Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjama klientų dalyvavimo Lietuvos seniūnijų paslaugose valdymo tema. Tiriamą problemą apibūdina klausimas: kokiomis priemonėmis turi būti valdomas klientų dalyvavimas, kad jie taptų viešųjų paslaugų bendrakūrėjais? Teorinėje darbo dalyje pateikiama klientų dalyvavimo paslaugose bei bendrojo paslaugų kūrimo samprata; analizuojami klientų dalyvavimo aktyvumą išreiškiantys lygiai; identifikuojami veiksniai, įtakojantys klientų sprendimą dalyvauti skirtinguose lygiuose; analizuojamas klientų dalyvavimo viešosiose paslaugose valdymas kaip atskirų, bet tarpusavyje susijusių veiklų atlikimas: atranka, mokymas, motyvavimas. Empirinėje darbo dalyje apklausus 600 aktyvių gyventojų dalyvavimo viešosiose paslaugose prasme, identifikuojamas viešųjų paslaugų bendrakūrėjų socio-demografinis portretas; nustatomas bendrojo kūrimo potencialas; identifikuojamos Lietuvos seniūnijose naudojamos klientų atrankos, mokymo ir motyvavimo priemonės; ekspertų interviu metodu nustatytos valdymo priemonės, kurios įgalina klientus tapti viešųjų paslaugų bendrakūrėjais. / Bachelor’s final paper analyses management of participation of customers in the services provided by Lithuanian township. The topic is defined by the question: what means should be used to manage customers’ participation in order they became public service co-creators. Theoretical part of the paper gives concepts of customer participation in the services and co-production; analyses customer participation activity expressing levels; identifies factors influencing customers’ decision to participate in different levels; analyses management of customers’ participation in public services like execution of separate but interlinked activities: selection, training, motivation. In the empirical part 600 respondents active from the point of view of participation in public services were interviewed; public service co-creators’ socio-demographic portrait is identified, co-production potential is established, customer selection, training and motivation means used in Lithuanian township are identified; expert interview method is used to find out the management means enabling the customers to become public service co-creators.

Since its conception, the concept of ‘market orientation’ has been largely regarded as an employee-perceived phenomenon due to its focus on employees as the unit of analysis. The examination of market orientation from customer perspective (‘perceived market orientation’) remains an under-researched topic, particularly within the non-profit sector. The present study seeks to address this research gap through an investigation of the role of ‘perceived market orientation’ in affecting ‘customer participation’ with churches as the research context. The use of churches as a research context has become increasingly common in studies of non-profit and services organisations. Although the implementation of marketing techniques in the church context has been extensive, there has been little examination of the effectiveness of these methods in encouraging church participation. Consequently, previous studies in this area have failed to contribute to a theoretical understanding of how marketing can be used to motivate participation. It is thus apparent that there is a need for more research in this area to examine the potential role of concepts such as ‘perceived market orientation’ and ‘brand image’ in affecting church participation. This research incorporated two stages of research design in the form of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative phase involved in-depth interviews with Church Goers (CGs) and Non Church Goers (NCGs). Insights gained from the interviews helped the present author to incorporate relevant constructs as predictors of church participation in the conceptual framework. The quantitative phase involved the distribution of self-administered questionnaires using convenience sampling technique. CG respondents were approached through Assemblies of God (AOG) church leaders in Melbourne metropolitan and suburban areas whereas NCG respondents were recruited through newspaper advertisement. A total of 564 usable questionnaires were obtained representing 42% of the total number of respondents approached in both groups. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to establish construct reliability and validity as well as measurement invariance. Subsequently, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was employed to analyse the hypothesised relationships between key constructs in the conceptual framework. The results of the study indicate that ‘perceived market orientation’ plays an important role in affecting the church participation of both CG and NCG respondents. An examination of corollary hypotheses reveals that ‘interfunctional coordination’ performs the strongest effect on church participation. Further, ‘customer orientation’ was only found to be significantly associated with church participation in CG group whereas ‘competitor orientation’ was not found to be positively associated with church participation in either group of respondents. The ‘brand image’ construct in the present study was developed to examine the church’s ability in creating a unique brand identity (uniqueness), monitoring brand values (reputation), and managing brand communications (orchestration) from the perspectives of existing (CG) and prospective (NCG) members. The analysis found that ‘brand image’ is a unidimensional construct which is positively associated with ‘perceived market orientation’, ‘perceived benefits’, and ‘church participation’ in both sample groups. The study also examines the significance of ‘perceived benefits’ in affecting church participation. The construct was found to be significantly associated with church participation in both sample groups. Among the three dimensions of ‘perceived benefits’, the construct of ‘social benefits’ was found to perform the strongest effect on church participation in both sample groups. The present study offers significant practical implications for non-profit managers in general and church leaders in particular. Due to the significance of market orientation and brand image in encouraging customer participation, it is recommended that non-profit managers and church leaders embrace market orientation and brand orientation to reach out their target segments more effectively.

