Stakeholder involvement in the new service design process

The role of innovation/new product/service development as a source of organisational growth and profitability is well recognised. Similarly, the need to build ‘quality’ into the design of new products and services is understood. Research focusing on the development of new financial services usually includes new product development models, emphasising the ‘technical quality’ of the service, while service design models emphasise process or ‘functional quality’. Additionally, while the impact of staff on service delivery at the implementation stage and the need for inter-departmental cooperation is widely discussed, many studies do not focus on the range of stakeholder interests that affect the new product development/design process. The case study presented highlights both the focus of service design and the multiple stakeholders involved in the process. In-depth interviews with managers of the new product development department of a UK bank reveal potential and actual sources of conflict.     

国内和欧美手机银行业务发展的实践与创新

结合手机银行发展的新趋势,本文选取了美国银行等3家欧美银行和工商银行等4家国内银行为研究样本,围绕服务模式、产品功能、安全性和业务发展等纬度进行对比分析.跟欧美同业相比,国内手机银行针对智能手机的特色服务体系尚待进一步完善,但产品功能更丰富,安全防范层级更高,即将进入快速成长期.因此,国内手机银行应充分把握发展机遇,大...     

Development of an additive manufacturing technology scenario for opportunity identification—The case of Mexico

This study presents a Technological Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing Technology – also known as 3D printing –, which has been elaborated by the combination of three methodologies: technological surveillance, technological road mapping, and structural analysis. The resulting methodology allowed to establish landmarks in the future evolution of the technology selected at market, product, technology and capacities levels in a particular region, a specific scenario for Mexico. Additive Manufacturing Technology is an advanced manufacturing process different from the traditional subtracting manufacturing methods. This technology has generated great expectation in the last years, and a great future impact in the technology is anticipated; many authors think that the Additive Manufacturing Technology is the next “great thing”, similar to the development of the semiconductor, the computer or the Internet. The worldwide Additive Manufacturing Technology industry trends were compared with data corresponding to the state of the art in Mexico, in order to unfold a roadmap for the developed scenario which allowed to determine possible stages focused on taking advantage of the technology and identifying opportunities for Additive Manufacturing Technology in the country, in terms of its use and research and development.     

Narratives of the future: Suspending disbelief in forest-sector scenarios

Scenario analysis considers highly uncertain future conditions. The method involves developing and analyzing plausible narratives of the future and evaluating them for a range of implications. The power of scenarios lies in creating and considering compelling stories about the future. Thus, narrative, defined as an account of a series of events, is central to the process and plays a pivotal role in engaging participants in a scenario analysis exercise. While a good scenario story can engage individuals and influence their suspension of disbelief, we know little about how participants actually respond to the scenarios so they can, and will, suspend disbelief in scenario outcomes.We explored the role of narrative in suspension of disbelief in a scenario-based study of the long-term future of Canada's forests and forest sector. We discovered that specific aspects of the scenario narratives themselves influenced participants’ suspension of disbelief. While interacting with the scenario narratives, participants actively worked to suspend disbelief by creating new narratives or accessing other existing ones, and by projecting themselves into the scenarios as characters in the stories. Our results may help scenario writers, practitioners, and researchers understand what, in one project, cued people's abilities to suspend disbelief and engage productively in discussions about possible futures.     

Unravelling the complexity of collective mental models: A method for developing and analysing scenarios in multi-organisational contexts

In multi-organisational contexts, scenario building has been used to engage stakeholders in a critical discussion on issues of mutual importance, and to gain their support with regards to possible future responses. A review of existing literature suggests that much has been written regarding the process of scenario development and the benefits of the process, but the detailed analysis of scenario building outcomes, which encompass a large number of issues and their complex interconnections, has not been made explicit for studying and enhancing understanding of a complex societal problem. This paper presents a systematic method for analysing such complex outcomes in order to facilitate reflective thinking on important issues within the wider context for policy development. The method was employed in a series of participative scenario development workshops, which yielded several causal maps around the theme of construction industry skills. A collective map merging the individual subject-specific causal maps was created to help provide a more holistic overview of the pertinent issues surrounding the construction skills debate. The analysis of this collective map promotes a better understanding of the issue in the wider context, the consequence of possible future events and actions, and of the pre-requisition required for certain events/desired outcomes to take place. The main benefit that could be derived from the method is the opportunity to help facilitate and encourage debate and discussion amongst key stakeholders regarding scenario theme, in this case skills improvement within construction. Due to its flexibility and adaptability, the method could potentially be applied to other areas requiring longer range planning and which contain multiple stakeholder perspectives.     

