights into the research directions for the progress of the service sector.

Big Data Analytics to Support Open Innovation Strategies in Banks

Today’s dynamic business environment has pushed service-oriented firms such as banks to collaborate with external partners through open innovation (OI) to address issues of service differentiation, optimize customer experience, and create effective open innovation strategies (OIS). However, the essential elements required to design OIS and the methods to manage these strategies are missing. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the strategic resources essential to creating OIS and identify the tools to manage these resources. Following the fundamentals of the resource-based view (RBV), bank openness (BOP), selection of external partners (SEP), open innovation methods (OIM), formalizing collaboration processes (FCP), and banks’ internal practices (BIP) are identified as the strategic elements required for creating OIS, and the role of big data analytics (BDA) in these strategic resources is examined. The data were collected through a survey questionnaire from 425 bank executives employed at different digital banks located in Malaysia. To achieve our research objectives, a quantitative deductive research design was employed and the collected data were processed in WarPLS using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to test the research hypotheses of this study. The empirical results reveal that BDA has a significant positive impact on BOP, SEP, and FCP, whereas OIM and BIP have an insignificant positive impact. The findings of this study contribute to designing a robust digital strategy to enhance the banking sector’s contribution to the development of financial industries in developing countries by employing BDA as a major strategic policy tool of OIS

Examining agile supply chains: an empirical study in Australia

This paper aims to investigate the nexus of relationships linking firm innovativeness (FI), supply chain agility (SCA), and firm performance (FP). Grounding on Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) and Dynamic Capability View (DCV), this study explores the role of three types of FIs (i.e. service innovativeness, process innovativeness and administrative innovativeness) on SCA and its impact on different dimensions of FP. Limited empirical evidence is available in the SCA literature that examines FI as antecedents of SCA and explores SCA benefits using diverse performance parameters. We test the proposed model using survey data of 238 Australian service firms and analyzed it using partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Our result found that three types of FI are positively related to SCA, and SCA is positively related to all dimensions of FP. Investment in innovation practices are often considered as core practices of service-oriented firms during an uncertain time. Our results offer some useful guidelines for practitioners.

Impression Management and Employee Contextual Performance in Service Organizations (Enterprises)

This study aims to investigate the effect of impression management on employee contextual performance in service organizations using quantitative methods. The social influence theory, which explains the role of superior influence over the subordinate, served as the theoretical underpinning for the study. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted in line with positivism research philosophy. The accessible population of this study consists of one hundred selected service-oriented firms (four-star hotels, fast food restaurants, and travel agencies) operating in the southern part of Nigeria. The sample consists of middle managers, human resource managers, front desk officers, housekeepers, and customer relationship managers. Frequency distribution was used to analyze participants’ profiles, while linear regression was employed to analyze the formulated hypotheses. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 served as statistical software. Linear regression results suggest that self-promotion exerted a significant positive effect on co-worker support. Ingratiation demonstrated a significant positive effect on customer satisfaction. It appears that exemplification exerted a significant positive effect on enterprise compliance. The outcome of this study has demonstrated that traditional managerial skills can no longer hold water in contemporary service-oriented organizations because of the workplace's dynamic and changing technological structure. This study concludes that impression management can assist managers in influencing their employees positively to achieve organizational objectives. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-05 Full Text: PDF

Employees' Understanding of Service-Oriented Strategy: A Case of Business Services in Indonesia

Organizational culture refers to the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, and interaction styles contributing to the distinctive social and psychological environment. The study was measured statistically with approximately 200 participants in Indonesia. The service-oriented strategy had a significant good and direct influence on business services, while the greater service-oriented strategy had an extra influence on the respondents' organizational readiness and knowledge exchange. Through their business services, service-oriented firms seek to delight customers, produce and deliver customer value in the marketplace, and enhance their company's performance and profitability. In order to meet the ever-increasing demands of investors, employees, and consumers, business organizations are continuously under pressure to assess and enhance their performance in competitive markets. As a result, businesses partition their organization and related business services into smaller, self-sufficient company components that can interact to optimize efficiency. In order to be capable of providing excellent services, business services must clearly adhere to business-oriented strategies.
 Keywords: business strategy, business process, governance, business information system

Organizational Knowledge Management Practices and Their Impact on Organizational Focus—Assessing the Case of the Service Industry in Ghana

This research study investigated the importance of organizational knowledge capital in service-oriented firms in Ghana. The study’s findings indicate that knowledge capital is a crucial resource for these firms and can be derived from various sources, including government regulations, customer feedback, and training programs. The study found that firms considered knowledge more valuable if it enhanced customer satisfaction and reputation rather than solely focused on developing new products and services. The study found that firms measured the impact of their knowledge based on several metrics, including revenue goals, the facilitation of learning for future efforts, and the development of new products and services. The study further suggests that knowledge asset mapping can aid organizations in properly accounting for and tracking knowledge resources, which can enhance the ability of managers to concentrate these resources on knowledge risks and opportunities. The study also found a positive correlation between organizational focus and the organization’s asset map, indicating that a variation in organizational focus may affect how knowledge asset mapping is organized. Additionally, the study found evidence suggesting that productivity increases with increased organizational knowledge, indicating the need for businesses to set up thorough knowledge management systems to compare internal organizational performance to market and consumer expectations.

