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Organizational antecedents to and consequences of service business orientations in manufacturing companies

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Abstract

Although various manufacturing companies have developed into total solution providers, no research addresses their service orientations. Building on the literature on organizational service climate, this study explores the organizational parameters and service business orientations that explain relative product sales and service volume of manufacturing companies. Following an exploratory study involving in-depth interviews, the authors conducted an empirical survey of 137 companies in The Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. The study assesses the effects of organizational parameters on the implementation of service business orientations and validates the important distinction between services in support of the client’s actions (SSC) and services in the support of the product (SSP). The findings demonstrate that services in support of the client’s action leverage relative product sales, while services in support of the product generate service volume. In addition to the main effects, the moderating effects of the organizational parameters are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We note that in-depth-interviews with managers have previously been carried out in order to identify organizational parameters affecting service quality (Zeithaml et al. 1988).

  2. We test (and confirm) that manufacturers in our sample are experiencing increasing demand for services.

  3. We test (and confirm) that manufacturers are confronting increasing offers of services by competitors.

  4. To confirm H1b, we conducted a power test for the F-test and relate the R 2 of the endogenous constructs predicting relative product sales. Given the effect size (f 2 = 0.29; R 2 = 0.22) for our predictors of relative product sales, a significance level (α) of 0.05 and a desired power (1 – β) of 0.80, the sample size should be of approximately 57 (Green 1991). This figure is well within the bounds of the sample size we obtained.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Joëlle Vanhamme, Ad de Jong, Jeroen Schepers, Ko de Ruyter, Andreas Eggert, Michael Beverland, Mirella Kleijnen, Monali Hota as well as the four anonymous JAMS reviewers for their very constructive comments on earlier versions of this article. Also, special thanks to the JAMS editor for his insightful suggestions and responsiveness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, IESEG School of Management (LEM, UMR CNRS 8179), 3 Rue de la Digue, 59800, Lille, France

    Michael Antioco

  2. TiasNimbas Business School, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Rudy K. Moenaert

  3. Hull University Business School, Hull, UK

    Adam Lindgreen

  4. Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Martin G. M. Wetzels

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  1. Michael Antioco
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  2. Rudy K. Moenaert
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Correspondence to Michael Antioco.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix A

  Building the research framework based on service climate literature
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  Selected quotes from the in-depth interviews
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Appendix B

  List of services supporting products (SSP) (12) and services supporting clients’ actions (SSC) (8)
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Appendix C

  Scales of measurement items
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Appendix D

  Loadings, composite reliability, and average variance extracted (AVE)
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Antioco, M., Moenaert, R.K., Lindgreen, A. et al. Organizational antecedents to and consequences of service business orientations in manufacturing companies. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 36, 337–358 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-008-0085-1

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