Browsing by Subject "Dienstleistung"

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Artificial intelligence and robots in services : theory and management of (future) human–robot service interactions
(2023) Blaurock, Marah Karin; Büttgen, Marion
During the past decade, service robots have increasingly been deployed in a wide variety of services, where they co-produce service outcomes with and for the benefit of internal or external customers within human–robot service interactions (HRSI). Although the introduction of different service robot types into the marketplace promises efficiency gains, it changes premises of service encounter theory and practice fundamentally. Moreover, introducing service robots without considering external or internal customers’ needs can lead to negative service outcomes. This thesis aims to generate knowledge on how the introduction of different service robot types (i.e., embodied and digital service robots) in internal and external service encounters changes fundamental premises of service encounter theory and impacts HRSI outcomes. In doing so, it leverages different scientific methods and focuses on external service encounters with digital and embodied service robots, as well as internal service encounters with digital service robots. Chapter 2 aims to advance service encounter theory in the context of HRSI in external service encounters by conceptually developing a service encounter theory evaluation scheme to assess a theory’s fit to explain HRSI-related phenomena. The scheme includes individual and contextual factors that bound theoretical premises and, hence, supports scholars in assessing standing service encounter theories. The chapter also puts forth an exemplary assessment of role theory and provides detailed avenues for future research. Chapter 3 aims to synthesize the great wealth of knowledge on HRSI related to external service encounters with embodied service robots. By conducting a comprehensive systematic literature review, the chapter identifies 199 empirical research articles across scientific fields that can inform service research on how to successfully introduce service robots into the organizational frontline. To organize the plethora of research findings, this chapter develops a new structuring framework (D3: design, delegate, deploy). It utilizes this framework to provide a comprehensive overview of the empirical HRSI literature, delineates practical implications, and identifies gaps in literature to identify promising future research avenues. Chapter 4 also addresses HRSI in external service encounters but focuses specifically on the transformative potential of embodied service robots to enhance vulnerable consumers’ (i.e., children and older adults) well-being in social isolation. To identify how different robots can enhance well-being, this chapter follows a conceptual approach and integrates findings from service research, social robotics, social psychology, and medicine. The chapter develops a typology of robotic transformative service (i.e., entertainer, social enabler, mentor, and friend) as a function of consumers state of social isolation, well-being focus, and robot capabilities and a future research agenda for robotic transformative service research (RTSR). This work guides service consumers and providers, as well as robot developers, in identifying and developing the most appropriate robot type for advancing the well-being of vulnerable consumers in social isolation. Finally, Chapter 5 focuses on HRSI research in the context of interactions with digital service robots in internal service encounters. Based on a comprehensive literature review paired with a qualitative study, it conceptionally develops a new concept of a collaborative, digital service robot: a collaborative intelligence system (i.e., CI system) that co-produces service with employees. Drawing from service encounter needs theory, the chapter also empirically tests the effect of CI systems on employee need fulfillment (i.e., need for control, cognition, self-efficacy, and justice) and, in turn, on responsibility taking in two scenario-based experiments. The results uncover divergent mechanisms of how the fulfillment of service encounter needs drives the effect of CI systems on outcome responsibility for different employee groups. Service scholars and managers benefit from a blueprint for designing collaborative digital service robots and an understanding of their effects on employee outcomes in service co-production. In summary, this thesis contributes to literature by providing new insights into different types of HRSI by consolidating HRSI knowledge, developing and advancing HRSI concepts and theory, and empirically investigating HRSI-related phenomena. The new insights put forth in this thesis are discussed and implications for service theory and practice are delineated.
Betriebliche Kommunikationsprozesse bei Dienstleistern : Herausforderungen für Organisation und IT durch Kundenorientierung (Anhang)
(2010) Kordowich, Philipp
Customer-oriented service provision as in customer solutions or services results in new requirements for the organisation of the company and for information technology support. The work introduces the specific characteristics of customer-oriented services in comparison to other services and their impact on organisational activities. To this end, the thesis examines the actors affected by the service provision and discusses the related changes. The findings are used to derive the consequences of customer-oriented service provision for organisational communication processes. Finally, the potential of information technology support is shown.
Dienstleistungen: Motor für Wachstum und Beschäftigung in Deutschland?