Supply Chain Capabilities and Supply Chain Reponsivenss: The Mediating Role of Supply Chain Information

The supply chain responsive is an important for service-oriented firms including courier-based firms. The key objectives of present study are examining the mediating effect Supply chain information exchange between supply chain coordination exchange capabilities and supply chain integration capabilities for supply chain responsive in courier service-oriented firms in Sindh. The study gathered data with help of adopted questionnaire through survey method and 160 employees from courier companies participated. In order to achieve the research objectives data were analyzed via AMOS version 24. The confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted. Findings, confirmed the partial mediation effect for both variables supply chain coordination exchange capabilities and supply chain integration capabilities for supply chain responsive in courier service-oriented firms in Sindh, Pakistan. The results of study are insight for top management and managers in order to develop effective and efficient supply chain strategies in courier service-oriented firms in Sindh, Pakistan. The selected supply chain capabilities including coordination and integration are important for supply chain responsive for gaining the consumer confidence and satisfaction with better market sharers in future.

Service Orientation and Innovation Results: Theoretical Development Based on Service-Dominant Logic

This article aims at differentiating service orientation as a service-dominant (S-D) concept from service orientation related to goods-dominant (G-D) logic. Grounded in the foundational premises of S-D logic, we argue that discussions about value cocreation with beneficiaries are lagging on service orientation studies applied to innovation. We propose a theoretical framework that explains how service and product innovation can be developed in service-oriented firms. We shed light on a neglected topic of S-D studies by explaining how product innovation can foster service innovation. The proposed framework contributes to the extant literature on service-dominant logic and innovation management.

Will Artificial Intelligence Compliment or Supplement Human Workforce in Organizations? A Shift to a Collaborative Human – Machine Environment

Introduction: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting organizations worldwide in the post-covid era, especially service-oriented firms that are attempting to automate most processes. We have observed a significant effect on business consulting businesses that use AI to automate all operational processes and boost employee efficiency by using them for strategic decision-making. This study examines the overall impact of AI on organizations and the human workforce to determine if automation of business processes will eventually replace employees or work more collaboratively, paving the way for more technology jobs soon. Methodology: This study is a conceptual effort to integrate several streams of literature and papers published in the last 3 years in recognized journals such as Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, and ABDC to present an overview of AI-led robo-consultants and employees in the business consulting domain. Results: It is predicted that AI will automate some unskilled jobs, but also generate new jobs that require new skill sets. Hence, it is predicted that AI cannot replace humans rather lead to a workplace evolution by working in collaboration with employees being spearheaded by them. In business consulting domain, automation would take up all repetitive tasks including, reporting, invoicing, payment reminders, etc. so that employees can focus on more strategic tasks like client interaction, financial planning and complex decision making. However, it wouldn't lead to the elimination of human jobs, rather create a shift in employer perspective to achieve a balanced human-machine sync.

What makes employees retain? Employee career planning vs employer career development in star-grade hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Developing and retaining a competent and professional workforce is of utmost importance in service-oriented firms, and it is even more crucial in the hotel industry as the entire industry relies on treating and caring for guests for their maximum comfort. Perfect career management practices can significantly aid employee retention. This study examined the career management prospects of front-line hotel workers from two different viewpoints; employee career planning and employer career management. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire from a randomly selected sample size of 150 from star grade hotels in Colombo. Hierarchical PLS-SEM analysis revealed that employer career management initiatives are more important than employee career planning behaviours in hotel employee retention. Employee willingness to participate in development activities and manager support were the main factors in employee retention. The two hierarchical constructs of employee career planning and employer career management were also developed based on six conceptions commonly cited in the literature as one of the major contributions of this research to the theories.

Impact of Marketing Mix on Customer Satisfaction: A Study on Commercial Banks

This study aims to provide commercial banks with the impact of the elements of the marketing mix on customer satisfaction. The motivation behind taking the study is to find which of the elements of the marketing mix have the most impact on bank customer satisfaction for the commercial banks at the Rajshahi division in Bangladesh. A survey of 350 commercial bank clients was conducted in the middle of 2020 using a simple random sampling technique. The reliability test, frequency distribution, Pearson's correlation analysis, one-sample t-test, and multiple regression techniques were used to assess the collected data. According to the findings, marketing mix factors impact customer satisfaction for service-oriented firms such as banks as they do for customers of tangible goods. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the attributes of 'People,' 'Price,' and 'Product,' which are elements of the marketing mix for bank settings, are highly correlated and have the most significant effects in predicting customer satisfaction of commercial banks in Rajshahi division of Bangladesh. The findings have important ramifications for bank executives, as they can be used to build future banking strategies based on them.

