Joy M. Field, Liana Victorino, Ryan W. Buell, Michael J. Dixon, Susan Meyer Goldstein, Larry J. Menor, Madeleine E. Pullman, Aleda V. Roth, Enrico Secchi and Jie J. Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multiple questions for each topic are proposed to guide research efforts. The topics and questions, while wide-ranging, are only representative of the many ongoing research opportunities related to service operations.
Findings
The field of service operations has many interesting research topics and questions that are largely unexplored. Furthermore, these research areas are not only increasingly integrative across multiple themes within operations but often transcend functional disciplines. This creates opportunities for ever more impactful research with a greater reach throughout the service system and suggests that service researchers, regardless of functional affiliation, can contribute to the ongoing conversation on the role of service operations in value creation.
Originality/value
Leveraging the collective knowledge of the JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel to expand on the research themes generated from the Delphi study, novel questions for future study are put forward. Recognizing that the number of potential research questions is virtually unlimited, summary questions by theme and topic are also provided. These questions represent a synopsis of the individual questions and can serve as a quick reference guide for researchers interested in pursuing new directions in conceptual and empirical research in service operations. This summary also serves as a framework to facilitate the formulation of additional research topics and questions.
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Liana Victorino, Joy M. Field, Ryan W. Buell, Michael J. Dixon, Susan Meyer Goldstein, Larry J. Menor, Madeleine E. Pullman, Aleda V. Roth, Enrico Secchi and Jie J. Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to identify research themes in service operations that have great potential for exciting and innovative conceptual and empirical work. To frame these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify research themes in service operations that have great potential for exciting and innovative conceptual and empirical work. To frame these research themes, the paper provides a systematic literature review of operations articles published in the Journal of Service Management (JOSM). The thorough review of published work in JOSM and proposed research themes are presented in hopes that they will inspire impactful research on service operations. These themes are further developed in a companion paper, “Service operations: what’s next?” (Field et al., 2018).
Design/methodology/approach
The JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel conducted a Delphi study to generate research themes where leading-edge research on service operations is being done or has yet to be done. Nearly 700 articles published in JOSM from its inception through 2016 were reviewed and classified by discipline focus. The subset of service operations articles was then further categorized according to the eight identified research themes plus an additional category that primarily represented traditional manufacturing approaches applied in service settings.
Findings
From the Delphi study, the following key themes emerged: service supply networks, evaluating and measuring service operations performance, understanding customer and employee behavior in service operations, managing servitization, managing knowledge-based service contexts, managing participation roles and responsibilities in service operations, addressing society’s challenges through service operations, and the operational implications of the sharing economy. Based on the literature review, approximately 20 percent of the published work in JOSM is operations focused, with earlier articles predominantly applying traditional manufacturing approaches in service settings. However, the percentage of these traditional types of articles has been steadily decreasing, suggesting a trend toward dedicated research frameworks and themes that are unique to the design and management of services operations.
Originality/value
The paper presents key research themes for advancing conceptual and empirical research on service operations. Additionally, a review of the past and current landscape of operations articles published in JOSM offers an understanding of the scholarly conversation so far and sets a foundation from which to build future research.
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Fernando Naranjo, Larry J. Menor and P. Fraser Johnson
This research proposes and illustrates a conditional view of lean supply chain management (LSCM) based upon the contextual contingent alignment between lean performance objectives…
Abstract
Purpose
This research proposes and illustrates a conditional view of lean supply chain management (LSCM) based upon the contextual contingent alignment between lean performance objectives (i.e. a contextual factor) and supply chain management challenges (i.e. a contingent condition) in the selection of lean approaches (i.e. a contingent event).
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the notions of contingency-based practices and strategic fit, the authors’ LSCM reconceptualization jointly considers contextual and contingency factors in specifying what lean approaches to adopt. The authors illustrate the practical relevance of LSCM reconceptualization for the Canadian agri-food industry using the Delphi method.
Findings
The authors highlight that LSCM is founded upon alignment associations between specific lean performance objectives and supply chain challenges as well as their influence on the selection of suitable lean approaches. The empirical illustration shows that those alignment associations do not occur at random, which supports the conditional view of LSCM.
Research limitations/implications
The contextual contingent view of LSCM can inform future scholarly inquiry and can reframe practically relevant middle-range theorization on LSCM.
Practical implications
The Delphi method-derived descriptive model of LSCM provides guidance to managers in the Canadian agri-food sector in identifying suitable lean approaches to adopt given the specific performance objective(s) pursued and supply chain management challenge(s) encountered.