(1999) Krämer, Hagen
Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Bedeutung, die die unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleistungen für die Wirtschaft und die Beschäftigung in Deutschland haben. Dienstleistungsunternehmen, die Vorleistungen für andere Unternehmen erstellen, zeichneten sich bereits in der Vergangenheit durch eine hohe Dynamik aus. Statistisch zugeordnet werden die unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleistungen dem Sektor Sonstige Dienstleistungsunternehmen, über den kaum disaggregierte Daten vorliegen. In dieser Arbeit wird das vorhandene Material aufbereitet und dargestellt. Außerdem werden die Entwicklungsperspektiven der Branchen der Sonstigen Dienstleistungen diskutiert. Entscheidende Gründe, die zum generellen Bedeutungsgewinn von Dienstleistungen beitragen werden, sind die erwarteten Veränderungen auf der Nachfrage- und der Angebotsseite. Dazu gehören unter anderem die Veränderungen der Produktions- und Vorleistungsstrukturen, die zunehmende Produktkomplexität, veränderte Kundenwünsche und der Trend zur Globalisierung. Hinzu kommen der technische Fortschritt im Bereich der Informationsund Kommunikationstechnologien und die weiteren Verbesserungen der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen. Diese Faktoren lassen einen kräftigen Nachfrageschub zugunsten der unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleistungen erwarten und gestalten insbesondere die Perspektiven für unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleistungen in Deutschland weiterhin positiv.
Dienstleistungsnetzwerke im Kontext der Servicetransformation - Barrieren, Erfolgsfaktoren und Wirkungsmodell
(2017) Weigel, Sabrina; Hadwich, Karsten
Manufacturing firms face major challenges due to the commoditization of products and increasing competitive pressure, which causes them to develop new business models. In order to secure their competitive position, they offer additional services or innovative combinations of products and services in addition to their products. Due to limited capacities, however, it is often not possible for a single company to offer its customers not only products but also services or complete solutions. This is why many companies join forces with other companies in order to be able to provide services to customers in so-called service networks. A major challenge in the context of service networks during servitization is to ensure a consistent, high quality of service for the customer. Furthermore, working with other companies in a service network is a challenge, so that in some cases the expected benefits of the network are not achieved or the cooperation might even fail. Despite the great relevance of the topic, there is still a lack of literature on service networks in the context of servitization, so the aim of this thesis is to contribute to scientific research on service networks in the context of servitization and to provide relevant recommendations for the successful management of service networks in business practice. Therefore, the thesis focuses on a detailed analysis of the relationships and interactions between the various network partners in order to identify key points that enable a service network in the context of servitization to operate successfully and to provide customers with high-quality services that contribute to the success of the service network in the context of servitization. The work is divided into five chapters. After an introductory chapter on definitions, chapter 2 examines the barriers in the quality management of service networks in the context of servitization. To this end, an empirical qualitative investigation (n = 6) is carried out. The qualitative study aims to identify specific barriers in the quality management of service networks that prevent the creation of high quality service. That way, starting points are worked out on how to ensure high quality in service networks during servitization. Chapter 3 is devoted to the goal of identifying factors that lead to successfully operating service networks in the context of servitization. For this purpose, interviews with senior executives from companies in these service networks are conducted in a qualitative study (n = 25) in order to identify success factors for service networks during servitization. These levers provide companies in the process of servitization with important insights to increase the success of their service networks. The aim of the fourth chapter is to demonstrate the relationship between the identified success factors and the desired positive results of service networks in the context of servitization. To this end, a theoretical hypothesis model is developed, which is examined in a quantitative study (n = 257). Based on the results, factors can be deduced that have to be increased in order to realize a high-performance and customer-attractive service network in the context of servitization. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. In this chapter, the key results of the work are first summarized by succinctly answering the research questions. Then concrete recommendations are derived for corporate practice. In addition to limitations of this thesis, further research is provided. Overall, the thesis provides essential empirical findings on barriers, success factors and cause and effect relationships in service networks during servitization, from which relevant implications for theory as well as for an effective and successful management of these service networks in the context of servitization can be derived.
