Nya tjänster hjälper företag att locka till sig nya kunder men också att behålla befintliga vilket har gjort tjänsteutveckling till en viktig konkurrensfaktor. Tjänster är en väsentlig del av många förstags erbjudanden, däremot finns det en avsaknad av forskning på området tjänsteutveckling i förhållande till den plats tjänster har på marknaden idag, vilket ligger till grund för att denna studie undersöker fenomenet tjänsteutveckling.  Trots att empiriska studier genomförts på området finns det idag en oenighet kring hur arbetet med tjänsteutveckling går till i praktiken. Ett flertal studier har försökt beskriva arbetet genom att gestalta tjänsteutvecklingsprocesser. Andra studier har istället noterat att utvecklingsarbetet kring tjänster ofta sker utan förutbestämda processer och utifrån ett spritt ansvar inom organisationen. Det har därav framhållits ett behov av fler studier för att öka förståelsen för arbetet med tjänsteutveckling i praktiken. En lyckad ny tjänst är en som lyckas uppfylla kundens behov. Av denna anledning har kundinvolvering lyfts fram som en framgångsfaktor vid tjänsteutveckling. Denna studie avser därav också ta reda på om, hur och varför företag väljer att använda sig av kunden i sitt utvecklingsarbete. På grund av de spridda resultat som tidigare studier lyft kring både tjänsteutvecklingsarbetet i sig men också kring kundens roll i detta arbete genomförs studien på företag inom två skilda branscher, hotell och försäkring, för att undersöka ifall vi kan finna skillnader i arbetet som möjligen kan härledas till branschernas egenskaper. Syftet med denna studie är alltså att öka förståelsen för hur företag inom hotell och försäkringsbranschen arbetar med tjänsteutveckling samt att undersöka vilken roll kunden har i detta arbete. För att uppfylla syftet med studien genomfördes en kvalitativ studie av fyra fallföretag, två inom hotellbranschen och två inom försäkringsbranschen. Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter som arbetar med utvecklingsarbetet på respektive företag möjliggjordes en analys av hur arbetet med tjänsteutveckling och kundinvolvering ser ut i praktiken i förhållande till vad som tidigare lyfts i teorin. Studiens resultat visar på att tjänsteutveckling tenderar vara i förändring. Förändring mot ett mer samlat arbete utifrån strukturerade och formella utvecklingsprocesser. Företagen visade en god förståelse för kundens vikt vid utvecklingsarbetet och samtliga företag arbetar också med någon form av kundinvolvering. Det tenderade dock att finnas mer rutiner kring de passiva metoderna, i form av kundundersökningar, medan vi fann en avsaknad i rutiner och insikter kring när de mer aktiva metoderna för kundinvolvering ska användas för bästa resultat. Vi kunde i studien också notera skillnader mellan de två branscherna gällande utvecklingsarbetet, skillnader som tenderar grunda sig i tjänsteerbjudandenas skilda egenskaper.

Firms have to constantly develop or innovate in order to stay competitive. Within the fields of marketing, product development and service development studies have examined how the customer can be a resource for development or innovation. Recently, customer value has been examined within the business model concept, which has emerged as a new unit of analysis and has steadily gained interest during the past 20 years. Linked to the concept of business model is the concept of business model development or innovation. Within this field of research there are very few studies on customer involvement. This is the starting point of our study. The few studies that exist regarding customer involvement in business model innovation have mainly focused on the customer as a resource for screening ideas. In our study, we focus on the customer as resource for idea generation. We also go in to detail and examines in what dimensions different customer groups can be a resource for business model innovation. Our theoretical framework consists of ten different studies that examine business model dimensions, from which we identify nine dimensions relevant for our context. We also use theories regarding business model innovation, business model design and customer involvement. We have conducted the study in the context of a small medical instrument firm. Our empirical data consists of fifteen interviews with customers and company representatives. The customers represent different customer groups: patients, nurses, doctors and managers.  Our analysis originates from the business model dimensions identified in the theoretical framework. We use the theoretical framework to understand in which dimensions the customer can be a resource for business model innovation. We also use the theoretical framework to look for differences and similarities within and between the customer groups.  The study concludes that the customer can be a resource for business model innovation in a number of business model dimensions. Furthermore, the majority of the ideas the customer has is similar or identical to the ideas that the company has. The ideas the customer has seem to be effected by their relationship to the business model. There are also some individuals that have substantially more ideas than others.

