Market segmentation strategies and service sector productivity
Article Abstract:
Conventional explanations for lagging U.S. service sector productivity focus on the difficulties of measuring service output, a lack of sufficient competition in service industries, and poor management skills. Drawing on data collected in 95 service establishments in the banking and hotel industries in the U.S., UK, and Germany, this article suggests an alternative explanation. U.S. service companies may effectively be achieving low levels of labor productivity by design. The U.S. service establishments in this study are productivity leaders in low value-added market segments. They have consciously chosen to adjust the labor intensity of service delivery to the business potential of different customer segments. Varying the design of service processes by customer segment has lowered measured productivity levels but may be supporting higher levels of business performance. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: California Management Review
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0008-1256
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Can American management concepts work in Russia? A cross-cultural comparative study
Article Abstract:
This article examines the main cultural differences and similarities between American managers and their Russian counterparts. It also explores the applicability of familiar American management concepts concerning leadership styles, motivation approaches, performance appraisal systems, systems for strategic planning, and organizational configurations in the context of the Russian culture. Certain American management concepts - such as legitimate power-based leadership style, employee relations policies, gainsharing, appraisals based on work team performance, strategic improvising, and strategic alliances - can be successfully put into practice in Russia. Differences in managerial values between these two countries, however, require that the application of American management approaches in Russia be carried out patiently and systematically. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: California Management Review
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0008-1256
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Developing global strategies for service businesses
Article Abstract:
This article provides a framework for developing global strategies for service businesses. It integrates existing, separate frameworks on globalization and on service businesses, analyzes how the distinctive characteristics of service businesses affect globalization and the use of global strategy, and diagnoses which aspects favor globalization and which do not. It then applies the new framework to numerous industry and company examples, with particular emphasis on the role of information technology. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: California Management Review
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0008-1256
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Supplier evaluations: communication strategies to improve supplier performance. Focal supplier opportunism in supermarket retailer category management
- Abstracts: Inside implementation: some helpful advice can make the process easier. Case studies in financial reporting
- Abstracts: Samsung cuts jobs and pay as Koreans brace for pain. Top post at rock-bottom wage; chief executive puts stock-only pay to ultimate test
- Abstracts: Cyberdegrees; who needs a college campus? Just log in and start studying. NASD maps war on claims on Internet; agency is developing way to search for phrases it considers suspicious
- Abstracts: Preferred reading. Summer reading for you and your children