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Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies
- Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- This paper examines the relationship among the complexity of customer needs, customer centricity, innovativeness, service differentiation, and business performance within the context of companies that have made a service transition from pure goods providers to service providers. A survey of 332 manufacturing companies provides the basis for the empirical investigation. One key finding is that a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm's strategies for customer centricity being less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs, which can increase a firm's payoff for customer centricity. In contrast, the payoff from innovativeness appears to be higher if the firm focuses its resources on either product or service innovation; that is, a dual focus does not work well. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers.
Details
- Database :
- OAIster
- Notes :
- Gebauer, Heiko, Gustafsson, Anders, Witell, Lars
- Publication Type :
- Electronic Resource
- Accession number :
- edsoai.on1234437871
- Document Type :
- Electronic Resource
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016.j.jbusres.2011.01.015