Investigating the co-creation of IT consulting service value: empirical findings of a matched pair analysis

Electronic Markets - Digitalization is increasingly and broadly impacting on companies throughout all industries. To cope with digital transformation, organizations need specific IT skills and...     

Joint collaborative planning as a governance mechanism to strengthen the chain of IT value co-creation

Drawing on the relational view of the firm, this paper examines the chain of IT-based co-creation of value and how joint collaborative planning between partners can strengthen this chain. Using data from 51 suppliers in the telecommunication equipment industry, our analysis demonstrates that the greater the partner-specific IT investments made by the firm, the greater its use of supply chain collaborative systems (SCCSs) with those partners and the greater the firm uses SCCSs with partners, the greater its benefits, through the generation of relational rents. Further investigation also shows that partner-specific IT investments is not a predictor of firm benefits and hence confirms the hypothesized chain of IT-based co-creation where IT investments encourage IT use, which in turn creates business value. Finally, our findings also show that joint collaborative planning between partners is an important governance mechanism, anchored on control and trust, that can strengthen the relationship between SCCSs use and firm benefits by impacting the other sources of relational rents tied to the use of SCCSs. This contribution should give academics and practitioners alike a better understanding of how both SCCSs and joint collaborative planning can foster the co-creation of value.     

Resources for value co-creation in e-commerce: a review

Recent service perspectives (represented by service–dominant logic, service logic and service science; henceforth, service-logics) provide a mindset for understanding value co-creation as a mutual service process in which firms and customers integrate their resources. The idea that customer and firm resources should be jointly considered to properly explain perceived value is appealing, particularly in interactional settings such as e-commerce. However, we conduct a literature review and show that cross-sectional empirical e-commerce research intended to explain customer value perceptions continues to rely heavily on a unilateral approach (firm resources), which could be misleading. Subsequently, we identify possible barriers for considering service-logics in e-commerce research, which include the lack of a clear definition and classification of resources and an integrated set of valid and reliable measures of resources. We then take a step forward towards overcoming these barriers by providing a summary, a synthesis and new ideas or, at least, a new emphasis on the implications of existing ideas. The new idea/emphasis is that cross-sectional empirical e-commerce research should jointly consider customer resources and firm resources. No prior work has stressed this proposition. We provide a synthesis by re-organizing scarce and scattered service-logics-oriented existing literature on resources to offer a definition and a comprehensive framework for the classification of resources. Finally, we provide a summary by putting together valid and reliable measures of firm resources and customer resources that have been sparsely considered in the 69 studies selected. These measures could be used by researchers in order to model and test value co-creation processes in e-commerce B2C contexts.     

Defining the relationships between IT service management and IT service governance

IT service provider organizations need both IT service management (ITSM) and IT service governance (ITSG) to ensure successful service provision for their customers. However, current service science literature has not adequately addressed how these activities differ from each other. Focusing solely on IT service management and ignoring service governance aspects may cause difficulties in measuring the performance of service management, defining and deploying the roles and responsibilities of service management, allocating the resources for right service improvements and adopting the service-oriented process culture. The research problem of this study is: How does IT service management differ from IT service governance? The main contribution of the study is a framework for IT service governance and a roadmap of IT service management frameworks and standards that can be utilized in establishing IT service governance activities. The theory-based framework is validated in an IT service change management case study with five Finnish IT service provider organizations. The results of this study may be used by top management, service directors and the IT service managers of IT service companies to better identify different aspects of IT service management and IT service governance.     

IT service climate,antecedents and IT service quality outcomes: Some initial evidence

Although many IT service management frameworks exist, we still have limited theoretical understanding of IT service quality within a broader nomological network. Building on recent conceptual work on the IT service climate construct, this study empirically establishes it as a predictor of IT service quality using survey data from both IT units and their clients. Also examined was a set of antecedents which provide a foundation upon which a favorable service climate can be built. The IT service climate instrument, when incorporated into employee feedback initiatives, can provide guidance to IT executives about practices to improve service quality.     

