Servitization of Manufacturing companies in emerging markets

Securing a competitive advantage for manufacturing companies in economies with fierce rivalry has increasing become difficult. With financial success, company growth and differentiation being objectives manufacturers are continuously striving to achieve it has becoming more beneficial to manufacturer to servitize. Servitization is the process through which manufacturers integrate services to product offering as a means of adding value to the offerings, differentiate from the competitors or generate additional revenue. Current literature has predominantly focused on western world manufactures in developed markets with little insight into the process in emerging markets such as that of Kenya as used in this study. This study aimsto examine the role of servitization in the pursuit of differentiation and achieving competitive advantage for manufacturing firms in emerging economies therefore, addressing this gap in current literature. The study utilises two key frameworks which are servitization theory and organizational culture theory addressing the existing literature and its closely related concepts. Thesestwo frameworks are chosen as they serve as the basis for studying manufacturing companies undergoing a service transition. A theoretical lens is created based on the synthesis of these two frameworks from which the developed servitization capabilities can be drawn and providing a simple view of the empirical results. The empirical section of this study includes the analysis of three unnamed manufacturing company. Primary data is collected through semi structured interviews with the managers from the case companies, the data is then analysed using context analysis. The study finds several differences in the motivations, challenges, and effects of servitization with conceptual similarities between the manufacturing companies in developed markets i.e., Europe and north America with emerging markets i.e., Sub Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. The level of servitization in Kenya is also highlighted given the scope of the data collected in the study with varying levels of servitization capabilities noted amongst different industries and the viability of ser

Examining the role of knowledge management and technology operating capabilities in the development of customer-centric organisational systems

Abstract: Orientation: Over the years technological competence and knowledge management have grown in significance in relation to strategic management of firms. Research purpose: The aim of the study was to examine the role of knowledge management and technology operating capabilities in the development of customer-centric organisational systems for small and medium enterprises in Zimbabwe. Motivation for the study: The dynamism in the business environment, coupled with the proliferation in technological advancements, is forcing firms to reorient themselves, especially towards customer centrism. Research design, approach and method: Based on a cross-sectional survey conducted on 388 firms in Zimbabwe, this study sought to investigate the influence of knowledge management capabilities and technology operating capabilities on the ability of small and medium enterprises to create customer-centric organisational systems. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect data from simple, randomly selected small firms, and structural equation modelling was used to test the direction and significance of the proposed relationships. Main findings: The study found that there are positive relationships between the two dimensions of knowledge management capability and one technological competence dimension. Practical/managerial implications: Because external knowledge searches have become progressively significant for small and medium enterprises to attain and maintain a competitive advantage, the study findings demonstrate that knowledge acquisition and transformation are also essential for firms to create customer-oriented organisational systems. Contribution/value-add: The novelty in this study is that it decomposes absorptive capacity and technological competences and assesses the individual dimensions’ influence on the dependent variable, thereby enhancing exhaustive understanding while avoiding theoretical misspecifications and empirical contradictions

The Digital Transformation of Automotive Businesses: THREE ARTEFACTS TO SUPPORT DIGITAL SERVICE PROVISION AND INNOVATION

