This thesis identifies the unique capabilities that characterise product-oriented vs. service-oriented firms in the software industry. Firms in the software industry have very different business models from other industries. Some firms rely entirely on earning revenue from services provided on an hourly basis, while others build and sell software once and earn revenue from it for years to come. There are even successful firms in the industry with a variety of revenue sources and models resulting from planned or unplanned transitions across orientations. The unique characteristics of this industry offer an opportunity to study the development of organisational capabilities that support contrasting strategic orientations. There is substantial literature on strategic orientations (e.g., Roberts 1990; Lynn et al. 2000; Pelham 2000; Voss and Voss 2000). There is also substantial literature on organisational capabilities (e.g., Nelson and Winter 1982; Leonard-Barton 1992; Day 1994; Teece et al. 1997; Winter 2003; Ethiraj et al. 2005). However, few studies empirically identify organisational capabilities that are developed to support an orientation. This study identifies the capabilities that enable product orientations and service orientations in the software industry. Moreover, the research tests the hypothesis that product orientations and services orientations are distinguished by different organisational capabilities. The study tests this hypothesis by eliciting capabilities and measuring the maturity of these capabilities in different firms. The findings of this study make unique contributions to the literature pertaining to strategic orientations and capabilities through further definition of both constructs. This research also utilises a previously untested approach for identifying capabilities. The method approaches the research problem using a two-step approach. The first phase focuses on eliciting the capabilities that characterise both service and product orientations. Interviews with key informants support the elicitation of capabilities. The second phase of the research study involved the collection of data using a survey to validate the existence of and identify the maturity of the capabilities from the first phase. The findings indicate that there are significant differences between productoriented and service-oriented firms, the capabilities that distinguish them and their perspectives on transition between orientations. The key result of the research is the identification of the capabilities that distinguish between software firms of three different orientations: product orientation, service orientation and a hybrid orientation. This research study contributes to advancement in the literature pertaining to strategic orientations and capabilities (e.g., Morgan and Strong 2003; Venkatraman 1989; Duhan et al. 2005; Winter 2000; Teece 2007). The results of the study further define what it means for software firms to have product, service and hybrid orientations, resulting in advancement of these constructs. The approach used to elicit and capture capabilities is novel and contributes to advancement in the literature pertaining to capabilities by applying a previously untested methodology. The results of this research are of particular interest to software firms that aspire to build or strengthen a product, service or hybrid orientation.

This thesis identifies the unique capabilities that characterise product-oriented vs. service-oriented firms in the software industry. Firms in the software industry have very different business models from other industries. Some firms rely entirely on earning revenue from services provided on an hourly basis, while others build and sell software once and earn revenue from it for years to come. There are even successful firms in the industry with a variety of revenue sources and models resulting from planned or unplanned transitions across orientations. The unique characteristics of this industry offer an opportunity to study the development of organisational capabilities that support contrasting strategic orientations. There is substantial literature on strategic orientations (e.g., Roberts 1990; Lynn et al. 2000; Pelham 2000; Voss and Voss 2000). There is also substantial literature on organisational capabilities (e.g., Nelson and Winter 1982; Leonard-Barton 1992; Day 1994; Teece et al. 1997; Winter 2003; Ethiraj et al. 2005). However, few studies empirically identify organisational capabilities that are developed to support an orientation. This study identifies the capabilities that enable product orientations and service orientations in the software industry. Moreover, the research tests the hypothesis that product orientations and services orientations are distinguished by different organisational capabilities. The study tests this hypothesis by eliciting capabilities and measuring the maturity of these capabilities in different firms. The findings of this study make unique contributions to the literature pertaining to strategic orientations and capabilities through further definition of both constructs. This research also utilises a previously untested approach for identifying capabilities. The method approaches the research problem using a two-step approach. The first phase focuses on eliciting the capabilities that characterise both service and product orientations. Interviews with key informants support the elicitation of capabilities. The second phase of the research study involved the collection of data using a survey to validate the existence of and identify the maturity of the capabilities from the first phase. The findings indicate that there are significant differences between productoriented and service-oriented firms, the capabilities that distinguish them and their perspectives on transition between orientations. The key result of the research is the identification of the capabilities that distinguish between software firms of three different orientations: product orientation, service orientation and a hybrid orientation. This research study contributes to advancement in the literature pertaining to strategic orientations and capabilities (e.g., Morgan and Strong 2003; Venkatraman 1989; Duhan et al. 2005; Winter 2000; Teece 2007). The results of the study further define what it means for software firms to have product, service and hybrid orientations, resulting in advancement of these constructs. The approach used to elicit and capture capabilities is novel and contributes to advancement in the literature pertaining to capabilities by applying a previously untested methodology. The results of this research are of particular interest to software firms that aspire to build or strengthen a product, service or hybrid orientation.