The purpose of this study is to develop new frameworks for operations strategy and service system design in electronic commerce (EC) to provide strategic insights to academics and practitioners.
Product/service process matrices for intangible and tangible products in EC operations are presented based on the classification of products and delivery channel options and three cases are investigated to illustrate the newly developed matrices.
The fit between two dimensions (characteristics of product/service, service delivery processes) in the matrices contributes to firm's competitiveness through market expansion and improvement of customer services. Through the case studies, it was confirmed that the conceptual framework developed in this study illustrates actual EC operations well.
Further case or empirical research on more diverse products or services will be required to increase robustness of the matrices and to additionally confirm the results of this study including the effects of the “fit”.
The new frameworks have the potential to be useful as a planning tool in developing an operations strategy and service system design, as well as a diagnostic tool for examining the causes of poor service quality and low customer satisfaction resulting from a mismatch between two dimensions.
The development of new frameworks is an important first step in the gradual process of theory building and theory testing, as well as providing strategic insights for practitioners.
