Service triads: A research agenda for buyer–supplier–customer triads in business services
| Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Published date | 01 May 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2014.10.002 |
Journal
of
Operations
Management
35
(2015)
1–20
Contents
lists
available
at
ScienceDirect
Journal
of
Operations
Management
j
o
ur
na
l
ho
mepage:
www.elsevier.com/locate
/jom
Service
triads:
A
research
agenda
for
buyer–supplier–customer
triads
in
business
services
Finn
Wynstraa,∗,
Martin
Springb,
Tobias
Schoenherrc
aRotterdam
School
of
Management,
Erasmus
University,
PO
Box
1738,
3000
DR
Rotterdam,
The
Netherlands
bLancaster
University
Management
School,
Bailrigg,
Lancaster
LA1
4YX,
United
Kingdom
cMichigan
State
University,
Department
of
Supply
Chain
Management,
Eli
Broad
College
of
Business,
Michigan
State
University,
632
Bogue
St.,
Room
N370,
East
Lansing,
MI
48824,
USA
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
i
n
f
o
Article
history:
Available
online
16
October
2014
Keywords:
Service
triads
Buyer–supplier–customer
triads
Services
Networks
Empirical
research
Research
agenda
a
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
Service
triads,
in
which
a
buyer
contracts
with
a
supplier
to
deliver
services
directly
to
the
buyer’s
cus-
tomer,
represent
an
emerging
business
model.
This
special
issue
is
dedicated
to
this
theme.
To
set
the
context,
in
this
lead
article,
we
first
define
service
triads,
both
as
a
phenomenon
and
a
research
topic.
We
then
provide
a
review
of
different
strands
of
existing
research
and
various
theoretical
frameworks
that
can
inform
our
study
of
service
triads.
This
culminates
in
an
outline
of
a
research
agenda
that
can
guide
future
study.
As
such,
this
paper
not
only
introduces
the
articles
in
the
special
issue,
but
is
also
intended
as
a
point
of
reference
and
motivation
for
further
work
on
service
triads,
and
on
triads
in
general.
©
2014
Elsevier
B.V.
All
rights
reserved.
1.
Introduction
The
growth
in
specialization
and
outsourcing
among
firms
has
given
rise
to
an
operations
and
supply
landscape
that
is
increasingly
based
on
networks
rather
than
large
vertically
integrated
firms
(Buhman
et
al.,
2005;
Hayes,
2008).
Firms
focus
on
what
they
can
do
best,
and
outsource
the
remaining
tasks
to
outside
providers
(Holcomb
and
Hitt,
2007).
This
involves
in
many
instances
key
service
operations
(Sako,
2006).
A
large
share
of
these
services
becomes
part
of
the
buying
organization’s
value
proposition
to
its
customers:
they
are
purchased
by
one
organization
from
another,
but
delivered
to
a
third
party
–
the
customer.
These
services
are
being
referred
to
as
‘front-end’
services
(Balakrishnan
et
al.,
2008)
or
‘component’
services
(Van
Der
Valk
et
al.,
2009).
For
example,
if
a
software
company
outsources
its
helpdesk
services
to
a
third-party
call-center,
the
primary
service
interac-
tion
is
between
the
customer
and
the
call-center,
not
between
the
customer
and
the
software
company,
even
though
the
customer
has
a
contractual
relationship
with
the
software
company.
Other
instances
include
manufacturers
of
capital
equipment
using
main-
tenance
service
providers
to
work
directly
with
end-users,
as
well
∗Corresponding
author.
E-mail
addresses:
fwynstra@rsm.nl
(F.
Wynstra),
m.spring@lancaster.ac.uk
(M.
Spring),
schoenherr@broad.msu.edu
(T.
Schoenherr).
as
many
third-party
logistics
settings.
In
the
public
sector,
public
transportation
service
providers
often
operate
under
specific
gov-
ernment
contracts
(concessions)
to
provide
a
service
to
the
general
public.
The
ensuing
relationships
between
buyer,
supplier
and
the
(buy-
ing
organization’s)
customer
can
be
viewed
as
a
‘service
triad’,
in
which
a
buyer
contracts
with
a
supplier
to
deliver
services
directly
to
the
buyer’s
customer
(Li
and
Choi,
2009;
Niranjan
and
Metri,
2008).
The
basic
service
triad
is
shown
in
Fig.
1.
It
consists
of
the
buyer,
supplier
and
customer.
Importantly,
such
service
triads
entail
a
structure
of
inter-organizational
relation-
ships
that
is
fundamentally
different
to
that
encountered
in
the
more
linear
supply
chains
especially
observed
in
manufacturing.
