* James TEBOUL, Affiliate Professor of Production and Operations Management, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France

Transcription

1 "DE INDUSTRIALIZE SERVICE FOR QUALITY" by James TEBOUL* N 88 / 21 * James TEBOUL, Affiliate Professor of Production and Operations Management, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France Director of Publication : Charles WYPLOSZ, Associate Dean for Research and Development Printed at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France

2 ABSTRACT DE-INDUSTRIALIZE SERVICE FOR QUALITY James TEBOUL There is no precise frontier between a service and an industrial product. This appears clearly with the operational definition of services: interface and support or front office and back office. The larger the interface, the purer the service, the smaller the interface, the more industrial the service. But, the interface is difficult to deal with because of interactions between clients, employees and technology. Hence the tendency to "industrialize services", to standardize the interface, define precise requirements and transfer some of it in the support. In that case, quality means conformance to requirements and a zero defect policy is readily specified if not implemented. However, it then becomes very difficult for the firm following this path to differentiate itself from competition and to satisfy the evolutive needs of the customer. We recommend avoiding this vicious circle and taking the opposite stand. The interface, when used well, can give quality a boost, and a long term approach to quality must take into consideration an adequate use of the multiple interactions between customers, employees and technology in order to satisfy the client. Hence, enlarging the interface and giving it proper attention is not more costly if quality is adequately planned and built into the process and if participation of customers and automation is judiciously resorted to.

3 DE-INDUSTRIALIZE SERVICE FOR QUALITY by James TEBOUL European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) Fontainebleau, France March 1988 (Revised version of W.P. N 88/03)

4 DE-INDUSTRIALIZE SERVICE FOR QUALITY James TEBOUL In recent years, we have witnessed a lively interest in services and there has been a move towards the industrialisation of services to improve their productivity. The main thrust has been "Why don't we apply the methods of productivity improvement that have already proved themselves throughout the industrial world?" And by way of proof we have the famous example of fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King in Levitt's article on the Industrialisation of Services where "the same rational system of division of labor and specialization is rigorously followed to produce speed, quality control, cleanliness, and low prices". (1) At first sight, this approach to services seems to bear its fruit as it shows clear cost reductions with the standardisation of the service. But this can only be a short term approach as the motto is "productivity and cost reduction" and the centre of interest is less the service itself than the product delivered with the service. It is my firm belief that there is another option, that in many cases services should be de-industrialised in order to obtain both better quality and customer satisfaction. And to prove this point, I would first like to make the difference between a service and an industrial product very clear. Making a product is starting from "raw material" and transforming it into a final product. For example, you begin with a pig and you end up with sausages. Delivering a service, on the other hand, is dealing directly with customers and transforming them from an initial state of non-satisfaction or need into one of contentment. For example, "I'm starving" becomes "I feel great". When you deliver a service, you essentially interact with a customer even if you actually give him something which has been prepared beforehand. A service should be considered as being made up of two systems: an interface and a support, a front office and a back office, the dining room in a restaurant and the kitchen. (3) Figure 1 - Service Definition SERVICE I CUSTOMER I INTERFACE SUPPORT Up front service in contact with customer FRONT OFFICE "Behind the scenes" support service BACK OFFICE Now what makes a service really a service is the interface: the front office, the dining room, and the actual difference between a service and a manufacturing facility is the size of the interface. Therefore when industrialising a service one should be careful not to over-simplify it, not to reduce the interface too much, not to concentrate attention only on the