Reinforcing the significance of human factor in achieving quality performance in data-driven supply chain management

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the various dimensions of human factor relevant for integrating data-driven supply chain quality management practices (DDSCQMPs) with organizational performance. Keeping the transition phase from “Industry 4.0” to “Industry 5.0” in mind, the paper reinforces the role of the human factor and critically discusses the issues and challenges in the present organizational setup.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the grounded theory approach, the study arranged in-depth interviews and focus group sessions with industry experts from various service-oriented firms in India. Dimensions of human factor identified from there were grouped together through a morphological analysis (MA), and interlinkages between them were explored through a cross-consistency matrix.FindingsThis research work identified 20 critical dimensions of human factor and have grouped them under five important categories, namely, cohesive force, motivating force, regulating force, supporting force and functional force that drive quality performance in the supply chain domain.Originality/valueIn line with the requirements of the present “Industry 4.0” and the forthcoming “Industry 5.0”, where the need to collaborate human factor with smart system gets priority, the paper made a novel attempt in presenting the critical human factors and categorizing them under important driving forces. The research also contributed in linking DDSCQMPs with organizational performance. The proposed framework can guide the future researchers in expanding the theoretical constructs through initiating further cross-cultural studies across industries.

Populism in Place: The Economic Geography of the Globalization Backlash

AbstractA populist backlash to globalization has ushered in nationalist governments and challenged core features of the Liberal International Order. Although startling in scope and urgency, the populist wave has been developing in declining regions of wealthy countries for some time. Trade, offshoring, and automation have steadily reduced the number of available jobs and the wages of industrial workers since at least the 1970s. The decline in manufacturing employment initiated the deterioration of social and economic conditions in affected communities, exacerbating inequalities between depressed rural areas and small cities and towns, on the one hand, and thriving cities, on the other. The global financial crisis of 2008 catalyzed these divisions, as communities already in decline suffered deeper and longer economic downturns than metropolitan areas, where superstar knowledge, technology, and service-oriented firms agglomerate. We document many of these trends across the United States and Europe, and demonstrate that populist support is strongest in communities that experienced long-term economic and social decline. Institutional differences in labor markets and electoral rules across developed democracies may explain some of the variation in populists’ electoral success. Renewed support for the Liberal International Order may require a rejuvenation of distressed communities and a reduction of stark regional inequalities.

Capabilities and the internationalisation of smaller-sized, service-oriented firms in the southern hemisphere

ABSTRACT Underpinned by the threshold and dynamic capabilities perspectives as a sub-set of Resource-Based Theory, the objective of this study is to understand ways in which management teams build types of capabilities to facilitate their internationalisation activities. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews took place among smaller-sized, service-oriented internationalising firms located in three countries within the southern hemisphere: two emerging economies (Chile and Colombia) and one developed economy (New Zealand). The findings indicate that some management teams were able to develop threshold capabilities enabling them to operate outside their domestic market. In contrast, certain management teams appeared to possess dynamic capabilities, facilitating their evolving business models and sustainability. Particular capabilities allowed the respective firms, regardless of their national origin, to exhibit varying performance-enhancing internationalisation strategies. The study contributes to theory and practice in the domain of entrepreneurial marketing, offering new insights questioning whether certain capabilities are enough to sustain particular management teams’ internationalisation behaviour.

Services Sector FDI-Growth Nexus in Nigeria: Does Liberalization Policy Matter?

Since it is the need of developing countries to step up own industrialization process and growth and calls for more technology spill-over through foreign investments. This made it a necessity that efforts are made by these countries to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) because of its acknowledged advantages as a tool of economic development. Nigeria, in particular, joined the rest of the world in the quest for increased FDI inflows arising from the notion that FDI leads to economic benefits within the host country. This study analyzed the role of liberalization policy on the nexus between services sector FDI and economic growth in Nigeria under scenarios with and without a structural break for the period 1981-2018. Time-series properties were examined using both conventional and unit root tests with structural breaks to account for shift dummy in the series. Their results indicate that the series is stationary at I(1) and this prompt the use of vector error correction model (VECM). The statistical results show the existence of the long-run relationship between services FDI and economic growth though services FDI spurs growth when policy shift is not included but retards growth when it is included. In the short-run, the estimate under a scenario without break reveals significant positive relationship with growth but negative and statistically insignificant under the scenario with the break. The overall analyses show that services FDI could only play a significant role in Nigeria's growth when there is no change in government policy or intervention. Based on these findings, the policy implications include the expansion of more service-oriented firms to increase sectoral share in the total GDP. The potential benefits from such expansion include creation of jobs, more inclusive growth and development, and the higher plant survival tends to increase social prosperity.