Purchasing pension advisory services in Sweden: An interpretive investigation into service conceptions and supplier selection
Bolander,Pernilla Werr,Andreas van der Valk,Wendy
Bolander,Pernilla
Werr,Andreas
van der Valk,Wendy
Abstract
Research on service purchasing commonly acknowledges that different types of services require different purchasing approaches. This has generated a plethora of service classifications that focus on different characteristics inherent to the service. Recently, the use to which a service is put in an organization and the organizational context have been argued to influence the way in which the service is purchased, thereby shifting attention away from inherent service characteristics. The current paper extends this line of research by focusing on the buyer's understanding of the service and its impact on the supplier selection process. Based on an interpretive, phenomenographic analysis of 32 interviews with buyers of pension and insurance advice services (PIAS) in Sweden, the current study identifies four fundamentally different ways of understanding these services and shows how different conceptions of a service give rise to different approaches to selecting suppliers and different criteria for evaluating them.
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Date
2018-05-16
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Research Projects
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Keywords
service purchasing, supplier selection, professional services, interpretive approach
Citation
Bolander, P, Werr, A & van der Valk, W 2018, 'Purchasing pension advisory services in Sweden : An interpretive investigation into service conceptions and supplier selection', Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 71, no. May, pp. 108-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.12.015