Title: Purchasing Process of Services: A Study of the Purchasing Process of HumanResource (HR) services Background: The rise in competition among organizations continues to increase. The rise in globalization, outsourcing and continuous pressure from customers have been the source for the increase in competition. Additionally, the instability in various industries is leading to high competition among firms. The purchasing of professional services is vital to organizations. Contemporary organizations spend a huge portion of their resources on the purchasing of professional services. The proper purchase of professional services can lead to cost saving and competitive advantage for companies or organizations. Research Questions:  How can the various purchasing models be used to develop a process for professional HR service purchasing? What are the factors involved in developing a process for the purchasing of professional HR services Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to develop a purchasing process for the purchasing of professional HR services. It takes into consideration the various classifications models of purchasing and the factors involved in the purchasing of services in order to develop a purchasing process for professional HR services. Method: Through a qualitative case study, the thesis gathered empirical data and used the deductive scientific approach to building a foundation of theory. Additionally, pattern matching was used to analyze both the theory and empirical data. Conclusion: The thesis developed a new classification model for HR services which resulted in the development of a new purchasing process that takes into consideration the classification of services and integrates the effects of the classification in the purchasing process. Additionally, the thesis discovered that personal relationship, clarity of problem and solution, specification of supplier’s inputs, specification of supplier’s throughputs or processes, specification of supplier’s output and specification of supplier’s outcome and the characteristics of service are factors involved in the development of a purchasing process forHR Services. Keywords: Professional Human Resource Services, Categorization of service, PurchasingModels, Service Purchasing Process

Denna uppsats kretsar kring två företags återhämtningsarbete vid uppkomsten av respektive skandal. Vidare skapas en djupare förståelse för teorin Service Recovery's betydelse och användning i praktiken. De två fallen där skandaler inträffat är grundade dels i ICA:s köttfärsskandal och dels i IKEA:s fjäderplockningsskandal.   Uppsatsen har en deduktiv ansats vilket innebär att uppsatsen utgår från befintliga teorier som sedan testas med det insamlade empiriska materialet. Den teoretiska referensramen innefattar främst Grönroos teorier kring Service Recovery och kompletteras med teorier så som Service Recovery Paradox, kundförväntningar, sociala medier och immateriell påverkan. Uppsatsens forskningsfrågor besvaras främst med hjälp av en fallstudie med två företagsanalyser samt med en enkätundersökning. Studien är av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ karaktär där kvalitativ data samlats in via en e-mail intervju med Ylva Magnusson vid IKEA, och kvantitativt via en enkätundersökning. Uppsatsen har resulterat i kännedom om hur de två företagen arbetat med att återfå kundförtroende. Uppsatsen har även gett författarna möjlighet att utveckla en ny modell av praktisk bemärkelse som behandlar processarbete inom Service Recovery.