5 - 2 - support. For the interface is a very specific system, with the following characteristics. Firstly, the customer is physically present in the interface. This implies that there may be a greater number of problems because the customer's demands do vary widely. Yet, at the same time, the customer is able to participate not only in the design of the service, but in production, or in quality control or even in the diffusion of the service. (5) Secondly, in the interface, the service and the delivery process are interdependent. One cannot exist without the other. Production and consumption are simultaneous. In the classroom, the teaching and the learning process go together. The customer has to be in the plane in order to be transported. If he misses his plane, the service is lost. And this is why we say services are immaterial. (6) (7) Thirdly, when the customer is in the interface, he is visiting the factory-- the place where the service is delivered. And the larger the interface, the longer he stays and the more visible the service is. Given the above characteristics of services, the natural question arises: What should be done with the interface? Should it be reduced? We'll ask the customer to telephone or to write instead of visiting. Should it be developed? We'll spend more time with the customer. We'll enhance the premises, the personnel will be more available. The obvious short term answer is "Let's standardise it, let's reduce it". The advantages are cost reduction and conformity to well defined requirements; but the clear drawback is the loss of differentiation and less customer satisfaction. And to make this last point clearer, we must go back to the definition of quality. Quality means satisfaction of the user and this can be seen in the diagram below where the customer needs are represented by a circle and the service offer by a square. Figure 2 - Quality as perceived user satisfaction interaction equipment interactio customer interaction process Customer Needs interaction employees Service Offer Quality perceived customer satisfaction

6 Quality or customer satisfaction is the customer's perception of the service offer, that is, the shaded area. And the perception of the customer in the interface includes more than WHAT is delivered, it includes HOW it is delivered. And the HOW is all the inter-actions of the customer with the premises, with the machines, with the technology, with the employees and even with the other customers. So then in order to give quality, to live up to the promise of an offer, thousands of details must be supervised as the customer perception is global. All elements of the WHAT and the HOW contribute to this perception and you may even have transfers from one element to another to give a global perception of satisfaction. Take, for example, Benihana restaurants. The WHAT, that is the food and the recipe, is very standardised but the HOW, that is the exotism, the show and the enthusiasm of the chef makes the service more customized or specific or exotic and gives more value hence higher prices. But what makes quality so very difficult to control is that one minor mistake, one minus, can ruin the best offer and this non-conformity can be a serious drawback when a competitor offers defect free service. This is why many companies opt for the reduction or the standardisation of the interface. However the company that is offering the service does not stand alone. There are competitors. And the competitor will try to do better than you. He will offer something more, something different to the customer. He will try to get what we call a competitive advantage, a plus. Figure 3 - The Plus and Minus of Quality Company's B offer Non value for customer Company's A offer (-) Non conformity (+) Differentiation Competitive Advantage

7 - 4 - The problem with customers is that they vote everyday when they buy your service and what is important is WHAT makes the difference. Take, for example, the airline industry. A ticket is a ticket is a ticket and what makes the difference is perhaps having more room in which to stretch out your legs, or simply the steward or stewardess' smile. So the interface and the quality of the service in the interface may provide that not-to-bemissed opportunity to keep one step ahead. Controlling "minuses", those thousands of details better than anyone else is of utmost importance. And to find, "pluses", ways of differentiation not only in what you give (the service itself) but in how you give it (the delivery process) is equally important. Now perhaps you are saying "Oh yes, what what about cost? Will this enlarging and developing of the interface cost more? Will it cost a lot?" I would now like to review some of the strategies that will increase customer satisfaction and will not increase the cost. STRATEGY 1 Enhance the Interface to get that Competitive Advantage This strategy will give greater importance to the interface. It may be physically enlarged as in the Benihana restaurant example, where the size of the kitchen is reduced and that of the dining area is enlarged. There are two reasons for this: 1) The customer is served by the chef in the dining room and so the chef plays many roles--he cooks, he serves, he controls the length of the meal, he cleans up and he controls quality, he gives the show and status to the customer. 2) The customer does not wait in a queue but he is invited to sit in a large, comfortable bar where he is entertained while he has a drink or two. And this policy of a larger interface is, in fact, less costly than a classical restaurant of the same size. Another example can be seen in certain supermarkets where the fish is presented on a bed of ice instead of in a standardised plastic pack. It takes up more space this way and a qualified salesman is needed, but the customer's greater satisfaction and willingness to pay higher prices, when he has the impression he is buying freshly caught fish, compensate for the higher costs. When this strategy is followed, however, some problems do arise. Some of these come from the wide variety of customer needs and demands that may exceed the capabilities of the service, but customers can be selected and prepared for the service offered.

