CHAPTER 4 Research Methodology
4.2 Case Study
detailed service concept needs to be developed, the user-centric interactive service design involves detailed requirements and specifications of service innovation. Next, the service components including IT/IS assets, people, procedure, standard and knowledge should be developed; the following will be the service component integration and testing. Once the IISI is ready, the service will be transited, operated and delivered among the front, middle and back offices. At last, the service experience will be generated for service improving and retention. This ongoing process will be adopted as the research axis to analyze the locus of value transformation through IISI.
4.2 Case study
In general, case studies are the preferred research strategy when “how” or “why”
questions are being posed (Yin, 1994). This research strategy focuses on understanding the dynamics presents within single settings (Eisenhardt, 1989). The essence of a case study, the central tendency among all types of case study, is that it tries to illuminate a decision or set of decisions: why they were taken, how they were implemented, and with what result (Schrammen, 1971). The theme of this research is to delineate the process of value transformation starting from the initial proposal to the final outcome, namely, business performance. Moreover, we also expound the obstacles that erode the value generation. Hence, this context of “how” and “why”
questions should be appropriate for adopting the case study methodology.
As indicated in the research background, the development of IT-enabled interactive service innovation is a state-of-the-art issue and involves a lot of market participants from different sectors. According to the definition provide by Yin (1994),
“A case study is an empirical inquiry that, investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and
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context are not clearly evident”. Thus, a case study strategy should be applicable for the study of IT-enabled interactive service innovation.
Besides, Eisenhardt (1989) proposed a synthesized roadmap for building theory from case study research, which includes getting started, selecting cases, crafting instruments and protocols, entering the field, analyzing data, shaping hypotheses, enfolding literature and reaching closure. Stake (1994) presents three types of case studies, namely, intrinsic case study, instrumental case study and collective case study.
The intrinsic case study aims at increasing the understanding of a phenomenon and make sense of the case being studied; the instrumental case study aims at refining a theory; and the collective study focuses on using several studies to compare and draw general implications of the phenomenon being studied. In this research, the multiple cases will be adopted and follow the Eisenhardt’s roadmap to build a general framework for analyzing the IT-enabled interactive service innovation.
Furthermore, Yin (1994) issued six sources of evidence related to the data collection in conducting case study strategy, which comprise documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant-observation, and physical artifacts.
In order to enhance the explanatory power, we will collecting the evidence by conducting several semi-structural interviews across different sectors and businesses, the relevant archival records and documentary information will be gathered and analyzed.
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CHATPER 5 THE FRAMEWORK OF CHALLENGES FOR IISI
In the literature, there are several studies addressing the issues of assessing IT values at different levels and of avoiding value discounting. These pioneering studies either propose a chain of three different process of IT value creation, or identify a series of specific barriers in a two-stage framework (Soh and Markus, 1995; Chircu and Kauffman, 2000). Nevertheless, in the context of web-based service, namely, a request-and-respond service pattern, the issues of identifying value and overcoming barriers are intricate because they span multiple level of analysis, including the use of IT and the impact of innovation on the marketplace, where it may alter the fundamental ways in which firms and individuals interact. At the latter level, the issues of interest are business process designs, technological standards, firm-to-firm competition, and alternative organizational strategies. A better understanding of these issues, along with the extent to which new innovations diffuse through the marketplace and are accepted by users, is required. Those studies described above do not seem to provide a comprehensive framework for exploring all the challenges involve in the IT-enable interactive service innovation. Next, we propose an analytic framework for delineating all the issues above.
The ultimate goal for IT-enabled interactive service innovation is to improve the organizational performance and gain competitive advantages. However, the most challengeable part for the executive management is to ensure this transformative potential will proliferate successfully and benefit the bottom-line.