The objective of this thesis is to identify how a salesperson perform the product-service sale process, through investigating the salesperson’s conditions, challenges, and improvement opportunities within. Based on this, recommendations are given regarding how the product-service sale process can be improved, and how to develop the ideal sale process. The research is conducted from a salesperson’s perspective, since it is the role who interacts the most with the product-service sale process.  To fulfil the objective, service design methodologies are utilized, and a case company is studied. Data is collected from 23 interviews, two focus groups and one ideation generation workshop, held at two different markets, and with people at the case company and salespeople responsible for selling services. The findings from the just mentioned methods are analysed by a thematic approach and with service design tools, and are, lastly, discussed with support from relevant literature from the literature study.  The thesis results in many different findings. One of the findings regards which and how actors influence the sale process, and how they are structured. The actors, and especially the salesforce, are structured differently at different markets. The salesforce has either an integrated structure or a separated structure. Another finding is that the identified challenges are similar to common uncertainties and challenges within a product-service system, and the conditions, that are not met, reflects necessary conditions within a value-based sale. Challenges regarding how sales of services are too time consuming, there is a mismatch between the service’s price and packaging to customer needs, and there is a complex communication structure in the salesforces. These three challenges are considered as the most important.  Recommendations are given at two levels. At the first level ideas for future actions. with the aim to solve challenges and fulfil conditions, are presented. Meanwhile, at the second level, ideal examples regarding development process, relationships and information flows, salesforce and sale process, for the case company, to strive towards, with the aim to create ideal conditions for a product-service sale, are presented. / Syftet med denna avhandling är att identifiera hur en säljare utför en produkt- och tjänsteförsäljningsprocess (PSS), genom att undersöka vilka förutsättningar, utmaningar och förbättringsmöjligheter säljaren har vid utförandet av processen. Baserat på detta, har rekommendationer tagits fram angående hur produkt- och tjänsteförsäljningsprocessen kan förbättras, samt hur den ideala försäljningsprocessen kan utvecklas. Avhandlingen är genomförd ur en säljares perspektiv, med anledningen att det är den aktör som interagerar mest med produkt- och tjänsteförsäljningsprocess.  För att fullgöra avhandlingens syfte appliceras metoder inom tjänstedesign, samt en fallstudie på ett företag. Information erhålls från två olika marknader, där 23 intervjuer, två fokusgrupper och en idégenereringsworkshop utförs med deltagare från det studerade företaget och säljare som ansvarar för att sälja tjänster. Resultatet från informationsinsamlingen analyseras med hjälp av ett tematiskt synsätt och med verktyg inom tjänstedesign, för att sedan diskuteras med stöd från relevant litteratur från litteraturstudien.  Avhandlingen resulterar i flertalet insikter. Vilka aktörer som influerar produkt- och tjänsteförsäljningsprocess, och hur de gör det, är en utav insikterna. En annan insikt är angående hur aktörerna, inom försäljningsorganisationen, är strukturerad. På olika på marknader kan de ha antingen en separerad eller en interagerad organisationsstruktur. Ytterligare en insikt är att de identifierade utmaningarna efterliknar de utmaningar och osäkerheter som finns inom en PSS. Även de ej uppfyllda förutsättningar som finns, reflekterar de förutsättningar som bör finnas för att utföra en värdebaserad försäljning. Fortsättningsvis, de viktigaste utmaningarna som har identifierats är att tjänsteförsäljning förbrukar för mycket tid, tjänstens pris och paketering är missanpassade till kundbehoven, samt att kommunikationen i säljorganisationen är komplex.  Rekommendationer är utvecklade på två olika nivåer. Den första nivån förespråkar idéer för framtida handlingar, med målet att lösa utmaningar och uppfylla förutsättningar. Den andra nivån presenterar ideala exempel angående utvecklingsprocess, relationer och informationsflöden, säljorganisationsstruktur och säljprocess för företaget att sträva mot, och har som mål att visa hur ideala förutsättningar för en produkt- och tjänsteförsäljningsprocess kan skapas.

This paper extends the dynamic capabilities (DCs) perspective into the study of new service development (NSD). Drawing from both the DCs view and the NSD perspective, this paper explores theoretically and examines empirically the associations between four core dynamic capability components: adaptive capabilities, absorptive capabilities, arranging capabilities and administration capabilities (4As capabilities) exercised in the process of NSD. DCs have been argued to reside at different levels of organization. Thus far enormous research has focused on organizational level of DCs. Many studies has recognized the importance of DC at micro/individual level (e.g. Teece, 2007; Rothaermel and Hess, 2007), yet research relating to DC at the individual level of organizations is still lacking. Hence, this study focuses on developing and empirically validating an appropriate measurement scale for micro-level DCs. The majority of NSD research has concentrated on the financial service sector; however, the hotel industry, one of the global largest industries, has not been well investigated (Ottenbacher, 2007). The study addresses its research objectives through an empirical investigation adopting both qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey in the hotel sector. This entailed a large quantitative pilot study (433 respondents) and a full-scale survey of hotel sector employees (1,079 respondents) in Thailand. The results, analysed through multiple regression analysis, show positive impact of 4As capabilities applied in different NSD activities on the NSD outcomes. The research findings provide guidance to managers as to how NSD performance is influenced by DCs exercised during the NSD process. The theoretical and managerial implications of this research are articulated.

Service-oriented environments are central backbone of todays enterprise workflows. These workflow includes traditional process types like travel booking or order processing as well as data-intensive integration processes like operational business intelligence and data analytics. For the latter process types, current execution semantics and concepts do not scale very well in terms of performance and resource consumption. In this paper, we present a concept for data streaming in business processes that is inspired by the typical execution semantics in data management environments. Therefore, we present a conceptual process and execution model that leverages the idea of stream-based service invocation for a scalable and efficient process execution. In selected results of the evaluation we show, that it outperforms the execution model of current process engines.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the customer's perception of value through each stage of the service consumption process in connection with e-commerce. The aim is to see where in the different stages customers experience value. Method For this research a qualitative method was used in the form of semi structured interviews. Twelve interviews were conducted with women of different ages. The research has an explorative purpose, since there is little knowledge about this subject. Findings The two most clear findings from this research was that a company needs to have an easy and fast way of purchasing on the website. The other finding was that it is important to make the person feel secure and have control over the purchasing phase. If it is not easy to pay and they do not feel secure, they would consider purchasing from another website. Theoretical and practical contributions The aim with this research is to define where in the service consumption process the customer perceives the most value, in connection with e-commerce. Therefore the main theories have been the service consumption process and value creation. The findings and conclusions of this thesis could help companies with what they should develop on their websites, to make their customers perceive the most possible value.