Business management Paradigm is Changing. We used to have big, best, and fast and now it seems that we are having one more paradigm of “Open”. Chesbrough (2003) argued for cooperating between competitors or allies in his article “The era of open innovation”. (ChesbroughH.W, 2003) This research is about open innovation with customer participation. Many organizations built platform to motivate customers to participate the product development process. Hence, we selected three different types of platforms which are full-open, semi-open and closed platform for case study. To compare different perspective from organizations and customers, we will use both of case study of the organizations who opened competencies to the customers and survey of the customers who are creating derivative products. From that case-study and survey result, we aim to figure out what to open and what to close for the organizations that are implementing open innovation strategy. We will suggest a competency pyramid model that helps organizations to divide their competencies into two different sectors: open competency and closed competency. And finally, we will find out what factors are important to make a platform successful.

This thesis researches the value creation process in Internet based subscription services in accordance with service dominant logic. The aim of the paper is to identify the characteristics of these services and to envisage the future of Internet based subscription services. The authors have utilized a qualitative method in their research which consists of personal interviews as well as a focus group. The main theoretical subjects that are discussed are value creation, customer participation and service dominant logic. The paper analyses the empirical findings by matching them with the theoretical framework. The paper concludes with a discussion and possible implications of this analysis. / Examensarbete, Företagsekonomi III, 2FE60E, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet VT2012. Författare: Carl Mårtensson, Mikael Omberg & Gabriella Sandberg Handledare: Leif Rytting Examinator: Richard Owuso Titel: Internetbaserade abonnemangstjänster – Tillgänglighet, delaktighet och kontroll Bakgrund: Den nya tekniken, Internet och kundernas allt mer ökade önskan och krav på kundanpassning möjliggör för nya tjänsteerbjudanden att utvecklas. Företagen försöker hela tiden att vara innovativa i sättet de utvecklar sina tjänsteerbjudanden för att på så sätt vara konkurrenskraftiga. Samtidigt lägger de också över allt mer ansvar på kunden. Den nya utvecklingen har lett till att kundernas beteende förändrats och att de gått från att vilja äga, exempelvis sin egen musik, till att vilja abonnera. Vi ser i och med detta en ökning av tjänster där kunderna abonnerar för att få tillgång till hela utbudet eller delar av det, till skillnad från att köpa styckevis. Det som intresserat oss i uppsatsen är just sådana tjänster som kunden kan abonnera på över Internet. Forskningsfråga: Vad karaktäriserar värdeskapande inom Internetbaserade abonnemangstjänster och vilken utveckling kan vi förvänta oss av dessa tjänster? Syfte: Vårt syfte med denna uppsats är att skapa förståelse för servicelogik och kundmedverkan inom Internetbaserade abonnemangstjänster samt analysera styrkor och svagheter för dess framtid. Metod: Vi har arbetat med en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Primära källor består av fem personliga intervjuer med personer som har expertis inom IT, samt även en fokusgrupp bestående av sex studenter. Uppsatsen kännetecknas av en abduktiv natur, då ett växelspel mellan induktion och deduktion har genomsyrat hela arbetsprocessen. Resultat och slutsatser: Uppsatsen uppfyller sitt syfte och besvarar forskningsfrågan genom att kartlägga de värdeskapande processer som förekommer vid Internetbaserade abonnemangstjänster. Rapporten identifierar att konsumenter finner värde i den utökade kontroll som dessa tjänster kan erbjuda. Internetbaserade abonnemangstjänster har en högre tillgänglighet och konsumenter tillika företag vinner på att veta vad de får och ger på en fast periodbasis. Det servicelogiska perspektivet på uppsatsen fastställer även att kommunikation, anpassningsmöjligheter och kundmedverkan är centrala begrepp i de värdeskapande processerna för dessa tjänster. De Internetbaserade abonnemangstjänsterna produceras och konsumeras även i ett virtuellt servicelandskap, vilkets påverkan och särdrag behandlas. I rapporten efterfrågas fortsatt forskning för abonnemangstjänsters kundnytta.

