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History
Publishing Programs
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(Volume 10, Issue 2)
Christian J. Homburg, University of Mannheim
Martin Fassnacht, University of Paderborn
Christof Guenther, Regioco GmbH
Abstract
It has been recognized that in today's highly competitive
industrial markets, one of the few ways left to gain differentiation from
competitors is by offering value-added services. To do so, however,
requires a service-oriented strategy and the active implementation of this
strategy which includes significant internal changes in management philosophy
and approach. Unfortunately, no study has examined the implementation
aspects of a service-oriented strategy. In this context, our research
focuses on two important "soft factors", corporate culture and human
resource management, that are necessary for a successful implementation of a
service-oriented strategy in industrial marketing companies. We analyze
the mediating role of these two soft factors in the causal chain leading from a
service-oriented strategy to organizational performance. We find that the
soft factors play an important mediating role in the link between a
service-oriented strategy and organizational performance.
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