Previous literature reviews of strategic flexibility have a number of shortcomings: they lack a specific focus in the field, provide an excessive definitional focus or lack a clear empirical overview of research in the field. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper aims to systematically analyse the literature on strategic flexibility by identifying its main characteristics, linking the different aspects together in a new conceptual framework, and considering the means to measure it. This comprehensive analytical model analyses various aspects of strategic flexibility in the relevant literature (156 contributions). Thus, the systematic and critical approach of this paper offers a novel perspective in understanding strategic flexibility, and contributes to the field by providing a consolidation of the literature and indicating future research avenues.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the subject-specific literature on service and flexibility and derive a conceptualization of the linkages between provider flexibility and customers' value creation. Design/methodology/approach - The authors analyze existing perspectives on service and flexibility and propose linkages between provider flexibility and customer value creation. Findings - Drawing on the service logic literature, and utilizing real-world examples, this paper advances propositions and a conceptual model of how flexibility can contribute to value creation. Research limitations/implications - This paper establishes the basis for a practical and applicable flexibility perspective on value creation. It is particularly important for service-oriented providers and other firms operating in dynamic contexts. Practical implications - The propositions and conceptual model offer suggestions on the manner in which provider flexibility contributes to customer value creation. Contextual influences that moderate provider flexibility in value creation are also included. Originality/value - This paper contributes a novel perspective on service, which may serve as the starting point for the development of a more formal flexibility perspective on value creation.

Flexibility is generally considered an important driver of customer-perceived value (Lapierre, 2000). In contemporary business environments where the rapid development of new technologies, globalization, and an upheaval in industrial markets have led to increased uncertainty for firms acting in these markets (Sanchez, 1995, Hitt, Keats & DeMarie, 1998), this appears even more pertinent. Further, it is even more relevant for firms that strive to reposition themselves as part of their customers’ businesses (Normann, 2001). Although flexibility may seem like a natural part of service activities, the service literature is rather vague about this notion. For the most part, prior studies merely note that flexibility is important in a service context, with unsubstantiated claims such as “a degree of flexibility, after all, is central to good service” (Lovelock, 1993, p. 46)or “whereas typical manufacturing values often focus on efficiency, economies of scale, and the notion that variety and flexibility are costly, service-oriented values centre on innovation, customization, and the view that flexibility and variety create profits” (Gebauer, Fleisch & Friedli, 2005, p. 21). Indeed, there is an emerging body of research focusing on how flexibility can contribute to customer’s value creation (e.g., Hansen, Samuelsen & Silseth, 2008, Brozovic, Nordin & Kindström, 2016), but no one takes this issue as far as we attempt to do in this article by conceptualizing the “spineless organization”. A spineless organization is here defined as an organizational unit that always puts the customer's needs at the centre and is able tomeet them rapidly and efficiently regardless of what they are about and whether they were expected or not.

This teaching case study focuses on SKF, a leading supplier of products, services and solutions. It consists of an overview of the company and then a narrative concentrating on the sudden loss of a large customer relationship. Moreover, it explores how central individuals devise various strategies to recover the relationship. The purpose is to stimulate a discussion concerning alternative ways for handling such relationship losses. The case is especially suited as a starting point for discussions of different marketing strategies and customer relationship tactics. Teaching notes are provided with discussion questions and possible answers. 

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the honeybee colony metaphor as a tool to make sense of the dynamics of service systems surrounding a service relationship. Design/methodology/approach - Based on qualitative case research, this study develops and applies the metaphor of honeybee colonies as a tool to analytically and discursively draw parallels between different aspects of honeybees and service systems surrounding a service relationship, focusing on the dynamic nature of both. Findings - The honeybee colony metaphor can serve as an analytical tool, helping managers to make sense of the dynamics of service interactions and, as a discursive tool, giving sense to the strategic implications of service providers' everyday activities. Research limitations/implications - Few metaphors, no matter how complex, can wholly capture reality. The honeybee colony metaphor describes the dynamics surrounding a service relationship at a comprehensive level. Further research can focus on the metaphor's particular aspects (the changing role of honeybees in the system, for example) or distortions (e.g. parasitic relationships). Practical implications - The honeybee colony metaphor illustrates the strategic importance of part-time marketers; they "pollinate" and "fertilize" the customers and properly assessed information that they report represents a basis for strategic decisions. Originality/value - The introduction of the honeybee colony metaphor in this paper provides a new lens for capturing the dynamic aspects of service systems surrounding a service relationship and the strategic implications derived from adopting a systemic outlook on service.