Recent tourism marketing development has highlighted the importance of customer participation. Owing to experience-seeking and use of internet, customers start to behave themselves as value co-creators, which offers greater opportunities for service providers and benefit customers themselves as well. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors that contribute to customer participation and examine how customer participation effects relationship marketing in the tourism sector. The author proposes a model, in which communication, customer expertise, affective commitment and interactional justice are assumed to increase the extent to which customers participate in the service delivery. Furthermore, customer participation may increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. A survey was conducted based on travel agency service. In total 152 people who had experience working with travel agency participated in the survey. The testing results showed that the model is fully supported. Firstly, all antecedents, including communication, customer expertise, affective commitment and interactional justice, relate positively to customer participation. Secondly, customer participation enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction has a positive effect on customer loyalty. Thus, the findings provide managers in the tourism with valuable insights that firms can increase their competitive advantage through enhancing customer participation.

abstract: Customers today, are active participants in service experiences. They are more informed about product choices, their preferences and tend to actively influence customer and firm related outcomes. However, differences across customers become a significant challenge for firms trying to ensure that all customers have a `delightful' consumption experience. This dissertation studies customers as active participants in service experiences and considers three dimensions of customer participation -- in-role performance; extra-role performance-citizenship and elective behavior; and information sharing -- as its focal dependent variables. This study is grounded in services marketing, customer co-production and motivation literatures. The theoretical model proposes that customer behaviors are goal-directed and different consumers will have different reactions to the service quality because they have different assessments of progress towards their goals and (consequently) different levels of participation during the service experience. Customer role clarity and participation behavior will also influence the service experience and firm outcomes. A multi-step process was adopted to test the conceptual model, beginning with qualitative and quantitative pretests; followed by 2 studies (one cross-sectional and other longitudinal in nature). Results prove that customer participation behaviors are influenced by service quality directly and through the mediated path of progress towards goals. Assessment of progress towards goals directly influences customer participation behaviors cross-sectionally. Service quality from one service interaction influences customer in-role performance and information sharing in subsequent service interactions. Information sharing influences service quality in subsequent service interactions. Role-clarity influences in-role and extra-role performance cross-sectionally and influences these behaviors longitudinally only in the early stages of the customer-firm relationship. Due to multi-collinearity, the moderating effect of customer goals on assessment of progress towards goals could not be tested. The study findings contribute to the understanding of customer participation behaviors in service interactions for both academics and managers. It contributes to the literature by examining consumption during the service interaction; considering customers as active participants; explaining differences in customer participation; integrating a forward-looking component (assessment of progress towards goals) and a retrospective component (perceptions of service quality) to explain customer participation behaviors over time; defining and building measures for customer participation behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

Many utilities implement the financial incentive plans in promoting their Demand-Side Management (DSM) programs. The plans are intended to reduce the customer investment cost for a high efficiency equipment option, so that to make the investment more attractive. Despite its potential to increase customer participation, the financial incentives could cause a considerable increase in program cost to the utility. An analysis of financial incentive impact on the utility DSM program is conducted in this thesis. The analysis uses the combination of the customer participation modeling and the cost-benefit analysis of a DSM program. A modeling of customer participation by a discrete choice model is presented. The model uses the logistic probability functions. The benefit and cost of DSM programs are explored to develop the analysis methodology. Two typical energy conservation options of DSM programs are taken for case studies to demonstrate the analysis. The analysis is also conducted to see the effect of financial incentives on the performance of DSM programs in a fluctuating marginal energy cost. The result of this research shows that the financial incentive could induce the customer participation, thus provide an increase of benefit and costs. However, this research also reveals that, in certain circumstances, the financial incentive may result in a decrease of net benefit due to significant increase of cost. These imply that utilities must carefully evaluate the financial incentive plan in their DSM programs, before the programs are implemented. / Master of Science

