Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur existerande NSD-teori kan bidra till förståelse av kundinvolvering av sällanköpsvaror i säljande organisationer. Metod: Vid genomförandet av denna studie har en kvantitativ forskningsmetod tillämpats med ett deduktivt tillvägagångsätt. Den empiriska undersökningen genomfördes via en webbaserad enkätundersökning som sändes ut till 598 franchisetagare och kontorschefer inom fem av de åtta största fastighetsmäklarföretagen i Sverige. Erhållen data analyserades därefter med hjälp av statistikprogrammet SPSS där en faktoranalys, klusteranalys samt korrelationsanalys genomfördes. Resultat & Analys: Vi kan konstatera att det finns både en positiv och en negativ syn till att arbeta och ta fram tjänster i samspel med kunden. Studiens resultat visar dock på att majoriteten innehar en positiv inställning till detta tillvägagångssätt och att detta skulle generera fördelar för företaget. Resultatet visar på både skillnader och likheter jämfört med tidigare befintliga modeller inom NSD och vi kan konstatera att fastighetsmäklarbranschen inte följer NSDmodellen likande andra tjänsteföretag men att den till viss del är applicerbar även inom denna bransch. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna uppsats ger ett bidrag till fastighetsmäklarbranschen genom att indikera på betydelsen av att involvera kunden i tjänsten samt i utvecklingen av dessa och visar på att det finns en positiv syn till detta. Resultatet pekar på att kundinvolvering skulle generera fördelar för företag inom denna typ av bransch. Det teoretiska bidraget visar dock på att existerande NSD-modeller bör modifieras för tillämpning inom branscher med sällanköpsvaror i säljande organisationer. I och med att tidigare forskning inom NSD inte visar på skillnader mellan olika branscher med olika kundstruktur pekar detta på att vår studie utgör ett bidrag till forskningsdiskursen. Förslag till vidare forskning: Då vi fann att det finns en positiv syn till kundinvolvering hos chefer inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen skulle det vara intressant att genomföra studien ur ett omvänt perspektiv och då istället undersöka hur kunder ser på att involveras i tjänstens utveckling. Med anledning av att studien berör en bransch med engångskunder skulle det dessutom vara intressant att undersöka om befintliga NSD-modeller överensstämmer i en bransch med en annan kundstruktur. Vi tror att resultatet med sannolikhet skulle bli annorlunda i en sådan studie. Med anledning av att detta är en övergripande studie inom fastighetmäklarbranschen skulle det dessutom vara intressant att genomföra en mer djupgående och detaljerad undersökning

Purpose and research question: The purpose of this study is to provide and attain a deeper understanding of how the business philosophy of green marketing affects recreational adventure tourism. Further, the study intends to identify and analyze green marketing in relation to service development, green marketing strategies, branding, segmentation and positioning in the dive tourism sector. This has formulated our research question: How does green marketing affect adventure tourism? Methodology: A qualitative research method offers a deeper understanding of the effects of green marketing in the context of recreational dive tourism sector which is currently one of the fastest growing categories of adventure tourism. The study has followed an abductive research approach with an inductive initial departure and thereafter a simultaneously assemble of a theoretical framework during the sequence of conducting ten in-depth interviews. Conclusion: During this study we have identified tendencies deriving from the empirical findings and the literature review. The theoretical implications of this thesis involve filling the research gap of green marketing in a context of dive and adventure tourism. Furthermore, the practical implications involve that an implementation of green marketing can imply competitive advantages and exert a strong differentiation effect on brands. Thus, the integration of green performances and the communication sustainability could facilitate the dive tourism sector’s development towards increased environmental awareness. We further argue that the effects of green marketing in the dive tourism could be applicable in other categories of adventure tourism due to its dependency on nature and the current increasing trend of environmental awareness.

<p>Given today’s industry dynamics, new service development is becoming increasingly important to the competitiveness, growth, and survival of organizations. Unfortunately, new service development has proven to be a complex and difficult task. Numerous reasons are stated in the literature such as the difficulty of understanding and anticipating latent customer needs and insufficient market research techniques. To facilitate proactive learning about the customer, recent findings stress customer involvement in the development process and observations of customers in real action.</p><p>The overall objective of the dissertation is to contribute to an increased knowledge of customer involvement, i.e., the role of customers as contributors and co-creators in new service development. The thesis draws on theory from market and learning orientation in conjunction with a service-centered model, and provides an extensive review of literature on customer involvement in innovation. In five separate studies, this doctor’s thesis addresses the customer’s role in innovation activities in various industries (e.g., Staffing Services, Airline Services, and Mobile Telecommunication services).</p><p>In this thesis it is argued that interaction is not only the focal point of services, but also the essence of customer involvement. A special emphasis is put on supporting techniques as these are the means by which customer information and knowledge are created. In addition, results are provided showing that customer involvement in innovation pays off. Companies that engage in collaborative innovation with customers can expect improved customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profit margin.</p>

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.

