A Typology of Service Firms in International Markets: An Empirical Investigation

1995 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Patterson ◽  
Muris Cicic
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
International Service ◽  
Classification Framework ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Operational Activities ◽  
First Time

Globalization of markets and competition has created unlimited opportunities for marketers of services internationally. Service providers, with a wide range of products ranging from professional services to services embedded with tangible goods, have responded to these opportunities. In view of the limited empirical knowledge of service marketers internationally, this article reports on a study of actual experience in serving international customers. In particular, it proposes a classification framework of services as a means of differentiating various marketing practices. The empirical results confirm, for the first time, the usefulness of this classification framework in generating new insights into both strategic and operational activities of international service marketers. Implications for future research and management are also offered.

Migrants in Medieval England, c. 500-c. 1500

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Different Types ◽  
First Time

This book is a ground-breaking study of the phenomenon of migration in and to England over the medieval millennium, between c. AD 500 and c. AD 1500. It reaches across traditional scholarly divides, both disciplinary and chronological, to investigate, for the first time, the different types of data and scholarly methods that reveal evidence of migration and mobility within the medieval kingdom of England. England offers the opportunity for studying migration and migrants over the longue durée, because it has been a recognisable political unit for over a millennium and because a wealth of source material has survived from these centuries. The data vary unevenly in quality and quantity across this period, but become considerably more powerful through multi-disciplinary approaches to data collection and interpretation. Fifteen subject specialists synthesise and extend recent research in a wide range of disciplines, including archaeology, art history, genetics, historical linguistics, history, literature and onomastics. They evaluate the capacity of different genres of evidence for addressing questions around migration and its effects on the identities of groups and individuals within medieval England, as well as methodological parameters and future research potential. The book therefore marks an important contribution to medieval studies, and to modern debates on migration and the free movement of people, arguing that migration in the modern world, and its reverberations, cannot be completely understood without taking a broad historical perspective on the topic.

Women in Global Professional Services Firms

2019 ◽  
pp. 583-602
Author(s):  
Daria Panina
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Organizational Principle ◽  
Professional Services Firms ◽  
Female Professionals

Professional services firms (PSFs) have traditionally relied on professional partnerships as an organizational principle. This system was developed more than a century ago, when women did not actively pursue careers in professional services. Professional partnerships are very resistant to change and have managed to preserve their main features for decades. Their formal and informal practices still have exclusionary effects on female professionals. However, professional services firms are increasingly facing a deregulated, competitive, and very dynamic environment and are pressured by the labor market and client firms to rethink their stance on gender diversity. This chapter presents an overview of the management practices in professional services firms and outlines the major changes in their environment. Recent trends in changing management practices in the professional services sector and their impact on female professionals are analyzed. Implications for theory building and future research on management practices in professional service firms are discussed.

Women in Global Professional Services Firms

2018 ◽  
pp. 573-592
Author(s):  
Daria Panina
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Organizational Principle ◽  
Professional Services Firms ◽  
Female Professionals

Professional services firms (PSFs) have traditionally relied on professional partnerships as an organizational principle. This system was developed more than a century ago, when women did not actively pursue careers in professional services. Professional partnerships are very resistant to change and have managed to preserve their main features for decades. Their formal and informal practices still have exclusionary effects on female professionals. However, professional services firms are increasingly facing a deregulated, competitive, and very dynamic environment and are pressured by the labor market and client firms to rethink their stance on gender diversity. This chapter presents an overview of the management practices in professional services firms and outlines the major changes in their environment. Recent trends in changing management practices in the professional services sector and their impact on female professionals are analyzed. Implications for theory building and future research on management practices in professional service firms are discussed.

Trends and directions in service triads research

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sourav Sengupta ◽  
Tarikere T. Niranjan ◽  
Mohan Krishnamoorthy
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Citation Network ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cross Culture ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Classification Framework ◽  
Citation Network Analysis ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The Stability

Purpose Service triads refer to tripartite relationships in which client firms serve their customers through third-party service providers. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the nascent but fast-growing literature on service triads to explore the broad themes along which the literature has grown, and to identify the gaps and future research opportunities. Design/methodology/approach Systematic literature review (SLR) approach is adopted to retrieve, select, and synthesise relevant service triads studies. A citation network analysis on the corpus resulting from the SLR identified the core articles of the literature. Findings The SLR uncovered ten themes of research along the articles’ objectives, theories and methodologies. The classification framework of service triads, the roles of customers and providers, the size of the provider, triadic risks, controlling service delivery and service quality, regulated triads, the stability of the triads, and cross-country, cross-culture triads emerged as significant under-researched areas. Originality/value The paper illustrates research trends and provides insights into the neglected and under-researched problems of service triads. This is the first SLR on service triads.

