BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Strategy-Structure Configurations in the Service Business of Manuf
 acturing Companies - Heiko Gebauer
DTSTART:20090528T113000Z
DTEND:20090528T123000Z
UID:TALK18498@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peter Wild
DESCRIPTION:A new trend seems to be emerging for multinational manufacturi
 ng companies to make a strategic reorientation into becoming service provi
 ders. For some companies such as Kone and IBM\, the revenues from services
  are 50% or more of their total sales. Despite the increasing interest in 
 exploring various aspects of service management in manufacturing companies
 \, existing research has not focused on the interdependencies between diff
 erent service strategies and organizational designs.\n\nThe first part of 
 the presentation explores service strategy and patterns of service strateg
 y changes in manufacturing firms and indicates how each pattern correspond
 s with modifications in organizational design elements. The service strate
 gies explored are customer service strategy after-sales service providers\
 , customer support service providers\, outsourcing partners and developmen
 t partners. This finding draws on a longitudinal study using a survey of 9
 7 manufacturers of capital goods.\n\nThe second part of the presentation c
 oncentrates in more detail how each service strategy is supported by organ
 izational design factors related to the service orientation of corporate c
 ulture\, the service orientation of human resource management and the serv
 ice orientation of organizational structures. The findings support the ide
 a that in order to succeed with a chosen service strategy\, a specific str
 ategy-structure configuration is needed. The fit between service strategie
 s and the configuration of organizational design factors is tested in a sa
 mple of 195 manufacturing companies.\n\nThe third part of the presentation
  examines the relationship among heterogeneity complexity of customer need
 s\, customer centricity\, innovativeness\, service differentiation and bus
 iness performance. A empirical investigation of a survey among 332 Swedish
  manufacturing companies is presented. The key findings of the study is a 
 strong emphasis on service differentiation that makes a manufacturing firm
 ’s strategies for customer centricity less sensitive to increasing heter
 ogeneity complexity of customer needs and increases a firm’s payoff for 
 customer centricity. In contrast\, the payoff from innovativeness seems to
  be higher if the firm focuses their resources on either product or servic
 e innovations. The findings illustrate the complexity interrelation betwee
 n  customer centricity\, innovativeness\, service differentiation when exp
 laining what drives company performance. 
LOCATION:Lecture Room\, Institute for Manufacturing
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR