Optimal Design of Coproductive Services: Interaction and Work Allocation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Roels, Guillaume
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: M&SOM-MANUFACTURING & SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1523-4614
• DOI: 10.1287/msom.2014.0495
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 578-594
• 关键词: operations strategy; service operations; joint production; monotone comparative statics

摘要

In services, customers provide significant inputs into the production process. In particular, these inputs may be the customers themselves participating in the service delivery. Although many service firms have explored different ways of involving customers in their production process, there is no clear guideline for the design of such coproductive systems. In this paper, we develop an analytical model of joint production between a service provider and a customer and characterize how a service firm should design its coproductive system. We show that, as a task becomes more standard, it is desirable to decrease the degree of interaction between the provider and the customer by making their efforts more substitutable and to allocate most of the work to whoever is the most efficient. Conversely, as a task becomes less standard, it is optimal to increase interaction by making efforts more complementary and to balance the work allocation. Our analysis gives rise to a service-process framework with three archetypes of coproductive services: collaborative services, service factories, and self-services. We discuss the implications of our results for service process reengineering.