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate individual hotel employee perceptions of their service orientation and the support they receive from co-workers and their employer to discover the impact of these perceptions on the employee's feelings of their job satisfaction, commitment to their organization, their intention to leave their organization and intention to leave their industry. A comparative analysis of results from the United States and Russia reveals differences in these relations in the two countries. Analysis using Partial Least Squares Path Modeling for developing a measurement model and model estimation using a combined data set, US data set and a Russian data set. This research study included 141 American hotel employees and 107 Russian hotel employees. Service orientation, co-worker support and employee support were positively related to increased job satisfaction in the United States and Russia. In both countries, service orientation was negatively related to an employee's intention to leave the hospitality industry and co-worker support was positively related to organizational commitment. Country differences occurred where items were only significant in one country. In Russia, organizational support and co-worker support were negatively related to intention to leave their employer. In the United States, organizational support had a positive relation to organizational commitment. Surprisingly, co-worker support had a positive relation to intention to leave the industry in the United States. This may indicate that excessive co-worker support might undermine the need to achieve of highly service oriented hotel employees, resulting in a flight from the service industry to a more challenging industry.

Thesis M.Com. (Human Resources Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2014. / The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) in leader-member exchanges (LMX) and the association of these leadership variables on employee outcomes, customer service orientation and turnover intentions. The specific context for this study is call centres. The growth in the call centre industry has warranted an investigation into variables that lead to their success. With an increased focus on retaining satisfied customers, the need to understand the factors that lead to this is emphasised. The importance of leadership and its impact on the success of organisations is often accentuated in the literature This research aimed to gain a better understanding of the variables which affect the success of call centres from a leadership perspective. The effect of leadership and specifically leader- member exchange - on employee and organisational outcomes is studied. These outcomes include job satisfaction, commitment, psychological empowerment, turnover intentions and customer orientation. The effect of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) on LMX was also assessed. This research was conducted in the South African call centre context. The target population was defined as call centre agents in the Gauteng region. 192 call centre agents from various call centres formed part of the sample. Data was gathered using self-report questionnaires. The questionnaire was administered in two parts and once all the data was collected, the relationships were tested using structural equation modelling in the SAS 9.3 statistical program. Various other tests were conducted, including tests for reliability and validity. Cronbach alphas were calculated in order to confirm the reliability of the variables. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in order to confirm validity. Furthermore, correlation analysis iv and path analysis was conducted to ascertain the significance of the relationships identified. LMX and psychological empowerment were found to be central in this research, having the greatest impact on the outcome variables studied; turnover intentions and customer orientation. Important recommendations for further research include the assessment of a more balance mix of in-bound and out-bound call centres since differences may exist and this research was predominantly comprised of in-bound call centres. With one of the most significant paths identified being psychological empowerment to employee customer orientation, the findings suggest that call centre managers may need to consider the long term effects of psychological empowerment on employee customer orientation and turnover intentions. The cost involved with employees leaving the organisation or losing dissatisfied customers may warrant an initiative to empower call centre agents. The use of self-managed teams may be one way to achieve this. Leaders were also found to play a central role in the outcomes studied in this research. In this regard, leaders should also go on extensive training programmes on how to deal with individual employees and on establishing good relationships with them. Managers could get peer reviews of leaders to understand where and if any problems exist. The use of team building exercises may also assist in developing good, high quality LMX relationships.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, but its connection with agrarian themes is found in all of LDS canonized scripture, implying a sense of antiquity from the time of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Scriptural examples and teachings of LDS leaders build the foundation of the Latter-day Saint agrarian theology. Valuing this connection to the land remained constant during the Church’s early development, but diminished in theological focus years before the Great Depression. During the Depression, the Church proactively created a Church Security Plan (later renamed the Church Welfare Plan) to aid Church members’ temporal and spiritual needs. Welfare projects provided relief through Mormonism’s concepts of independence, self-reliance, stewardship, and welfare. The application of the Church Welfare Program encouraged the development of these doctrinal principles, and resulted in the creation of spiritual communities on Church welfare farms as the needs of the community were met, both LDS and non-LDS. Welfare farms, created during the Great Depression, establish an environment for the application of the agrarian theology that has existed within Mormonism since its beginnings, and acts as an ideal setting for the creation of spiritual communities.

