Beyond sporadic actions : how to approach multi-party stakeholder collaboration in service development

The adoption of service-dominant logic (SDL) suggests inter-organizational collaboration and interdependencies during the development of service. Thus, integrating resources is of essence. This paper promotes the value of various stakeholders in developing services. It discusses how to approach multi-party collaboration to achieve simultaneous face-to-face actor-to-actor interaction. The purpose of the paper is to develop a framework to integrate stakeholders in service development. This is a two case research-based paper which investigates direct multi-party stakeholder collaboration and participatory development activities. In workshops, the experiences were positive: the service was not only understood more extensively but also developed further. The experimental evidence supports the use of direct interaction and workshop methods. The analysis shown in this paper provides a foundation for further research. The practitioners realize the power of direct multi-party stakeholder integration. And for academics, the paper provides advancements in integrative engagement approaches in developing service and its managerial consequences.