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Value underlies the notion of marketing, yet it has not received as much attention in marketing literature as it demands. The importance of value co-creation and co-production has confirmed the importance of the active role customers play in value creation. Customers use functional and emotional benefits to guide their interactions with suppliers, which stem from value perceptions. To attract customers to engage in co-production, suppliers offer certain benefits via their value propositions, requiring suppliers to have a thorough understanding of these benefits to incorporate them into their co-production interactions. This study sets out to develop a scale to measure the benefits customers seek from their co-production interactions with suppliers in the travel planning context, because of the inherent nature of interaction, customisation and active customer participation in the ‘production’ of a trip. To develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure the benefits of co-production, Churchill’s (1979) scale development paradigm was followed in the present research design. Exploratory research in the form of a literature review, insight-stimulating examples, and in-depth interviews with tourism suppliers and travel customers were undertaken to specify the domain, define the construct, identify the dimensions, and generate a pool of 323 items, which was refined in two purification phases. Initially 10 benefit dimensions were proposed: customisation, convenience, confidence, expertise, enjoyment, exploration, financial, support, social and symbolic benefits. The pool of 323 items was subjected to expert judging, resulting in a 64-item scale measuring the 10 benefit dimensions. The questionnaire was formatted into an online survey to collect a convenience sample of 269 responses. The results of an exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach alpha estimates reduced this conceptualisation to 32 items measuring six dimensions: convenience, customisation, expertise, psychological, financial, and support benefits. The revised scale was used in a second purification phase to collect a judgement sample of 565 responses. A confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach alpha estimates were used to reduce the scale to 19 items, measuring three benefit dimensions: functional, financial, and psychological benefits. The final scale exhibited an acceptable model fit, and showed strong evidence of reliability and validity, therefore achieving the objective of the study. The study concludes with a reliable and valid instrument for academics and practitioners to measure the benefits of co-production in the tourism industry. The scale provides academics with empirical insight into the gap between conditions prior to customer participation and active customer participation in co-production. The scale enables travel agents to identify deficiencies in their co-production processes, and to evaluate the extent to which customer benefits are met. Once travel agents are aware of these benefits they can be integrated into their values propositions and co-production interactions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Waarde is onderliggend tot die idee van bemarking, maar dit geniet nie die aandag in bemarkingsliteratuur wat dit verdien nie. Die belangrikheid van waarde mede-skepping en mede-produksie het die gewig van die aktiewe rol wat kliënte speel in waarde-skepping bevestig. Kliënte word gelei deur funksionele en emosionele voordele gedurende hulle interaksies met verskaffers. Hierdie voordele spruit uit waarde persepsies. Om kliënte aan te moedig om aan mede-produksie deel te neem, bied verskaffers sekere voordele in hul waarde aanbiedings. Dit vereis dat verskaffers 'n goeie begrip moet hê van hierdie voordele sodat dit geïnkorporeer kan word in hulle mede-produksie. Hierdie studie se doel is om ‘n skaal te onwikkel wat die voordele wat kliënte rakende hulle mede-produksie interaksies soek met verskaffers sal meet. Die skaal is ontwikkel binne die konteks van reis beplanning in die toerismebedryf. Dit is as gevolg van die inherente aard van interaksie, aanpassing en aktiewe kliënt deelname in die ‘produksie’ van sulke beplanning. Om ‘n betroubare en geldige skaal te ontwikkel wat die voordele van mede-produksie meet, is die skaal ontwikkeling paradigma van Churchill (1979) gevolg in die huidige navorsingsuitleg. Verkennende navorsing in die vorm van 'n literatuurstudie, insig-stimulerende voorbeelde en in-diepte onderhoude met toerisme verskaffers en reiskliënte is onderneem om die domein te spesifiseer, die konstruk te definieer, die dimensies te identifiseer en 'n poel van 323 items te genereer wat in twee suiweringsfases verfyn is. Aanvanklik is 10 voordeel dimensies voorgestel: customisation, convenience, confidence, expertise, enjoyment, exploration, financial, support, social en symbolic. Die poel van 323 items is aan ’n paneel van kundiges voorgeleê en 'n 64-item skaal het hieruit voortgevloei. 'n Aanlyn-opname is gebruik en 'n gerieflikheidsteekproef het tot 269 response gelei. Die resultate van 'n exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis en Cronbach alpha analises het die 'n 64-item skaal konseptualisering tot 32 items verminder wat ses voordele dimensies meet: convenience, customisation, expertise, psychological, financial, en support. Die hersiene skaal is gebruik in 'n tweede suiweringsfase en die steekproef het 565 response gehad. Die resultate van ‘n confirmtory factor analysis en Cronbach alpha metings het die skaal verder verminder tot 19 items, meet drie voordele dimensies: functional, financial en psychological. Die finale skaal stel uit 'n aanvaarbare modelpassing, en het sterk bewyse van betroubaarheid en geldigheid en derhalwe is die doel van die studie bereik. Die studie sluit af met 'n betroubare en geldige instrument wat dit moontlik maak vir akademici en praktisyns om die voordele van mede-produksie in die toerisme-industrie te meet. Die skaal bied akademici met empiriese insig tot die gaping tussen die toestande voor deelname en na aktiewe kliënte deelname in mede-produksie. Die skaal sal reisagente in staat stel om leemtes in hul mede-produksie prosesse te identifiseer, en die voordele wat die kliënt uit die mede-produksie uit pit te meet. Sodra reisagente bewus is van hierdie voordele kan hulle die voordele ïntegreer in hulle waarde aanbiedings en mede-produksie interaksies.