Bringing a Client Focus to International Marketing: A Change Management Case Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Paul Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Change Management ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractConsumers the world over are becoming more homogeneous thanks to the unifying forces of travel, media, technology, information transfer and the like. Furthermore, today customers have higher expectations than ever before regarding the quality of service they should receive from a wide range of service organisations (professional as well as non-professional). As customers are increasingly exposed to world best practice in a wide range of service industries, expectations spiral upwards. Slow, discourteous, unresponsive and unprofessional service will no longer be tolerated - but especially when the service is highly customised, complex, costly and high involvement, professional service.Few, if any, studies have examined service quality issues for professional services in an international context. Hence, this case study documents the problems experienced by the Australian Trade Commission's (Austrade) Bangkok, Thailand Post in providing a level of service consistent with clients' (and senior managements') expectations, the steps taken to overcome these long standing service quality shortcomings, as well as the key lessons to be learnt from the process. Today Austrade provides a professional consulting service and thus possesses similar characteristics to many professional service firms (project management, engineering consulting, general management consulting, etc.) and thus the lessons from this successful change management program may be generalisable to other professional services. Furthermore, the lessons should prove invaluable for Australian firms operating in South-East Asia staffed by expatriates and local nationals.

To give or not to give professional services to non-paying clients

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy ◽  
Paul Patterson ◽  
Michael K. Brady ◽  
Lilliemay Cheung ◽  
Doan Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pro Bono

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explicate professionals’ giving backstory, identifying what motivates and hinders professionals’ undertaking of pro bono service activities. Examples are provided of different pro bono giving styles, as professionals struggle to resolve inter-institutional tensions, thus addressing this little understood yet vital form of giving, and meeting an important research priority. Design/methodology/approach – Using a discovery-oriented grounded theory approach, this paper draws on narratives from interviews with 31 professionals to explicate, from the professional’s point of view, the backstory of pro bono service. Findings – The authors provide an integrative institutional logics-based framework for understanding the backstory to professionals’ giving. Three distinct pro bono giving styles are revealed: first, an individual logic (self-centric), an “I” logic; second, an organizational logic (organization-centric), “We” logic; and third, a societal “All” logic (where the greater good to society in general is the dominant logic). The paper concludes with recommendations for how professionals and professional service firms (PSFs) can better align their pro bono giving styles with non-paying not-for-profit clients for multi-party benefit. Originality/value – The originality of this research lies in addressing an important yet little understood form of giving through delving into the backstory to pro bono service. First, the paper theorizes the characteristics of a formerly unarticulated form of giving, distinguishing it from individual-to-individual close consumer gifting, individual to organizational charitable giving, sponsorship, and volunteering. Second, the different inter-institutional logics of pro bono giving are identified, with three main pro bono giving styles uncovered. Third, the authors link professional services theory, theoretical perspectives from giving, and institutional logics theory to develop an integrated framework to explain service professionals’ pro bono activities. Furthermore, a compelling agenda for future research is provided to guide future work.

Women in Global Professional Services Firms

2016 ◽  
pp. 23-41
Author(s):  
Daria Panina
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Organizational Principle ◽  
Professional Services Firms ◽  
Female Professionals

Professional services firms (PSFs) have traditionally relied on professional partnerships as an organizational principle. This system was developed more than a century ago, when women did not actively pursue careers in professional services. Professional partnerships are very resistant to change and have managed to preserve their main features for decades. Their formal and informal practices still have exclusionary effects on female professionals. However, professional services firms are increasingly facing a deregulated, competitive, and very dynamic environment and are pressured by the labor market and client firms to rethink their stance on gender diversity. This chapter presents an overview of the management practices in professional services firms and outlines the major changes in their environment. Recent trends in changing management practices in the professional services sector and their impact on female professionals are analyzed. Implications for theory building and future research on management practices in professional service firms are discussed.