8 - 5 - This is the idea of fan clubs or of customer clubs where people who have already experienced the service tell the newcomer what to expect and how to behave. Shouldice Hospital, in Canada, for example, is a private clinic which specialises in hernia operations. The patient is first selected by means of a questionnaire and a medical examination, and then, when he gets to the hospital he meets with other patients who have already undergone the operation and in this way he is directly prepared for his own operation. Later on, he may join an "old patients' club" and he will meet with them from time to time for dinner to revive the experience and even to diffuse it. Along the same line of thought, the welcoming ceremony of the Club Med is very important for preparing the future guests for their holiday experience. Moreover, the customer is not passive and he can also be used to control the quality of his interaction with the employees and the evolution of the service design. There are two important advantages in this strategy other than the competitive advantage. Firstly, the barrier to entry as it is not as easy to copy successful personal interactions as it is to copy physical goods. Compare the special, supposedly exotic atmosphere of Benihana to that of some standardised hamburger eating places. Secondly, the importance of the interaction experienced in the interface: the memory of this experience may be more significant than any other means of communication, and by word-ofmouth a good experience will be passed on more effectively than by advertising. STRATEGY 2 Keep interface but reduce its cost Here are a few examples of how to do this: 1) As already mentioned, selection and training of customers. 2) Shift demand when the capacity is insufficient--for example, on and off season advantages; giving appointments to avoid queueing. 3) Simplify the interface and focus it on a specific group of customers who have similar needs. 4) Encourage customer participation in the actual production and delivery of the service, i.e. self-service of all sorts. We still have the interface but the customer is doing part of the job. As long as he has the feeling that he is saving time, using his knowledge and getting what he wants, he is better off than with a mail order system where interface is reduced to minimum.

9 - 6 - STRATEGY 3 In any case, give the promised quality and build it into the interface Quality, that is, customer satisfaction, has two aspects: a positive aspect --differentiation and the competitive advantage; a negative aspect--a lack of conformity to requirements or expectations. It is then very important to keep your promise: a) Planning Quality. It is essential at the design stage to anticipate potential problems and to build quality into the system. For this purpose different tools are available such as value analysis, flow charting, project reviews, capability analysis, selection and training of employees. Another essential aspect is to check the coherence of the offer. We have already referred to the perception of the customer as being global so it is very important to check that all aspects of the service are coherent and give a global positive impression. Investment in prevention is much less costly than corrective action. This is especially true in services where it is difficult, if not impossible, to correct a bad service. You will not easily be forgiven if your customer is ill after a meal. It is difficult to console a customer when his longed-for and much needed holiday has been ruined by bad organisation. b) Quality Measurement and Control. While delivering the service, quality can be controlled by the employees themselves, the customers, or even by peers. After-delivery quality must be reviewed by audits and consumer surveys (preferable to complaints analysis). c) Quality Improvement. Needs of customers change, standards improve under the pressure of competition, thus quality must improve on a continuous basis. One must resort to quality improvement teams and programmes, a project by project improvement approach. CONCLUSION Take any book on management and open it. What message will you find? The customer, the customer, the customer is king, tune in to the customer, cherish your customer. But in the interface, the customer is right there, physically accessible. Why deny yourself such an opportunity? Enlarging the interface, investing in the interface, selecting and training the customer, having him participate, selecting and training the labour force for the interaction, may seem more complicated and more expensive in the short term, but when we look at the total system, the long term positioning of the company, and the opportunity to build barriers to entry, these strategies become a must. Enhance your interface when it gets to be a competitive advantage. Keep it but reduce its cost in order not to lose ground. Build your promised quality into it by anticipating problems or needs and by giving coherent service. And if you decide to industrialize part of the service, choose it carefully. It's a part that the customer accepts not to perceive directly.

