The Service Paradox: Supporting Service Supply Chains with Product-Oriented ICT

This paper studies the problem of computing market share in competitive service supply chains characterized by service congestion phenomena. Heterogenous customers choose services based on the utility maximization principle taking congestion into account. We use customer choice theory and infinite dimensional variational inequality to model the customer behavior and estimate service product’s market share. An extended Frank and Wolfe algorithm for solving this market share problem and a numerical example is given. The results shows that that service providers with poor service quality can also win some market share due to customers’ aversion to congestion.

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Identification and selection of ICTs for freight transport in product service supply chain diversification

Industrial Management & Data Systems ◽

10.1108/imds-09-2016-0375 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 117 (7) ◽

pp. 1469-1484 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Victoria Muerza ◽

Emilio Larrodé ◽

José María Moreno-Jiménez

Keyword(s):

Supply Chains ◽

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Freight Transport ◽

Diversification Strategy ◽

Content Type ◽

Technological Diversification ◽

Product Service ◽

Service Supply Chains ◽

Selection Of

Purpose Following the methodology designed for selecting the best industrial and technological diversification strategy, one of the best methods for achieving the long-term sustainability of companies, the purpose of this paper is to describe its application in the service supply chains (SSCs) sector, specifically, in freight transport in product service supply chains. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used in diversification processes comprises four stages: evaluation of the technological diversification suitability; selection of the technological diversification strategy; implementation of the diversification strategy; and evaluation of the process. Findings The main contributions of the paper are: the proposal of a taxonomy or functional inventory for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the freight transport industry (FTI); the introduction of a new concept, the technological shrub, a variant of the technological tree that allows interdependencies between the functionality systems; the construction of a technological shrub for ICTs in a standard FTI firm; and the multicriteria selection, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), of the best diversification strategy that can be incorporated by this standard firm for improving competitiveness. This selection utilises a “bottom-up” approach. Originality/value The paper deals with the long-term sustainability of companies by means of technological diversification strategies. Based on the taxonomy constructed for ICTs in the SSC sector and the identification of key technologies for a particular firm, a technological shrub is constructed and a multicriteria procedure is developed in order to select the best diversification strategy.

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