Abstract
Abstract
Purpose – Organizations nowadays require services supplied by Shared Service Centers (SSCs) to achieve organizational responsiveness. Previous contributions focused on distinct qualitative explorative factors for explaining successful Shared Service Centre (SSC) implementation but failed to consider the interdependencies and combined effects between factors.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on complexity and configuration theories, this research employed a fuzzy-sets Qualitative Comparative Analysis. A unique dataset of 121 international firms was obtained to examine the combined effects of five conditions (factors), namely, modularization, standardization, decision-rights, portfolio, and customer-orientation.
Findings – The findings show that multiple configurations of conditions (or solutions) can lead into successful SSC implementation. The fsQCA results indicated that portfolio and standardization are perceived as core conditions in all configurations. Firms that focus on portfolio and continuous evaluate customer-orientation are more likely to be successful. Furthermore, in some configurations the size of the firm size matters.
Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional survey data might be a potential limitation. In future research a more extensive survey can be collected to help generalize the results.
Practical implications – Success factors are dependent on the SSC configuration. Standardization, portfolio management and regular evaluations of changing customer services by executive management are needed.
Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no academic study that examines SSC implementation based on salient conditions using a configurational thinking approach. As such, the findings of the research allow us to better understand the causal complexity and interdependencies between essential SSC factors.
Purpose – Organizations nowadays require services supplied by Shared Service Centers (SSCs) to achieve organizational responsiveness. Previous contributions focused on distinct qualitative explorative factors for explaining successful Shared Service Centre (SSC) implementation but failed to consider the interdependencies and combined effects between factors.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on complexity and configuration theories, this research employed a fuzzy-sets Qualitative Comparative Analysis. A unique dataset of 121 international firms was obtained to examine the combined effects of five conditions (factors), namely, modularization, standardization, decision-rights, portfolio, and customer-orientation.
Findings – The findings show that multiple configurations of conditions (or solutions) can lead into successful SSC implementation. The fsQCA results indicated that portfolio and standardization are perceived as core conditions in all configurations. Firms that focus on portfolio and continuous evaluate customer-orientation are more likely to be successful. Furthermore, in some configurations the size of the firm size matters.
Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional survey data might be a potential limitation. In future research a more extensive survey can be collected to help generalize the results.
Practical implications – Success factors are dependent on the SSC configuration. Standardization, portfolio management and regular evaluations of changing customer services by executive management are needed.
Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no academic study that examines SSC implementation based on salient conditions using a configurational thinking approach. As such, the findings of the research allow us to better understand the causal complexity and interdependencies between essential SSC factors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 4 |
| Pages (from-to) | 920-941 |
| Journal | Industrial Management and Data Systems |
| Volume | 122 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 12 Apr 2022 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- Shared service center
- configurational analysis
- Plural Sourcing
- portfolio
- Standardisation
- fsQCA