Digitalisation and increasing competitive pressure drive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to switch their focus towards the provision of digital services and open-up towards increased collaboration and customer integration. This shift implies a significant transformational change from product to product-service providers, where OEMs realign themselves within strategic, business and procedural dimensions. Thus, OEMs must manage digital transformation (DT) processes in order to stay competitive and remain adaptable to changing customer demands. However, OEMs aspiring to become participants or leaders in their domain, struggle to initiate activities as there is a lack of applicable instruments that can guide and support them during this process. Compared to the practical importance of DT, empirical studies are not comprehensive. This study proposes three artefacts, validated within case companies that intend to support automotive OEMs in digital service provisioning. Artefact one, a layered conceptual model for a digital automotive ecosystem, was developed by means of 26 expert interviews. It can serve as a useful instrument for decision makers to strategically plan and outline digital ecosystems. Artefact two is a conceptual reference framework for automotive service systems. The artefact was developed based on an extensive literature review, and the mapping of the business model canvas to the service system domain. The artefact intends to assist OEMs in the efficient conception of digital services under consideration of relevant stakeholders and the necessary infrastructures. Finally, artefact three proposes a methodology by which to transform software readiness assessment processes to fit into the agile software development approach with consideration of the existing operational infrastructure. Overall, the findings contribute to the empirical body of knowledge about the digital transformation of manufacturing industries. The results suggest value creation for digital automotive services occurs in networks among interdependent stakeholders in which customers play an integral role during the services’ life-cycle. The findings further indicate the artefacts as being useful instruments, however, success is dependent on the integration and collaboration of all contributing departments.:Table of Contents Bibliographic Description II Acknowledgment III Table of Contents IV List of Figures VI List of Tables VII List of Abbreviations VIII 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation and Problem Statement 1 1.2 Objective and Research Questions 6 1.3 Research Methodology 7 1.4 Contributions 10 1.5 Outline 12 2 Background 13 2.1 From Interdependent Value Creation to Digital Ecosystems 13 2.1.1 Digitalisation Drives Collaboration 13 2.1.2 Pursuing an Ecosystem Strategy 13 2.1.3 Research Gaps and Strategy Formulation Obstacles 20 2.2 From Products to Product-Service Solutions 22 2.2.1 Digital Service Fulfilment Requires Co-Creational Networks 22 2.2.2 Enhancing Business Models with Digital Services 28 2.2.3 Research Gaps and Service Conception Obstacles 30 2.3 From Linear Development to Continuous Innovation 32 2.3.1 Digital Innovation Demands Digital Transformation 32 2.3.2 Assessing Digital Products 36 2.3.3 Research Gaps and Implementation Obstacles 38 3 Artefact 1: Digital Automotive Ecosystems 41 3.1 Meta Data 41 3.2 Summary 42 3.3 Designing a Layered Conceptual Model of a Digital Ecosystem 45 4 Artefact 2: Conceptual Reference Framework 79 4.1 Meta Data 79 4.2 Summary 80 4.3 On the Move Towards Customer-Centric Automotive Business Models 83 5 Artefact 3: Agile Software Readiness Assessment Procedures 121 5.1 Meta Data 121 5.2 Meta Data 122 5.3 Summary 123 5.4 Adding Agility to Software Readiness Assessment Procedures 126 5.5 Continuous Software Readiness Assessments for Agile Development 147 6 Conclusion and Future Work 158 6.1 Contributions 158 6.1.1 Strategic Dimension: Artefact 1 158 6.1.2 Business Dimension: Artefact 2 159 6.1.3 Process Dimension: Artefact 3 161 6.1.4 Synthesis of Contributions 163 6.2 Implications 167 6.2.1 Scientific Implications 167 6.2.2 Managerial Implications 168 6.2.3 Intelligent Parking Service Example (ParkSpotHelp) 171 6.3 Concluding Remarks 174 6.3.1 Threats to Validity 174 6.3.2 Outlook and Future Research Recommendations 174 Appendix VII Bibliography XX Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang XXXVII Selbständigkeitserklärung XXXVII

Organizational transformation through service design : the journey towards human- and customer-centricity

Viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana palvelumuotoilu ja sen hyödyntäminen on yleistynyt tuotantoteollisuudessa. Ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisenä kehittämismetodologiana palvelumuotoilu tuo mukanaan yhteiskehittämiseen pohjautuvia luovia ja iteratiivisia toimintatapoja, joissa kehittämistä lähestytään ulkoa sisäänpäin -strategioilla. Tällaiset ketterät menetelmät, tekemällä oppiminen ja kokeilut innovoinnin yhteydessä voivat kuitenkin törmätä ristiriitoihin olemassa oleviin työpaikkakulttuureihin, innovaatiokäytäntöihin ja organisaatioiden prosesseihin nähden. Näin voi käydä erityisesti konteksteissa, joissa vahvat insinööripohjaiset ja teknologialähtöiset toiminta- ja kehittämiskulttuurit kukoistavat. Viimeaikaiset tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että organisaatioiden, jotka alkavat soveltaa ja integroida palvelumuotoilua kehittämis- ja liiketoimintakäytäntöihinsä, tulee valmistautua laajamittaiseen muutokseen. Tämä johtuu siitä, että sosiaalisena innovaatiokäytäntönä palvelumuotoilu vaikuttaa myös siihen, miten organisaatio muuttuu ja kehittyy sisäisesti – ei pelkästään uusien palveluiden kehittämisen kautta. Näiden havaintojen valossa tässä väitöskirjassa väitetään, että kokonaisvaltaisen ja laajamittaisen organisaatiomuutoksen eli organisaatiotransformaation ymmärtämisessä palvelumuotoilun näkökulmasta on tutkimusvaje. Tarvitaan enemmän ymmärrystä siitä, miten palvelumuotoilua soveltavat organisaatiot muuttuvat. Tällä tutkimuksella pyritään kuromaan umpeen tätä aukkoa tutkimalla seuraavaa päätutkimuskysymystä monikansallisen tuotantoteollisuuden kontekstista: Mitä organisaatiolta vaaditaan, että työpaikkakulttuurin transformaatio voi tapahtua kohti ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisyyttä mahdollistaakseen sisäisen palvelumuotoilun tehokkaan integroinnin? Tämä on artikkelipohjainen väitöskirja, jossa tehdään tutkimusta muotoilusta (engl. research into design). Tämän tieteidenvälisen tutkimuksen tavoitteena on yhdistää muotoilun tutkimus johtamis- ja organisaatiotutkimukseen. Interpretivismi on tämän väitöskirjan filosofinen näkökulma, jonka mukaisesti tutkimuksen informanttien kuvaamia kokemuksia tulkitaan. Tutkimusmetodologiana on tapaustutkimus, jossa on käytetty erilaisia laadullisia tiedonkeruu- ja analyysimenetelmiä. Kolme julkaisua, jotka ovat kahdessa kirjassa julkaistuja kirjalukuja, muodostavat tämän väitöskirjan pohjan. Julkaisu I kuvaa, kuinka tutkimukseen osallistuva organisaatio kehittyi vastaanottavaisemmaksi palvelumuotoilulle empaattisena kehittämisen lähestymistapana. Kymmenen vuoden ajanjaksoa (2005-2014) tarkasteltiin organisaation muutosten ja kehityksen ymmärtämiseksi, joiden pohjalta organisaatio päätti investoida palvelumuotoon. Julkaisu II tarkastelee sitä, kuinka sisäinen palvelumuotoilu (engl. in-house service design) on tukenut tutkimukseen osallistuneen organisaation työpaikkakulttuuria muuttumaan kohti ihmis- ja asiakaskeskeisyyttä. Tässä julkaisussa tarkasteltiin sisäisen palvelumuotoilun hyödyntämisen ensimmäistä neljän vuoden ajanjaksoa (2014-2018). Julkaisu III esittelee sitä, mitkä ovat organisaation haasteet, joita ilmenee, kun palveluiden kehittämisessä käytetään sisäistä palvelumuotoilua. Julkaisun II lisäksi myös tässä julkaisussa tarkasteltiin sisäisen palvelumuotoilun hyödyntämisen neljää ensimmäisen vuoden ajanjaksoa. Julkaisuissa I ja II esitetään havaintoja, jotka liittyvät ihmisten yksilöllisiin ja organisaation muutosnäkökulmiin. Nämä liittyvät muutoksiin yksilöiden asenteissa, ajattelutavassa ja uskomuksissa sekä organisaation visioiden, strategioiden, arvojen ja organisaation paradigmojen muutoksiin. Julkaisu III esittelee havaintoja ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisten normien ja käytäntöjen puutteeseen organisaatiohaasteiden näkökulmasta. Kaiken kaikkiaan tämän väitöskirjan puitteissa tehty tutkimus tuo uutta tietoa muotoilututkimuksen, johtamisen ja organisaatiotutkimuksen aloille. Väitöskirja esittelee uuden teoreettisen viitekehyksen yksilön ja organisaation muutosnäkökulmista. Nämä muutosnäkökulmat ovat edellytyksiä organisaation työpaikkakulttuurin muuttamiseksi kohti ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisyyttä, mikä puolestaan mahdollistaa sisäisen palvelusuunnittelun tehokkaan integroinnin.Over the past decade, service design has become more common in the manufacturing industry. As a human- and customer-centric development methodology, service design brings along co-creative, outside-in development strategies, which are iterative in nature. However, such learning by doing and experimenting while innovating may collide with the existing working cultures, innovation practices, and processes of organizations, especially where strong engineering-based and technology-oriented cultures thrive. Recent research has shown that organizations that start applying and integrating service design into their development and business practices, should be prepared for an organization-wide transformation. This is due to the fact that, as a social innovation practice, service design also impacts how an organization changes internally, not just through developing new services. In light of these observations, this dissertation claims that there is a research gap in understanding organizational transformation, from the perspective of service design. More understanding is needed of how organizations that apply service design, transform. This research aims to bridge this gap, by exploring the following primary research question, from the context of a multinational manufacturing corporation: What is required for an organization, to transform its working culture towards human- and customer-centricity, in order to enable the efficient integration of in-house service design? This is an article-based dissertation, which follows research into design approach. The aim of this interdisciplinary research is to connect design research with management and organizational studies. Interpretivism serves as the philosophical perspective used to interpret and understand the experiences described by the study’s informants. The research methodology was to conduct a case study, where a variety of qualitative data collection and analysis methods were employed. Three publications, all of which are book chapters published in two books, constitute the basis of this dissertation. The publication I discovered how the participating organization evolved into being more receptive to service design as an empathic development approach. A time span of ten years (2005-2014) was studied to understand the changes and evolvement, that led the organization to invest in service design. The publication II studied how in-house service design has supported the participating organization’s working culture, to transform towards human- and customer-centricity. The early use phases of the first four years 2014-2018 of inhouse service design were studied. The publication III sought to understand, what the organizational challenges are that occur when in-house service design is used in service development. Along with publication II, this publication also looked into the first four years of in-house service design use in the organization under investigation. Publications I and II present findings, which relate to individual and organizational change aspects. These are connected to changes in attitudes, mindsets, and beliefs of individuals, in addition to changes in organizational visions, strategies, values, and organizational paradigms. Publication III presents findings from the perspective of organizational challenges related to the lack of human- and customer-centric norms and practices. Overall, the research conducted within this dissertation adds new knowledge to the field of design research, management, and organization studies. The dissertation presents a new theoretical framework of individual and organizational change aspects, to transform the organizational working culture towards human- and customer-centricity, in order to enable the efficient integration of in-house service design

