Purpose: Technological developments and new customer expectations of immediacy have driven businesses to adopt on-demand service models. The purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of a range of on-demand services in order to better understand the meaning of “on-demand” and its implications for service management. This enables the on-demand service logic to be applied to other service contexts, where it may add value for customers. Design/methodology/approach: The study starts with a focused literature review and continues with a multiple case study methodology, as the on-demand service concept is in the early stages of theory development. Seven cases were studied, based on a maximum variation sampling strategy. Findings: The results show that on-demand services are characterized by three interrelated characteristics: being highly available, responsive and scalable. Analysis further reveals that on-demand services display differences within the conceptual boundaries of these characteristics, i.e. they vary in terms of their availability, responsiveness and scalability. Originality/value: Drawing on these findings, the study contributes to the service literature by being the first to specifically conceptualize and define the on-demand services concept and reveal three key characteristics that clarify the distinctive nature of this service type. Accordingly, on-demand services are clearly differentiated from other services. Additionally, the paper discusses the variety within on-demand services and develops an on-demand service continuum that gives detailed insights into the conceptual variations within such services. © 2019, Robbert-Jan van der Burg, Kees Ahaus, Hans Wortmann and George B. Huitema.

中文翻译：

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调查按需服务特征：实证研究

目的：技术的发展和新客户对即时性的期望促使企业采用按需服务模式。本文的目的是研究一系列按需服务的特征，以便更好地理解“按需”的含义及其对服务管理的影响。这使按需服务逻辑可以应用于其他服务上下文，从而可以为客户增加价值。设计/方法论/方法：由于按需服务概念处于理论发展的早期阶段，因此本研究首先进行有针对性的文献综述，然后继续采用多案例研究方法。基于最大变异抽样策略，研究了7个案例。结果：结果表明按需服务具有三个相互关联的特征：具有高度可用性，响应能力和可扩展性。分析进一步表明，按需服务在这些特征的概念范围内显示出差异，即它们在可用性，响应性和可伸缩性方面有所不同。独创性/价值：利用这些发现，该研究为服务文献做出了贡献，成为第一个专门概念化和定义按需服务概念并揭示了三个关键特征的方法，这些特征阐明了这种服务类型的独特性。因此，按需服务明显不同于其他服务。此外，本文讨论了按需服务中的多样性，并开发了按需服务连续体，从而提供了对此类服务中概念变化的详细见解。©2019，Robbert-Jan van der Burg，Kees Ahaus，