Erfolgsfaktoren zur Umsetzung der Transformation vom Produkthersteller zum Serviceanbieter
(2016) Hepp, Michael; Hadwich, Karsten
Throughout the last few decades many manufacturers of products have repositioned themselves strategically by moving from a product manufacturer to become a service provider. In the literature this is referred to “Servitization” or “Service Infusion”. Reasons for this is increasing competitive intensity in product manufacturing, corresponding with an erosion of product margins. Through Service Infusion, the product manufacturer can develop intimate relationships with its customer that results in a mutual dependency making the manufacturer less dependent on economic cycles. In addition, services usually have higher margins compared to products. This can result in a competitive advantage as well as higher entry barriers for the competitors. An increasing number of articles show the relevance of Service Infusion. Overall, however, the multitude of scientific papers have unfortunately not produced a common theoretical foundation or extensive empirical investigation. In addition, the integration of the customer as an external factor is a defined service as well, but is still insufficiently researched within the framework of the service infusion. So the thesis would like to answer the following three research issues: (1) What is a general theoretical framework for the service infusion? (2) What are the critical success factors for the transformation from a product manufacture to the product-oriented and system-solution-oriented business model? The overlapping success factors allows us conclusions for general success factors of the service infusion. (3) What is the role of customer integration in the transformation from the product manufacturer to the service provider and what is the ideal value of customer integration regarding to the specific business models? The thesis is structured in seven chapters: After the introduction, the second chapter describe the theoretical framework of the service infusion, the so-called business model approach of the service infusion. With a theoretical and deductive approach we structure ten development steps in four business models. For the validation we used case studies and a focus group discussion (n = 9) with experts. The third and fourth chapter show the implementation model of the product-oriented and system-solution-oriented business model. The EFQM Excellence model provides the theoretical framework. Through focus group discussions and a two-stage Delphi studies we confirmed for the product-oriented business model 29 (study 2, n = 11, study 3, n = 15) and the system-oriented business model 25, success factors (study 4, n = 11; study 5, n = 28). Chapter 5 shows success factors for the specific business models (product-oriented and system-solution-oriented business model), or general (fundamental) success factors of the service transformation. The sixth chapter describes the role of customer integration as part of the transformation process. The results shows, in relation to the different business models the collaborative role of the customers as an ideas supplier, a developer or a provider with different degrees of activities. These was also confirmed by a focus group discussion (6th study, n = 11). Finally Chapter 7 describes the limitation and conclusion of the thesis.
Führung im Dienstleistungskontext : eine Betrachtung aus Unternehmens-, Mitarbeiter- und Kundenperspektive
(2018) Popp, Marion Claudia Helma; Hadwich, Karsten
In the past few years rapid technological development has fundamentally changed the interaction between companies and customers. Many existing companies used this technological progress as an opportunity to strategically realign their organization and reposition themselves in the market. As part of this development, companies increasingly focused on providing (high quality) services as a strategic opportunity to remain competitive in the future. Yet, in order to successfully provide services, organizations need to anchor and continuously demonstrate a "service orientation". Thereby, leadership represents an essential and vital practice to establish and maintain a service orientation within an organization. However, despite the high relevance of the topic for both research and corporate practice, research gaps in the area of leadership in the service context were identified, which are addressed in this thesis. Specifically, three research gaps – from the company, employee and customer perspective – are discussed. Overall, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the scientific as well as practical knowledge of leadership in a service context by means of a holistic view. The thesis is divided into five chapters. In Chapter 1, the relevance of the topic and a theoretical foundation is presented. Chapter 2 tests the applicability of selected leadership styles for the service transformation process. Therefore, the leadership requirements of the service transformation process are presented, whereupon selected leadership styles are evaluated with regard to the identified requirements of the service transformation process. Chapter 3 covers the conceptualization and operationalization of service-oriented leadership from an employee’s perspective. Performing a scale development process, it is identified that service-oriented leadership manifests in five behavioral characteristics. The developed measurement model is then further validated and empirically verified by additional investigations. Chapter 4 deals with leadership in customer contact from a customer’s perspective. The subject of the chapter is the empirical investigation of the effect of employees’ interaction behavior in different service situations, aiming to identify the employees interaction behavior that promises success for a specific situation. Chapter 5 demonstrates the conclusion of the thesis, whereby the key insights from the company, employee and customer perspective are presented and overarching insights and implications for research and corporate practice are listed. Overall, the work thus provides essential insights into leadership in the service context from a corporate, employee and customer perspective, from which further relevant research needs as well as implications for corporate practice can be derived.