This thesis is about service provider flexibility and how provider flexibility facilitates customer value creation in contexts where customer processes and activities change. Provider flexibility is delineated as a mechanism of value creation and defined as the ability of the service provider to respond to changes or to bring about changes that support its customers’ value creation. Although provider flexibility has been implied as a relevant factor in value creation, previous studies focusing on some kind of provider flexibility would benefit from a deeper understanding of the strategic role that service provider flexibility plays in value creation.

The purpose of this study is to provide a framework that explicates the strategic role of provider flexibility in value creation. The role of provider flexibility in the adjustment of the provider’s processes and activities and the development of opportunities based on insights from customer interactions are thus emphasized. Moreover, while these insights from customer interactions can offer valuable development opportunities for the service provider, these opportunities yield returns only with the transfer of the insights back to the service provider’s organization.

The research process evolves along five research articles that develop the understanding of the strategic role of provider flexibility in value creation. The study builds on the empirical data from five service organizations of large industrial firms. The empirical insights from the articles are expanded and their conclusions further developed by iteratively and abductively substantiating the research model. The discussion explicates how exercising provider flexibility—in the form of organizational flexibility in the provider sphere, interaction flexibility in the joint sphere, and flexibility in use in the customer sphere—contributes to value creation. Moreover, findings show that the provider and the customer are entwined in a service system surrounding their service relationship. Provider flexibility in this aspect functions not merely as a mechanism of value creation, but also as a carrier of knowledge and information about the customer. Having this dynamics in mind, the provider continues to use provider flexibility to reinvent itself and constantly evolve the organization.

This thesis contributes to the literature by providing a framework that explicates the strategic role of provider flexibility in value creation. More specifically, the contributions are: 1) an increased understanding of how provider flexibility in value creation is exercised, placing provider flexibility at the core of the encompassing process of value creation, and thus explicating the manner in which the encompassing process of value creation can unfold; and 2) an increased understanding of the strategic role of the work of part-time marketers by delineating the process of provider flexibility in value creation where different aspects of provider flexibility in value creation are linked.

This teaching case was designed to stimulate creative and critical thinking among graduate students majoring in marketing or management through their engagement in a reality-based situation involving a strategic managerial challenge. The central challenge is how business-to-business firms such as SKF can handle situations where various kinds of third-party actors are entering between them and their end customers. Such “third party threats” may possibly enable them to reach some of their end-customers more effectively but, more importantly here, it may also negatively influence their relationships with the customers. In this teaching note, the challenge is linked to issues such as: commoditization, value, servitization, branding, and relationship management

Purpose: The aim of this article is to delineate a number of different disintermediation mechanisms within the context of business-to-business (B2B) service channels and to identify the specific challenges associated with adopting these mechanisms. Methodology: The research was conducted in accordance with abductive reasoning, moving continuously between the empirical world of 4 industrial (B2B) firms and the model world. Findings: This article delineates a choice of 6 disintermediation mechanisms and their attendant challenges within the context of industrial service channels. Contribution: The article provides an original conceptualization of disintermediation, which is detached from the traditional understanding of the concept. As such, it constitutes a useful starting point for the development of a formal theory of disintermediation. Implications for Practice: This article should be useful for practitioners, because it presents various disintermediation options available to industrial firms faced by undesired intermediaries in their industrial service channels.faced by undesired intermediaries in their industrial service channels.

The concept of flexibility has received substantial interest among academic scholarsover many years, particularly focusing on manufacturing related issues. Given an increasedturbulence in many markets, the interest seems well justified. However, the literature issurprisingly devoid of analysis of flexibility in service settings, or how flexibility and servicesare interrelated. The purpose here is therefore to offer a critical analysis of the literature and toconceptualize the interrelationship between flexibility and services. As such, this papercontributes with a novel perspective on services and may serve as a starting point for thedevelopment of a more formal flexibility-perspective on services.