scholarly journals Exploring customers’ zone of tolerance for B2B professional service quality

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 380-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus Ho ◽  
Piyush Sharma ◽  
Peter Hosie
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Expectations ◽  
Zone Of Tolerance ◽  
Business To Business

Purpose – This paper aims to extend the current research on zone of tolerance (ZOT) and its antecedents, to the context of business-to-business (B2B) professional services from both client and service firms’ perspectives, with a modified ZOT framework including five client and service firms attributes as antecedents of desired (DSL) and adequate (ASL) service levels. Prior research on zone of tolerance (ZOT) and its antecedents mostly focuses on business-to-consumer services and customers’ perspective. The authors address these gaps with a modified ZOT framework with five attributes of client and service firms as antecedents of customer expectations, namely, desired service level (DSL) and adequate service level (ASL), for business-to-business (B2B) professional services. Design/methodology/approach – A combination of qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (online survey) research methods with managers of professional audit firms and their clients, using a reduced AUDITQUAL instrument with 39 items and seven dimensions. Findings – Professional firm size and fee premium have a positive effect on DSL; service tenure positively influences both DSL and ASL; client firm size has a negative effect on DSL; both client and service firm sizes positively moderate each other’s influence on the DSL; and DSL positively influences ASL. Research limitations/implications – The authors study a single B2B professional service (audit) in a single city (Hong Kong) from a single perspective (customers) that may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research should validate the findings for other B2B professional services in diverse locations and also include service providers’ expectations and perceptions. Practical implications – Managers in professional service firms should understand the factors influencing different levels of expectations for their customers and develop suitable strategies (e.g. customer education and employee training) to manage these expectations more effectively. Originality/value – The authors extend current research on customer expectations and ZOT by identifying five unique attributes of professional service and client firms and testing their roles as antecedents of adequate and DSLs using AUDITQUAL instrument.

Bringing a Client Focus to International Marketing: A Change Management Case Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Paul Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Change Management ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractConsumers the world over are becoming more homogeneous thanks to the unifying forces of travel, media, technology, information transfer and the like. Furthermore, today customers have higher expectations than ever before regarding the quality of service they should receive from a wide range of service organisations (professional as well as non-professional). As customers are increasingly exposed to world best practice in a wide range of service industries, expectations spiral upwards. Slow, discourteous, unresponsive and unprofessional service will no longer be tolerated - but especially when the service is highly customised, complex, costly and high involvement, professional service.Few, if any, studies have examined service quality issues for professional services in an international context. Hence, this case study documents the problems experienced by the Australian Trade Commission's (Austrade) Bangkok, Thailand Post in providing a level of service consistent with clients' (and senior managements') expectations, the steps taken to overcome these long standing service quality shortcomings, as well as the key lessons to be learnt from the process. Today Austrade provides a professional consulting service and thus possesses similar characteristics to many professional service firms (project management, engineering consulting, general management consulting, etc.) and thus the lessons from this successful change management program may be generalisable to other professional services. Furthermore, the lessons should prove invaluable for Australian firms operating in South-East Asia staffed by expatriates and local nationals.

scholarly journals Observable Cyber Risk on Cournot Oligopoly Data Storage Markets

Risks ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Ulrik Franke ◽  
Amanda Hoxell
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Marginal Cost ◽  
Production Cost ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cournot Oligopoly ◽  
Marginal Production ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cyber Risk

With the emergence of global digital service providers, concerns about digital oligopolies have increased, with a wide range of potentially harmful effects being discussed. One of these relates to cyber security, where it has been argued that market concentration can increase cyber risk. Such a state of affairs could have dire consequences for insurers and reinsurers, who underwrite cyber risk and are already very concerned about accumulation risk. Against this background, the paper develops some theory about how convex cyber risk affects Cournot oligopoly markets of data storage. It is demonstrated that with constant or increasing marginal production cost, the addition of increasing marginal cyber risk cost decreases the differences between the optimal numbers of records stored by the oligopolists, in effect offsetting the advantage of lower marginal production cost. Furthermore, based on the empirical literature on data breach cost, two possibilities are found: (i) that such cyber risk exhibits decreasing marginal cost in the number of records stored and (ii) the opposite possibility that such cyber risk instead exhibits increasing marginal cost in the number of records stored. The article is concluded with a discussion of the findings and some directions for future research.

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