The Western world manufacturing industry is facing a tough global market today. The production is moved to developing countries, where the production costs are much lower. Big manufacturing companies like VOLVO, SKF and ABB are all following this trend. The tradition in the manufacturing industry is to produce and sell a product, where the best scenario is to never see it again. This tradition is starting to change and the focus of revenue from the whole product life cycle has increased during the last decades. When utilities the whole life cycle with different services the revenue increases drastically, there is a competitive advantage, a more stabile revenue flow in economic cycles, socio-economical and environmental sustainability. When increasing service orientation, there will be challenges to overcome, discovered on a conceptual level, thereby the research call for how these challenges can be seen at an operative level. The purpose of this thesis is to identify these critical factors and understand these at an operative level. This master thesis was conducted through a case study and used several data collection methods, such as interviews, observations and literature review. The empirical data was thematically analysed and categorized as different critical factors and compeered with the literature. The case company chosen for the thesis is the Rolls-Royce site in Kristinehamn, Sweden. They are in a process of restructuring, where the production is downsized. A “catch 22” problem was seen; when a manufacturer becomes more service orientated the aim is to generate a profit from services, meaning that a service needs a fee. But the possibility to put a fee on a service is hindered by the lack of service orientation within the manufacturing organisation. In this thesis increased service orientation is used to create a foundation for charged services. Critical factors on an operative level was identified and understood. Two new critical factors that were found to have an impact in this specific case were concluded. A general model of how to approach the problem of putting a fee on services, starting in the end of service orientation, is conducted. This gives an implication of how manufacturers can improve their service orientation and eventually set a fee on their free services.

Globalisation and competition from low-cost countries has pushed manufacturing firms towards offering services to remain competitive. However, increasing the service orientation of a manufacturing firm to find new ways of value (co-)creation has presented several challenges, such as the fact that services do not provide the expected revenues, and resistance from both the sales force and from customers towards services. The aim of this thesis is to understand challenges linked to increasing service orientation in manufacturing firms, by means of goods and service business logics. The thesis emphasises the three dimensions of business logics – value perspective, service business strategy, and service offering – and studies them empirically in service divisions in the pulp and paper industry and in the automotive industry. The findings show that firms with inconsistency between the three dimensions face certain challenges. Most often, the firms have a value perspective of goods business logic, but a service business strategy and a service offering of service business logic. Therefore, the most important and most difficult challenge to overcome in order to increase a manufacturing firm’s service orientation is the employees’ value perspective. Three service manoeuvres were key to overcoming this challenge: changing employees’ mind-sets, starting to value services, and separating products and services. Although separating products and services could be assessed as a service manoeuvre consistent with goods business logic, it facilitated an increased service orientation. The fact that goods business logic manoeuvres led to a higher degree of service orientation, whereas service business logic manoeuvres did not always do so, is discussed as a service orientation paradox.

Middleware eases the development of distributed applications. Expansion in the enterprise world entails integration of heterogeneous products, and there is a demand for a balance between performance, interoperability and security in the distributed applications. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) offers a technology to build service-oriented, secure, reliable and interoperable distributed applications. The current literature contains few studies comparing the performance of WCF with other technologies, but it does not address the performance of WCF in a cross-technology communication. This master thesis experimentally evaluates the performance of WCF in unsecure and secure variants. It evaluates the performance in on-machine and cross-machine communication, and it addresses the performance of WCF’s interoperability with ASMX and Java. We have developed the service and client applications in both secure and unsecure variants. The experiments are then conducted using these applications in a laboratory setting. We have measured the performance in terms of throughput, response time, processor and memory utilization during the experiments. Our results show that in unsecure variants, the WCF service in cross-machine communication has the best response time than on-machine communication on small datasets. However, on large datasets the service in on-machine communication has the best response time. In secure variants, the service in on-machine communication has better response time than the cross-machine communication. In both secure and unsecure variants, the service has better throughput and consumed lesser resources in cross-machine communication than in on-machine communication. In case of WCF’s interoperability with ASMX and Java, both the secure as well as unsecure WCF service show more scalable performance for the WCF client than for ASMX and Java clients. The secure as well as unsecure service show better performance for the ASMX client than for the Java client. The unsecure variants of WCF service perform better than the secure variants, except in a few cases of memory utilization. Therefore, the performance of the WCF service degrades due to security.