Problemformulering: I och med kundens roll i värdeskapandet måste företag få kunskap i hur deras kunder kan involveras, och även utveckla formella processer för det. I och med tjänsternas allt större roll i världen krävs en ständig utveckling av teorier kring området. Forskning kring tjänsteutveckling har vidare mestadels bara har bidragit till det teoretiska området och inte gett något större bidrag till de som faktiskt arbetar med tjänsteutveckling i praktiken i dagsläget. De här aspekterna är några av de faktorer som ledde fram till studiens syfte. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att förstå hur kunder involveras i tjänsteutveckling i praktiken och hur deras roll ser ut i utvecklingsprocessen, samt att undersöka kopplingen mellan tillvägagångssätten i praktiken jämfört med vad som står i teorin. Metod: Studiens metod är av en kvalitativ karaktär med en fallstudiedesign. Tack vare nio stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med både tjänstedesignbyråer och tjänsteföretag som arbetar med kundinvolvering kunde värdefull data samlas in och ge en förklaring kring ”fallet”. Slutsats: De slutsatser som har kunnat dras utifrån studien är till att börja med att de traditionella tjänsteutvecklingsmodellerna har fasats ut till förmån för designmodeller med iterativa faser. Det visade sig även att en sådan uppdelning av kunder som återfinns i teorin, inte är aktuell i praktiken, utan baseras snarare på behov än egenskaper. Slutligen kunde, förutom de traditionella effekterna av kundinvolvering, en annan typ av effekt identifieras. Nämligen att kundinvolvering kan leda till stora organisationsförändringar på grund av ett nytt kundfokus. / Problem: Given the role of the customer in value creation organizations need knowledge on how their customers can get involved, and develop formal processes to do so. Given services role in today’s world there is a need for continuous research and development in the field. Furthermore, the research surrounding service development has mostly contributed to the theoretical field without much contribution to those who work with service development today. These aspects are part of the reasoning leading up to this studies purpose. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding on how customers are involved in service development in practice and the role of the customer in the development process, as well as examine the practice with the current literature. Method: The study is of a qualitative character with a case study design. Due to nine semi-structured interviews with both service design firms and service businesses both working with customer involvement in their service development processes valuable data could be collected to explain the case. Conclusion: The conclusions that were made from the study is that the traditional service development models have been phased out in favor of design based models with iterative phases. Furthermore, the theoretical classification of a services user is not as widespread in practice, it is more based on the needs of the customer than the customer’s characteristics. Finally, the study could identify that besides the traditional effects of customer involvement, there is an additional effect. Namely, that customer involvement can lead to large organizational changes as a result of a new customer focus.

Interactions are of critical importance in business-to-business contexts, and value seems to be influenced by the interactions between the supplier, customer and other third parties where these interactions co-creates value. However, as the literature has mostly focused on the positive value co-creation, the interactions that result in failure is instead co-destroying value. This thesis is therefore going to study the negative interaction outcome, value co-destruction, in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms from a supplier perspective, where interactions are shown to be critical, to explore proactive practices that could be utilized in order to prevent value co-destruction between the customer and the KIBS firm as well as practices to recover from value codestruction. Through a qualitative multiple-case study, the data was collected from KIBS representatives in the IT-industry in Sweden, that provided empirical data to further nuance the phenomenon. Customer education, unveiling business opportunities, customer surveys, and business events was discovered to be used for proactively preventing value co-destruction, where the authors also found the time aspect of the relationship between value co-creation and value co-destruction to be of importance in preventing miscommunications that result in value co-destruction. Therefore, the authors of this thesis argue that miscommunications and acknowledgment of the miscommunication that co-destroys value often occurs at different time points, where the proactive practices might be targeted towards preventing the miscommunication or targeted towards the recovery from the value co-destruction.