Resumen de Competitive advantage by customer integration. Empirical investigation by the example of german manufacturers of baggage handling systems.
Achieving strong and unique competitive advantages is a goal in the strategic management of customer relations. Sustainable successful relationships to customers to secure profitable business in the face of growing competition are among the most important challenges for firms. In order to remain competitive in the future, German manufacturers have to force the application of innovative state- of-the-art methods to develop competitive advantages to attract and bind customers and to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This is of special relevance under conditions where their products alone are insufficient for the purpose. Such conditions also exist in industries which are crucial for the infrastructure and the care of a state and are of national interest and strategic relevance. Especially commercial airports have to provide a logistical service for the carriage of passengers and luggage and are of strategic importance.
The dissertation at hand deals with the question of achieving competitive advantage through the integration of customers in the value creation from the perspective of the baggage handling system manufacturers. It investigates and answers the central question of this research: Is customer integration (CI) a method that can be applied by German manufacturers of Baggage Handling Systems (BHS) to achieve a competitive advantage? The dissertation discusses selected approaches to the application of strategic management in order to survey and to answer the research question, and mirrors it with success factors of CI in combination with technical and legal aspects. Based on the discussion of the approaches Market-based view, the Resource-based view and the Relational view the theoretical discussion finds out that the Market-based and Resource-based view alone are not sufficient to answer the research question and with regard to the industry conditions the relational aspects become more important. This will be underlined by a qualitative empirical investigation that is an essential part of this dissertation and includes the manufacturer and customer perspective and provides an answer on the research question.
The theoretical discussion of the market-based view (MBV) discovered that due to the possibility of copying generic strategies, the inadequate consideration of the environmental impact, together with the inadequate approach in the relationships between the market players in the industry, the MBV is insufficient for the research question comprehensively. The theoretical discussion of the resource-based view (RBV) discovered that the complementary relationships, and the goal-oriented bundling of resources amongst the market players, comprise a weak approach. The combinations of resources and the complementary relationships between the players in the industry are crucial factors for achieving CAs and economical rents, and thus resulted in the inappropriateness of the RBV to answer the research question comprehensively. The theoretical discussion of the relational view (RV) discovered that the approach focusing on inter-firm networks and inter-organizational relationships as operational success factors can be used as a complementary supplement to the RBV. The discussion also revealed that the approach focuses on relation-specific assets, knowledge sharing routines, complementary resources / capabilities and effective governance mechanisms as key sources for achieving inter-organizational CAs. All these factors have been taken into consideration when to answering the research question. By the addition of the concept of CI and its success, and considering the frame conditions of the baggage handling industry, the empirical investigation had a comprehensive basis on which to answer the research question following the evaluation and interpretation of the empirical investigation. The investigation found out that in a baggage handling project the manufacturers use a combination of tangible and intangible factors in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Intangible factors have a crucial role compared to the tangibles. The main impact comes from relationship related, inter-organizational, human specific and information / knowledge related intangible factors. Customers have confirmed this result by their assessment of factors that ensures that a manufacturer succeeds in competition for the customer by a combination of intangible and tangible factors. This shows that both manufacturer and customer identified intangible factors as the key factors to achieve CAs. This result confirms the approach chosen for this study on the relational view.
The investigation also shows that customers and manufacturers divide a baggage handling project into three main process phases: ex-ante to the decision, point of decision, and ex-post of the decision, in which the ex-ante phase is the most critical for manufacturers for achieving CAs, and influences the following phases.
During these phases a certain relationship modality between the manufacturer and the customer develops.
During the ex-ante phase the customer is involved as a co-innovator with and informer to the manufacturer concerning product development, and assumes a role as a co-producer and / or “partial employee” (Kurzmann and Reinecke, 2009: 207). During the ex-post decision phase the customer is distinguished; as a co-innovator in the development of the product (adaptation of a solution according to environmental changes) and as a co-producer and / or “partial employee” (Kurzmann and Reinecke, 2009: 207) in the achievement stage. Due to the impact of the combination of factors of manufacturer and customer, and the relationship modality that shows the customer’s degree of integration, the integration partners attain advantages that influence their positioning in their individual core businesses (e.g. customer: process costs of baggage handling services compared to other airports). The investigation discovered that the manufacturer achieves CAs over all phases of the project. This is especially so within the legal restrictions that lead to product (system) homogeneity. The way to use the legal system before the restrictions are applied is for the achievement of CAs, the ex-ante phase to the decision is the most relevant phase for the manufacturer. There he has the chance to combine individual tangible and intangible potential factors with those of the customer to create unique symbiotic idiosyncratic achievement bundles that represent the best solution to the customer´s problem. The driving factors for achieving a CA are, under these conditions, based on relational variables in connection with the relationship modality. If the manufacturer is able to realize the ideal potential factor combination, then his competitors face the risk to be the second source in the project, then not being preferred and selected as a project partner by the customer what result in a competitive disadvantage.
During the decision phase the combination of potential factors built into the previous phase unofficially influences the customer’s decision. The investigation discovered that due to product (system) homogeneity and legal restrictions the indirect influence of the previous phase regarding the relationship to the customer is crucial for the success of the manufacturer. The quality of the relational factor combinations and the evaluation of the risk failure influence the customer towards the preferred manufacturer, who gains a CA. The competition then face a disadvantage due to costs related to the previous investments in potential factor combinations with the customer.
During the ex-post phase of the decision advantages accrue that influence the execution of the project (e.g. time and cost saving, etc.) as well as the core businesses of the involved parties in future projects (e.g. reference, relationship, processual excellence, cost situation, knowledge, etc.).
To summarize, the investigation confirms that a German manufacturer able to build an integrated alliance with the customer under the condition that both “(…) combine, exchange, or invest in idiosyncratic assets, knowledge, and resources/capabilities, and/or they employ effective governance mechanisms that lower transaction costs or permit the realization of rents through the synergistic combination of assets, knowledge, or capabilities” can achieve relational rents and CAs (Dyer and Singh, 1998: 662). The CAs achieved by the manufacturer are based on inter-organizational investments in relation-specific assets, a close relationship with the customer based on intangible variables (e.g. trust, commitment, information, fairness, transparency, etc.), the exchange of substantial and joint- learning based knowledge (e.g. time-, information-, knowledge advantage, etc.), as well as combination of complementary scarce resources and capabilities (Dyer and Singh, 1998: 662) and lower transaction costs (Williamson, 1985).
Finally, the investigation shows to that a German manufacturer of baggage handling systems can differentiate itself from competitors and achieve competitive advantages under conditions of product (system) homogeneity if the manufacturer integrates the customer into the achievement creation process from the outset of the project by using a combination of potential factors, which help to build a collaborative relationship with the customer. It can be confirmed that customer integration is a method that can be applied by German manufacturers of baggage handling systems to achieve competitive advantages in the airport-specific baggage handling industry.