Service orientation has been suggested to be a work-related behavioral trait that contributes toward overall job performance in certain occupations. Therefore, the Batrus Hollweg Service Questionnaire (SQ), a personality inventory, was hypothesized to predict performance in a sample (N=55) of fast-food restaurant workers whose jobs were primarily composed of service-related elements. A performance evaluation form was created for use as the criterion measure. An alternative scoring system for the SQ was developed, and showed it to be significantly correlated with the criterion. The potential for use of the alternative scoring procedure is discussed.

The current public procurement process of pharmaceuticals is characterized by a lack of overall perspective and distrust between the pharmaceutical industry and buying Swedish county councils. This is due to the historical context between the two parties. There also exist cost inefficiencies due to a high cost focus and the lack of an overall cost perspective. These factors have affected how the parties on the pharmaceutical market interact and act in relation to each other. The public procurement situation is something both the studied pharmaceutical company (MSD Sverige AB) and the studied buyers (Region Östergötland, Region Jönköpings län and NT-rådet) are aware of and agree on has to change. Therefore, the way public procurement of pharmaceuticals is carried out has to change for it to the meet current challenges, and future demand, of the Swedish health care.The studied pharmaceutical company wishes to increase the service orientation in public procurement processes, something the county councils and NT-rådet are in favour of. Furthermore, the company wants to achieve a value co-creation between itself and the buyers, however, the possibility of achieving value co-creation is somewhat debatable among the buyers since they have different opinions of its feasibility. Nevertheless, the report assumes that value co-creation is possible in the studied system. At the same time interviews have demonstrated the existence of different opinions and thoughts regarding value adding services amongst the different buyers, i.e. there is a lack of consensus if sufficient resources exist to change the procurement process and what part the pharmaceutical company should play if the service orientation increases. Moreover, there exist divided opinions regarding how the interaction with the pharmaceutical company should take place since the majority of the buyers wishes to have a clear separation from the pharmaceutical industry, something making the development of value adding service more difficult.Since there exist disagreements regarding how a change to the procurement process practically should be carried out and there is a distrust between the parties, the aim of the report is to demonstrate similarities and dissimilarities between them within four key areas: business relationships, cost efficiency, strategies and service orientation. The purpose is also to illustrate how a changed procurement process could benefit all parties and the process as a whole. The authors do this by creating a strategic framework, which is based on the four presented key areas and scientific theories. It shows where the parties are today and where they theoretically should be in the future to improve the procurement process, meet today’s and future challenges. The buyers’ biggest challenge is to improve the cost efficiency and use of resources, for the studied pharmaceutical company the biggest challenge is to create new business opportunities. The basis for the report and strategic framework is that both parties should benefit from drawn conclusions since they are in a symbiotic/cooperative relationship due to the dependency between each other’s businesses. Therefore, the framework has to be developed with the aim of promoting value co-creation and render a positive change to the procurement process possible.The presented framework demonstrates that an increase service orientation, through the introduction of value adding services, is the key to value co-creation, improve use of resourcesIIand a more cost efficient procurements processes of pharmaceuticals. Yet, both the analysis and conclusion clearly shows that value co-creation between the parties is not possible today, but in the future, due to existing business relationships. These are affected negative because of the existing distrust between the parties, thus preventing the creation of better business relationships. Therefore, the negative business relationship prevents an increased service orientation and the introduction of value adding services in the procurement processes. This in its turn hinder the buying parties from improving their use of resources and increasing the cost efficiency. Bad business relationships also mean the studied pharmaceutical company will lose business