Ute Reuter

Effizienz methodischer Standortwahl von Dienstleistungsunternehmen

Die internationale Verflechtung des Dienstleistungshandels uber Landergrenzen hinweg hat in den letzten 15 Jahren erheblich an Bedeutung gewonnen. Allein im Zeitraum 2003 bis 2006 flossen im deutschen Dienstleistungsgewerbe fast 260 Milliarden Euro an Direktinve-stitionen ins Ausland (eigene Berechnungen auf Basis von Deutsche Bundesbank, 2007, S. 32 bis 40). Abbildung 1 verdeutlicht die Bedeutung von auslandischen Direktinvestitionen (FDI) fur deutsche Dienstleistungsunternehmen. Besonders bedeutsam ist hierbei die Ge-genuberstellung der auslandischen Direktinvestitionen der Industrie und des Dienstlei-stungsbereichs. So entsprechen die auslandischen Direktinvestitionen der deutschen Industrie in Hohe von circa 85 Milliarden Euro im betrachteten Zeitraum einem Verhaltnis von 1 zu 3 im Vergleich zum Dienstleistungssektor.

Model-Based Conflict Resolution in Service Internationalization – A Participatory Approach

Internationalizing service processes within internationally operating service providers requires service managers to balance the potential of internationally standardized service processes and the local needs of individual subsidiaries.2 This process bears the risk of conflicts arising from differences in prerequisites for service execution, availability of qualifications among employees or compatibility of processes to be exchanged with existing ones. Despite being pivotal to successful service internationalization, surprisingly little guidance can be found on the actual procedure of identifying and resolving such conflicts on an international scale (Bachmann/Wolf 2007). In this paper, we focus on service processes in which conflicts may lead to frictions in execution, which will in turn cause the processes to be less efficient and beneficial for both client and customer. To overcome this, we developed an approach to systematically identify, visualize, discuss and resolve conflicts while maintaining corporate standards. This approach is embedded into a comprehensive method for international service planning and implementation (Bohmann et al. 2011).

Organizing International Service Management: The Case of M-BETA

M-BETA is a service provider for facility management services. M-BETA offers facility management services in Europe ranging from operating facilities to technical maintenance. Their international service network ranges from all over Europe to destinations in to Northern America and Asia. Their clients are larger companies operating from diverse locations all over the world. Depending on the business area their clients are situated in, M-BETA provides services for a network of subsidiaries or single facilities for their clients. In the case study described here, the focus was set to M-BETAs business in the European service process landscape.

Erscheinungsformen und Determinanten des Dienstleistungsexports

Der Versuch, den Begriff Dienstleistung1 zu definieren, gestaltet sich verhaltnismasig schwierig. Die Bandbreite der in der Literatur zu findenden Definitionsversuche erstreckt sich von enumerativen Definitionsversuchen uber Negativdefinitionen bis hin zur Abgrenzung von Dienstleistungen anhand von merkmalsbezogenen Ansatzen (Meyer 1991, S. 197). Im Rahmen der enumerativen Definition wird anhand einer moglichst umfassenden Aufzahlung von Dienstleistungsbranchen versucht, das weite Feld der Dienstleistungserbringung einzugrenzen. Als Bezugsgrundlage dient dabei beispielsweise die amtliche Statistik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Holtbrugge/Kittler/Rygl 2004, S. 165; Meyer 1991, S. 197). Eine derartige Aufzahlung kann niemals den Anspruch auf Vollstandigkeit erheben und macht das Wissen um die Besonderheiten und das eigentliche Wesen der Dienstleistung nicht deutlich. Die Abgrenzung der Dienstleistung von der Sachleistung uber Negativdefinition erfolgt, indem argumentiert wird, alle Leistungen seien Dienstleistungen, die nicht in die Kategorien landwirtschaftliche Guter und Produktionsguter einzuordnen sind (Holtbrugge/Kittler/Rygl 2004, S. 165; Meyer 1991 S. 197; Bufka 1997, S. 22). Hierfur gelten die gleichen Argumente wie fur die enumerative Definition. Merkmalsbezogene Ansatze hingegen bilden Dienstleistungen mittels der Darstellung ausgewahlter Eigenschaften ab, die zu einer allgemeinen Charakterisierung von Dienstleistungen und ihrer Abgrenzung zu Sachgutern fuhren sollen.

Electronic procurement of services and process innovation

The service procurement process can be improved significantly by the implementation of innovative technological instruments such as online auctions, catalogue management and electronic marketplaces. Depending on the intensity of their use, incremental or even radical process innovation can be triggered. However, there is a significant lack of theoretical and empirical research in this field. Based on resource- and competence-based logic and case study data, this research project identifies specialisation, formalisation and centralisation of service procurement as the most important organisational conditions for the implementation of electronic procurement instruments within service companies. Furthermore, process innovation resulting from their implementation is identified to be mostly incremental in practice.

Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of the MARIS Choice of Location Method

The market assessment method (see chapter B.4) was developed based on practical implications of foreign direct investment as well as theoretical assumptions concerning the choice of an international location.

The MARIS Toolkit in a Nutshell

The internationalization of services is often not an option but a necessity for providers of services (Lommelen/Matthyssens, 2004). Particularly, customers with global business operations require their service providers to ‘follow’ them into new international markets or bid for service contracts on an international scale. Some customers also manage their service providers on an international scale, demanding of their providers to implement the same management processes and meet the same performance standards across all countries (Javalgi/ Martin, 2007).

Market Assessment: The Choice of Location Method

The decision to expand internationally is far-reaching for industrial and services companies alike. Thorough background research of different internationalization factors such as general infrastructural conditions, political situation, security, living standards, macro- and microeconomic prerequisites, the ICT-infrastructure, existing labor pool, and many other presumably very important factors seems to be inevitable at first glance. Such a thorough and widespread background research takes a lot of time to conduct and results in a vast and normally quite unstructured information overflow. Without a clear structuring of the generated information, it is difficult to reach a substantial and well-based decision.

Systematic Service Internationalization Processes: The Case of M-ALPHA

The case study partner M-ALPHA is a service provider, specialized in implementing and maintaining call centers for support of digital and white goods. The company works with large companies in these industries and provides call center based solutions for them all over Europe. At the time of analysis, M-ALPHA had nine foreign locations and two locations in Germany, which were covering 24 languages. From preliminary interviews, it became clear that their main reason for the internationalization of services can be drawn back to the principle of following their clients abroad. Most of the clients of M-ALPHA are pursuing partner consolidation programs, i.e., they are reducing the number of partners and are remaining with only two or three partners for each service area or region. M-ALPHA is already one of those selected partners. Subsequently, MALPHA is focusing on staying preferred partner of its clients.

Preparing for Service Export: The Case of M-GAMMA

M-GAMMA offers various services concerned with geo data production, management and customization to its customers. When we started our work with the company, their only location was in Germany and the company had realized that there were many markets left in, e.g., Eastern Europe, which could also be receptive to its services. Therefore, they were planning to implement subsidiaries in this area. Yet, they were struggling with questions concerning which parts of their service processes could be implemented in other countries, how the collaboration between subsidiaries could be organized and which locations to choose with respect to economical and qualification aspects.