It Is All About Services - Fundamentals, Drivers, and Business Models
It Is All About Services - Fundamentals, Drivers, and Business Models
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ABSTRACT
Service economy, service science, service-dominant logic and servitization are apparently
related terms. All of them emerged and are located in different disciplines, which do not ease
things at all. Accordingly, this paper provides on the one side a fundamental theoretical
background on these topics, and on the other side facilitates subsequent research by providing
some reference points.
At the beginning, the topic of service economy and its increasing share on total employment
are elaborated to show its current importance. Consequently, the notion and definition of the
term service is conducted, which is followed by the discussion about goods, their differences
to service and the drivers for the transition to a service-dominant economy. Furthermore, the
concept of business models and its' varying characteristics are reviewed, since they play a
major role in service economy. And, the last section leads finally over to the intrinsic topic
such as research approaches on the Services.
KEYWORDS
Service, Service Science, Service-Dominant Logic, Servitization, Service Economy, Business
Models.
1. EMERGENT SERVICE ECONOMY
Managers as well as researchers observed a distinct growth of services as the major trend
within economic sectors in recent years (Johnstone et al. 2009; Memedovic & Lapadre 2009;
Spohrer & Maglio 2008). This increase among service-related jobs affected both Europe and
the US, which therefore causes a reduction in industry- and agriculture-related jobs
(D’Agostino et al. 2006). The OECD computed a share of 70% accounting for the service sector
of total employments that still continues to grow (Wölfl 2005; OECD 2012). Spohrer &
Maglio (2005) derived a chart that illustrates the transition in economic sectors from
agriculture-dominant to service-dominant during the last 200 years in the US. This evolution
is shown in the Figure 1, where the Y-axis describes the relative amount of employments in
the US separated among the agriculture-, the manufacturing- and the service-sector (Spohrer
& Maglio 2005).
Figure 2 describes the current weighted shares among Europe and the US in 2001 and the
alteration since 1970. Thus, the community and social services sector remains very stable
over the last decades, whereupon wholesale and transportation lost a bit. Obviously the
finance and insurance sector gained the highest growth during the last 30 years (D’Agostino
et al. 2006).
Accordingly scientists and managers engaged on the discussion about preliminary drivers
and reasons to explain this progression. Regarding this we can summarize in general to three
main blocks (Wölfl 2005). By all means scientists found: (1) imbalances in productivity
growth between services and manufacturing aiming at the slower productivity growth of
services relative to manufacturing as one of these blocks (Baumol 1967). Furthermore, there
are some (2) factors related to final demand like the increase of per-capita income levels,
demographic shifts and the continuous trend of urbanization influencing structural change
(D’Agostino et al. 2006, Wölfl 2005). Finally, also (3) the role of intermediate demand aiming
at transport and communications services counts responsible for this development (Wölfl 2005).
Nevertheless, this does not implicate that we do not need manufacturing or agriculture at
all. In the case of the UK the manufacturing sector contributes a turnover of £150 billion each
year, therefore responsible for the half of UK exports, which finally employs three million
people (Benedettini et al. 2011). But, one has to be aware that still the value did not lie solely
in the manufactured product itself (Parry et al. 2011). Nowadays the complexity of some
high-technological products impedes the installation or maintenance on its own (Godlevskaja
et al. 2011, Neely 2007) or requires complementary services supporting its lifecycle, configu-
ration and its disposal (Benedettini et al. 2011). Therefore, the service sector will retain as
“lion share” in economy but always constituting a symbiotic interdependency with the manu-
facturing and agriculture sector (Andreoni & Gomez 2012).
2. NOTION OF SERVICE
The subsequent section provides the fundamental definitions and notions on the topic of
service by discussing its origins as well as diverging viewpoints. This theoretical background
constitutes the basis for the evolution introduced above and enhances understanding of
further reading of this paper. Initially the challenges among the definition of services are
examined and consequently followed on the one hand by the IHIP characteristics (intangi-
bility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability) approach and on the other hand by service
actors and relationship concepts.
Consequently this declaration implies a relationship among several actors, which therefore
reflects on the importance of institutional structure of production. Building on this insight,
Delaunay & Gadrey (1987) and Gadrey (2000) derived a triangular relationship among the
change in status of reality C, which therefore is owned by consumer B and finally affected by
the service provider A. Certainly, there has to be a prior request of consumer B to service
provider A, which sometimes even demands for a collaboration with consumer B and usually
results in a temporary transfer of property rights (Araujo & Spring 2006; Spring & Mason
2007). This relationship is finally illustrated in the following Figure 3.