Scenario thinking: A practice-based approach for the identification of opportunities for innovation

Drawing on the social theory of practice, this paper ‘unpacks’ scenario thinking in the form of strategizing in product innovation teams to explore when and how the practice may lead to the identification of opportunities for innovation. Adopting a case-based approach, three software companies engaged in four new product development projects served as our empirical research sites. We found creative emergence and open-endedness of the practice in innovation teams serving as quintessentially embedded modalities and contingencies that supports the identification of opportunities for innovation as a potential outcome of scenario thinking. We also suggest a framework that specifies how specific team practices supporting scenario thinking (strategic conversation and human-material interactions, and reflexivity-in-practice) may operate in combination or serially, and which may lead in turn to the identification of opportunities for innovation.     

Product elimination: A barrier to successful financial service sector company mergers?

The UK's financial service sector is in a process of consolidation predominately via merger and acquisition activity. Driving this process is the desire to reduce costs, increase efficiency and acquire larger customer volumes. This may result in the amalgamation of product management functions and product portfolios, leading inevitably to the need for product rationsalisation. A key controlling factor within this is the inability easily to eliminate financial service products. This may jeopardise the organisation's ability to gain the objectives that have driven the merger/acquisition action. Two key factors were seen to hinder the portfolio amalgamation process. First, the incompatibility of IT-based product management systems. Secondly, the existence of a ‘knowledge gap’ which made it harder to plan and implement effectively large-scale product elimination and portfolio amalgamation. It is likely that this will lead to higher than desired operating costs, duplication in product and service function, and loss of freedom in managing customers.     

Process mapping — Re-engineering the opening student account process: The case of Lloyds TSB Bank

The paper focuses on the operational process in a local consumer service company, which in this case is a branch of Lloyds TSB Bank. The study conducts a critical analysis of the operational process of opening a Lloyds TSB student account. It concentrates on Lloyds TSB Bank's historical background, its operations and the services that it offers to consumers: particularly the opening student account process. The process of opening a student account is documented in a flowchart that highlights operational steps, the visibility line between front-end and back-room staff. This flowchart has allowed for the identification of both potential and actual bottlenecks in the process, which will prevent a quality service encounter for the customer. After outlining these problematic areas, the adopted methodological approach yields a redesigned flowchart illustrating these changes. Further, this paper proposes a re-engineered process and provides useful managerial recommendations for improving the opening student account process. Finally, it outlines future research direction in this area.     

Island futures—Does a participatory scenario process capture the common view of local residents?

Scenarios are often developed by small groups of motivated individuals, but how representative are they of community views of desirable futures? A scenario process in the coastal community of Vega in central Norway was complemented by a survey among 200 community residents in which respondents rated a preferred development option from a series of future choices and dilemmas. While the scenario process produced novelty and diversity in thinking about the future, the common community view reflects a more traditionalistic view of the future. Tourism was identified as a key economic opportunity in the scenario process, but the larger island community has little faith in tourism as a future cornerstone of economic development and would rather rely on traditional sectors like agriculture and fisheries. The scenarios brought out richness in future development options, highlighted place identity and support for heritage conservation based on wise use of natural resources. The scenarios were less suited for making decisions about economic investments, but produced salient information about opportunities, uncertainties and complexities of the future. Findings show the need to compliment scenario processes where a small group explores “possible futures” with surveys to explore the wider populations’ views about “preferred futures”.     

Beyond products: services-based strategy

Services technologies are changing the way companies in every industry--manufacturers and service providers alike--compete. Vertical integration, physical facilities, even a seemingly superior product can no longer assure a competitive edge. Instead, sustainable advantage is more and more likely to come from developing superior capabilities in a few core service skills--and out-sourcing as much of the rest as possible. Within companies, technology is increasing the leverage of service activities: today, more value added comes from design innovations, product image, or other attributes that services create than from the production process. New technologies also let independent enterprises provide world-class services at lower costs than customers could achieve if they performed the activities themselves. These changes have far-reaching implications for how managers structure their organizations and define strategic focus. Companies like Apple, Honda, and Merck show that a less integrated but more focused organization is key to competitive success. They build their strategies around a few highly developed capabilities. And they outsource as many of the other activities in their value chain as possible. To help managers develop an activity-focused strategy, the authors offer a new way to approach competitive analyses, guidelines for determining which activities to outsource and which to retain, and an overview of the risks and rewards of strategic outsourcing. Throughout, they draw on the findings of their three-year study of the major impacts technology has had in the service sector.     