5.1 The Development of IISI
The conversion from the initiation of an IT-enabled Interactive Service Innovation to its final outcome, the firm’s business performance, should be regarded
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as a process of transformation that comprises several intermediate states. Based upon the process-oriented approach of Soh and Markus (1995); Kohli and Sherer (2002), this research proposes the following three-phase development framework shown in Figure 5.1, which specifies how the tasks and underlying expenditures in each stage contribute to the outcome. Foremost, the IT acquisition phase, the development of enabling IT, specifies IT development, where the enabling IT assets of the service initiative are built up; then, the set-up phase, the set-up of IT-enabled interactive service innovation, focuses on the conversion of a firm’s IT assets to its competencies;
and the diffusion phase, the diffusion of IT-enabled interactive service innovation, specifies the diffusion through which the service initiative is commercialized through translating competencies into business performance. The outcome of each phase and its (customer) value may vary based on the level of expenditures and the quality of management. The details of this approach are described as follows.
Figure 5.1 The development framework of IT-enabled interactive service innovation
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The IT acquisition Phase:
Once the initiative to pursue an IT-enabled Interactive Service Innovation is approved by top management, the first major tasks are to form a business strategy that also specifies the business-IT integration and then, based upon the integration, to develop the IT assets that enable the IT-enabled Interactive Service Innovation. There are different types of IT assets, comprising a portfolio of tangible inputs, including hardware, software, infrastructure, communication technology, and other complimentary intangible elements, such as knowledge, enhanced technological and managerial skills in the use of IT, and so on.
During this phase, infusing “IT expense” is necessary for the acquisition of enabling IT, furthermore, the levels of IT expense may impact the breadth (number of IT assets) and the depth (levels of activities supported) of acquired IT assets.
Moreover, with the same level of IT expense, some organizations may be able to acquire more IT assets than others due to their ability to address technical challenges.
The set-up phase:
After acquiring IT assets, an organization should incorporate them into its IT-enabled Interactive Service Innovation projects by effectively integrating these assets into the competencies resulting from the synergy of the cross-functional capabilities of different functions. These competencies include the effective use of IT in service design and automated service processes and activities, a better understanding of service markets and of customers, and flexible and adaptive organizational structures in support of service development and delivery.
“Managerial expense” during this stage refers to exploiting the firm’s capabilities by leveraging all of its business resources, including tangible resources (such as manpower, management teams, and training) and intangible resources (such as culture
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and reputation). On the base of well utilizing all resources within business, the capabilities of different dimensions such as the R&D capabilities, production capabilities, and logistic capabilities etc. can be built on. Thereby, an effective co-ordination and integration of capabilities, the business competencies will evolve.
It is necessary to formulate a service strategy, select the right service projects, infuse business resources into the project, and manage the project effectively.
The diffusion phase:
As the competencies have been built up, this IT-enabled interactive service innovation will encounter the challenges whilst diffusing market wide, in particular, the competencies do not sufficiently result in a good organizational performance when a firm is in an unfavorable environment. The firm should develop a favorable environment through some deliberate activities that, for example, help diffuse the IT-enabled Interactive Service Innovation with either greater benefits (e.g., resulting from a larger customer base) or lower costs (e.g., resulting from a more efficient diffusion process) in comparison with its competitors.
In this phase, market expenses are required to handle (1) social issues, including gaining social acceptance and government support, (2) inter-organizational issues, entailing the strategies for satisfying the key stakeholders’ needs, seeking trustworthy partners, maintaining good governance, and understanding the competitors’ strategies, and (3) managerial issues, such as designing and maintaining an efficient process for diffusing the IT-enabled Interactive Service Innovation, building high market sensing capabilities, and responding the market proactively.
The forgoing discussion provide an exemplar of the transformation process of IT-enabled interactive service innovation, this three-phase framework can be further applied for investigating the retardants in the process of value generation.
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The value flow within the three-phase development framework of IISI is shown in Figure 5.2. Conceptually, the major challenge in Phase 1 is to acquire reliable IT assets through IT expenses. The major challenge faced in Phase 2 focuses on addressing managerial and organizational issues through managerial expenses, and Phase 3 calls for the use of market expenses to address social/environmental, managerial, and inter-organizational issues. The details are described as follows.