Lokale Serviceorientierung von Tochtergesellschaften internationaler Unternehmen : theoretische Entwicklung und empirische Analyse
(2012) Bothe, Stephanie; Hadwich, Karsten
Although the relevance to align international companies with services is without debate, there is no research on service orientation in an international business context. Due to that serious research lack this study aims to develop an understanding of what service orientation in subsidiaries is and to generate management implications how to implement service orientation in a subsidiary. Based on the grounded theory approach, twenty-two interviews with managers of subsidiaries were conducted. The resulting understanding of service orientation as well as its relations with antecedents and its consequences have been validated in a quantitative study of 223 subsidiaries. The results show that service orientation in a subsidiary leads to service-oriented employee behavior and relationship commitment of its customers, which both influence the economic success of the subsidiary. These causal relations are independent of external factors, e. g. the cultural and physical distances between the subsidiary and its global head office, which do not have any significant moderating effect. This dissertation filled in a serious research gap in marketing science and gives guidance to managers how to implement service orientation in a subsidiary.
Managing Share Economy : positive und negative Auswirkungen bei der Einführung von Access-Based Services
(2019) Lehr, Adrian Marinus; Büttgen, Marion
In the last few years, services that allow consumers to use goods for short time periods have gained considerable relevance (Baumeister et al. 2015; Bert et al. 2016). This phenomenon is known as sharing or share economy (Wallenstein 2016) and follows the principles of borrowing, renting, bartering and sharing, and focuses in particular on collaborative consumption (Botsman and Rogers 2010). This dissertation project is focused on access-based consumption or access-based services (Schaefers et al. 2016). These services are defined as "market-mediated transactions that provide customers with temporally limited access to goods in return for an access fee, while the legal ownership remains with the service provider". A common practical example is car sharing. Starting from the main drivers of this trend towards non-ownership-oriented forms of consumption, this dissertation addresses the positive and negative effects for companies that want to move into this sector. Based on a systematic literature review, the thesis identifies several important research gaps in this emerging field. This dissertation project makes several important contributions to the research to close these gaps. The thesis examines three central research questions. A first research question addresses the impact of the development towards service-oriented business models of the so-called access-based services for manufacturing companies. This work shows in detail which customer-side effects arise from the use of access-based services with regard to the product or brand used. The role that access-based services can play in the adoption and diffusion of new products is also highlighted. Furthermore to these positive effects, this dissertation project also addresses the issue that in many cases the introduction of access-based services does not lead to the intended commercial success. Thus, this research examines the question which features and characteristics an access service must have in order to be accepted by the customer. This also shows that these offers result in a cost-intensive operation. The third question of this dissertation is dedicated to the issue that companies try to establish themselves in this new market through a communicative positioning of less innovative, more classical rental concepts as sharing offers. For this purpose, the concept of sharewashing on the basis of established greenwashing is introduced within this dissertation project. Thus, one of the objectives of the thesis is to examine the effects of such a misleading approach. The results show that such sharewashing leads to a loss of customer acceptance. Thus, this work also contributes to the research stream of marketing ethics. In summary, the present work addresses different, but interdependent questions in the field of access-based services. To answer the questions, several theoretical concepts (information integration theory, attribution theory, adoption theory) and research streams (innovation, trial, consumer skepticism) were referred to, which were also extended within this work. A longitudinal field study, a field study including company data, a qualitative study, a factorial survey design and two experiments were applied. This dissertation thus makes comprehensive contributions by demonstrating how and under what conditions corporate behavior within the access-based services market can lead to positive, but also possible negative effects for companies.
