Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to construct a customer-oriented integrative service model based on the generic service process. Business strategies can then be formulated by using the model.
Design/methodology/approach – The key classifying dimensions and their respective attributes are identified through literature reviews. Operational dimensions are formed by combining their attributes weighted by manager-determined importance weights (IW). A generalized mathematical model is built to integrate the core services of a firm with customer-based performance weight (PW). The integrative service model is constructed by combining the operational dimensions.
Findings – The selected classification model covers knowledge, information and virtual space dimensions that most of the previous service-process based model lack. The developed model is simpler to understand and to use for managers comparing to the other complicated mathematical models.
Research limitations/implications – Empirical studies need to be done to test the effectiveness of the model. Experienced managers are needed to decide the IW.
Practical implications – Managers can use the developed model to formulate integrated business strategies as well as forecasting competitor's strategies. The developed model is a customer-oriented approach for service strategy formulation.
Originality/value – A generalized mathematical model is derived for a firm offering “n” kinds of core services. Computer software can be written based on it to handle the complex cases.
Relation:
International Journal of Service Industry Management 19(5), pp.639-661
