There is no doubt about the importance of the service sector these days. It takes a roughly 85% economic value of the GNP all by itself, and over 85% of all the jobs in the United States are in the service sector (Apte et al.2008). Information service is the area which shows the highest growth rate among the ones in the service sector (Rust and Lemon, 2001). Additionally 55% of the US economy were solely comprised of the Information service, which provided over 40% of the total employment and was responsible for 45% of the overall government tax income(Apte et al. 2008) as the economy gradually transformed into an e-service based one(Rust and Kannan 2003). Additionally it is claimed that information technologies are beginning to have an impact on the basic industry structure and ways of conducting business in the information service sector (Karmarkar 2010). With this business environment changes occurring, we need to investigate how strategies that are driven by a information service centric business environment are expected to change and what would be the optimal service quality management for a company to achieve a competitive advantage and better financial performance in a competition of services. Through three studies, this paper narrows down the focus of this study from a strategic perspective to a structural one, and then to an operational one.
At first, we take a look into strategy changes in the information service economy. As today services are more and more transformed into digital formats, and are now mostly delivered via online measures, the needs of the customers have accordingly changed: this is the reason why companies must change their strategies to achieve better financial performances. In our previous research, we reached to the conclusion that a dual emphasis strategy which simultaneously implements revenue expansion and cost reduction is the least beneficial strategy and most challenging one in a service industry environment. This stems from the incompatible relationship between customization and productivity. However, since services switched to digital, the customization paradigm has also changed. In the information service economy, companies are able to provide customized services to customers even at lower prices than before, and can also simultaneously implement revenue expansion and cost reduction. We empirically investigate how revenue expansion and cost reduction can be simultaneously achieved through IT both in the short-run. In addition these influences are mediated by superiority of service quality and reduction of branch and staff. Furthermore, in the long-term, the performance of a firm measured as Tobin’s q is significantly influenced by IT stocks and this influences are mediated by service quality to branch and staff ratio. As services are digitalized and delivered via online channels, even though firms can provide customized service to customers at low costs, it is not reflected on long term financial performance measurement. We show that the perspective about a dual emphasis strategy has to be changed in an information service economy. Our findings indicate that a dual emphasis strategy is indeed viable, and a strategy which in order to achieve revenues solely relies on either a service quality improvement or on a cost reduction based efficiency improvement may be only a sub optimal strategy for both the short and the long run in the information service economy. In this service centric environment, effective and efficient service management have become more and more important. For an efficient allocation of resources and an effective service quality management, we should understand the structure of service quality, because service quality consists not only of a single dimension but in fact of multiple dimensions, and each of these dimensions possesses a different characteristic. Acquiring a competitive advantage and a better financial performance can be achieved through a right understanding about these characteristics.
In the second paper, we investigate the structure of service quality dimensions. An Empirical research which examines the link between various traits of service quality dimensions and competitive advantage has been lacking. This paper fills this lack by drawing on a resource-based theory to investigate the differential effects of service dimensions on the financial performance. Consistent with the resource based theory, the result suggests that valuable, rare, and costly imitated service dimensions create a competitive advantage and induce better financial performances. Service dimensions which are easy to imitate cannot be a source of competitive advantage. Additionally, we investigate the competitive advantage derived from the complement relationship between service dimensions. Results show the existence of a complement relationship between service dimensions. Therefore managers have to consider this relationship in order to effectively manage total service quality with only restricted resources. Moreover, some dimensions, which are easy to imitate and cannot make any difference in financial performance, moderate other service dimensions. It means that, even though some dimension alone cannot be a source of competitive advantage, these dimensions are still important in terms of total service quality management for a better financial performance.
Based on this service quality structure, we investigate the operational perspective of service competition. The third paper investigates the service competition in terms of optimal service quality management and of IT investment decisions considering the multi-dimensionality of the service. Even though IT service consists of multiple dimensions, previous studies about IT productivity considered IT as only one whole unit and oversimplified it. We examine how firms compete in the IT service competition and how IT is strategically used in different IT dimensions by investigating the optimal service quality and IT investment decision of different dimensions. Also we investigate the influence of a firm’s capability on the IT conversion process. Our study shows that IT is strategically necessary and does not show strategic differences in some dimensions. Meanwhile, in other dimensions, firms show strategic differences in IT investment and service quality decisions. These are determined by the traits of the firm capabilities which are required for generating IT service. This is consistent with the ‘resource based view’. Also we show that firms have different capabilities in the ability of converting IT service to a financial performance. That means, a firm’s capability of how it utilizes IT moderates the effect of service quality on financial performance. These are investigated by an analytical model and with an empirical test.