<p>Project evaluation is concerned with indicators setting and performance tracking along the life of a project. It plays an essential role to the success of any project and therefore demands special attention. At the heart of this process lies a system of criteria one has to take into account when performing the evaluation. Our thesis considers this problem in a particular context, namely New Service Development (NSD) projects. The topic is of our interest because innovation (hence NSD) has become an inherent aspect of service industry while the research dedicated to NSD project evaluation is rather limited. Our thesis aims at understanding the purposes, the process of evaluating NSD projects and pointing out specific criteria included during the evaluation of NSD projects. As a result, the research question pursuing is: ‘What are key Evaluation Criteria for New Service Development projects?’ From the literature review on project evaluation and new service development, our study reveals a list of eight important criteria of evaluation. This consists of three financial criteria: (1) profitability, (2) production cost, (3) return on investment; and five non-financial criteria: (4) strategic fit, (5) marketing criteria, (6) corporate social responsibilities, (7) information quality, and (8) facilitating factors. From empirical perspective, qualitative approach is applied to collect data through three case studies and a series of semi-structured interviews with seventeen respondents in Albania, Italy, Sweden and Vietnam, from companies offering various types of service. The case studies build comprehensive understanding on the process of new service development, of project evaluation for NSD whereas interviews check the transferability of the three cases and identify evaluation criteria employed in practice. The empirical results were analyzed in comparison with the arguments found from literature. Regarding the research question, the study found that the set of evaluation criteria collected from empirical study fits with the list of eight criteria proposed by literature. Among this set, two main criteria ‘strategic fit’ (4) and ‘customer satisfaction’ which is apart of ‘marketing criteria’ (5) are recommended as ‘must’ for the evaluation process on any type of NSD project. Findings of this research contribute to the existing knowledge provided by both academic and practitioners regarding both project management field and new service development area, by suggesting a set of key criteria that should be used as guidance in order to succeed with evaluation of NSD projects.</p>

Given today’s industry dynamics, new service development is becoming increasingly important to the competitiveness, growth, and survival of organizations. Unfortunately, new service development has proven to be a complex and difficult task. Numerous reasons are stated in the literature such as the difficulty of understanding and anticipating latent customer needs and insufficient market research techniques. To facilitate proactive learning about the customer, recent findings stress customer involvement in the development process and observations of customers in real action. The overall objective of the dissertation is to contribute to an increased knowledge of customer involvement, i.e., the role of customers as contributors and co-creators in new service development. The thesis draws on theory from market and learning orientation in conjunction with a service-centered model, and provides an extensive review of literature on customer involvement in innovation. In five separate studies, this doctor’s thesis addresses the customer’s role in innovation activities in various industries (e.g., Staffing Services, Airline Services, and Mobile Telecommunication services). In this thesis it is argued that interaction is not only the focal point of services, but also the essence of customer involvement. A special emphasis is put on supporting techniques as these are the means by which customer information and knowledge are created. In addition, results are provided showing that customer involvement in innovation pays off. Companies that engage in collaborative innovation with customers can expect improved customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profit margin.

Service guarantees have been argued to have many roles in managing services, for instance signal service quality, attract new customers, increase satisfaction and retention, and to differentiate the company from its competitors. Despite a growing interest from service organizations, research on service guarantees has been surprisingly scarce. The aim of this dissertation is to provide a wider understanding of the roles of service guarantees. Data is gathered from actual customers (as opposed to fictitious participants of an experiment) and/or employees regarding service guarantees in three different service contexts. The methods used to gather and analyze the data were manifold and includes personal interviews, Mystery Shopping observations, focus group interviews and a postal survey. The results represent new knowledge when it comes to the roles of service guarantees in managing services. Previous research has almost exclusively addressed pre-purchase effects of the service guarantee, but has failed to address the impact of the service guarantee after it has been used. Therefore, the most important contribution to service research of this dissertation concern the understanding of service guarantees “in action” and the post-use effects of a service guarantee in real service settings. Another contribution is the identification of the recovery paradox; that the customer is more satisfied with the service after he or she has used the service guarantee, than before he or she experienced the original service failure. This result strongly suggests that the use of a service guarantee can make a fruitful contribution in the managing of services.

