Case selection Extracting relevant evidence

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 focused on what happened after the purchase. Most often, the buyer involved was approached first. Other informants were usually identi- fied by the buyer. The informants for each service are listed in Tables 9.6A and 9.6B. The interviews lasted about 1.5–2 hours each because we also collected data about a variety of other dependent concepts capabilities, key objec- tives, communication and adaptation, and success, as well as about the level of buyer-perceived risk associated with the service to be purchased. The list of interview questions was based on the questionnaires used in similar studies conducted by the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing IMP Group Håkansson, 1982. This allowed for the collection of a large amount and wide variety of information informants could say what- ever they deemed relevant while at the same time ensuring that infor- mation about all relevant topics would be obtained. Extensive summaries were made of each interview, which were sent back to the interviewees for verification. These summaries were merged into descriptions at case level, which were again sent to the interviewees in order to eliminate any inconsistencies and to provide further clarification if necessary. Specifically to investigate what kind of people interacted with the supplying company after the purchase of the service, the following questions were asked in each interview: ■ Which departmentsfunctions are primarily involved in the interactions? ■ Which departmentsfunctions are involved in managing the ongoing supply after the purchase of a service? How does this take place? ■ Which departmentsfunctions are involved in managing the supplier? How does this take place? ■ Who are the counterparts of these functions on the supplier side? The representatives involved in interaction with the service provider are shown in Table 9.7A. The answers to the question about the level of buyer-perceived risk associated with the service to be purchased are summarized in Table 9.7B where H ⫽ high, M ⫽ medium, L ⫽ low.

9.2.5 Coding

In order to facilitate comparison of observations for building proposi- tions, we categorized the different representatives in terms of the different value-creating functions distinguished by Porter 1985: 45–48. In addition to his seven functions, we included an eighth one, “internal customer”, in order to avoid confusion between involving a discipline because of its specific functional expertise on the one hand, and involving it because it is the user of the service on the other hand. Regarding consumption services, at UWV ICT has a dual role being both the internal customer and having a sub-department, which is Table 9.7A Representatives involved in interaction with the service provider Representatives involved at KPN Representatives involved at UWV Component ■ Purchasing category manager ■ Representatives board pension fund 1 ■ Business division representatives ■ Representatives employer’s pension bureau ■ Purchasing ■ External consultant Component ■ Procurement ■ Director financial–economic affairs 2 ■ Business representatives ■ Cash management department ■ Purchasing ■ Legal representatives ■ External consultant Instrumental ■ IT ■ Director ICT 1 ■ Procurement ■ Purchasing ■ Legal ■ Contract management ■ Former director IT business divisions ■ Legal ■ Higher management ■ Service management ■ Architects Instrumental ■ Purchasing category manager 2 ■ Marketingcommunications ■ Business stakeholders Consumption ■ Level and type of involvement ■ Legal depends on type of temporary labour ■ Financial control being purchased ■ ICT control ■ Service management ■ Facility experts ■ External people Table 9.7B Level of perceived risk Consumption Instrumental Component KPN UWV KPN1 KPN2 UWV KPN1 KPN2 UWV1 UWV2 Risk L L H M H H L H H