Multiagent resource allocation in service networks
(2014) Karänke, Paul; Kirn, Stefan
The term service network (SN) denotes a network of software services in which complex software applications are provided to customers by aggregating multiple elementary services. These networks are based on the service-oriented computing (SOC) paradigm, which defines the fundamental technical concepts for software services over electronic networks, e.g., Web services and, most recently, Cloud services. For the provision of software services to customers, software service providers (SPs) have to allocate their scarce computational resources (i.e., hardware and software) of a certain quality to customer requests. The SOC paradigm facilitates interoperability over organizational boundaries by representing business relationships on the software system level. Composite software services aggregate multiple software services into software applications. This aggregation is denoted as service composition. The loose coupling of services leads to SNs as dynamic entities with changing interdependencies between services. For composite software services, these dependencies exist across SN tiers; they result from the procurement of services, which are themselves utilized to produce additional services, and constitute a major problem for resource allocation in SNs. If these dependencies are not considered, the fulfillment of agreements may become unaccomplishable (overcommitment). Hence, the consideration of service dependencies is crucial for the allocation of service providers resources to fulfill customer requests in SNs. However, existing resource allocation methods, which could consider these dependencies -- such as combinatorial auctions with a central auctioneer for the whole SN -- are not applicable, since there are no central coordinating entities in SNs. The application of an allocation mechanism that does not consider these dependencies might negatively affect the actual service delivery; results are penalty payments as well as a damage to the reputation of the providers. This research is conducted in accordance to the design science paradigm in information system research. It is a problem-solving paradigm, which targets the construction and evaluation of IT artifacts. The objectives of this research are to develop and evaluate an allocation protocol, which can consider multi-tier service dependencies without the existence of central coordinating entities. Therefore, an interaction protocol engineering (IPE) perspective is applied to solve the problem of multi-tier dependencies in resource allocation. This approach provides a procedure model for designing interaction protocols for multiagent systems, and is closely related to the well-established area of communication protocol engineering. Automated resource allocation in SNs is analyzed in this research by representing the actors as autonomous software agents in the software system. The actors delegate their objectives to their software agents, which conduct the negotiations for service provision on their behalf. Thus, these agents communicate concerning the resource allocation; in this process, the sequence of communication interactions is crucial to the problem addressed. Interaction protocols define a structured exchange of defined messages between agents; they facilitate agent conversations. When multiple agents have to reach agreements by negotiation and bargaining, such as in case with allocating scarce resources, game theory provides means to formalize and analyze the most rational choice of actions for the interacting agents. Based on a formal framework for resource allocation in SNs, this research first performs a game-theoretic problem analysis; it is concerned with the existence, as well as the complexity of computing optimal allocations. In addition, Nash equilibria are analyzed for optimal allocations. Second, a distributed, auction-based allocation protocol, which prevents overcommitments and guarantees socially optimal allocations for single customer requests under certain assumptions, is proposed. Therefore, a game-theoretic model and an operationizable specification of the protocol are presented. Third, it is formally verified that the protocol enables multi-tier resource allocation and avoids overcommitments by proofs for the game-theoretic model and by model checking for the interaction protocol specification; using the model checker Spin, safety properties like the absence of deadlock are as well formally verified as the protocol enabling multi-tier resource allocation. Fourth, the efficacy and the benefits of the proposed protocol are demonstrated by multiagent simulation for concurrent customers. The experimental evaluation provides evidence of the protocols efficiency compared to the socially optimal allocation as a centralized benchmark in different settings, e.g., network topologies and different bidding policies.