10 REFERENCES (1) Theodore Levitt, The Industrialization of Service, Harvard Business Review, September-October (2) Theodore Levitt, Production-Line Approach to Service, Harvard Business Review, September -October (3) J. Teboul & V. Malleret, Towards an Operational Definition of Services, 1986 (4) Richard B. Chase, Decoupling Operations in Service Production Systems, 14th Annual Meeting American Institute for Decision Sciences, San Francisco, November (5) P. Eigler, E. Langeard, Servuction, McGraw-Hill. (6) R. Normann, Service Management: Strategy and Leadership in Service Business, John Wiley & Sons. (7) W. E. Sasser, R. P. Olsen, D. D. Wyckoff, Management of Service Operations: Texts, Cases and Readings, Boston 1978.

11 /01 Jean DERMINE 85/02 Philippe A. NAERT and Els GIJSBRECHTS 85/03 Philippe A. NAERT and Els GIJSBRECHTS 85/04 Philippe A. NAERT and Marcel VEVERBERGH 85/05 Ahmet AYKAC, Marcel CORSTJENS, David GAUTSCHI and Ira HOROWITZ 85/06 Kasra FERDOWS 85/07 Kasra FERDOWS, Jeffrey G. MILLER, Jinchiro NAKANE and Thomas E.VOLLMANN. 85/08 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS and Robert CARBONE 85/09 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS and Robert CARBONE 85/10 Jean DERMINE 85/11 Antonio M. BORGES and Alfredo M. PEREIRA INSEAD VORRINC PAPERS SERIES "The measurement of interest rate risk by financial intermediaries", December 1983, Revised December "Diffusion model for new product introduction in existing markets". "Towards a decision support system for hierarchically allocating marketing resources across and within product groups". "Market share specification, estimation and validation: towards reconciling seemingly divergent views". "Estimation uncertainty and optimal advertising decisions", Second draft, April "The shifting paradigms of manufacturing: inventory, quality and nov versatility", March "Evolving manufacturing strategies in Europe, Japan and North-America" "Forecasting when pattern changes occur beyond the historical data", April "Sampling distribution of post-sample forecasting errors", February "Portfolio optimisation by financial intermediaries in an asset pricing model". "Energy demand in Portuguese manufacturing: a tvo-stage model". 85/17 Manfred P.R. KETS DE "Personality, culture and organization". VRIES and Danny MILLER 85/18 Manfred F.R. KETS DE VRIES 85/19 Manfred F.R. KETS DE VRIES and Dany MILLER 85/20 Manfred P.R. KETS DE VRIES and Dany MILLER 85/21 Hervig M. LANGOHR and Claude J. VIALLET 85/22 Hervig M. LANGOHR and B. Espen ECKBO 85/23 Manfred P.R. KEYS DE VRIES and Dany MILLER 85/24 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 85/25 Gabriel HAVAVINI 85/26 Karel O. COOL and Dan E. SCHENDEL 85/27 Arnoud DE MEYER /01 Arnoud DE MEYER "The darker side of entrepreneurship". "Narcissism and leadership: an object relations perspective". "Interpreting organizational texts". "Nationalization, compensation and wealth transfers: France " 1, Final version July *Takeover premiums, disclosure regulations, and the market for corporate control. A comparative analysis of public tender offers, controlling-block trades and minority buyout in France", July "Barriers to adaptation: personal, cultural and organizational perspectives". "The art and science of forecasting: an assessment and future directions". "Financial innovation and recent developments In the French capital markets", October "Patterns of competition, strategic group formation and the performance case of the US pharmaceutical industry, , October "European manufacturing: a comparative study (1985)". "The R i D/Production interface". 85/12 Arnoud DE MEYER 85/13 Arnoud DE MEYER 85/14 Ahmet AMC, Marcel CORSTJENS, David GAUTSCHI and Douglas L. MacLACHLAN "Defining a manufacturing strategy - a survey of European manufacturers". "Large European manufacturers and the management of R li D". "The advertising-sales relationship in the U.S. cigarette industry: a comparison of correlational and causality testing approaches". 86/02 Philippe A. NAERT Marcel WEVERBERGH and Guido VERSVIJVEL 86/03 Michael BRIMM 86/04 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS and Michele HIBON "Subjective estimation in integrating communication budget and allocation decisions: a case study", January "Sponsorship and the diffusion of organizational innovation: a preliminary view". "Confidence intervals: an empirical investigation for the series in the N- Competition". 85/15 Arnoud DE MEYER and Roland VAN DIERDONCK "Organising a technology jump or overcoming the technological hurdle". 86/05 Charles A. VYPLOSZ A note on the reduction of the workweek", July /16 Hervig M. LANGOHR and Antony M. SANTOMERO "Commercial bank refinancing and economic stability: an analysis of European features".