Project evaluation is concerned with indicators setting and performance tracking along the life of a project. It plays an essential role to the success of any project and therefore demands special attention. At the heart of this process lies a system of criteria one has to take into account when performing the evaluation. Our thesis considers this problem in a particular context, namely New Service Development (NSD) projects. The topic is of our interest because innovation (hence NSD) has become an inherent aspect of service industry while the research dedicated to NSD project evaluation is rather limited. Our thesis aims at understanding the purposes, the process of evaluating NSD projects and pointing out specific criteria included during the evaluation of NSD projects. As a result, the research question pursuing is: ‘What are key Evaluation Criteria for New Service Development projects?’ From the literature review on project evaluation and new service development, our study reveals a list of eight important criteria of evaluation. This consists of three financial criteria: (1) profitability, (2) production cost, (3) return on investment; and five non-financial criteria: (4) strategic fit, (5) marketing criteria, (6) corporate social responsibilities, (7) information quality, and (8) facilitating factors. From empirical perspective, qualitative approach is applied to collect data through three case studies and a series of semi-structured interviews with seventeen respondents in Albania, Italy, Sweden and Vietnam, from companies offering various types of service. The case studies build comprehensive understanding on the process of new service development, of project evaluation for NSD whereas interviews check the transferability of the three cases and identify evaluation criteria employed in practice. The empirical results were analyzed in comparison with the arguments found from literature. Regarding the research question, the study found that the set of evaluation criteria collected from empirical study fits with the list of eight criteria proposed by literature. Among this set, two main criteria ‘strategic fit’ (4) and ‘customer satisfaction’ which is apart of ‘marketing criteria’ (5) are recommended as ‘must’ for the evaluation process on any type of NSD project. Findings of this research contribute to the existing knowledge provided by both academic and practitioners regarding both project management field and new service development area, by suggesting a set of key criteria that should be used as guidance in order to succeed with evaluation of NSD projects.

Context: Current unsustainable practices have resulted in the depletion of natural resources and a prevailing material scarcity. Urban Mining has emerged in this context and suggests the “mining” of cities or other sources in urban areas to retrieve valuable resources. It raises the topic of how urban mining as a market segment of the construction industry is like today and in the future.  Objective: The thesis sets out to study what firms in the urban mining market segment desires in terms of needs and priorities. Furthermore, what could be prioritized in the future (2030), what future scenarios could be expected and what implications these can have on organizations within the segment and on the construction industry.  Method: A foresight methodology was applied as a framework for the research design. Interview with representatives from 10 firms, including observations of their operations, resulted in a number of mutual needs shared across the urban mining segment. These were prioritized in relative importance based on a questionnaire of 67 respondents representing 44 different firms in Sweden. A combination of these studies and a review of technology trends further enabled the extrapolation of future scenarios.  Results: The findings shows that firms within the urban mining market segment prioritizes and emphasizes needs related concerns in optimization, cost control, safety, environmental and social care today. Needs related to safety, environmental and social care are indicated to remain top prioritized as a result of the future market circumstances. A holistic and lifecycle approach in urban mining practices was deemed of low priority today but was indicated to grow significantly in relative importance in the future.  Conclusion: Technology, urbanization and globalization indicates stricter and more competitive market circumstances in the future. Especially related to safety, lifecycle consideration, environmental, and social care. The research suggests that firms concerned and those operating within the urban mining segment may need to undergo transformational changes in their organization to meet what the market segment expects in the future. Moreover, the findings opens up the possibility for actors and stakeholders concerned with the construction industry to proactively go into a desired future by knowing how the future market could unfold. / Stanford University, ME310: Urban Mining

For a retailer, who has a close and everyday contact with its customers, understanding the customers can be of benefit if they know how to use the information in the right way. One way of using the customer is to integrate customers when developing new services, to enhance the possibility of the new service gaining market acceptance. Customer insight, Omnichannel retailing and Big Data are areas that recently have caught the interest of retailers. The latter two are of interest as these provide retailers with better possibilities of gaining customer insight, by taking the opportunities to observe the customers’ virtual footsteps to a whole new level. This thesis is a study made with the market research company Nepa as employer of the thesis, in order to develop their B2B offer with end-customer integration. Why and how customers are integrated were further studied through the frame of reference. The factors that were chosen to describe from a theoretical standpoint how customers can be integrated were type of integration, role of the customer, type of customer and timing of the integration. The underlying factors that were chosen to answer why retailers choose different alternatives among the above mentioned factors were market orientation, service/goods dominant logic, environmental uncertainty and market maturity. The study was made with a qualitative, positivistic approach using a collective case study. The case study is a good way to be able to answer both how and why-questions and was therefore chosen as method. By investigating multiple cases and performing a cross case analysis the authors were able to draw more generalizable conclusions. Five retailers took part in the study and for each of these a developed service was chosen as case for investigation. By doing low structured interviews using a method called story-telling, the authors let the respondents from each company speak freely about the chosen case, and that information could then be analyzed. The conclusions of the study concern the different ways retailers choose to integrate customers and the reasons they do it in different ways. A company’s market orientation affects if and what type of customer integration is used in the idea-generating phases. The degree of market orientation also affects the amount of occasions and what type of customer integration is used in the execution-oriented phases. Retailers’ turbulent technology environment has influenced their general perception of risk and the risk of unacceptance with the specific project. This results in that a company can initially integrate customers proactively to let them guide the company or the company can consider customer integration to be secondary. Retailers generally are guided by a goods dominant logic which leads to them not choosing to integrate the customers in active roles in the innovation process. Instead, the retailers combine different integration techniques to gain some of the advantages that active customer could have brought. This is also connected to the retailers wanting to get quickly through the early phases of the process and instead use agile development after the launch of the service. The retailers do not choose different types of customers for integration, but the combination of integration techniques can still provide them with some of the characteristics of the more knowledgeable customer.