Increased competition and lower margins on products cause many traditional manufacturing companies to resort to services to increase revenues and differentiate themselves from competitors. A challenge manufacturing companies and their sellers face within this change lie within understanding what their customers value in the contexts of service and how to convey these values into superior value propositions. This research intends to increase understanding in what the difference is in the perception of value between sellers and their customers and what the implications for these differences are. This is done by the means of a case study with a setting in the maritime industry. Empirical data was collected through eight interviews, of which four was with the case company’s sellers, three was with customers to the case company and one was with an external industrial service manager. From the interviews the following conclusions could be drawn. Firstly, the findings indicate that the sellers and the customers had similar perception of what value is, where both sides emphasized on the importance of economical and functional values. Secondly, the findings indicate that the implication of the differences on the perception of value lies in that the sellers mostly focuses on the value that the services could provide to the customers while the customers regarded the value in relation to sacrifices. An implication of this is that the sellers might believe that the customers gain more value from their services than the customers believes they do. This misperception of customer perceived value could lead to challenges in selling services and the loss of customers to competitors that offers a better trade-off between benefits and sacrifices. / Ökad konkurrens och minskade marginaler på produkter får många traditionella tillverkningsföretag att söka sig till tjänster för att på så sätt öka sina intäkter och särskilja sig ifrån sina konkurrenter. En utmaning som tillverkningsföretag möter inom denna förändring ligger i att förstå vad deras kunder värderar i tjänstesammanhang och hur de kan förmedla dessa värden i överlägset värdeförslag. Denna forskning har för avsikt att öka förståelsen för vad skillnaden är i uppfattningen av värde mellan säljpersonal och dess kunder och hur skillnaderna kan påverka genomförandet av förslag till servicevärden. Detta undersöktes i en fallstudie på ett företag inom den maritima industrin. Empiriskt data samlades in via åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer var av fyra med säljare på samarbetsföretaget, tre med kunder till samarbetsföretag och en med en utomstående industriell servicechef. Från intervjuerna kunde följande slutsatser dras. För det första indikerar resultaten att skillnaden i uppfattning av värde mellan säljarna och kunderna är likartad och att det största fokuset ligger på den funktionella och ekonomiska dimensionen. För det andra indikerar resultaten att implikationerna av skillnaderna på uppfattningen av värde ligger i att säljarna mestadels fokuserar på det värde som tjänsterna kan erbjuda kunderna medan kunderna betraktade värdet i förhållande till de uppoffringar eller kostnader som medföljer. En implikation av detta är att säljarna leds till att tro att kunderna får mer värde av tjänsterna än kunderna uppfattar att de får. Denna missuppfattning av kundupplevt värde kan leda till utmaningar när det gäller att sälja tjänster och bortfall av kunder till konkurrenter som ger bättre avvägning mellan fördelar och uppoffringar.

The cytokines GM-CSF, IL-3 and IL-5 are central regulators of haemopoietic cell functions and are pivotal in the regulation of haemopoiesis and inflammatory responses of myeloid cells. In particular, these cytokines have been shown to perform essential functions in host defence against foreign pathogens through their ability to regulate innate immune responses in myeloid cells. As key regulators of such important processes, these cytokines play an important role in human inflammatory pathologies such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis as well as a number of leukemias such as JML and CMML. GM-CSF, IL-3 and IL-5 signal through receptors containing α subunits specific to each cytokine and a common β subunit (βc). Cytokine stimulation leads to tyrosine phosphorylation of the βc and promotes specific responses such as proliferation, survival and activation of haemopoietic cells. Mouse knockout studies identified a key function of these cytokines in the activation of effector functions of myeloid cells, including production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and phagocytosis. These earlier studies provide a link between cytokine signalling and inflammation, but the molecular mechanisms by which βc activation regulates effector cell functions, and the receptor motifs involved, are unknown. The aim of this thesis was to address two broad questions with regard to βc signalling: (1) Does βc regulate specific cellular responses by phosphotyrosine-independent mechanisms? (2) What are the molecular mechanisms by which βc initiates signalling to promote specific biological responses such as activation of effector cell functions? To address the first question, we have focussed on Serine 585, a potential 14-3-3 binding site which lies in the cytoplasmic potion of huβc. Out results show that the mutation huβc S585G disrupted the interaction of 14-3-3ζ with βc, whilst not affecting receptor tyrosine phosphorylation. Both mouse and human βc were shown to interact with 14-3-3 proteins, indicating that this interaction is conserved between these species. Significantly, a huβc S585G mutant was unable to promote haemopoietic cell survival in response to IL-3. These results identify a new mechanism by which cytokine receptors are able to couple to downstream signalling pathways that regulate cell survival. An approach was developed and optimised to analyse specific GM-CSF-mediated responses in monocytes/macrophages expressing wildtype or mutant huβc, (including huβc S585G that was defective in regulating survival). Bone marrow-derived muβc -/-;muβIL-3 -/- monocytes/macrophages were retrovirally transduced with constructs expressing wildtype or mutant huβc, along with huGMRα, then purified by FACS. Two assays were established to measure effector functions in the transduced monocyte/macrophages; (1) a flow cytometry assay for ROS production, and (2) an assay for phagocytosis. The capacity for GM-CSF to prime (i.e. enhance effector functions) ROS production and phagocytosis was investigated in huGMRα-transduced monocytes/macrophages. Our results have identified two key residues in the cytoplasmic domain of βc subunit: Tyrosine 577 (required for huβc interaction with the adaptor protein Shc) and serine 585 (required for 14-3-3 association), that are essential for the ability of GM-CSF to regulate key effector functions in monocytes/macrophages. These novel findings are significant in that they establish a molecular link between the GM-CSF/IL-3/IL-5 receptor and the regulation of both haemopoietic cell survival and inflammatory responses, and therefore have important implications in our understanding of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1317007 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Medicine, 2008