eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Abstract The service-dominant logic and value co-creation together form a widely studied topic in the area of industrial business-to-business marketing. Through the underlying principles of the servicedominant logic, services selling is developing from dyadic goods-based transactions towards a more comprehensive and co-operative logic of value creation. This master’s thesis attempts to approach the subject at a rather practical level by examining sales’ interactive tasks in value-based selling, and how this logic can be adapted to business relationships with governmental organizations. More specifically, the study focuses on an industrial ship builder’s, STX Finland Oy, life-cycle services. For this purpose, three potential ship life-cycle customers and four reference industrial companies, being successful in the field of services selling, were interviewed. The study, thus, applies a qualitative research approach. Along with the semi-structured interviews, also secondary data sources and discussions with the case company were utilized in the empirical part of the thesis. The main findings of this thesis study focus on customer perceived value in ship life-cycle services. Based on these findings it is suggested how life-cycle services can be commercialized. Furthermore, the study also reveals that the studied organizations experience a positive attitude towards value-based selling and see a need for transitioning towards the direction of such a logic. As a result, altogether eight value selling tasks are identified. Finally, the study concludes that value selling is difficult to adapt to the business-to-government environment. From an academic perspective, this study deepens the research area concerning the servicedominant logic, as it takes on a rather practical approach and focuses on those concrete selling tasks, which a service oriented company should pursue. In addition to this, the thesis study provides insight into value perceptions in business-to-government relationships. As a practical output, the study assists STX Finland Oy to develop the company’s life-cycle services in a novel value creating way, which supports the company’s core business, ship building. Keywords Business-to-Government, life-cycle services, service-dominant logic, services selling, value-based selling, value co-creation