서비스 산업은 그 절대적인 규모와 전체 산업 중 차지하는 비중에 있어서 중요성이 날로 커지고 있다. GNP기준으로 미국 경제의 85%이상이 서비스 산업을 통해 창출되고 있으며 고용 역시 많은 비중을 서비스 산업에 의존하고 있다. 여러 서비스 산업 정 정보서비스 산업이 빠른 성장세를 보이며 그 중요성이 날로 커지고 있다. 전체 미국 경제의 55%가 정보서비스 산업을 통해서 창출되며 고용의 40%가 이 산업영역에서 발생한다. 이처럼 성장하는 정보서비스 산업 환경에서 서비스 전략에 대한 이해가 보다 중요해지고 있다. 고객은 보다 많은 서비스를 IT채널을 통해 전달받고 있으며 효과적인 서비스 품질관리를 통해 고객에게 만족을 제공하는 것이 기업의 재무적 성과를 결정하는 중요한 요소이다. 이러한 환경하에서 서비스의 정보화에 따라 산업 및 기업의 경쟁전략이 변화하고 있다.
이러한 현상과 관련하여, 본 연구는 세 장으로 구성되어 있다. 세 장은 IT기술 도입에 따른 기업의 전략변화, 서비스 관리를 위한 구조적 분석, 서비스 구조하에서의 기업의 최적전략 도출의 순으로 구성되어 있다. 제 1장에서는 서비스 산업에 정보기술이 도입되고 많은 서비스가 IT 채널을 통해 전달됨에 따라 이러한 변화가 기업의 전략에 어떠한 변화를 가져왔는지를 실증적으로 분석하였다. 기존의 전통적인 산업환경 하에서는 고객만족을 통해 기업의 수익을 향상시키는 전략과 효율성 제고를 통해 비용을 감소시키는 전략이 단기적으로 양립할 수 없었으나 정보기술의 도입에 따라 기업의 agility향상과 customization의 개념의 변화 등의 이유로 두 가지 전략이 양립할 수 있게 되었다. 이러한 연구는 기업의 정보화에 따라 기존의 전통적인 산업환경 하에서는 이상적임에도 양립할 수 없는 전략들이 양립할 수 있다는 가능성을 제시한 연구로 기존의 연구에 기반한 최적 전략이 새로운 환경하에서는 최적전략이 될 수 없다는 가능성을 제시하였다. 2장은 서비스 품질관리를 위한 서비스의 구조적 측면의 분석을 수행하였다. 서비스는 다양한 차원(dimension)으로 구성되어 있으며 각 그 성격을 달리한다. 2장에서는 자원기반이론을 바탕으로 이러한 다양한 서비스 차원에 대한 연구를 경쟁우위와 재무적 성과를 바탕으로 수행하였다. 또한 서비스 차원들이 독립적인 것이 아니라 상호 보완적 관계를 통해 경쟁우위 및 재무적 성과에 영향을 미친다는 것을 실증적으로 분석하였다. 이러한 분석을 통해서 기업 경영자들에게 여러 특성을 가지는 서비스의 효율적 관리를 위한 이해를 제공하였으며 보완적 관계가 존재할 경우 기존의 선택과 집중 전략이 항상 최적전략이 될 수 없다는 시사점을 제공하였다. 3장은 2장의 연구에서 분석된 서비스의 다양한 차원 하에서 경쟁하는 기업의 최적 의사결정에 대한 연구를 경제학 모델링 및 실증분석을 통해 수행하였다. 또한 IT에 대한 투자 외에 기업의 고유한 역량이 미치는 영향에 대한 분석도 함께 수행하여 기존 IT 생산성(IT Productivity)에 대한 이해를 넓혔다고 할 수 있다.