Dreamnesting – Co-created future vision of an intelligent interior design experience

This article, and subsequent science-fiction prototype, finds its premise in two different foundations: the human-centred design of new technology development, and the co-creation methodologies of business sciences. The connection between these two research fields arises from the emerging need to find means of constructing complex service experiences with multidisciplinary approach. By leaning on both perspectives, the aim of the article is to construct a science-fiction prototype ‘Dreamnesting’. The prototype presents a new service enterprise that engages a user–customer deeply in the co-creation experience and introduces a new technology platform for the interior design task: augmented reality (AR) technology in an intelligent service environment. The prototype has its foundations, at first, in a front-end co-design user study, which aimed at creating novel interior design service concepts that were thought to be used virtually, and to exploit 3D modelling and AR technology. Then, the article converses on relevant building blocks that come to the fore from the economy and business theories, namely: co-creation of value, customer experience and human assets of the firm.     

Functions of scenarios in transition processes

Given the interplaying tendencies of economic decline, social instability, and environmental depletion, any transition towards sustainable development faces a challenging task. To successfully cope with this complexity requires transition management. Integrated approaches for supporting sustainability transitions have been elaborated in the last years. Future studies and scenario construction are regarded as essential components in these approaches. However, the related studies in this field have focused either on a specific type of transition process, or on decision support in a different contextual process, or on a specific function of scenarios. Thus, an evaluation of the wide range of viewpoints on the functions of scenarios with respect to the requirements for transition management is still missing. In this paper, we systematically elaborate upon the functions for transition management that scenarios can fulfil. The developed concept is applied to five empirical scenario studies supporting transition processes on the national, regional and local level in Switzerland. The paper contributes to the development of a functional methodology of transition support, providing initial guidelines for answering the question of which method is appropriate for what type and phase of a transition process.     

美国商业银行开展理财业务的经验及对国内银行的启示

近年来,随着国内经济的快速发展和银行业全面开放的日益临近,国内各大商业银行越来越重视发展理财业务,以期在同业竞争中取得优势。本文从美国商业银行开展理财业务所依托的组织架构、产品和服务、采取的模式以及建立的流程等入手,分析了国内理财业务的现状和前景及工商银行在开展理财业务时面临的主要问题。据此,作者提出以下建议:提高对发展理财业务重要性的认识构建顺畅的前中后台营;销服务体系;加快产品和服务创新,努力发展交叉性金融业务;完善理财业务流程,打造理财品牌;加大科技投入,提高客户服务和风险控制能力;建立核心人才队伍,完善考核和激励机制。     

Carrot or stick: Impacts of alternative climate and energy policy scenarios on agriculture

The climate and energy strategy of the European Union presents the aims for all economic sectors to cut carbon dioxide emissions. In this paper, we studied what kind of conflicts, synergies, opportunities and control measures the climate and energy policy brings to farms in Finland. We used the Delphi method to assess possible outcomes of three scenarios based on the strength of mitigation policy. The scenarios scrutinised were (1) Baseline, (2) Tight Control and (3) Energy Plus Food. These scenarios create different adaptive needs and measures on farms. Baseline scenario follows the present and forthcoming development in agriculture and Tight Control scenario, in turn, constitutes all possible mitigation measures recently introduced in the scientific discussion. In Energy Plus Food scenario, farms increasingly produce renewable energy in addition to food and, therefore, have new opportunities to develop their businesses. The Delphi panel estimated how the farms would cope with different future developments represented by the scenarios. Based on our results, it is evident that interdisciplinary analysis in research and inter-sectoral cooperation between agricultural and energy policies are required.     

