Prior literature on decision-making in service organizations
| Paper | Focus | Research design | Focal service context | Key insights about decision-making |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grönroos (1990) | Conceptualizes a service management perspective for the management of organizations | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making is a decentralized activity in a service firm |
| Gilmore and Carson (1996) | Identifies important competences for service managers to improve the quality of marketing decision-making in service context | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making quality depends on the competences of the managers, which, in turn, are depended on their experiences and expertise |
| Thwaites and Williams (2006) | Discusses approaches to decision-making used in the emergency services and to relate these to decision-making in service encounters in the tourism and leisure sector | Conceptual | Tourism | Decision-making in service encounters is characterized by high levels of uncertainty. Decision-making is also done by employees (not just “managers”) |
| Jaakkola (2007) | Purchase decision-making within professional consumer services | Conceptual | Professional consumer services | Decision-making is distributed, multi-actor activity (service provider makes purchase decisions for the beneficiary) |
| Bone and Mowen (2010) | Studies the decision-making processes around customer selection and introduce service employees’ desire for decision latitude (DDL) as an individual difference construct that influences the processing of quantitative and qualitative information in such decision-making | Empirical, mixed methods | Banking | Decision-making is an activity in which individual difference exits and that is also done by employees (not just “managers”) |
| Morris et al. (2010) | Explores how decision-making in professional service firms differs in unique and consistent ways from traditional organizations such as manufacturing firms | Conceptual | Professional service firms | Decision-making in service organization is often complex and, thus, more affective than cognitive |
| Badinelli et al. (2012) | Draws from viable systems approach to discuss decision-making in uncertain contexts and offers an interpretation of complexity in the context of service systems | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making deals with a complex and changing context that cannot be controlled |
| Eggert et al. (2014) | Examines the financial performance implications of industrial service strategies | Empirical, survey | Manufacturing | Decision-making benefits from decentralization within the service organizations |
| Gummesson et al. (2014) | Studies how recasting supplier and customer roles influences the strategic decision-making of companies | Conceptual | Various service contexts | Decision-making deals with a complex and changing context that cannot be controlled |
| Sharma and Conduit (2016) | Conceptualizes organizational culture from a service-dominant perspective and provides a framework for a cocreation culture type that comprises five core cocreation behaviour: coproduction, co-development, co-advocacy, co-learning and co-governance | Empirical, multiple case study | Health care | Decision-making is a shared activity in service organizations that have a “co-creation” culture |
| Carrubbo et al. (2017) | Investigates the decision-making process in the management of the complex adaptive systems (CAS), particularly focusing on the dimensions that affect the individual decision-maker within fitting processes | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making deals with a changing context. Decision-making is driven by decision makers schemas and values |
| Holmlund et al. (2017) | Explores how executive team members make sense of the market situation and changes within in and what is the role of mental models in this process | Empirical, abduction and interviews | Banking | Decision-making deals with a changing context. Decision-making is driven by decision makers mental models |
| Dahl et al. (2021) | Examines shared decision-making between patients and physicians and how this affects patient’s health accountability, digital information-seeking behaviour and patient health self-awareness | Empirical, structural equation modelling | Health care | Decision-making is a shared activity in which also the customers take active part |
| Paper | Focus | Research design | Focal service context | Key insights about decision-making |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conceptualizes a service management perspective for the management of organizations | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making is a decentralized activity in a service firm | |
| Identifies important competences for service managers to improve the quality of marketing decision-making in service context | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making quality depends on the competences of the managers, which, in turn, are depended on their experiences and expertise | |
| Discusses approaches to decision-making used in the emergency services and to relate these to decision-making in service encounters in the tourism and leisure sector | Conceptual | Tourism | Decision-making in service encounters is characterized by high levels of uncertainty. | |
| Purchase decision-making within professional consumer services | Conceptual | Professional consumer services | Decision-making is distributed, multi-actor activity (service provider makes purchase decisions for the beneficiary) | |
| Studies the decision-making processes around customer selection and introduce service employees’ desire for decision latitude (DDL) as an individual difference construct that influences the processing of quantitative and qualitative information in such decision-making | Empirical, mixed methods | Banking | Decision-making is an activity in which individual difference exits and that is also done by employees (not just “managers”) | |
| Explores how decision-making in professional service firms differs in unique and consistent ways from traditional organizations such as manufacturing firms | Conceptual | Professional service firms | Decision-making in service organization is often complex and, thus, more affective than cognitive | |
| Draws from viable systems approach to discuss decision-making in uncertain contexts and offers an interpretation of complexity in the context of service systems | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making deals with a complex and changing context that cannot be controlled | |
| Examines the financial performance implications of industrial service strategies | Empirical, survey | Manufacturing | Decision-making benefits from decentralization within the service organizations | |
| Studies how recasting supplier and customer roles influences the strategic decision-making of companies | Conceptual | Various service contexts | Decision-making deals with a complex and changing context that cannot be controlled | |
| Conceptualizes organizational culture from a service-dominant perspective and provides a framework for a cocreation culture type that comprises five core cocreation behaviour: coproduction, co-development, co-advocacy, co-learning and co-governance | Empirical, multiple case study | Health care | Decision-making is a shared activity in service organizations that have a “co-creation” culture | |
| Investigates the decision-making process in the management of the complex adaptive systems (CAS), particularly focusing on the dimensions that affect the individual decision-maker within fitting processes | Conceptual | Generic | Decision-making deals with a changing context. | |
| Explores how executive team members make sense of the market situation and changes within in and what is the role of mental models in this process | Empirical, abduction and interviews | Banking | Decision-making deals with a changing context. | |
| Examines shared decision-making between patients and physicians and how this affects patient’s health accountability, digital information-seeking behaviour and patient health self-awareness | Empirical, structural equation modelling | Health care | Decision-making is a shared activity in which also the customers take active part |
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