Customer benefits and value co-creation activities in corporate social networking services

Despite the growing importance of customers as value co-creators, little is known about their reasons for voluntarily participating in value co-creation activities. Based on expectancy-value theory, this paper empirically examines the specific benefits that customers anticipate from engaging in certain co-creation activities. Furthermore, it examines the manner in which interactions between customer benefits and joint activities/industry types influence customers’ intentions to continuously engage in value co-creation in the context of corporate social networking service (SNS)-based virtual customer environments (VCEs). Study data were collected from 327 corporate Facebook and Twitter VCE users through an online panel survey. Results of the main effect relationships reveal that all three customer benefits – cognitive, social integrative, and hedonic – significantly impacted customer intentions to continuously participate in value co-creation. Furthermore, the benefit–intention relationships differed depending upon the type of co-creation activities (e.g. ideation, design, testing, support, and marketing) and industry characteristics. Theoretical discussions about these results are provided, and implications for future research and practice are presented.     

A consideration of the process of co-creation of value with customers

A focus on the customer has been recognized as a key factor in the success of a company, and considerable research has been conducted in the fields of management and marketing. This case study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the way grocery retailers co-create value with their customers by using a new technology called CalNeCo.     

Understanding value co-creation in virtual communities: The key role of complementarities and trade-offs

Virtual communities form the principal environment favoring provider-client interaction. However, questions regarding the way to manage these communities so that they might generate value have yet to be resolved. Following an inductive approach, seven Lego virtual communities, classified following their governance form and objectives, were analyzed. It is found that different kinds of virtual communities appear as complementary tools to favor value co-creation and enhance members’ performance by constituting a system of value co-creation. Moreover, these community features can help firms achieve a better adjustment between their strategies and their decision-making process relative to the use of social networks.     

The contingent effect of personal IT innovativeness and IT self-efficacy on innovative use of complex IT

While organisational investment in complex information technologies (IT) keeps growing, these technologies are often applied at a superficial level and fail to attain the promised benefits. To further extract the value potential of complex IT, this study investigates employee users' innovate with IT (IwIT), which is a post-acceptance behaviour that refers to individual users applying IT in novel ways to support their task performance. Drawing on the information system continuance (ISC) model, we propose a research framework with perceived usefulness (PU) and satisfaction (SAT) as the antecedents of IwIT. We further emphasise the contingent role of personal characteristics and include personal innovativeness with IT (PIIT) and IT self-efficacy (ITSE) as the moderators of the framework. We validate the model with data from users of two complex ITs: enterprise resource planning and business intelligence technologies. The results suggest that positioning personal factors as moderators significantly increases the explanatory power of the ISC model and offers a more comprehensive understanding about IwIT. Specifically, ITSE positively moderates the effect of PU and negatively moderates the effect of SAT on IwIT. The moderating role of PIIT, however, is subject to the specific type of IT of investigation.     

Optimization of service value

Service organizations try to put more emphasis on strengthening its core competence for customization in order to survive intense competitive pressures. The most difficult thing in customization is that it is difficult to fully understand the service attribute. Moreover, it is not easy to utilize the service attribute in decision making for the service organization. In this study, we try to resolve the uncertainty of the service attribute using the service delivery system. The purpose of this paper is to develop a generic model that optimizes service value from the perspective of the service delivery system. Most studies on service value apply a multidimensional approach based on an empirical model and they measure the service value on the basis of benefits (service quality) and sacrifices (cost). We divide service delivery system into several stages and optimize the service value in terms of service quality and service cost of each stage in one optimization model. We applied our model to a dental service facility in Korea.     

Quantifying forecast quality of IT business value

This article discusses how to quantify the forecasting quality of IT business value. We address a common economic indicator often used to determine the business value of project proposals, the Net Present Value (NPV). To quantify the forecasting quality of IT business value, we develop a generalized method that is able to account for asymptotic cases and negative valued entities. We assess the generalization with real-world data of four organizations together consisting of 1435 IT assets with a total investment cost of 1232+ million Euro for which 6328 forecasts were made. Using the generalized method, we determine the forecasting quality of the NPV, along with the benefits and cost using real-world data of another 102 IT assets with a total business value of 1812 million Euro. For the real-world case study, we will find that the quality of the forecasted NPVs is lower than the forecasted benefits, which is again lower than the forecasting quality of the cost. Also, we perform a sensitivity analysis to investigate the impact on the quality of an asset’s forecasted NPV when the forecasting quality of benefits or cost improves. Counterintuitively, it turned out in this case study that if the quality of cost forecasts would improve, the overall quality of its NPV predictions would degrade. This underlines the importance of both accurate cost and benefit predictions. Finally, we show how to use the quantified forecast information to enhance decision information using two simulation examples.     

