Browsing by Author "Cakkol, Mehmet"

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    Achieving Customer Satisfaction through Integrated Products and Services: An Exploratory Study
    (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013-11-01T00:00:00Z) Raja, Jawwad Z.; Bourne, Dorota; Goffin, Keith; Cakkol, Mehmet; Martinez, Veronica
    Much of the research on satisfying customer needs is strongly influenced by the product or service dichotomy. Customer solutions however represent a type of offering that integrates products and services. Thus, solutions provide a special context that requires research attention. In this paper, we conducted an exploratory study of four customer organisations using solutions. Using the repertory grid technique we conducted 33 interviews with participants and identified 29 attributes. The data was analyzed using the Honey technique to identify which attributes are important for users and buyers of customer solutions. The findings identify relational dynamic between customers and the solution provider to be a complex and multifaceted set of dependencies that involves a number of key attributes identified. These closely related attributes included: knowledge, innovation, control, access and contract in satisfying the needs of users and buyers. The lesson that providers need to be aware of in designing NPD/NSD for solutions is that in the customer organization buyer and user attributes may vary as the two groups may have different needs. Therefore, providers of solutions need to cater for both groups when designing offerings. Importantly, the solutions context entails both product (good) and service elements that require closer attention.
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    How does servitization impact inter-organisational structure and relationships of a truck manufacturer's network?
    (Cranfield University, 2013-06) Cakkol, Mehmet; Johnson, Mark; Godsell, Janet
    Network relationships play a significant role in the provision of servitized offerings. To date, little empirical research has been conducted to investigate the link between servitization and inter-organisational relationships. The objective of this doctoral thesis is to explore the implications of servitization on a manufacturer’s network. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact on the network structure and relationship attributes. An exploratory in-depth case study was conducted within the truck manufacturing industry using a multi-organisational perspective. An abductive research approach was adopted which was underlined by pragmatism. As part of this approach, 43 interviews were conducted in a total of 11 companies. The findings of the study suggest that managers need to be aware of the different customer needs, related offerings and resultant implications on the network structure and relationships. To this end, the findings show that as the offerings move towards advanced servitized offerings the network becomes more complex in terms of its structure and relationships. The research contributes to the literature by providing a more nuanced description of what actually occurs in a network when a manufacturer provides servitized offerings in conjunction with other product-based offerings. In particular, it identifies the relationship attributes that need to be managed in order to drive the right behaviour for the provision of each of these offerings. Moreover, it is the first known study to uncover triadic as well as tetradic network structures in a servitization context. Equally important, it provides a framework that captures the interplay between the different offerings and the resultant network structure and relationship attributes. In all of these capacities, this research is one of the first known studies to uncover some of the complexities surrounding the way in which inter-organisational relationships are enacted in a servitization context.
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    An Ontology for Product-Service Systems
    (Cranfield University, 2010) Annamalai Vasantha, Gokula Vijaykumar; Hussain, Romana; Cakkol, Mehmet; Roy, Rajkumar; Evans, Stephen; Tiwari, Ashutosh; Xu, Yuchun
    Industries are transforming their business strategy from a product-centric to a more service-centric nature by bundling products and services into integrated solutions to enhance the relationship between their customers. Since Product- Service Systems design research is currently at a rudimentary stage, the development of a robust ontology for this area would be helpful. The advantages of a standardized ontology are that it could help researchers and practitioners to communicate their views without ambiguity and thus encourage the conception and implementation of useful methods and tools. In this paper, an initial structure of a PSS ontology from the design perspective is proposed and evaluated.