Crafting and stimulating service innovation is considered a main research priority and remains a challenge for service providers. One suggested component of stimulating service innovation is customer creativity. Customers who adapt, modify and transform services or products to better suit themselves are increasingly being recognized as a source of competitive value and innovation. It has been proposed that understanding and supporting the customer’s value creating practices is the key to creating and sustaining value over time in health care. Health services directly address a customer’s well-being and have a significant impact on his or her quality of life. In these types of services, the service outcome is highly dependent on the activities of the individual customer. Health care services often require customers to participate extensively, over long periods of time, with limited support and control. Health services also stretch far beyond the particular service setting into the customer’s daily life. While research, policy, and legislation have all emphasized the active role of health care customers, such customers have traditionally had few opportunities to design their health care services. Nevertheless, health care customers solve health-related problems and engage in self-care and medical decision-making on a day-to-day basis, although this creativity is often unknown to the service provider. To understand how health care customers can enable service innovation, this thesis seeks to conceptualize and investigate the concept of customer creativity in health care. The thesis focuses on customer creativity, not only as an outcome, but also as a dynamic and contextualized process that can be enhanced. The thesis combines insights from health care research with service and innovation research to provide build a framework for health care customer creativity. Building on five papers, the research develops an understanding for health care customer creativity. The individual papers are based on systematic literature reviews as well as empirical data in the form of customers’ ideas for service innovation collected through diaries. The results of the thesis suggest that despite the negative nature of the service, health care customers are creative. Given the opportunity, health care customers can provide creative ideas and solutions on a multitude of aspects, both within and outside the health care setting. This provides the potential to view the health care experience through the customers’ eyes and take part in their creativity in spheres where the service providers have not traditionally had any access. This thesis contributes to the literature by providing a framework for health care customer creativity that recognizes the concept as a complex interplay of factors operating at the individual, contextual, and situational levels. The proposed framework specifies the health care specific factors upon which customer creativity depends, with the intention of positing potential research directions and developing an enriched theory of health care customer creativity.

The integration of services and products into solutions can open up new business opportunities for firms. This thesis concerns how firms can provide solutions that are perceived as high quality. Solutions are often provided over several years, which implies a changed customer relationship compared to product provisions. Since the solution aims to support the customer’s activities, firms face new challenges when introducing solutions. One challenge is to integrate all components and activities of the solution, and simultaneously support the customer’s activities. In addition, the firm must ensure that the solution and all of its parts are of high quality. Most of the existing research on quality is related to the management of a firm’s internal activities and the interaction during exchange. Within the research on quality, customer orientation means that a firm should manage the relevant product or service to meet customer requirements. When this is achieved, the product or service is of high quality. Since solutions are seen as services and products that are integrated as an outcome, as well as a customer relational process that aims to support the customer’s activities, firms have little to learn from previous research about the quality of solutions. The aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge about how to manage solution quality. The thesis combines insights from research on quality with research on solutions and servitization. Three research questions are answered. The first question concerns