Dealing with the goal to express the service definition with regard to its actors or recipients
and its nature, one has also to consider the concept of the nature of the service introduced by
Lovelock (1983). Basing on these two dimensions he derived a matrix with four quadrants
that finally contain services aimed at (1) people’s bodies like health care or restaurants (2)
physical items like transportation or repair (3) people’s mind like entertainment and finally
(4) information like banking or insurance. This matrix as shown in Figure 4 provides a
framework for defining service items as well as a classification for them (Lovelock 1983).
Although this section does not provide a comprehensive review of literature concerning the
development of service definition and notion, it nevertheless offered a fundamental theore-
tical background on this topic to enhance further reading. For deeper knowledge on the
former development of the research field of service, please refer to Johnston (1998) and Roth
& Menor (2003). Due to the fact that the definition and notion of service corresponds to the
anti-definition of goods, the subsequent section will deal with its definition, differences, and
drivers.
3.2 Differences
With regard to the declaration “service is a non-tangible opposite of a tangible product”
(Wood 2010, p. 6), it indicates that the definition of services is mainly hooked on the
comparison to goods, which is also reflected in some IHIP characteristics described above.
Accordingly Spohrer et al. (2011) approached the topic of service definition by mainly
comparing it to goods. Therefore, they discussed its differences by exploring three factors
consisting inter alia of a comparison between (1) tangible versus intangible, which appears in
the style of IHIP and derives similar findings (cf: Parry et al. 2011). Additionally, Spohrer et
al. (2011) examined the disparities considering (2) ownership versus access, which somehow
relies on the concept of perishability already mentioned above. This disparity could be
illustrated vividly by the case of music, thus without owning it, one is still provided with
access to it. Therefore, one can say that “a service-producing entity is one that by definition
provides access to resources it owns, but does not transfer ownership” (Spohrer et al. 2011,
p. 331). Finally, there is a difference between goods and service due to the (3) production
versus coproduction/transformation separation. In comparison to producing goods, consuming
a service demands cooperation of the customer and even some little effort. For example, the
case of listening to music requires at least some attention or cognitive resources (Spohrer et
al. 2011).
Consequently, there are differences not only in terms of definition and notion among goods
and service, but also in their management approaches. Thus, the Harvard Business School
introduced in 1972 a separate course dealing with the thought called “Management of Service
Operations” (Spring & Mason 2007). This is affirmed by the diverging ideas: goods manu-
facturer and service provider. Hence manufacturer tries to benefit from economies of scale,
which therefore demands for standardization of production. Service provider in contrast have
to customize their products to meet customer needs entirely to maximize their satisfaction
(Mellet 2008). Accordingly, the manufacturer and service provider are striving for different
goals, which therefore refer to diverging drivers as discussed in the following section.
4. BUSINESS MODELS
Concerning the business of a service company, one is inherently concerned with different
business models to transfer generated value into revenues. The subsequent section provides
the necessary theoretical background to deal with this topic by providing the definition and
notion of business models as well as the underlying research streams and the resulting
characteristics and patterns.
The definitions shown in Table 2 also reveal certain patterns, which can be expressed by
diverging notions among this topic. Hirvonen (2011) consolidated these patterns to finally
three different notions implying revenue logic, technological inputs, and finally the separa-
tion from strategy. (1) The revenue logic embraces all definitions with regard to the main
ambition of generating revenue out of the business (Hirvonen 2011). Therefore, the enterprise
initially delivers value to customers, attract customers to pay for value, and finally transform
this value into revenues (Lindemann 2009). Actually it’s all about value that consequently
cannot be defined by the company but has to be both defined and co-created by the customer
(Vargo & Lusch 2004). The second notion is based on (2) technological inputs representing a
useful framework by Chesborough (2003) to tie technical decision to economic outcomes
(Hirvonen 2011). Finally, it is necessary to be aware of the (3) separation of business model
from strategy, because the business model represents the architectural implementation of a
strategy (Hirvonen 2011). In fact, the business model describes how the specific parts within
a business fit and interact together, while strategy puts more emphasis on competition and
market behavior (Spring & Mason 2007).
