Candidate cases Case Study 5: Theory-building research

services. We selected KPN Royal Dutch Telecom, market leader in the major segments of the Dutch telecom market, as the routine service provider in this study. The other is a professional service provider knowledge provider, i.e. a company that solves complex problems Axelsson and Wynstra, 2002. Transactions are substantial and involve considerable creative moments in direct contact with the supplier e.g. reintegration trajec- tories for employees that have been ill or unemployed, conducting medical examinations. We selected UWV, a Dutch institution with about 18,000 employees responsible for the administration and imple- mentation of insured benefits for around 1,000,000 employees in the Netherlands, as the professional service provider in this study.

9.2.3 Case selection

KPN and UWV were contacted by means of a formal letter, followed up by a telephone call to set up an introductory meeting. During this first meet- ing, the case study protocol in which it was specified how the study would be conducted, how much time would be required from company repre- sentatives, etc. was discussed with the buying company’s primary contact person in order to give the company a clear idea of what we expected from them and what they could expect from us. After the companies had agreed to participate, a next meeting with the contact person was set up to identify the services to be studied one instance of each of the four types of services in each company. KPN offered us the opportunity to study two instrumental services in-depth. Since our informant associated these services with differing degrees of success one highly successful, one not successful at all, we included them both in our study. The cases selected at KPN and UWV are listed and briefly described in Tables 9.6A and 9.6B. As the study progressed, the two cases that were originally selected in the semi-manufactured category were found to fit better in the category of component services. Rather than select- ing new semi-manufactured cases, we decided to reclassify these cases as component services.

9.2.4 Extracting relevant evidence

We collected data through semi-structured interviews. For each serv- ice, two to three interviews were conducted. One interview with the buyer involved in sourcing the service focused mainly on the purchas- ing process, whereas an interview with the contract owners andor a user Table 9.6A Selected cases, descriptions, and informants KPN Type Service Informants Component Call centre ■ Category Manager Marketing and Call Centre Services ■ Human Resources Representative Call Centre Component Construction activities at office buildings ■ Category Manager Construction and homes e.g. for ADSL connections and Engineering Instrumental IT outsourcing ■ Manager Group Category ICT ■ Chief Information Officer Royal KPN ■ Former Chief Information Officer Division Fixed Instrumental Marketing media, promotions, PR agency, ■ Category Manager Marketing and market research, and contents Call Centre Services ■ Category Purchaser Marketing Communications ■ Category Purchaser Consumption Temporary labour e.g. people that come ■ Manager Procurement Professional, to help clean out cupboards “hands” Financial and HR Services ■ Human Resources Representative Call Centre Table 9.6B Selected cases, descriptions, and informants UWV Type Service Informants Component Pension administration collecting fees ■ Senior Buyer Personnel and from employers, carrying the administration Organization of these fees, and making payments to ■ Secretarial Officer Pension Fund pensioners Component Payment of social benefits executing ■ Senior Buyer Facilities payments on behalf of UWV ■ Manager Cash Management Instrumental Office automation software, hardware, and ■ Senior Buyer ICT generic services ■ Project Leader European Tender Office Automation Consumption Office infrastructure phone, Internet ■ Senior Buyer including occupancy administration and ■ Portfolio Manager Work Unit maintenance of workspaces Services ■ Service Manager