opportunities. Consequently, both parties will fail to address their current and future challenges. Therefore, improving business relationships is a key factor for reaching value co-creation and increase the overall cost perspective in the public procurement process of pharmaceuticals. Better business relationships will also decrease the distrust and allow for increased service orientation, something that will improve cost efficiency and efficient use of resources in procurement processes and open up for new business opportunities. / Läkemedelsupphandling präglas idag av ett bristande helhetsperspektiv och förtroende mellan läkemedelsindustrin och upphandlande landsting i Sverige, vilka härstammar från den historiska kontexten. Det finns även en kostnadsineffektivitet till följd av en hög kostnadsfokus och det bristande helhetsperspektivet. Dessa faktorer har påverkat hur aktörerna inom läkemedelsupphandling interagerar med, och agerar i förhållande till, varandra. Situationen är något både det studerade läkemedelsbolaget (MSD Sverige AB) och de studerade upphandlarna (Region Östergötland, Region Jönköpings län samt NT-rådet) är medvetna och överens om måste förändras. Därför måste sättet läkemedelsupphandlingar görs på idag förändras för att möta existerande utmaningar och framtida sjukvårdsbehov, dock är aktörerna oense kring hur en sådan förändring praktiskt ska ske.Läkemedelsbolaget vill öka tjänsteorienteringen, genom att erbjuda läkemedelskompletterande mervärdestjänster, vilket även regionerna och NT-rådet generellt ställer sig positiva till. Dessutom vill läkemedelsbolaget uppnå ett gemensamt värdeskapande, något som upphandlade aktörer har delade åsikter kring om det är möjligt eller inte. I rapporten antas dock att ett gemensamt värdeskapande går att uppnå i det studerade systemet. Samtidigt har genomförda intervjuer visat att åsikter och tankar kring mervärdestjänster skiljer sig åt bland upphandlande aktörer, bland annat huruvida resurser finns för att förändra upphandlingsprocessen och vilken roll läkemedelsbolaget ska ha vid en ökad tjänstorientering. Det råder även delade meningar kring interaktionens utformning med läkemedelsbolaget då majoriteten av upphandlande aktörer vill ha en tydlig separation från läkemedelsindustrin, något som försvårar en utveckling av mervärdestjänster.Eftersom det existerar oenigheter kring hur en förändring av läkemedelsupphandling praktiskt ska ske och en misstro finns mellan aktörerna visar rapporten på likheter och skillnader mellan aktörerna inom fyra identifierade kärnområden: affärsrelationer, kostnadseffektivitet, strategi samt tjänsteorientering. Rapporten visar också hur en förändrad läkemedelupphandling skulle kunna gynna båda parter och läkemedelsupphandlingen som helhet. Författarna gör detta genom skapandet av ett strategiskt ramverk, vilket bygger på nyss nämnda kärnområden. Det strategiska ramverket baseras på vetenskapliga teorier och illustrerar vart aktörerna befinner sig inom respektive kärnområde idag samt vad de bör eftersträva för att teoretiskt kunna möta framtidens och dagens utmaningar i samband med läkemedelsupphandling. Regionernas största utmaningar är att förbättra kostnadseffektiviteten och resursutnyttjandet, läkemedelsbolagets största utmaning är att skapa nya affärsförutsättningar. Utgångspunkten i rapporten och det strategiska ramverket är att båda aktörer ska gynnas av författarnas slutsats då aktörerna befinner sig i en symbios-/samarbetsrelation till följd av att deras verksamheter är beroende av varandra. Därför anser författarna att ramverket måste syfta till att uppnå ett gemensamt värdeskapande för möjliggöra en positiv förändring av läkemedelsupphandling.Ramverket, vilket presenteras i rapportens slutsats, lyfter att en ökad tjänsteorientering, genom införandet av mervärdestjänster knutna till läkemedel, i samband med läkemedelsupphandling är nyckeln till ett gemensamt värdeskapande, förbättrat resursutnyttjande och mer kostnadseffektiva läkemedelsupphandlingar. Dock visar både analysen och slutsatsen på att ett gemensamt värdeskapande mellan aktörerna inte är möjligt idag, även om det i framtiden ärIVmöjligt, till följd av den existerande misstron mellan aktörerna, vilken förhindrar att en god affärsrelation skapas. Följaktligen förhindrar den dåliga affärsrelationen en ökad tjänsteorientering och ett införande av mervärdestjänster i samband med läkemedelsupphandling. Det gör i sin tur att regionerna inte kan förbättra sitt resursutnyttjande eller sin kostnadseffektivitet vid läkemedelsupphandling, dessutom får läkemedelsbolaget inga nya affärsmöjligheter. Således misslyckas båda aktörer att möta sina nuvarande och framtida utmaningar. Därför är affärsrelationer det kärnområde och den faktorn som idag är mest avgörande för att aktörerna ska kunna möta sina utmaningar, uppnå ett gemensamt värdeskapande, öka helhetsperspektivet samt förbättra läkemedelsupphandling i framtiden.