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This is a paper that is critical to the content of the workshop and some serious questions are discussed. It was written during the last night of the workshop as a comment. ; Bo Edvardsson participated on behalf of the Swedish government administration as one of three European researchers. This is a paper with 10 pages.

In times of crisis, interactions and structures can change, eradicating prevailing norms and rules, with enduring unfavorable effects, and existing conceptual frameworks may fail to explain the effects of radical contextual change. In such contexts, the meaning of the customer experience is also likely to change, and touchpoints, cues, and the concept of the customer journey may prove insufficient to theorize the formation of those experiences. Adopting an agency-structure perspective, the article explores how crisis disrupts and alters structuration modalities, including space-time perception, access to resources, and institutional arrangements. To conceptualize how these contextual changes affect customer experience, we contend that it is necessary to understand the complex set of interactions among multiple actors and the structures and modalities that together shape the customer experience. Drawing on structuration theories to elucidate how disruptive contexts and crisis modalities affect the customer experience, the proposed conceptual framework identifies crisis modalities (discontinuities, accessibility, and fragmentability) that explain customer experiences in disruptive contexts as meaningful patterns of interaction informed by structure and agency. These findings can help firms to understand and manage customer experiences in disruptive contexts. In conclusion, we discuss how future research might contextualize and test the proposed framework.

This article outlines a framework of the transformation from the goods-dominant (G-D) to the service-dominant (S-D) logic in firms based on a case study of a bank. Drawing from institutional logic and practice theory, the article also contributes by discussing how the transformation from the G-D to the S-D logic takes place by means of the enactment of value creation practices and how such transformations are driven by institutional entrepreneurs and by conflicts between institutional logics. In addition, the article argues that the studied transformation is interwoven with changes in the professional identities of employees. Managerial implications include how managers may draw on the presented framework to transform their firm and its employees.

This article is about behavioral change in customer relationships. Changes in customer switching behavior are compared in five different service industries. Switching barriers and the competitive industrial situations in the comparison between industries also revealed changes in behavior in an industrial monopoly in which switching to alternative external service providers was not an option. This kind of switching was articulated as internal switching. The behavioral change was therefore assessed in terms not only of frequency but also of type of change. The switching ability to cause change, called configuration energy, even caused a change in behavior at the highest level in a noncompetitive industry in which there was a lack of switching alternatives. Total change was considered to be a result of the higher energy level driving the switching configuration than when the change was partial.

The strong linkage between the creation of value and the actors' resource-integrating efforts forces academics and practitioners to understand how value stems from resource integration (RI). This article analyses RI as an embedded process within the wider process of interactive value formation. The study is conceptual in nature and adopts a qualitative research approach and an empirical contextualization strategy. It provides a granular perspective on RI and proposes a framework that depicts RI as a process that shapes and results from a complex service context through a sequence of three phases: matching, resourcing and valuing. The article, particularly the suggested new framework, contributes to the extant literature on RI in service research; it reconceptualizes RI as process per se that is embedded in actors' value co-creation efforts and offers the opportunity to reflect on this process as a fundamental enabler in value-creating service ecosystems.

Resource integration is vital to value co-creation. However, most research focuses on competencies as enablers of resource integration and the social aspects that guide them. Based on a literature review of resource integration and motivation theories, this article proposes including motivation as a driver of resource integration and integrating concepts from motivation theories into the resource integration process. This approach extends the understanding and conceptualization of actors' resource integration processes, such that motivation determines the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort. When they engage in behavioral and cognitive activities, actors interact with resources, which informs the actors and influences their competences and motivation. Accordingly, motivation is central for a clear understanding of the psychological mechanisms of resource integration processes, as motivation expands the explanatory power of sociological factors by including intensity and persistence.

PurposeThe present increasingly tough economic climate has uncovered the need to go beyond the prevailing seller‐oriented models and company practices in order to capture the factors that essentially drive buyer companies. What is needed is a genuinely customer‐side concept that corresponds to offering. The purpose of this study is to develop a new concept labeled "customer needing" which emerged from the material collected in an industrial service setting.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports a case study of a typical high‐technology industrial service with a strong outsourcing trend. The empirical data consist of interviews with eight representatives from the seller company and 16 interviews from different customer companies.FindingsA needing is based on the customers' mental models of their business and business strategies that affect their priorities, decisions, and actions. It is itself a mental model of how the customer conceives the fulfillment of a specific task. In this paper the needing is operationalized as a profile of three dimensions containing six functions that represent desired value in use for the customer: the doing dimension comprises a relieving and an enabling function; the experiencing dimension has an energizing and a sheltering function; and the scheduling dimension contains a time‐framing and a timing function. Empirical data are presented to illustrate the new concept.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a case study but the ensuing concept provides a framework for further research on value in use and mental models in an industrial service setting. The studied offering was a complex business service representing an outsourced function and the buyers were functional experts and higher‐level executives, all of them experts in the service in question.Practical implicationsThe concept of customer needing extends knowledge of value in use and consequently represents an important tool in developing successful seller offerings. The shift of focus from offering to needing can explain why some sales attempts fail and can thus reveal new business opportunities.Originality/valueIn addition to highlighting the mental models driving companies' priorities and behavior, the study offers insights into value in use in an industrial service setting. The concept customer needing helps to analyze and describe value in use and provides a new buyer‐side concept corresponding to the offering concept.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for and an initial understanding of critical times in business relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe authors define "critical time" as a period of time with increased sensitivity in a business relationship that may change the actors' attitude and/or behaviour in the relationship. The authors review previous research, present the theoretical framework and present the findings from two explorative empirical studies concerning companies' relationships with information technology consultants and advertising agencies. The focus is on the factors driving the flow of critical times.FindingsThis authors introduce the concept "critical time" as a period of stress and raised sensitivity in a relationship that may change it. Critical times are built up by three elements: initial state of the relationship, the flow of critical time and outcome state of the relationship. The authors contribute with the critical C‐model: competence, communication, and clock.Originality/valueThis is the first study focusing on critical times in business relationships. The authors study two categories of knowledge intensive professional services. A new theoretical framework for, and an initial understanding of, critical times in business relationships are suggested.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review selected literature on e‐government service orientation and highlight differences between academic theory and empirical findings. To date, there has been little support for predictions made in the e‐government conceptual literature.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a conceptual framework for a literature review of e‐government and service orientation is presented. A systematic database search is then undertaken to identify the literature related to e‐government and service orientation. Suitable papers are selected, carefully read, and systematically analysed according to the conceptual framework. A discussion and relevant conclusions are then presented.FindingsThe paper finds that a gap appears to exist between conceptual literature and empirical findings. For example, conceptual research claims that e‐government will result in a reduction of staff, yet no empirical findings have proven this. The present study applies institutional theory for understanding the fundamental reasons to this gap.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is based on a literature review of 27 articles, three monographs and one edited volume focusing on service orientation and e‐government. It does not attempt to examine the full range of the literature available within the field of e‐government.Originality/valueThis review paper uniquely considers the gaps between the theory and practice of e‐government service orientation, and identifies where they exist. Some possible explanations for the gaps are explored which can be of interest to both academics and practitioners working in the field.