The emergence of the fintech industry in China: An evolutionary economic geography perspective

Over the last decade, the global economy has rapidly becoming digited. Digital technologies have transformed the economy and society, affecting all sectors of activity around the world. Among them, the financial sector is one of the most digitalized sectors, and the term ‘fintech’ is coined to describe the digitalization of the financial sector. Although the global fintech landscape is currently geographically concentrated in the United States and Europe, the pace of China’s fintech development has been dramatically accelerated. However, it is quite surprising that there is hardly any study that investigates fintech in China from a subnational scale. To fill this gap, this dissertation conducts a city-level analysis of the emergence of the fintech industry in China. Theoretically, I position this dissertation within the broad literature on evolutionary economic geography (EEG), which has emerged as one of the main paradigms in economic geography. This dissertation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the emergence of the new industry in regions. Conventional wisdom in EEG posits that new industry in regions tends to grow out of technologically related pre-existing industries. However, this conventional understanding is somewhat technology-centric. In response, this dissertation extends the scholarly work from technology-centric to embrace the role of the demand-side market and institutional logic in the emergence of the new industry in regions. It proposes that not only supply-side technology but also demand-side market and institutional logics matter for the emergence of the new industry in regions. Moreover, this dissertation ascribes the underlying logic of how technology, market, and institutional logics matter to the agentic processes of asset modification, particularly redeploying pre-existing assets and creating new assets. In other words, the emergence of the new industry in regions results from relevant regional actors’ purposeful actions in terms of modifying technological, market, and institutional assets. Methodologically, there is a dualism in evolutionary economic geography research between qualitative and quantitative work. To seek a methodology integration, this dissertation proposes the mixed-method that is composed of four concrete approaches, namely the triangulation approach, the embedded approach, the sequential exploratory approach, and the sequential explanatory approach. Among these concrete approaches, the embedded approach is utilized in empirical work. The embedded approach in this dissertation refers to the embedding of the qualitative case study (which deals with the ‘how’ questions) into quantitative research (which deals with the ‘whether and to what extent’ questions). Empirically, this dissertation first examines the emergence of fintech industries in China’s cities based on the quantitative regression analysis (mainly dealing with the ‘whether and to what extent’ questions) and then zooms in on the city of Shenzhen, which is the largest fintech hub in southern China, based on the qualitative case study (mainly dealing with the ‘how’ questions). The findings are as follows. (1) Based on a unique dataset from 2003 – 2019, this dissertation provides a city-level analysis of the fintech industry in China. The econometric results show that fintech industries tend to emerge in cities that have more fintech-related technologies, particularly in the fields of finance, e-commerce, data sciences, and security. This confirms the principle of technological relatedness. Moreover, it finds a positive relationship between the development of the fintech industry and the demand for fintech services. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first systematic evidence of the significant positive role of the demand-side market in the emergence of the new industry in regions. (2) In order to uncover the underlying processes (the question of ‘how’) that lead to the above significantly positive effect, this dissertation resorts to the qualitative case study. The case study shows that the rise of Shenzhen’s fintech industry mainly grows out of Shenzhen’s pre-existing internet and financial industry. By systematically comparing the processes that internet and financial industry diversify into the fintech industry, it finds that the emergence of the fintech industry in Shenzhen result from internet and financial firms’ purposeful actions in terms of redeploying their pre-existing technologies, market, and institutional logics, as well as creating the new ones that are necessary for fintech but are missing for the internet or financial firms. In other words, it is the processes of asset modification, particularly redeploying pre-existing assets and creating new assets, that give rise to the birth of the fintech industry, leading to the positive relationships found in the quantitative regression analysis

