Abstract
This dissertation has made a theoretical and empirical contribution to the academic work pertaining to service orientations during new product development in manufacturing companies (see call for research: Homburg, Hoyer, and Fassnacht, 2002). We studied service orientations of manufacturing firms at three levels of analysis: organizational, functional, and individual. First, we carried out research at the organizational level. We defined the organizational dimensions and service business strategies that help manufacturing firms profit from service offerings and increase product success. An empirical study in 137 firms in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark demonstrated the importance of service rewards, service technologies, top management commitment and visionary leadership for the implementation of service business strategies. Furthermore, we found that offering delivery, maintenance, and repair services related significantly to higher service profitability but not to product success on the market. Financial and consulting services did not significantly increase the service profitability, but influenced the success of manufacturers' products. Also, cross-functional communication between service employees and the rest of the firm directly increased product success, but did not influence organizational support for service business strategies. Second, we studied service orientation at the functional level between the service and design engineering departments. The aim of this study was to identify the antecedents and evaluate the consequences of the use of service-sourced information (USSI) by design engineers on product and service characteristics. Product design influences both the quantity and the quality of service delivered on manufactured products, so it makes sense for designers to use field service feedback information to design new products. An empirical study of 121 design engineers in the USA demonstrated that creating a healthy working relationship between design and service engineers was crucial because it motivated designers to use the service-sourced information disseminated to them. This information positively influenced product characteristics and service reliability and responsiveness. Second, design engineers valued written information most. Attitudes toward electronic information decreased after an optimum communication frequency of once to three electronic exchanges per week. Third, information about product ergonomics positively influenced designers' perceptions of the information, whereas information on product aesthetics negatively influenced their perceptions. Finally, it appeared that design engineers were not appreciative of receiving performance-related feedback information from service employees. Finally, we tackled service orientation within manufacturing firms at the individual level and its influence on on-going product design decisions (PDD). Product decision-making is critical for manufacturing organizations since many new products fail once in the market (Cooper, 2001). This study aims at helping manufacturing firms increase the probability of product success. First, we identified go/no-go decision criteria taken into consideration when making PDD. The following were identified: product-, service-, market-, and feasibility-related criteria. Second, we demonstrated that functional membership within the organization had a significant influence on the concern/support for go/no-go decision criteria. Lastly, we showed that functional membership and communication network positions – i.e., employee degree centrality – influenced PDD outcomes. We showed two effects of degree centrality: a situational effect that lead to higher PDD, and a cognitive effect, which demonstrated an inverted U-shaped relationship between the absorption of knowledge regarding the current performance of the product in the market and on-going PDD. Ultimately, our findings enabled us to formulate guidelines in order to reduce PDD bias and, therefore, increase the probability of new product success. In our study findings, we paid specific attention to the perceptions and role of service employees.