the content of solution quality; the second deals with how firms can, with support from interventions, meet the new challenges that arise from solution provision; and the third question concerns how customers can be involved to achieve solution quality. The research questions are answered through five papers based on literature studies and empirical data. The papers contribute to an increased knowledge of solution quality and how firms can work to achieve it. The results of the thesis suggest that solution quality is built on seven quality dimensions: reliability, communicability, internal consistency, empathy, approachability, tangibility, and adaptability. In addition, knowledge of processes and customer relationships are two prerequisites for the concept. These dimensions and prerequisites are supported by interventions that can provide a change. However, it has become evident that whatever intervention is used must be related to the dimensions that are supposed to be improved. Furthermore, customer involvement is argued to be an intervention to support the prerequisites for solution quality, especially during the solution  development. The results of this thesis extend the research on quality by increasing the knowledge of the solution quality concept and by changing the view of customers and their involvement during solution development. / Den här avhandlingen berör hur företag kan möjliggöra så att produkter och  tjänster, integrerade i så kallade helhetslösningar, kan levereras med hög kvalitet. Helhetslösningar levereras ofta över en längre tid vilket medför en förändrad kundrelation till skillnad mot när endast en produkt levereras. Helhetslösningar syftar till att stödja kunden i dess aktiviteter. Det medför att företagen möter nya utmaningar. En utmaning är att få den komplexa helhetslösningen, bestående av olika komponenter och aktiviteter, att passa ihop och samtidigt bidra till att stötta kundens aktiviteter. Dessutom behöver företagen säkerställa att helhetslösningen och alla dess delar har hög kvalitet. Tidigare forskning inom kvalitetsutveckling berör företags interna processer och aktiviteter. När man inom kvalitetsutveckling talar om kundorientering innebär det att företaget med interna medel ska arbeta för att möjliggöra så produkten eller tjänsten möter kundens specifikationer. När detta är uppnått har produkten eller tjänsten hög kvalitet. Företagen har här inga riktlinjer att följa när de ska leverera helhetslösningar som ska anpassas efter kundens aktiviteter och när en så tydlig kundrelation ska utvecklas. Det finns med andra ord ingen vägledning för vad som är kvalitet eller hur man möjliggör hög kvalitet på helhetslösningar. Den här avhandlingen visar vad som ingår i begreppet kvalitet när det gäller helhetslösningar (lösningskvalitet) samt hur företag kan möjliggöra det. Tre olika frågor har huvudsakligen behandlats. Den första frågan besvarar vad lösningskvalitet innehåller. Den andra berör hur företag med hjälp av åtgärder kan bidra till en förändring inom företaget för att möta de nya utmaningar som uppstår med att leverera helhetslösningar. Den tredje frågan berör på vilket sätt kunden kan involveras för att uppnå lösningskvalitet. För att besvara frågorna har ett antal studier baserade på empiriskt material genomförts, och fem artiklar har författats under forskningsprocessen. Artiklarna bidrar till att öka förståelsen för lösningskvalitet och hur företag kan arbeta för att uppnå det. Avhandlingens resultat visar att lösningskvalitet består av sju olika dimensioner: tillförlitlighet, kommunicerbarhet, intern överensstämmelse, empati, nåbarhet, påtaglighet, och anpassningsbarhet. Dessutom är kunskap om processer och kundrelationer två förutsättningar för att uppnå lösningskvalitet. Dimensionerna betraktas som riktmärken för lösningskvalitet som företag kan arbeta mot. Dimensionerna och förutsättningarna stöttas i sin tur av åtgärder som används för att bidra till den interna förändringen inom företaget. Resultaten visar dock att använda åtgärder inte alltid leder till en förändring. Endast noga utvalda åtgärder som relaterar till en specifik dimension möjliggör en förändring. Exempel på en möjlig åtgärd är kundinvolvering. Speciellt vid utveckling av helhetslösningar, betraktas kundinvolvering som en möjlig åtgärd för att stötta förutsättningarna till lösningskvalitet. Resultaten i den här avhandlingen bidrar huvudsakligen till en ökad kunskap om vad kvalitet är när det gäller helhetslösningar. Ytterligare ett bidrag är att föreslå kundens förändrade roll under utveckling och vid leverans av helhetslösningar för att uppnå lösningskvalitet.