Instead of random trial and error, the company usually sets up several IISI proposals, each of which has a hypothesized value. The hypothesized value can be treated as a mix of performance measures for a particular service initiative, which determines the original decision for innovation. Later, the hypothesized value is tested through pilot studies to provide the firm with a better understanding of the potential value of associated IT assets. Here, the potential value of IT assets refers to that generated under optimal organizational and environmental conditions for IISI. Note that a high hypothesized value may not lead to a high potential value when the resulting IT assets do not provide the hypothesized functionality, the wrong IT is proposed, or suitable software/hardware is unavailable. That is, there are technical challenges related to the way in which the firm converts IT spending into IT assets.
Although technical challenges can be addressed by infusing more IT expenses, sometimes they cannot be effectively addressed with a limited budget; in this case, the decision to terminate or reshape these projects will be made. Thorough technical planning during this stage should be regarded as the foremost concern.
The set-up of IISI incorporates not only IT assets but also other essential business elements, such as people and the processes by which a service is created and delivered. When IT assets are infused into a firm’s business functions, the firm becomes more aware of what the consumer expects and is thus better able to deliver
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IISI. The expected value of competency refers to the value that is expected to be gained from a particular business competency by which a firm is able to design and deliver IISI. Executives often find managerial and organizational issues that undermine this competency and prevent the firm from delivering what the consumer expects; thus, a variety of organizational and managerial commitments are required to develop a proper foundation for IISI. For instance, executives in the online service for logistics are aware that RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has a high potential to provide efficient tracking of parcels, a vital component of high-quality shipping service. However, providing such a shipping service may be difficult due to a lack of trained service personnel, an absence of total management commitment, inefficient business processes, and an unsupportive corporate culture.
Through the firm’s competency, an IISI diffuses to the public to realize its expected value. The realized value of a service refers to the real value gained from the market. Normally, the diffusion of an IISI presents additional managerial challenges;
for example, an organization needs to learn about new markets and develop new processes. Inefficient resources such as legacy systems and processes and the absence of knowledge regarding new markets often prevent an organization from maximizing the IISI’s realized value. Additionally, there are difficult issues such as ambiguous laws discouraging the IISI, a partnership that is ineffective in providing expected service, a competitive environment that makes the IISI unattractive and low customer acceptance. A variety of managerial, inter-organizational, and social/environmental expenses are required to improve the realized value of IISI.
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Figure 5.2 The Value Flow and Associated Challenges of IISI
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CHAPTER 6 MULTIPLE CASE STUDIES
The cases companies we selected involve three field cases and three library cases.
The related industries involve interactive television services, securities brokerage services, and traveling services industry.
6.1 The Cases of Interactive Television Services
The recent revolution in digital processing ushers the broadcasting industry into a new era, the ITV has been regarded as the third generation of broadcasting services and relevant issues have gained tremendous interests from both academics and
practitioners. Here, we first brief the ontological process of ITV, the definition of ITV, taxonomy of interactive television, the comparison of ITV and the Internet, and then describe one library case of Time Warner and one field case of Taiwan Television Enterprise are adopted to show evidences of challenges (as in the Time Warner case) and of the hesitance phenomenon (as in the TTV case) when firms seek some ITV service.
6.1.1 The Ontological Description of ITV
Schwalb (2004) provides the content production food chain of ITV illustrated in Figure 6.1. The ITV food chain starts from the producing/authoring stage, which involves video making and software application. In the integration stage, back-and forth interaction between the creative professionals and those providing the components is necessary and time consuming. Besides, the quality assurance and testing engineers and configuration management professional are two significant role to ensure the content played correctly and enable the various distribution processes.
After the components are integrated, they are stored in archives. Then, the ITV programs are passed through to the distributors or advertisers in the releasing stage.
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The last stage of ITV food chain is the viewing stage, the related issue involves the interactivity of either local type with no outside communication or remote type with bi-directional virtual interactive channel. In conclusion, the whole ITV content food chain is a complex process and requires collaboration by manifold equipments and technologies operated by many partners.