12 86/06 Francesco GIAVAllI, Jeff R. SHEEN and Charles A. WYPLOSZ "The real exchange rate and the fiscal aspects of a natural resource discovery", Revised version: February /22 Albert CORHAY, "Seasonality in the risk-return relationships Gabriel A. HAVAVINI some international evidence", July and Pierre A. MICHEL 86/07 Douglas L. MacLACHLAN and Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 86/08 Jose de la TORRE and David H. NECKAR 86/09 Philippe C. HASPESLAGH "Judgmental biases in sales forecasting", February "Forecasting political risks for international operations", Second Draft: March 3, "Conceptualizing the strategic process in diversified firms: the role and nature of the corporate influence process", February /23 Arnoud DE MEYER 86/24 David GAUTSCHI and Vithala R. RAO 86/25 H. Peter GRAY and Ingo WALTER "An exploratory study on the integration of information systems in manufacturing", July "A methodology for specification and aggregation in product concept testing", July "Protection", August /10 R. MOENART, Arnoud DE MEYER, J. BARGE and D. DESCHOOLMEESTER. 86/11 Philippe A. NAERT and Alain BULTEZ 86/12 Roger BETANCOURT and David GAUTSCHI 86/13 S.P. ANDERSON and Damien J. NEVEN 86/14 Charles WALDMAN 86/15 Mihkel TOMBAK and Arnoud DE MEYER 86/16 B. Espen ECKBO and Hervig M. LANGOHR 86/17 David B. JEMISON 86/18 James TEBOUL and V. MALLERET 86/19 Rob R. VEITZ 86/20 Albert CORHAY, Gabriel HAVAVINI and Pierre A. MICHEL 86/21 Albert CORHAY, Gabriel A. HAVAVINI and Pierre A. MICHEL "Analysing the issues concerning technological de-maturity". "Prom "Lydiametry" to "Pinkhamization": misspecifying advertising dynamics rarely affects profitability". "'The economics of retail firms", Revised April "Spatial competition i la Cournot". "Comparaison Internationale des merges brutes du commerce", June "Row the 'managerial attitudes of firms vith FMS differ from other manufacturing firma: survey results", June "Les primes des offres publiques, la note d'information et le marche des transferts de contr6le des societie. "Strategic capability transfer in acquisition integration", May "Towards an operational definition of services", "Nostradamus: a knovledge-based forecasting advisor". "The pricing of equity on the London stock exchange: seasonality and size premium", June "Risk-premia seasonality in U.S. and European equity markets", February /26 Barry EICHENGREEN and Charles WYPLOSZ 86/27 Karel COOL and Ingemar DIERICKX 86/28 Manfred KETS DE VRIES and Danny MILLER 86/29 Manfred KEYS DE VRIES 86/30 Manfred KETS DE VRIES 86/31 Arnoud DE MEYER 86/31 Arnoud DE MEYER, Jinichiro NAKANE, Jeffrey G. MILLER and Kasra FERDOWS 86/32 Karel COOL and Dan SCHENDEL 86/33 Ernst BALTENSPERGER and Jean DERMINE 86/34 Philippe HASPESLAGH and David JEMISON 86/35 Jean DERMINE 86/36 Albert CORHAY and Gabriel HAVAVINI 86/37 David GAUTSCHI and Roger BETANCOURT 86/38 Gabriel HAVAVINI "The economic consequences of the Franc Poincare", September "Negative risk-return relationships in business strategy: paradox or truism?", October "Interpreting organizational texts. "Vhy follow the leader?". "The succession game: the real story. "Flexibility: the next competitive battle", October "Flexibility: the next competitive battle", Revised Version: March 1987 Performance differences among strategic group members", October "The role of public policy in insuring financial stability: a cross-country, comparative perspective", August 1986, Revised November "Acquisitions: myths and reality", July "Measuring the market value of a bank, a primer", November "Seasonality in the risk-return relationship: some international evidence", July "The evolution of retailing: a suggested economic interpretation". "Financial innovation and recent developments in the French capital markets", Updated: September 1986.