Originality/value
The authors advance scholarly theorization and managerial understanding of LSCM by providing a conditional conceptualization that jointly considers relevant contextual and contingency factors that hitherto have not been examined. In ascribing what lean approach(es) to adopt to the alignment associations influence between lean performance objective(s) pursued and supply chain management challenge(s) encountered, the authors provide compelling conceptual and empirical support for the joint conditional view of LSCM.
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Anton Meyer, Richard Chase, Aleda Roth, Chris Voss, Klaus‐Ulrich Sperl, Larry Menor and Kate Blackmon
This paper provides a cross‐country examination of service management practice and performance of service organizations in the UK, USA and Germany. The findings reported are based…
Abstract
This paper provides a cross‐country examination of service management practice and performance of service organizations in the UK, USA and Germany. The findings reported are based on a sample of firms from the international service study (ISS) from four service sectors: financial services, professional services, hotels, and utilities. The paper argues that generally there are differences in services management practices and performance and, more specifically, that service quality performance may be explained by the nature and market dynamics of the service sector within the individual countries.
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Jorge Teixeira, Lia Patrício, Nuno J. Nunes, Leonel Nóbrega, Raymond P. Fisk and Larry Constantine
Customer experience has become increasingly important for service organizations that see it as a source of sustainable competitive advantage, and for service designers, who…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer experience has become increasingly important for service organizations that see it as a source of sustainable competitive advantage, and for service designers, who consider it fundamental to any service design project.
Design/methodology/approach
Integrating contributions from different fields, CEM was conceptually developed to represent the different aspects of customer experience in a holistic diagrammatic representation. CEM was further developed with an application to a multimedia service. To further develop and build CEM's models, 17 customers of a multimedia service provider were interviewed and the data were analyzed using Grounded Theory methodology.
Findings
Combining multidisciplinary contributions to represent customer experience elements enables the systematization of its complex information. The application to a multimedia service highlights how CEM can facilitate the work of multidisciplinary design teams by providing more insightful inputs to service design.
Originality/value
CEM supports the holistic nature of customer experience, providing a systematic portrayal of its context and shifting the focus from single experience elements to their orchestration.
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Qiang Wang, Ilan Oshri and Xiande Zhao
This study aims to examine value cocreation in terms of interfirm collaborations between service firms, their business customers and business partners at different stages of a new…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine value cocreation in terms of interfirm collaborations between service firms, their business customers and business partners at different stages of a new service development (NSD) process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study develops and tests hypotheses that examine the roles played by business customers and partners in NSD, assuming resource dependency of the focal firm during three NSD stages (ideation, development and deployment). Empirical data were collected from 200 NSD projects and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that business customer collaboration has a positive effect on ideation performance and development performance, whereas business partner collaboration has a positive effect on deployment performance. These finding support the notion that the value cocreating roles of business customers and partners vary across NSD stages.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should focus on how business partners can be actively involved in the NSD process and how the interests of different parties can be safeguarded. The use of longitudinal data will allow a better examination of the process dynamics.
Practical implications
The study provides managerial implications for service managers in terms of acquiring and allocating resources needed from business customers and partners during different NSD stages.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the growing literature on value cocreation in NSD by empirically demonstrating the respective performance contributions of business customers and partners during different stages of NSD. Moreover, the results also shed light on interfirm collaboration mechanisms from the perspective of resource dependence theory.
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Paul Hong, Soon W. Hong, James Jungbae Roh and Kihyun Park
The purpose of this study is to review a major section of the literature on benchmarking practices in order to achieve better perspectives for emerging benchmarking research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to review a major section of the literature on benchmarking practices in order to achieve better perspectives for emerging benchmarking research streams.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the benchmarking literature and presents a framework that suggests evolving patterns of firms' benchmarking practices. This paper examines the studies published in Benchmarking: An International Journal and other articles related to benchmarking practices in major Strategic Management, OM/SCM, and Technology Management journals from 2001 to 2010.
Findings
Benchmarking remains an important strategic tool of business in turbulent times. Five research dimensions for benchmarking are discussed in terms of the following: strategy‐based benchmarking; operational effectiveness‐based benchmarking; technical efficiency‐based benchmarking; and micro‐macro integrative benchmarking. For sustainable competitive advantage, benchmarking goes beyond the operational level and moves into a wide range of value chain, strategic, operational, and project levels.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the benchmarking literature by identifying key areas of benchmarking. It reflects a qualitative orientation, but future research may achieve a more systematic and quantitative analysis of the benchmarking literature.
Originality/value
This review paper is unique in that it examines the benchmarking literature and summarizes the results in order to gain a proper understanding of benchmarking and provide perspectives for future research.