Moreover, Tsaih, et. al. (2005) provides the ITV value chain for describing the various players in the ITV business environment, which involves different business sectors, for instance, the broadcasters, content production companies, advertising agencies, platform operators, technology companies, and retailers and consumer goods companies, et al. The value chain is illustrated in Figure 6.2.
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Figure 6.1: The content production food chain of ITV service (Schwalb, 2004)
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6.1.2 The definition of Interactive Television
Interactive Television (ITV) refers to anything that lets the television viewer or viewers and the people making the television channel, program or service engage in a dialogue. More specifically, it can be defined as a dialogue that takes the viewers beyond the passive experience of watching and lets them make choices and take actions (Gawlinski, 2003). Another definition is proposed by Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) of UK, interactivity is functionality rather than a specific type of service, and it can be applied in a wide variety of contexts. Its distinguishing characteristic is the ability of viewers to interact with TV programs by changing the content which appears on the screen or by providing information to the broadcaster through a return path (BCAP, 2004). Hence, interactive television service is a “pull” service initiated by the subscriber to a Multiple Video Program Distributor (MVPD) that are not necessarily related to any specific video programming (Galperin
Advertising Own the contents &
interactivity y Program concepts y Advertisement message y Interactive application
definition
y Content management
y AV content production y Interactive
y Program service y EPG for channels y Teletext service
y Broadcaster content independent service
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and Bar, 2002). Hitherto, ITV means that the viewers use the remote control to request information over the show which is broadcasting, and this can evolve various innovative applications.
6.1.3 Taxonomy of interactive television
Although there is still no generally agreed taxonomy for classifying the types of interactivity, in the literature, three basic types of interactive television (ITV) were issued by Morris and Smith-Chaigneau (2005), namely, enhance broadcast, interactive broadcast, and internet TV. The differences among them are listed in Table 5.1
Table 6.1 The basic types of applications that constitute ITV
Types Characteristics I. Enhanced
broadcast
1. Interaction occurs only between the user and receiver.
2. No communication channel to the broadcaster or other service provider.
3. Examples: news reports, electronic program guide.
II. Interactive broadcast
1. Interaction relating to specific applications occurs between the user and the broadcaster or another service provider via a return channel.
2. Interaction takes place over a proprietary communication mechanism.
III. Internet TV
1. Interaction occurs either between the user and the broadcaster of between the user and a server on the Internet.
2. The receiver needs a standardized IP connection.
Source : Morris and Smith-Chaigneau (2005)
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On the other hand, Microsoft, the Henley Centre, and other scholars propose different modes of interactive television. Table 5.2 provides the details of taxonomy.
Table 6.2 The different types of ITV Scholar/Organization Types of interactive television Morries and
Smith-Chaigneau (2005)
1. Enhanced broadcast 2. Interactive broadcast 3. Internet TV
Microsoft (producer of MITV) 1. Enhanced television : 2. Internet on television 3. Personal television 4. Connected television The Henley Centre (consumer
research organization in UK)
1. Distribution interactivity 2. Information interactivity 3. Participation interactivity Galperin and Bar (2002) 1. Program-related services
2. Dedicated services
Gawlinski (2003) 1. Electronic programme guide (EPGs) 2. Teletext-style services
3. Walled gardens 4. Internet on television
5. Video-on-demand and near-video-on-demand 6. Personal video recorders
Source : Constructed by the author
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6.1.4 Interactive television vs. the Internet
Some practitioners argues that the television and the computer would converge due to the two ongoing trends, one of that is providing Internet-like services on TV, such as interactive TV, another trend is providing TV-like services on computers, for example, to watch TV on the computer. Nevertheless, the nature of the convergence is still debatable, Press (1993) had posited that these two communities had different culture, and the differences are listed as follows.
Table 6.3 The differences between ITV and the Internet
Items Interactive Television The Internet Applications Movies and home shopping Text messaging and
information retrieval Terms Interactive Television The Internet
Users For the users in their homes Begin with university and research workers, and rapidly spread into business and schools
Data Types Video and audio communication
Data Types Video and audio communication