13 86/39 Gabriel HAVAVINI Pierre MICHEL and Albert CORHAY 86/40 Charles VYPLOSZ 86/41 Kasra FERDOVS and Vickham SKINNER "The pricing of common stocks on the Brussels stock exchange: a re-examination of the evidence", November "Capital flows liberalization and the EMS, a French perspective", December "Manufacturing in a new perspective", July /13 Sumantra GHOSHAL and Nitin NOHRIA 87/14 Landis LABEL 87/15 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS "Multinational corporations as differentiated n eeeee ks", April "Product Standards and Competitive Strategy: An Analysis of the Principles", May "METAPORECASTING: Ways of improving Forecasting. Accuracy and Usefulness", May /42 Kasra FERDOVS and Per LINDBERC "EMS as indicator of manufacturing strategy", December /16 Susan SCHNEIDER and Roger DUNBAR "Takeover attempts: what does the language tell us?, June /43 Damien NEVEN "On the existence of equilibrium in hotelling's model", November /17 Andre LAURENT and Fernando BARTOLOME "Managers' cognitive maps for upward and downward relationships", June /44 Ingemar DIERICKX Carmen MATUTES and Damien NEVEN "Value added tax and competition", December /18 Reinhard ANCELMAR and Christoph LIEBSCHER "Patents and the European biotechnology lag: a study of large European pharmaceutical firms", June /19 David BEGG and Charles VYPLOSZ "Vhy the EMS? Dynamic games and the equilibrium policy regime, May /01 87/02 Manfred KETS DE VRIES "Prisoners of leadership". Claude VIALLET "An empirical investigation of international asset pricing", November /03 David CAUTSCHI and Vithala RAO 87/04 Sumantra CHOSHAL and Christopher BARTLETT 87/05 Arnoud DE MEYER and Kasra FERDOVS 87/06 Arun K. JAIN, Christian PINSON and Naresh K. MALHOTRA 87/08 Manfred KETS DE VRIES "A methodology for specification and aggregation in product concept testing", Revised Version: January "Organizing for innovations: case of the multinational corporation", February "Managerial focal points in manufacturing strategy", February "Customer loyalty as a construct in the marketing of banking services", July /07 Rolf BANZ and "Equity pricing and stock market anomalies", Gabriel HAVAVINI February "Leaders who can't manage", February /20 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 87/21 Susan SCHNEIDER 87/22 Susan SCHNEIDER 87/23 Roger BETANCOURT David CAUTSCHI 87/24 C.B. DERR and Andre LAURENT 87/25 A. K. JAIN, N. K. MALHOTRA and Christian PINSON 87/26 Roger BETANCOURT and David GAUTSCHI "A nev approach to statistical forecasting", June "Strategy formulation: the impact of national culture", Revised: July "Conflicting ideologies: structural and motivational consequences, August "The demand for retail products and the household production model: new views on couplementarity and substitutability". "The internal and external careers: a theoretical and cross-cultural perspective", Spring "The robustness of MOS configurations in the face of incomplete data", March 1987, Revised: July "Demand couplementarities, household production and retail assortments", July /09 Lister VICKERY, Mark PILKINCTON and Paul READ 87/10 Andre LAURENT "Entrepreneurial activities of European MBAs", March "A cultural view of organizational change", March /27 Michael BURDA 87/28 Gabriel HAVAVINI "Is there a capital shortage in Europe?", August "Controlling the interest-rate risk of bonds: an introduction to duration analysis and immunization strategies", September /11 Robert FILDES and Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 87/12 Fernando BARTOLOME and Andre LAURENT "Forecasting and loss functions", March "The Janus Head: learning from the superior and subordinate faces of the manager's fob", April /29 Susan SCHNEIDER and Paul SHRIVASTAVA "Interpreting strategic behavior: basic assumptions themes in organizations", September /30 Jonathan HAMILTON "Spatial competition and the Core", August V. Bentley MACLEOD and Jacques-Francois THISSE

