Business-to-Business Services: Pricing, Contracting and Value-based Mechanism Design
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Exeter
Department Name: Management
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Irene Ng (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Ng I
(2010)
Value and systems perspectives in combining human and automated services: commentary on "seven challenges to combining human and automated service"
in Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration
Ng I
(2012)
Transitioning from a goods-dominant to a service-dominant logic Visualising the value proposition of Rolls-Royce
in Journal of Service Management
Ng I
(2010)
Theoretical foundations in the pricing of intermediating services: The case of payments via mobile phones
in Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
Smith L
(2012)
The three value proposition cycles of equipment-based service
in Production Planning & Control
Demirkan, Haluk; Spohrer, James C.; Krishna, Vikas
(2011)
The Science of Service Systems
Ng I
(2010)
The future of pricing and revenue models
in Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
Batista L
(2017)
Servitization through outcome-based contract - A systems perspective from the defence industry
in International Journal of Production Economics
Ng I
(2010)
Outcome-based service contracts in the defence industry - mitigating the challenges
in Journal of Service Management
Ng I
(2009)
Outcome-based contracts as a driver for systems thinking and service-dominant logic in service science: Evidence from the defence industry
in European Management Journal
Ng, Irene; Parry, Glenn; Wild, Peter; McFarlane, Duncan C.; Tasker, Paul
(2011)
Complex Engineering Service Systems
Ng, Irene; Parry, Glenn; Wild, Peter; McFarlane, Duncan C.; Tasker, Paul
(2011)
Complex Engineering Service Systems
Ng, Irene; Parry, Glenn; Wild, Peter; McFarlane, Duncan C.; Tasker, Paul
(2011)
Complex Engineering Service Systems
Ng I
(2011)
Complex Engineering Service Systems
Ng I
(2009)
A demand-based model for the advance and spot pricing of services
in Journal of Product & Brand Management
| Description | Through both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, the research found that achieving outcomes within customer's use context requires a change in resources for service and with the change in resources comes the challenge of whether the asset itself was designed correctly to support such service activities. In other words, service is not something 'wrapped' around equipment but that the design of the service and the equipment interacted. Furthermore, customer resources to use the equipment in high variety of contexts also interacted with the resources to design the service and the equipment. The research identified seven attributes of value co-creation to assist the firm in developing capabilities to achieve outcomes collaboratively with the customer. |
| Exploitation Route | The project has resulted in significant number of international publications across multiple disciplines. A journal paper in operations management, a journal paper in engineering operations, 2 journal papers in marketing, 4 papers in management journals, 1 paper in a new service science journal and the first book in the trans-disciplinary area of marketing, engineering and management. The project has also resulted in numerous other publications and conference proceedings. The project presents research that conclusive show the interactions between engineering design, operations management, marketing and management for equipment when a value-in-use approach is taken. It shapes the agenda for the future of service science, management and engineering and it contributes to the understanding on how functions and disciplines combine to achieve value and greater effectiveness in equipment-based service. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Transport,Other |
| Description | A demonstrator of a software labelled AXIOS - an End-to-End Decisions Support tool linking effectiveness and efficiency based on the findings of the study was developed and a proof-of-concept was funded by Rolls Royce Defence Aerospace. Another tool - CCAT (Co-creation Assessment Tool) was also developed, and has been used by Harmonic Ltd for the analysis of collaborative capability and provision of improvement plans for a major rail contractor, enabling the company to secure a bid with Network Rail worth over£50 million. A third tool known as the Service Transformation Tool (STT) has been used and tested by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and has led to very significant outcomes in terms of the continual development and improvement of Contracting for Availabillty (CfA) policy in general and of the Tornado and Typhoon CfA contracts in particular, including the potential to export such service arrangements and their attendant cost savings to Saudi Arabia and beyond. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Ministry of Defence contracting for availability |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Influence in terms of the continual development and improvement of CfA (contracting for availability) policy in general and of the Tornado and Typhoon CfA contracts in particular, including the potential to export the capability of designing and configuring for availability contracts and their attendant cost savings to Saudi Arabia and beyond. |
| Description | KT-BOX : bridging the knowledge transfer gap in services |
| Amount | £2,179,600 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/H500200/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2010 |
| End | 12/2012 |
| Title | AXIOS : end-to-end decision support tool for service capability |
| Description | AXIOS provides a visualisation and an assessment of an organisation's capacity to deliver customer value. The software demonstrator links customer preferences for the features of the service-product bundle to delivery processes, resource utilisation, and costs through value algorithms. It provides enhanced visibility, insight, and decision-making, improved effectiveness and efficiency across all service delivery processes, improved customer satisfaction, increased marginal income, and increased scalability of service value. AXIOS completed its proof of concept with Rolls Royce in January 2011. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The AXIOS tool is currently being licensed to Rolls-Royce, which uses the tool to help optimise customer contracts as well as create new contracts. The commercialisation of this tool (ie Rolls-Royce pays a licence fee to use the tool) is proof of the tool's effectiveness. |
| Title | Co-creation capability assessment tool (C-CAT) |
| Description | Value is created through the relationships and interactions between organisation and not by products or services in themselves. This makes effective collaboration crucial to the success of strategic partnerships. Managing such relationships is often challenging and it is difficult to assess whether teams are effective and properly equipped to do so. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2011 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The C-CAT's development partners, Harmonic Ltd used the it for the analysis of collaborative capability and provision of improvement plans for a major rail contractor, enabling the company to secure a bid with Network Rail worth over £50 million. The C-CAT was also tested at low-cost regional airline Flybe, where it was welcomed as a tool that provided real insight into its current performance and identified key areas for future development as the business grows. |
| Title | Service transformation tool |
| Description | STT is designed to assist organisations in establishing capabilities to deliver manufacturing and service value propositions in partnership with their customers profitably. This should lead to high performance service and manufacturing value propositions, long-term viability, a well-designed and manageable process for change, and reduced cost and risk of changes. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This tool that analyses collaboration was co-created with the MoD, which saw the toolkit as a systematic way to understand and compare co-capability across platforms, one partnership relationship against another, despite being different contracts. The MoD conducted a retrospective study of 'partnered' contracts involving both Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems on the Tornado and Typhoon aircraft. Application of this tool provided some valuable insights into both MoD contracts, in terms of highlighting the nature and weaknesses in the management organisation's process and systems for achieving customers' needs. It allowed the organisation to look at how the system was working at the moment, identify ways it needed to be tweaked in order to improve it, which is then fed back into any contract renegotiation. The MoD's testing and use of this tool has led to very significant outcomes in terms of the continual development and improvement of Contracting for Availabillty (CfA) policy in general and of the Tornado and Typhoon CfA contracts in particular, including the potential to export such service arrangements and their attendant cost savings to Saudi Arabia and beyond. |