Product Service Outsourcing: Impact of Environment Uncertainty and Partial Observability

作者：Yimin Wang, Mei Li, Ning Ma, Heng Zhang · 发表于：Manufacturing & Service Operations Management · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1287/msom.2022.0222 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Outsourcing and Supply Chain Management、Supply Chain and Inventory Management、Customer Service Quality and Loyalty

Problem definition: Product service plays a crucial role for brands to retain customers and spur revenue growth. It is, however, often outsourced to a third-party provider, driven by cost savings and the ability to focus on core businesses. Although there is a large body of literature studying service outsourcing, the impact of service environment uncertainty (i.e., changing customer needs and shifting resource requirements) has received sparse attention in the past but is becoming a major concern because of increased market turbulence. This research explores how environment uncertainty in service provision influences a brand’s intent to outsource, and, if the brand decides to outsource, how it can retain the potential cost advantages offered by a third-party provider. Methodology/results: This research develops a normative model to explore key drivers that impact service outsourcing outcomes under environment uncertainty and partial observability. We find that environment uncertainty can accelerate a brand’s propensity to outsource, and a brand typically benefits from outsourcing initially. Yet, we show that such benefits can dissipate over time because of partial observability. Monitoring efforts help to mitigate the adverse impact of environment uncertainty and partial observability, but cannot attain anticipated outsourcing benefits unless monitoring is costless. In contrast, nudging service providers to self-report the cost of resources is effective even if the monitorin...