Does high products complexity &amp; production cost drive high customer involvement in product development? Author: Ellen Wendel Tutor/Examiner: Sarah Philipson   Background   The purpose of this thesis first arose when interviewing the CEO and the chief of product development of a Swedish wood company. The lack of communication between the two of them and the overall information flow within the company seemed to me brutally bad. When leaving that company a question popped up: Do a low production cost/unit and/or a low product complexity on an industrial market result in low customer involvement?   Problem focus/hypotheses   Product failure is costly and time consuming; doing it right the first time can keep a company alive and give it competitive advantages, Matzler et al (1997). Customer involvement has proven to increase the chances for a successful product launch, von Hippel (1988), Lagrosen (2005), Pitta et al (1996) and Matzler et al (1997). With the assumption that customer involvement can affect product development in a positive way, any conditions that might drive customer involvement in product development would be of interest. This thesis investigates three hypotheses concerning how product complexity and production cost drive customers involvement; H1: High product complexity positively predicts the use of high customer involvement in the product development. H2: High production cost positively predicts the use of high customer involvement in the product development. H3: High production cost and high product complexity together positively predicts the use of high customer involvement.   Method   The main study was executed with surveys sent per e-mail. The investigated populations are wood component suppliers and machine suppliers. The suppliers were chosen to get a vast range of product complexity and production cost. The hypotheses were analyzed with chi-square statistics and percentages.   To get a basic understanding of the industry, I first made a pre-study; interviewing two suppliers and telephone interviewing the head of glued edge pine panel issues at the Swedish Wood &amp; Furniture Association.   Findings   Hypothesis 1 I conclude that higher product complexity leads to higher customer involvement on both industries. This result gives more validation to the emerging theory stated by Richard et al (2004). Hypothesis 2  This thesis validates hypothesis 2 among wood suppliers. I suggest future research to validate a possible theory the states that higher production cost drive higher customer involvement. Hypothesis 2 is not accepted on the machine supplier industry since the results were inconclusive. No overall pattern was found.  However, the result indicates that the hypothesis might be correct up until a certain level of complexity, after which the relationship is negative. Hypothesis 3   I consider hypothesis 2 to be validated on the wood supplier market. I suggest future research to validate a possible theory the states that higher production cost and product complexity and production cost combined drive higher customer involvement. The thesis result indicates that hypothesis 3, on the machine supplier market, might be correct up until a certain level of complexity and production cost combination, after which the relationship is negative. Hypothesis 3 cannot be accepted for the machine supplier industry since the results are inconclusive. General findings from the hypotheses All three hypotheses indicate a positive prediction that product complexity, production cost and the two variables combined will drive the behavior of “usage or no usage” of customer involvement, regardless of industry. / <p>Opponenter: Elna Hägglund och Frida Tillmar</p>

<p>Tjänstesektorn utgör idag över 70 % av BNP i Sverige (the world bank group.org, 2005), vilket innebär att tjänster är en viktig del i Sveriges ekonomi. Dock är misslyckandegraden hög när nya tjänster skall introduceras. En tänkbar orsak till detta är att företagen inte lyckas hitta de latenta behoven deras kunder har. Det finns tankar inom forskarvärlden att dessa skulle kunna hittas genom att involvera kunden i tjänsteutvecklingsprocessen (se till exempel Sandén 2007). I dagsläget är forskningen inom kundinvolvering vid tjänsteutveckling dock begränsad.</p><p>Denna uppsats kommer att behandla kundinvolvering i tjänsteutvecklingen. Syftet med uppsatsen består av två delar, varav det första är att beskriva hur AB Storstockholms lokaltrafik (SL) ser på, tillämpar och definierar kundinvolvering vid tjänsteutveckling. Den andra delen av syftet består i att undersöka om SL använt sig av någon annan kundinvolveringsmetod än de som finns representerade i teorin rörande kundinvolvering vid tjänsteutveckling.</p><p>Vi har i denna uppsats valt att genomföra en kvalitativ undersökning baserad på delvis strukturerade intervjuer.</p><p>Vi anser oss kunna se att SL:s syn på kunders medverkan vid utveckling av tjänster överlag är positiv, men att de inte klart definierat vad kundinvolvering innebär. De metoder de använt sig av för att involvera sina kunder i projekt Vagn 2000 kan, i kombination med varandra, ses som en kundinvolveringsmetod, men inte som någon ny sådan. Vi kan också se att kunderna i huvudsak varit involverade i de senare faserna av utvecklingsprocessen samtidigt som det i teorin finns bäring för att kunderna kan involveras i samtliga faser. Vi anser att involveringen skall ske i så många steg som möjligt. Om företagen kan stämma av sina tankar om nya tjänster mot vad kunderna vill ha, så kan de troligtvis snabbare styra om resurser från projekt som kunderna inte tror påtill de som kunderna vill ha.