Data analysis Methodological reflection on Case Study 5

internal customer function involved in the interaction P1a. In the same way it is argued from columns case 3, case 4, and case 5 that purchasing an instrumental service is a sufficient condition for having a representative of the internal customer function, as well as one from the process engineers function, involved in the interaction P1b. Regarding component services CMP, the only commonality between the four instances is the representation of procurement. However, there is a clear common pattern for the three instances with a high perceived risk, namely involvement of marketingsales, which was interpreted as representing the external customer. It is argued that purchasing a component service with a high perceived risk is a suffi- cient condition for having a representative of the external customer function involved in the interaction P1c. This leaves component service KPN2 to be interpreted. If purchases with low perceived risk are grouped together, a common pattern is discernable, namely repre- sentation of the internal customer. It is argued that a purchase of a service with a low perceived risk is a sufficient condition for having a representative of only the internal customer function involved in the interaction P2. Table 9.9 Type of buying company representatives involved Consumption Instrumental Component Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8 Case 9 KPN UWV KPN1 KPN2 UWV KPN1 KPN2 UWV1 UWV2 Risk L L H M H H L H H Marketing sales Process engineers Production service delivery Infrastructure Procurement HRM Technology Internal customer

9.3.8 Outcome

Each of the four propositions that have been formulated in this study would have been proven to be true if this had been a theory-testing study in which these four propositions were tested. They now, however, need to be tested in further studies. Alternatively, as proposed in Case Study 5, they could be used as building blocks of other propositions, e.g. on factors that influence or determine the success of a purchase of a service. Box 14 Other propositions that can be derived from Table 9.9 In Case Study 5, evidence was found for sufficient conditions in which the type of service determines the representation. Table 9.9 also gives evidence for certain necessary conditions. A necessary condition exists if a specific value of the independent concept cannot exist without a specific value of the independent concept. This means that every value of the dependent concept must be assessed to see whether a specific independent concept is always present. When looking at the eight functions that might be represented in the ongoing interaction after the purchase, four propositions, each representing that the type of service is a necessary condition, can be formulated: P3a: Marketingsales representing the external customer is only involved in ongoing interaction if the type of service is a component service. P3b: Process engineers only are involved in ongoing interaction if the type of service is an instrumental service. P3c: Infrastructure is only involved in ongoing interaction if the type of service is an instrumental service or a component service. P3d: Production is only involved in ongoing interaction associated with component services. However, for the goal of the present study, these types of necessary conditions are less relevant. Based on the dataset of Table 9.9, P3c could also have been formulated as a probabilis- tic proposition, stating that the chance of involvement of infrastructure in ongoing inter- action is higher with instrumental services than with component services, and is higher with component services than with consumption services. We advise first to develop and test propositions on deterministic conditions and, only later, if test results show that such deterministic propositions cannot hold, to reformulate them as probabilistic ones.

9.4 References

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