The
critical
point
about
the
triadic
structure
is
that
each
actor
has
a
direct
connection
with
the
other
two;
such
connections
may
be
constant
or
intermittent.
Some
triads’
service
delivery
activ-
ities
are
only
mobilized
rarely
–
maybe
never.
For
example,
car
repair
shops
are
only
brought
into
contact
with
the
policy-holder
(customer)
if
the
customer
has
an
accident
that
is
covered
by
his/her
policy
with
the
insurance
company
(buyer).
Nonetheless,
in
the
event
of
a
claim,
there
is
direct
supplier–customer
interac-
tion.
In
the
examples
above,
the
research
focus
is
often
on
the
buyer
as
the
active
player.
But
similar
configurations
can
be
observed
when
customers
play
an
initiating
role,
using
buyers
(intermediaries),
for
example
in
the
form
of
project
management
firms,
to
facilitate
their
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2014.10.002
0272-6963/©
2014
Elsevier
B.V.
All
rights
reserved.
2
F.
Wynstra
et
al.
/
Journal
of
Operations
Management
35
(2015)
1–20
Fig.
1.
The
service
triad.
access
to
suppliers
(service
providers)
(Flowers,
2007;
Mabert
and
Schoenherr,
2001;
Schoenherr
and
Mabert,
2003).
Although
inter-organizational
triads
are
not
an
entirely
new
research
topic,
there
is
a
growing
interest
in
recent
times,
par-
ticularly
within
the
operations
management
and
supply
chain
management
(OM-SCM)
field.
There,
the
interest
in
triads
received
a
strong
boost
around
2008–2009,
with
various
conceptual
papers
and
essays
published
on
the
Operations
&
Supply
Management
Forum
(set
up
by
the
editors
of
the
Journal
of
Operations
Manage-
ment),
and
a
debate
between
Choi
and
Wu
(2009a)
and
Dubois
(2009)
in
the
Journal
of
Purchasing
and
Supply
Management.
In
this
latter
debate,
Choi
and
Wu
argued:
“We
need
to
study
how
in
a
network,
a
dyad
is
affected
by
another
dyad.
Therefore,
to
study
a
network,
studying
triads
becomes
imperative
.
.
.
Simply,
dyads
are
inadequate
in
capturing
the
interactive
nature
inherent
in
a
network”
(2009a:
265).
Against
the
background
of
this
call
for
more
OM-SCM
research
on
triads,
we
suggest
that
service
triads
merit
specific
attention.
Because
their
primary
operations
involve
a
service,
particular
issues
come
to
the
fore.
Critically,
and
in
contrast
to
many
other
forms
of
triads,
the
supplier
needs
to
have
direct
exchange
with
the
cus-
tomer,
in
order
to
deliver
its
service.
For
this
delivery,
the
supplier
depends
on
inputs,
typically
from
customers
(Sampson
and
Froehle,
2006)
but,
in
a
triad
setting,
quite
often
also
from
buyers.
A
service
triad
is
therefore
different
from
the
‘bidirectional
service
supply
chain’
(Sampson,
2000),
where
the
supplier
only
has
one
counter-
part
to
rely
on
for
inputs,
i.e.
a
buyer
that
is
also
the
customer
of
the
service.
Thus,
triads
provide
a
critical
context
to
better
understand
the
nature
and
relative
importance
of
various
inputs
for
the
service
process.
The
notion
of
an
inherent
supplier–customer
exchange
also
highlights
the
fluctuating
role
that
a
buyer
may
have
in
such
service
triads.
For
instance,
how
can
a
buying
organization,
reli-
ably
and
efficiently,
monitor
service
quality
if
it
is
not
involved
in
the
actual
service
delivery,
especially
when
this
quality
is
highly
dependent
on
the
interaction
between
supplier
and
customer?
Such
service
triads,
however,
have
not
received
much
specific
coverage
in
prior
research.
A
few
exceptions
exist.
For
example,
service
triads
have
been
studied
using
social
network
theory
(Li
and
Choi,
2009),
drawing
attention
to
the
dynamics
of
relationships
between
the
three
triad
members
as
an
outsourcing
arrangement
is
established.
Nevertheless,
recent
discussions
suggest
that
there
are
opportunities
to
extend
the
study
of
triads
using
other
theoretical
approaches,
from
within
OM-SCM
and
from
outside
our
discipline
(Choi
and
Wu,
2009c).
This
special
issue
is
a
response
to
that
call,
and
the
present
lead
article
introducing
the
special
issue
has
three
specific
objectives.