</p> / <p>Today in Sweden the service sector consists of more than 70% of GDP, hence services have become an important part of the Swedish economy. However, when new services are introduced they are often accompanied with a high degree of failure. One cause to this may be that the company does not find the latent need the customer have. There are</p><p>ideas in the research community that these could be found by involving the customer in the service development (see e.g. Sandén 2007). Today the research in customer involvement in service development is limited.</p><p>This thesis concerns costumer involvement in service development. The purpose of the thesis consists of two separate parts; the first describes how AB Storstockholms lokaltrafik (SL) view, applies and define costumer involvement in service development, the second, is to investigate if SL has used any other method than the ones represented in theory concerning customer involvement in service development.</p><p>We have in this thesis chosen to perform a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews.</p><p>We conclude that SL´s overall view on customer involvement in service development is positive, however they have not clearly defined what customer involvement means. The methods they have used to involve their customer in a project called Vagn 2000 can combined together be viewed as a costumer involvement method, even though not a new one. We can also see that the customer mainly have been involved in the late phases of the service development process, whereas in theory the costumers is recommended to be involved in all phases. Our opinion is that the customer should be involved in as many phases as possible. If the companies could adapt their objectives to the customer need,</p><p>they could probably direct their resources from projects that are not supported by the customer into projects supported by them.</p>

Tjänstesektorn utgör idag över 70 % av BNP i Sverige (the world bank group.org, 2005), vilket innebär att tjänster är en viktig del i Sveriges ekonomi. Dock är misslyckandegraden hög när nya tjänster skall introduceras. En tänkbar orsak till detta är att företagen inte lyckas hitta de latenta behoven deras kunder har. Det finns tankar inom forskarvärlden att dessa skulle kunna hittas genom att involvera kunden i tjänsteutvecklingsprocessen (se till exempel Sandén 2007). I dagsläget är forskningen inom kundinvolvering vid tjänsteutveckling dock begränsad. Denna uppsats kommer att behandla kundinvolvering i tjänsteutvecklingen. Syftet med uppsatsen består av två delar, varav det första är att beskriva hur AB Storstockholms lokaltrafik (SL) ser på, tillämpar och definierar kundinvolvering vid tjänsteutveckling. Den andra delen av syftet består i att undersöka om SL använt sig av någon annan kundinvolveringsmetod än de som finns representerade i teorin rörande kundinvolvering vid tjänsteutveckling. Vi har i denna uppsats valt att genomföra en kvalitativ undersökning baserad på delvis strukturerade intervjuer. Vi anser oss kunna se att SL:s syn på kunders medverkan vid utveckling av tjänster överlag är positiv, men att de inte klart definierat vad kundinvolvering innebär. De metoder de använt sig av för att involvera sina kunder i projekt Vagn 2000 kan, i kombination med varandra, ses som en kundinvolveringsmetod, men inte som någon ny sådan. Vi kan också se att kunderna i huvudsak varit involverade i de senare faserna av utvecklingsprocessen samtidigt som det i teorin finns bäring för att kunderna kan involveras i samtliga faser. Vi anser att involveringen skall ske i så många steg som möjligt. Om företagen kan stämma av sina tankar om nya tjänster mot vad kunderna vill ha, så kan de troligtvis snabbare styra om resurser från projekt som kunderna inte tror påtill de som kunderna vill ha. / Today in Sweden the service sector consists of more than 70% of GDP, hence services have become an important part of the Swedish economy. However, when new services are introduced they are often accompanied with a high degree of failure. One cause to this may be that the company does not find the latent need the customer have. There are ideas in the research community that these could be found by involving the customer in the service development (see e.g. Sandén 2007). Today the research in customer involvement in service development is limited. This thesis concerns costumer involvement in service development. The purpose of the thesis consists of two separate parts; the first describes how AB Storstockholms lokaltrafik (SL) view, applies and define costumer involvement in service development, the second, is to investigate if SL has used any other method than the ones represented in theory concerning customer involvement in service development. We have in this thesis chosen to perform a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews. We conclude that SL´s overall view on customer involvement in service development is positive, however they have not clearly defined what customer involvement means. The methods they have used to involve their customer in a project called Vagn 2000 can combined together be viewed as a costumer involvement method, even though not a new one. We can also see that the customer mainly have been involved in the late phases of the service development process, whereas in theory the costumers is recommended to be involved in all phases. Our opinion is that the customer should be involved in as many phases as possible. If the companies could adapt their objectives to the customer need, they could probably direct their resources from projects that are not supported by the customer into projects supported by them.