Measuring the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) components on the non financial performance of commercial banks: Egypt case

This paper presents customer relationship management (CRM) components as applied on the Egyptian Commercial Banks, examined from the bankers' point of view. Then, it intends to measure their effect on the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty from the customers’ point of view as examples of the non financial performance measures. The paper is quantitative in nature and consists of two different structured questionnaires using convenience/quota sampling. The first involved 180 employees in order to measure CRM applicability, and the second involved 270 customers to measure the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty and their effect on the Egyptian Commercial Banks' financial performance The findings show that the selected banks apply CRM components but the level of application differs from one bank to another. The results showed a significant positive relationship between CRM and customer satisfaction in the Egyptian Commercial Banks, when applying them together and not separately. In addition, there is a strong positive effect between customer satisfaction and loyalty which was reflected on the Commercial Banks' financial performance. The findings confirm the importance of studying and implementing CRM to achieve customer loyalty and improve the Egyptian Commercial Banks financial performance. Banks wishing to improve their relationships with customers need to focus on the CRM components to develop relevant and effective marketing strategies and tactics. The paper measures the CRM as a multidimensional construct as applied on the Egyptian Commercial Banks and relate it to the achievement of the ultimate goal of retaining customers to gaining a sustainable competitive advantage and achieve more profits

Impact of CRM strategy on relationship commitment and new product development: mediating effects of learning from failure

Despite all the benefits that customer relationship management (CRM) offers to companies, various studies show high rates of failure when implementing CRM schemes. This study aims to explain how CRM can capitalize on the notion of learning behavior from failures in order to improve the relationship building and innovation performance in high technology ventures. Questionnaire survey data were collected from 234 CEOs and General Managers from ICT firms based in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, China. Subsequently, both hierarchical linear regression and SEM was conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings show that CRM positively affects both NPD and commitment to long-term relationships and confirm that learning behaviour from failure mediates the main effects of CRM, which consists of strategic and market orientation foci, in combination with internal marketing and knowledge management. Specifically, although all four aspects of CRM are important to NPD, knowledge management is of particular importance

Moving forward: Emerging themes in financial services technologies’ adoption

© 2015 by the Association for Information Systems. Financial services technologies (FST) are core to the continuous transformation of financial services organizations (FSO). To date, however, there has been a lack of empirical research into FST adoption against the backdrop of the recent financial crisis. In this paper, we re-examine how FSO are currently positioned to take advantage of emerging FST. Note that, in this paper, we look forward rather than provide a commentary on the state of the art in technology adoption research. We conducted this research by applying an exploratory qualitative study method: we analyzed interview transcripts from thirty recent interviews of FSO technology executives and CIOs by using a thematic network analysis tool. This analysis uncovered nineteen basic, eight organizing, and two global FST adoption research themes along with their links to FST adoption objectives, challenges, customer centricity, human resources, outsourcing, and overall IT strategy maintenance. This research has both practical and theoretical research implications and serves as a resource base for FSO and researchers to set future research priorities and directions. We intend for the emerging themes that we present in this paper to facilitate research directions by shedding light on the areas of greatest value and potential return in FST adoption

The Dimensions of Customer Satisfaction in the Jamaican Financial Service Industry

Bank leaders spend an average of $727 to acquire a new customer and$287 to retain current customers. Grounded in customer relationship management and adaptation level theories, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between service quality and customers\u27 intention to switch banking service. An online survey was administered to 203 Jamaican banking customers. The target population was selected to identify if the Jamaican banks\u27 customer service adhered to the customer satisfaction principles developed by Parasuraman. The independent variables were the 10 dimensions of service quality. Competence, courtesy, credibility, and access were removed because of multicollinearity issues. The dependent variable was the customers\u27 intention. The results indicated a statistically significant relationship, F(6, 196) = 15.074, p \u3c .001, between service quality and customer intent to switch banking services. The six predictors: tangibles (r = -.303, p \u3c .005), reliability (r = -.253, p \u3c .008), responsiveness (r = .35, p \u3c .001), safety (r = -.433, p \u3c .001), communication (r = -.184, p \u3c .028), and empathy (r = -.357, p \u3c .001), accounted the largest variance for (β = -.316) of the customers\u27 intention of the Jamaican banking service. The implications for positive social change include the potential for bank leaders to develop customer-focused banking policy, increase customer satisfaction, and decrease costs related to losing customers, thus increasing profitability