Authors: Chris Raddats; Jamie Burton; Judy Zolkiewski; Vicky Story
The manufacturing base in many Western economies has been shrinking for a number of decades as outsourcing decisions result in manufacturing being undertaken in emerging economies (Kent, 2009). Manufacturers that remain are continuously seeking new ways in which to maintain their competitive edge. Recently, attention has focussed on servitization/service infusion as a mechanism for creating competitive advantage and maintaining the manufacturing sector(Brax, 2005: Baines, Lightfoot and Kay, 2009: Kowalkowski,KindströmAlejandro, Brege andBiggemann, forthcoming).Central to the IMP philosophy is a belief that relationships are core to business activity, with networks defined by the relationships that they comprise driving all developed economies and the interactions they comprise defining the outcome of the relationship (Håkansson, 1982: Ford, 1997: Håkansson, Ford, Gadde, Snehota, &Waluszewski, 2009). Indeed Araujo, Gadde & Dubois, (2003) believe that relationships facilitate the development of new capabilities. Services were first noted to be of importance in business-to-business relationships by Cunningham & Roberts (1974) but perhaps because there are few pure products or services (Shostack, 1977: Zeithaml, 2010)they do not always warrant explicit attention in the IMP literature. Recent discussions around service dominant logic (e.g. Ford, 2011: Vargo&Lusch, 2011) provoke attention towards the explicit role of services and service in a manufacturing (and business-to-business context)Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore how business-to-business relationships and networks services impact on decisions by manufacturers to develop their service offerings.This paper outlines research we have been conducting in this area and provides evidence to illustrate the complexity of service provision and how it relates to business relationships from the manufacturing sector. We do not see a simple set of dichotomous outcomes in this area, rather a complex set of offerings driven by the nature of the on-going relationships between provider and user.
Journal: n.a. (n.a. – n.a.)
Web Address: n.a.
Publish Year: 2012
Conference: Rome, Italy (2012)