The
first
objective
is
to
define
service
triads,
both
as
a
phenomenon
and
a
research
topic.
The
second
objective
is
to
provide
a
review
of
different
strands
of
existing
research
and
various
theoretical
frameworks
that
can
inform
our
study
of
service
triads.
Outlining
a
research
agenda
is
the
third
main
objective.
As
such,
the
article
not
only
provides
a
background
for
the
articles
in
the
special
issue,
but
it
is
also
intended
as
a
point
of
reference
and
motivation
for
further
work
on
service
triads,
and
on
triads
in
general.
While
previous
research
has
begun
to
apply
the
notion
of
triads
within
the
domain
of
operations
management,
primarily
focus-
ing
on
structural
aspects
of
triads,
the
current
article
is
aimed
to
help
advance
our
understanding
of
the
impact
of
the
struc-
ture
and
dynamics
of
service
triads
on
specific
OM-SCM
issues,
such
as
service
risk
management;
quality
management
in
services;
and
service
capacity
management.
In
other
words;
we
intend
to
stimulate
research
and
the
development
of
theories
on
OM-SCM
phenomena
in
service
triads,
rather
than
theory
development
and
testing
regarding
the
(dynamic)
structure
of
triads
in
service
sup-
ply
chains.
Further
research
on
OM-SCM
phenomena
in
service
triads
also
would
help,
more
broadly,
fill
the
gap
in
research
on
business-to-business
services
(Ostrom
et
al.,
2010).
In
the
following
section,
we
discuss
OM-SCM
research
on
tri-
ads.
Section
3
discusses
triad
studies
in
management
research
and
(other)
social
sciences.
Section
4
reviews
the
distinctive
fea-
tures
and
various
forms
of
service
triads.
In
Section
5
we
outline
a
research
agenda
along
three
dimensions:
specific
topics
for
research
in
service
triads,
alternative
theoretical
approaches,
and
methodological
aspects.
Section
6
introduces
the
papers
in
this
special
issue,
with
Section
7
offering
some
concluding
thoughts.
2.
OM-SCM
research
on
triads
For
our
review
of
prior
literature,
we
examined
(not
just
service)
triad
studies
from
the
OM-SCM
domain
–
and
from
the
wider
area
of
management
and
organization
research.
These
studies
were
col-
lected
in
two
ways.
First,
we
searched
the
Web
of
Science
portal
for
journal
articles
in
the
field
of
management,
using
the
term
‘tri-
ads’
(no
year
limits).
To
verify
that
we
did
not
miss
any
relevant
articles,
we
checked
the
reference
lists
of
the
initial
set
of
articles.
We
then
manually
selected
the
relevant
articles
from
these
two
sets
that
represented
studies
focusing
on
inter-organizational
tri-
ads
(e.g.
leaving
out
studies
that
dealt
with
the
US–Europe–Japan
triad).
Secondly,
we
added
to
this
set
conference
papers
and
dis-
sertations
with
which
we
were
already
familiar
or
came
across
in
reference
lists.
We
selected
publications
that
presented
a
substan-
tial
discussion
of
triads,
omitting
those
that
only
mentioned
them
in
passing.
This
resulted
in
a
set
of
30
publications,
which
are
described
in
Appendix
1.
While
we
cannot
review
each
of
these
studies
in
depth
here,
the
appendix
provides
the
most
salient
descriptors.
In
the
main
text,
we
select
for
discussion
those
studies
that
seem
to
be
important
milestones
in
triad
research.
2.1.
Triads
Most
existing
OM-SCM
research
on
triads
is
concerned
with
the
triad
formed
by
the
buyer
and
two
upstream
suppliers
in
a
manufacturing
context
(Fig.
2).
It
is
typically
concerned
with
how
the
buyer
can
influence
the
relationship
between
the
sup-
pliers.
Prominent
among
this
research
is
the
work
of
Choi,
Wu
and
colleagues.
Their
first
study
(Choi
et
al.,
2002)
began
from
the
observation
that,
as
firms
reduce
the
number
of
direct
suppliers
that
they
use,
they
can
and
do
seek
more
actively
to
influence
the
relationships
between
suppliers.
It
examines
three
archetypes
of
supplier–supplier
relationships
–
competitive,
cooperative
and
‘co-
opetitive’
–
and
develops
several
propositions
regarding
the
effect
of
each
of
these
on
the
outcomes
both
for
suppliers
and
for
their
customer.
Wu
and
Choi
(2005)
develop
this
further
by
focusing
on
the
active
shaping
of
the
supplier–supplier
relationship
by
the
buyer;
To continue reading
Request your trial