14 07/31 Martine OUINZII and "On the optimality of central place:;", Jacques-Francois THISSE September /32 Arnoud DE MEYER 87/33 Yves DOZ and Amy SIIUEN 87/34 Kasra FERDOwS and Arnoud DE MEYER 87/35 P. J. LEDERER and J. F. THISSE 87/36 Manfred KETS DE VRIES 87/37 Landis LABEL 87/38 Susan SCHNEIDER 87/39 Manfred KETS DE VRIES 87/44 Jonathan HAMILTON, Jacques-F. THISSE and Anita VESKAMP 87/45 Karel COOL, David JEMISON and Ingemar DIERICKX 87/46 Ingemar DIERICKX and Karel COOL "German, French and British manufacturing strategies less different than one thinks", September "A process framework for analyzing cooperation between firms", September "European manufacturers: the dnngers of complacency. Insights from the 1907 European manufacturing futures survey, October "Competitive location on networks under discriminatory pricing", September "Prisoners of leadership", Revised version October "Privatization: its motives and likely consequences", October "Strategy formulation: the impact of national culture", October "The dark side of CEO succession", November /40 Carmen MATUTES and "Product compatibility and the scope of entry", Pierre REGIBEAU November /41 Gavriel HAVAVINI and Claude VIALLET 87/42 Damien NEVEN and Jacques-P. THISSE 87/43 Jean CABSZEVICZ and Jacques.F. THISSE "Seasonality, size premium and the relationship between the risk and the return of French common stocks", November 1987 "Combining horizontal and vertical differentiation: the principle of max-min differentiation", December 1987 "Location", December 1987 "Spatial discriminations Bertrand vs. Cournot in model of location choice", December 1987 "Business strategy, market structure and riskreturn relationships: a causal interpretation", December "Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage", December /01 Michael LAWRENCE and Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 88/02 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 88/03 James TEBOUL 88/04 Susan SCHNEIDER 88/05 Charles WYPLOSZ 88/06 Reinhard ANGELMAR 88/07 Ingemar DIERICKX and Karel COOL 88/08 Reinhard ANGELMAR and Susan SCHNEIDER 88/09 Bernard SINCLAIR- DESGAGNe 88/10 Bernard SINCLAIR- DESGAGNe 88/11 Bernard SINCLAIR- DESGAGNe 88/12 Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 88/13 Manfred KETS DE VRIES 88/14 Alain NOEL 88/15 Anil DEOLALIKAR and Lars-Hendrik ROLLER 88/16 Gabriel HAWAVINI 88/17 Michael BURDA "Factors affecting judgemental forecasts and confidence intervals", January "Predicting recessions and other turning points", January "De-industrialize service for quality", January "National vs. corporate culture: implications for human resource management", January "The swinging dollar: is Europe out of step?", January "Les conflits dans les canaux de distribution", January "Competitive advantage: a resource based perspective", January "Issues in the study of organizational cognition", February "Price formation and product design through bidding", February "The robustness of some standard auction game forms", February "When stationary strategies are equilibrium bidding strategy: The single-crossing property", February "Business firms and managers in the 21st century", February 1988 "Alexithymia in organizational life: the organization man revisited", February "The interpretation of strategies: a study of the impact of CEOs on the corporation", March "The production of and returns from industrial innovation: an econometric analysis for a developing country", December "Market efficiency and equity pricing: international evidence and implications for global investing", March "Monopolistic competition, costs of adjustment and the behavior of European employment",

15 88/18 Michael BURDA 88/19 M.J. LAWRENCE and Spyros MAKRIDAKIS 88/20 Jean DERMINE, Damien NEVEN and J.F. THISSE "Reflections on "Wait Unemployment" In global investing", November 1987, revised February "Individual bias in Judgements of confidence", March "Portfolio selection by mutual funds, an equilibrium model", March 1988.