Obviously the most elementary matter of each business is its (1) offer, which manifests the
first pillar. Accordingly, this part describes the products and services offered by the business
and consolidates it to the value proposition (Morris et al. 2005; Osterwalder et al. 2005). The
next step is to clarify the (2) customer interface, which describes all elements visible by the
customer. This pillar actually consists of customer segments that are attracted, the channels
used to reach them, and after all the customer relationships (Lindemann 2009). In fact, the
business offer and the corresponding customer interface have to be established upon an
underlying (3) infrastructure management enabling all these things. Consequently, it is neces-
sary to be aware of the necessary key activities, which are carried out with the corresponding
key resources that in the end require appropriate key partners (Osterwalder et al. 2005).
Finally, each business model consists of several (4) financial aspects dealing with the
precedent cost structure to enable the business and the corresponding revenue streams to
sustain the business (Lindemann 2009; Morris et al. 2005; Osterwalder et al. 2005).
In fact, the execution and success of a business model does not relies on the solely
consolidation of its components. The power of a business model actually stems from the
interrelation of its components (see in Lindemann 2009). Finally a business model describes
how to create, deliver and capture value, which arises from a dominant design theme
(Osterwalder et al. 2005; Bauer et al. 2011). The work of Lindemann (2009) exactly focuses
on this topic by elaborating a framework of these dominant design themes, which in the end
introduces four types, displayed in Table 3.
Companies, aiming to operate via (1) cheap and quick business models, focus on efficiency
and strive for being cheap or quick or both. Basic elements of this approach are described by
no frills, agora, aggregation or integration to achieve competitive advantage. Typical examples
are Wal-Mart, eBay, Amazon or Dell. Another possibility is to establish an (2) intangible
barter business model that caters to achieve a maximum market acceptance by providing
products or services for free. Consequently, customers pay with intangible assets like traffic,
publicity, or his consumer behavior, which finally is sold to third parties. One can find such
business models in companies like Google, Facebook, or Skype. Companies also may operate
via (3) customer lock-in business models by establishing psychological or transactional
switching costs. Typical applications are premium bait and hook, servitization of products,
and competitor lock-out. Finally (4) team-up business models describe the case of bundling
activities among product levels, development, production or delivery. In general this approach
results in strategic alliances, joint ventures, or merger and acquisitions (Lindemann 2009).
service science and provides a certain framework that allows for refining existing
theoretical
foundation. First introduced by Vargo & Lush (2004), the SD logic approach assumes that all
firms are delivering services regardless of their product offering. This arises from the aspect
of collaborative co-creation among the involved parties using goods as mechanism for service
provision (Vargo & Lusch 2008). According to this focal point, customers are not after the
property of a good, but after the generated value by using or operating it, which is manifested
in a service (Castaldi et al. 2007). Accordingly, there occur some implications on marketing
activities, which have to be adjusted to the merchandising of services instead of goods (Vargo
& Lusch 2004). The basis of SD logic is built by ten foundational premises (FP) which are
displayed in Table 4.
Consequently one has to consider these premises when applying the SD logic framework
and trying to understand its origin. As discussed before, the SD logic perspective derives
from general service science and can be separated into three episodes starting with (1) the
emergence of services marketing in the late 70s-early 90s. Subsequently, (2) the attention to
services and its new subtopics increased drastically starting in the early 90s-2003. Obviously
the final episode is the most recent one, which started by 2004 and was affected by (3) the
domination of the SD logic perspective (Dohmen et al. 2012).
Another research field pointing in a related direction like SD logic is depicted by outcome-
based contracting, where companies are asked to deliver outcomes instead of activities (Ng
& Ding 2010, Zhang et al. 2009). This relies somehow on the focal point of SD logic where
also the outcome, manifested as service during usage of a good, constitutes the main thinking.
A traditional application is the maintenance, repair and overhauls (MRO) activities and
supply chain management, where also the term performance-based logistics is common in
this relation (Kim et al. 2006). The most prominent case therefore is the business model
introduced by Rolls Royce in the aero-plane industry called “Power-by-the-hour®,” where
the customer does not buy an engine but guaranteed flying hours (Ng et al. 2010). In this
case, value is finally delivered through transformation of material, information, and customer
behavior in terms of co-production (Ng & Ding 2010).
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