Negative affective states in customers’ service experience : investigating antecedents and mitigations
(2019) Haager, Stephanie; Büttgen, Marion
Previous research has provided various insights into the potential benefits and competitive advantages of customer participation (Bendapudi and Leone 2003). For instance, customer participation can lower production costs and improve productivity (Lovelock and Young 1979; Mills and Morris 1986), service quality, customer satisfaction (Bendapudi and Leone 2003; Chan et al. 2010; Dong et al. 2015), and opportunities for promotion (Bettencourt 1997). Hence, many companies create a new customer experience by making the customer a co-creator of value (Ramaswamy and Gouillart 2010). However, observing people trying to print their own luggage tags and checking in at an airport or assembling IKEA furniture reveals emotions that are not always positive. Customers appear to be overtaxed, irritated, unhappy, and distressed. This phenomenon is especially relevant for services that are crucial for customers and that cause them to feel some kind of pressure (e.g., time), that are hard to understand, or are in any way upsetting. For instance, in one of their studies, Berry et al. (2015) found that patients in hospitals experienced such stress due to the service process and newspapers often also report on the problem of customers feeling helpless at banks (Adamu 2015). Attributable to the growing number of tasks that customers have to fulfill, yet, they are not driven by failures in the process but by stressors within the service process. Such stressors could arise from industry-specific knowledge that customers often do not have (e.g., financial expertise), the high relevance of the service to a customer’s life (e.g., medical services), or high time pressure (e.g., the need to catch a flight). However, organizations might not be aware of such stressors, and research about negative emotions, particularly stress due to physical and mental overload and strain in customer participation, is lacking. Service organizations, however, might benefit from such research, as managers must be aware of potential stressors and the possibility that customers could become stressed due to the characteristics of the service itself. Greater knowledge in this area would enable managers to respond to customer stress appropriately, e.g., by altering the service design or process and by training their employees to intervene when necessary. This thesis seeks to fill in this gap within two empirical studies (chapter 2 and 3). As a means of investigating negative customer emotions in services with flawless delivery, customer participation stress (CPS) is introduced as a new construct to service marketing research. The definition of CPS builds on established definitions of stress from general and organizational psychology and links them to the behavioral aspects of customer participation. While CPS is a negative emotion that occurs within the service process, some services are affected by negative emotions that have already emerged before the actual service encounter and/or are the initial reason the customer has come to the service provider. These services, such as medical or funeral services, can be summarized as negative services (Dasu and Rao 1999; Morgan and Rao 2006). It might be a challenge for service organizations to actively engage customers in such services, yet their professional reputations are vital to their ability to remain in business; methods of how such service providers may increase customer engagement are outlined in chapter 3. While previous studies have presented valuable insights into positive emotions in the customer experience, negative emotions due to service failure, and the service process of negative services, research to date has not covered knowledge about negative customer emotions in flawless customer experiences with a focus on jointly created value of employee and customer and a comprehensive definition and boundaries of negative services. This thesis seeks to fill in these gaps with three distinct but related studies, two quantitative and one conceptual; answering to the following research questions: 1. Which demands and resources of the participation process cause CPS and how does CPS influence customer participation behavior? 2. What are the consequences of CPS and how do they influence customers’ evaluation of a service? 3. How can the characteristics of the participation process and customers’ predispositions mitigate unwanted psycho-physical and behavioral outcomes of CPS? 4. What characterizes negative services and how can providers of such service be more successful by engaging customers?
Service offshoring: a challenge for employment? : evidence from Germany
(2006) Schöller, Deborah
Besides material offshoring, economists have started to analyze the impact of service offshoring on domestic employment. Services are of particular interest since their significance has grown not only in terms of quantity, but also of qualitative understanding. One decade ago, most services were considered non-tradable, but the appearance of new information and communication technologies has contributed to overcoming geographical distance. The introduction of the paper aims at giving an appropriate definition of service offshoring also taking into account the different motives behind offshoring. The theoretical part gives a brief literature overview of the predicted effects of offshoring on domestic employment. The empirical part first compares import data of computing and information as well as other business services and states that service offshoring is more relevant in Germany than in most other countries. Secondly, German service offshoring intensities are calculated on a sectoral basis using input-output data. This measurement represents the proportion of imported service inputs used in home production. Germany?s average service offshoring intensity more than doubled from 1991 to 2002. Besides this, indications for a possible negative correlation between German service offshoring and manufacturing employment are given. Thirdly, the impact of service offshoring on German domestic manufacturing employment is estimated at a sectoral level. The author refers to the labor demand specification of Hamermesh using sectoral wages, output and other input prices as exogenous variables. The estimation results indicate that service offshoring was negatively related to manufacturing employment in Germany between 1991 and 2000.
Varieties of service economies in Europe
(2012) DiMeglio, Gisela; Pyka, Andreas; Rubalcaba, Luis
This paper identifies the varieties and dynamics of service economies in Europe, analysing the role of knowledge base and innovative efforts and their evolution across time and countries. Results based on aggregated macroeconomic data indicate that there is no convergence trend towards a single service economy model. Moreover, different service economies models can be associated with institutional and welfare state diversity. When analysing a comprehensive set of indicators at a disaggregated level a more detailed pattern of service economies emerges. The structural composition of countries plays a prominent role, while heterogeneity is driven by uneven knowledge bases and innovative efforts.