Developing products on Internet time

The rise of the World Wide Web has provided one of the most challenging environments for product development in recent history. The market needs that a product is meant to satisfy and the technologies required to satisfy them can change radically--even as the product is under development. In response to such factors, companies have had to modify the traditional product-development process, in which design implementation begins only once a product's concept has been determined in its entirety. In place of that traditional approach, they have pioneered a flexible product-development process that allows designers to continue to define and shape products even after implementation has begun. This innovation enables Internet companies to incorporate rapidly evolving customer requirements and changing technologies into their designs until the last possible moment before a product is introduced to the market. Flexible product development has been most fully realized in the Internet environment because of the turbulence found there, but the foundations for it exist in a wide range of industries where the need for responsiveness is paramount. When technology, product features, and competitive conditions are predictable or evolve slowly, a traditional development process works well. But when new competitors and technologies appear overnight, when standards and regulations are in flux, and when a company's entire customer base can easily switch to other suppliers, businesses don't need a development process that resists change--they need one that embraces it.     

BEYOND NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: AGENCIFICATION AND REGULATORY REFORM IN NORWAY

In this paper we describe some trends in the development of regulatory reform in general and the agency form in particular. The focus is on the case of Norway by describing the reform process and some lessons learned. We discuss the development through the prism of different theoretical lenses such as instrumental, cultural and institutional environmental features. Finally, we draw some conclusions and discuss possible future developments beyond New Public Management by using a linear, a cyclical and a dialectical scenario.     

Perceived Environmental Uncertainty in scenario planning

Scenario planning is a strategy tool with growing popularity in both academia and practical situations. Current practices of scenario planning are largely based on existing literature which utilises scenario planning to develop strategies for the future, primarily considering the assessment of perceived macro-external environmental uncertainties. However there is a body of literature hitherto ignored by scenario planning researchers, which suggests that Perceived Environmental Uncertainty (PEU) influences the micro-external as well as the internal environment of the organisation. This paper reviews the most dominant theories on scenario planning process and PEU, developing three propositions for the practice of scenario planning process. Furthermore, it shows how these propositions can be integrated in the scenario planning process in order to improve the development of strategy.     

The four things a service business must get right

Many of the management tools and techniques used in service businesses were designed to tackle the challenges of product companies. Although they are valuable to service managers, they aren't sufficient for success. In this article, Harvard Business School's Frei explains why and urges companies to add some new ones to the mix. After years of extensive research and analysis, she offers an approach for crafting a profitable service business based on four critical elements: the design of the offering, employee management, customer management, and the funding mechanism. Just like a product that's going to market, a service needs to be compellingly designed, and management must field a workforce capable of producing it at an attractive price. Additionally, however, service firms must manage their customers, who do not simply use the service but also can be integral to its production: Because customers' involvement as producers can wreak havoc on costs, companies must also develop creative ways to fund their distinctive offerings, by providing a self-service alternative, for example, or by offsetting expenses with operational savings. A close look at successful service businesses--Wal-Mart, Commerce Bank, the Cleveland Clinic, and others--reveals that effective integration of the four elements is key. There is no "right" way to combine them; the appropriate design of one depends upon the other three. If managers don't get all four pulling together, they risk pulling the enterprise apart. Incumbents can fend off attacks from highly focused upstarts by becoming multifocused--that is, by pursuing multiple niches through optimized service models rather than trying to cover the entire waterfront with one model. Shared services within a firm (functions such as HR and finance) can help, since they will enable it to generate economies of scale and experience across models.     

对高校图书馆读者服务工作创新的思考

高校图书馆是学校的文献信息中心,是学校信息化和社会信息化的重要基地。图书馆要想适应高等教育的快速发展,发挥其教育职能与情报职能,就必须创新服务理念。文章从高校图书馆服务创新的意义、服务内容、服务方式进行了探讨,提出了网络环境下图书馆读者服务工作的新要求。     

加强中俄经贸合作促进东北区域经济迅速发展

当前，加强中俄经贸合作不仅有利于东北区域经济的发展和俄罗斯经济的复苏，而且将进一步巩固和发展两国的政治关系。加强中俄经贸合作应采取一些新的对策：统一认识，将中俄双方贸易合作关系提高到战略的高度；发挥政府职能，解决双边谈判中未尽事宜和培养对俄贸易人才；发挥地缘优势，尽快建立中俄边境地区特殊经济区；加强中介和服务体系建设，提高中俄贸易互信度。