Patrik Gottfridsson

To trust or not to trust?: Formal contracts and the building of long‐term relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how contracts are used to build and develop long‐term relationships in contexts where trust cannot be expected in advance – i.e. there is a lack of initial trust.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a qualitative approach, while the present study used a documentary study focusing on 21 formal contractual dyads between contractors and fulfillers within the public transport sector.Findings – The analysis of contracts in the public sector reveals the importance of formal contracts in relationship building, as a result of a number of factors that characterize this setting, including: the highly detailed specification of terms, legislation having an effect on the design of the contract, the bidding process, in situations where there is no negotiation process, no scope for further discussion after signing contracts, no learning processes, and contracts being used to conduct day‐to‐day business.Originality/value – This research acknowledges the fa...

Joint service development – the creations of the prerequisite for the service development

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to describe how parted or divided service development is carried out, where interactions and cooperation need to take place with other actors in order to crea ...

Development of Personalised Services in Small Businesses: : an iterative learning process

Purpose - The aim of this study is to achieve a better understanding of how small business develops personalised business-to-business services Design/methodology/approach - In-depth interviews are ...

Different actors' roles in small companies service innovation

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to create an initial understanding of how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services based on the research question considering “which different actor takes part in small companies’ service development processes in order giving access to the resources needed and what roles do they play?” Design/methodology/approach – Due to the lack of previous studies within the area, the focus in this study has been to use a qualitative method to reach a deeper insight about how small companies’ service development could be described, as seen from an actor’s perspective. Findings – Based on the empirical analysis, the study identifies seven main categories of actors who were involved in the service-development process that contributes with different types of resources and their role varies during the development process. The actors and their roles are presented in a model giving initial understanding how various internal and external actors co...

Contracts as a Cornerstone in the Relationship Building

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of contracts in long‐term relationship building comparing public and private contexts. In order to investigate this, the paper addresses literature about relationship building, negotiation process and the role of contracts.Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes a qualitative approach and is based on comparative studies between the private and public sectors with the main focus on four companies within the public transport and paper industry. The unit of analysis is the enterprises use of contracts in relationships. The analysis is based on the empirical material received from interviews and contextual analysis of the actual contracts. Internal and external documents have also been used in the analysis. The paper has categorized the material into different areas in relation to the relationship building.Findings – In this paper the authors highlight the importance of contracts in the interaction between companies in different bu...

Delivering sport events : the arena concept in sports from a network perspective

This paper contributes to the sport marketing field by analyzing the market situation in anetwork perspective. It also gives an idea of the relative positions of the organizationsmaking up the network. When a sport club is delivering a sport event there is a complex setof actors that must interact and intervene with each other. Which those actors are and whatthey bring to the network depends on if you consider the network from a non-commercialsport point of view, or from a business and commercial point of view. In a traditionalperspective the side of the network that is based on the non-commercial or sport side consistsof actors that are volunteers and engaged in the team for the fascination of sport. This paperprovides a unique insight into how a sports club have been able to use different resources tocreate a successful incubation from primarily being a non-profit organization. The arenaconcept has been an important part in building relationships with different business actors inrelation to the surrounding actors and the community. The ARA-model provides theanalytical tools for analyzing the actors, resources and activities for developing the marketingstrategy for a sport club.

Transforming the service idea – a communication and learning process

Purpose – This paper is about service innovation processes and especially about how an idea about a new service proposition is realized and gradually transformed during the process. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the process by which the idea of what should be developed is formed. Design/methodology/approach – Empirically this study is built on two case studies from the public transport context. The cases studied are long-term and involves a number of different actors from different organizations put together to deliver a new system solution regarding information- and ticketing systems. Findings – The findings indicate that the service ideas gradually develop throughout the service innovation process; some of the changes are that distinct that they could be described as turning points. The reasons for the changes of the ideas are sometimes the renewed awareness that the involved actors get from communicating and learning from each others, other times the turning points occur as a re...

Incremental and Radical Service Innovation in Healthcare

The growing cost and demand of healthcare is a major concern globally. Service innovation has been put forward as a top priority to address the challenges of healthcare. However, the concept of service innovation is poorly understood, in particular the differences between incremental and radical service innovation. The chapter makes two important contributions. Firstly, it conceptualizes incremental and radical service innovation based on internal and external changes; in particular, it identifies four types of service innovations. Secondly, it explores the effects and diffusion processes of service innovation. It aids practitioners and researchers to understand radical service innovation in a new way and to shed light on effects and diffusion of service innovation in healthcare.