Cooperation between customers and companies has existed for a long time. However, the role of a customer was rather passive and organizations were the ones who dictated their rules and took a leading role in the process of product creation. With a course of time the situation has been changed and customers are becoming more and more involved into the process of cooperation. As a customer driven innovation is relatively new phenomenon, the aim of our study is to examine its status in the modern business world. It can be observed that organizations all around the globe claim about their readiness and willingness to listen to customers and cooperate with them. Companies create customer support sections where they offer to leave complaints, comments and suggestions. Airline companies tend to have such experience. “We want to hear from you. Your feedback is important and helps us become a better airline” claims Delta Airlines. Tiger Airways states “Yes! We want to hear from you! Submit your feedback via our Customer Support Portal”. And there is multitude of such examples. With the help of the investigation of theoretical material, survey conduction and examining practical examples we aim to examine the issue of customer involvement into cooperation with organizations as well as to found out how ready customers are for such collaboration.

Course/Level: Master thesis, Strategic Marketing Management Authors: Daniel Andersson, Pontus Hjertqvist Thesis advisor: Jukka Hohenthal Title: Customer Involvement in New Service Development: Organizational Implications and Challenges Background: The nature of services is becoming technology-based, which implies that customers are becoming increasingly autonomous from the service firm. Understanding how to involve customers in the development process of such services as well as to recognize the challenges brought by customer involvement in this context should be seen as key issues for developing successful new services. Research questions: RQ1: How are customers involved in the development process of technology-based services? RQ2: How do challenges brought by customer involvement impede new service development? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to explore how an organization within the banking industry in Sweden involves its customers in the new service development process Methodology: A qualitative single embedded case study strategy, combining inductive and deductive reasoning. The empirical investigation was conducted using a triangulation of secondary data and primary data collected from semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: Customers are involved in three out of four of the fundamental phases in the development process. The findings acknowledged that a lack of formal routines and process of managing customer involvement impeded the organization to successfully involve customers in their new service development programs. As such, the findings suggests that organizations need to employ a new organizational design optimized for customer involvement in their NSD-programs, where current structures, processes, and mindsets need to be adjusted accordingly. Keywords: New service development, customer involvement, technology-based services, organizational challenges.

IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and is currently retailing in 44 different countries around the globe. With the implementation of 25 year warranty the importance to validate the quality have increased to satisfy the customer. The aim of this thesis have therefore been to find out the critical factors for kitchen worktops through the expectations of the customers. In addition to this the product development process was investigated to gain an understanding on how IKEA deals with customer complaints today. The thesis was divided in four stages. First the customers’ expectations were investigated by using the survey research method. The formulations of the questions are of great importance in this research method so that the information needed can be gathered without confusion and irritation. The critical factors of the kitchen worktops were also located in this survey and are out of the customer point of view. After the survey was done and the critical factors identified a concept generation phase was started to analyze possible ways of solving the issues with the kitchen worktops. Three proposals of concepts was generated; improvement in quality, improvement in the information communicated by IKEA, and a combination of these two. These proposals were analyzed against each other, against the survey and against the possible concrete gains. When the proposals of concepts were completed a decision to investigate the product development process was made and suggestions on how these critical factors could be found earlier in the process were made. Lastly a proposal of a database system for categorizations of the customer complaints when it comes to different defects were made and proposed to IKEA. Out from the information received by the survey these proposals could be made and the conclusion that scratches and to some extent heat was the most critical flaws, which would be the thing to focus further on. The product development process could also be improved to make it possible to take notice of these critical flaws earlier in the process. To summarize the project was successful and IKEA was really happy with the results, and the extra tasks that were added to this thesis. The first problem description was to only find the customers’ expectations but to get something out of this we added the proposals and the attempt to change the product development process when it comes to kitchen worktops.