本体驱动的IT服务管理系统模型研究

针对传统IT管理面临的配置信息不全、被动响应式的工作方式及IT部门充当"救火队"等问题,介绍了一种新的IT管理方式——以流程为导向、以客户为中心的IT管理实施方法,即IT服务管理(ITSM),分析了IT服务管理的原理,并将本体概念引入IT服务管理领域,提出了一个本体驱动的IT服务管理系统模型。通过本体将IT服务管理领域知识及过程形成的案例知识相互关联,为应用操作提供知识支持和指导,提高系统管理的智能化程度。     

Designing an evaluation framework for IT service management

Applying IT Service Management (ITSM) is a key issue in the management of an organisation's IT function. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the most popular and influential framework for applying ITSM. With adoption growing globally it is important to understand the benefits that ITIL processes can bring to an organisation. To date the benefits of implementing and using ITIL processes have been predicted or assumed with very little research and minimal anecdotal evidence. We present a design of a holistic evaluation framework for ITSM improvement efforts with particular focus on ITIL.     

IT服务管理的知识支持结构研究*

通过信息技术基础设施库(ITIL)中的服务提供和服务支持进行对比来加深对ITIL理念的理解.然后结合某电子政务运维系统实施和软件过程改进知识管理经验的分析,探讨了信息技术服务管理(ITSM)的相关问题.最后提出了ITSM的知识支持结构.     

面向业务的IT服务管理系统的研究与实现

提出研发面向业务的IT服务管理系统——SAMP,通过对应用系统及其所依赖的IT基础架构的状态和行为进行监测与分析,实现对应用系统的可用、性能、安全、异常以及关键资源等指标的管理,帮助IT管理人员加快问题定位和故障处理,保障应用系统能够安全可靠地运行。SAMP核心技术包括用于事件关联分析的上下文关联分析引擎,用于提高指标采集效率的指标组和逻辑指标,以及采集调度机制和告警机制。SAMP已经在多个行业投入使用,取得良好的应用效果。     

基于ITIL的IT服务管理在ERP系统中的应用特点

基于ITIL的IT服务管理在IT基础设施和ERP应用系统的实践是有所区别的.本文就业务运作对ERP系统的要求,结合ITIL在跨国性公司中的应用实践,在服务支持部分分析了IT服务管理在ERP系统中的应用特点,并提出了相应的解决方案.     

Measuring the risk-based value of IT security solutions

Information security problems cost millions of dollars for US companies and billions for the overall US economy. Nowadays, the question is not whether organizations need more security, but how much to spend for added security. And yet investing in IT security has always been a hard sell for IT managers. Scores of security technologies are on the market and, if anything is certain, it is that none of them can guarantee security. Each choice involves risk. The problem is that security managers lack structured cost-benefit methods to evaluate IT security solutions in light of prevailing uncertainties. A framework can help evaluate the costs and benefits of IT security solutions using a company's risk profile. Using an unconventional concept, this framework bases benefit on avoided risk rather than increased productivity. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) uses this framework to help demonstrate to management and auditors that it is significantly less expensive to accept some damage from cyberattacks than to attempt to prevent all possible damages. This pragmatic approach continues to enable LBNL's cybersecurity staff to optimize security countermeasure investments and reduce spending without sacrificing protection. The framework described here uses a risk management approach that integrates risk profile with actual damages and implementation costs to determine the costs and benefits of information security solutions. This approach requires reasonably voluminous data and is thus well suited for organizations with extensive incident data or when the consequences of incidents are high enough to warrant extensive data gathering.