This research aims to investigate the role of employee's personality type (most specifically introversion/extraversion) in the service recovery process. Toe literature review suggests that introverts and extraverts exhibit unique traits. Toe researcher hypothesizes that those traits associated with most extraverts may inhibit their performance in the service recovery process. It is believed their consistent tendencies to talk in argumentative tones, ill attention span, and disregard direction can have damaging results on the recovery process. Based on the research objectives, a survey was designed and data was collected from a sample of approximately 140 students in an Introduction to hospitality management or Guest service management class from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. Toe participants who ranked in the extreme levels of introversion or extraversion responses were used. Their information was then analyzed using statistical programs and tested for main effects. Toe research findings suggest there is a relationship between personality and the service recovery process. Though two hypotheses were not supported by the data, the data analysis results supported the hypothesis that extraverts have a greater capability for empowerment. It is believed further investigation will reveal other human resource management issues for which personality will play a significant role in.

This thesis deals with the pastoral and social work in prison service. In the theoratical part I focus on European trends in prison service in some European countries and in the Czech Republic, on the mission and tasks of prison pastoral services, particularly the sense and practice of pastoral service in prison service. I outline all Churches working in prison pastoral service, the possibilities of their work in prison {--} mainly legislation. I describe the ecumenical process in prison service. The work also describes social work with people under custody or sentence, and finally the Code of Ethics of social workers in the Czech Republic. The practical part concerns the opinions and experience of chaplains working in prison pastoral care.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-04-04T21:12:54Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Luciana Padovez Cualheta - 2015.pdf: 1603506 bytes, checksum: 640fe4870b9279aeeca49723b2392ea9 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-04-05T11:13:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Luciana Padovez Cualheta - 2015.pdf: 1603506 bytes, checksum: 640fe4870b9279aeeca49723b2392ea9 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-05T11:13:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Luciana Padovez Cualheta - 2015.pdf: 1603506 bytes, checksum: 640fe4870b9279aeeca49723b2392ea9 (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-30 / The air transport sector is highly relevant to the global economy and has grown about six times the global GDP in recent years. Nevertheless, it has not been able to generate the desired profitability, due to high costs and the inability to deliver differentiated services to customers. In this context, innovation in services is a priority. This study aimed to identify what are the main practices in the new service development process (NSDP) for companies in the air transport industry. Several NSDP practices are identified in the literature which make up a conceptual model. By conducting multiple case studies and comparing the results with the literature, ten of those practices are found to be recurrent in the air transport industry. They are: analyzing the external environment, analysis of the financial capacity of the company, the creation of support activities, the new service price definition, employee training, adaptation of the physical structure, the disclosure of the new service, disclosure of the benefits of the new service for the customer, obtaining customer feedback and the comparison of actual costs versus planned costs. Future research should try to understand how and why those activities occur. / O setor de serviços de transporte aéreo é altamente relevante para a economia global e tem crescido cerca de seis vezes mais que o PIB mundial nos últimos anos. Apesar disso, o setor não tem sido capaz de gerar a rentabilidade desejada devido aos altos custos e a incapacidade de entregar um serviço diferenciado ao cliente. Nesse contexto, a inovação em serviços tornase prioritária. O presente estudo teve como objetivo identificar quais são as principais práticas do processo de desenvolvimento de um novo serviço (PDNS) para empresas do setor de transporte aéreo. Para tanto, são identificadas as práticas de PDNS propostas na literatura, que compõem um modelo conceitual. Através da condução de estudos de casos múltiplos e da comparação dos seus resultados com a literatura, identificou-se que dez dessas práticas são recorrentes para as empresas do setor de transporte aéreo, sendo elas a análise do ambiente externo, análise da capacidade financeira da empresa, a criação de atividades de suporte, a definição do preço do novo serviço, o treinamento dos funcionários, a adaptação da estrutura física da empresa, a divulgação do novo serviço, evidenciação dos benefícios do novo serviço para o cliente, a obtenção de feedback dos clientes e a comparação dos custos realizados versus o planejado. Sugere-se que pesquisas futuras busquem compreender como e porque cada uma dessas práticas é realizada, ampliando a compreensão acerca do assunto

Diploma thesis introduces general principles of design and build of Shared Service Centres. Shared Service Centre is described as a suitable platform for streamlining of internal supporting services. The thesis also introduces general principles of internal processes transformation into a shared service as well as procedure for selection of suitable location. Final assessment presents most convenient countries in the world for implementation of Shared Service Centres.