From Core Values to Customer Satisfaction: Ericsson in Kazakhstan

From Core Values to 

Customer 

Satisfaction: Ericsson 

in Kazakhstan 

Mälardalens högskola 

International Marketing 

Master Thesis 

EFO 705 

2009

ABSTRACT 

Date 2009-09-07

Program MIMA – Master of International Marketing Course Name EFO705 Master Thesis

Title From Core Values to Customer Satisfaction: Ericsson in Kazakhstan

Authors Dalila Aitpayeva (Västerås), Dejan Mandic (Göteborg)

Supervisor Joakim Netz

Problem How can a company deploy its core values into customer relations to increase customers’ satisfaction?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how company’s core values can interact with customer’ expectations and as embedded in the customer relation make impact on the customer satisfaction.

Method Inductive research was used for data collection and analysis because the study is explorative in nature and therefore based on interviews and document analysis. Interviews were conducted with Ericsson’s managers and their customers in Kazakhstan.

Findings Findings resulted from this study indicate that strong direct relationship exist among core values of service providers and expectations of their customers.

Conclusion Ericsson’s core values: professionalism, respect, and perseverance are constantly integrated in Ericsson daily business operations. Commitment to its customers, willingness to share knowledge and continuous offering of new technologies are best examples of that integration. Ericsson’s unique and professional service offerings meet and in many cases exceed high customer expectations and ultimately satisfy its customers in Kazakhstan.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  

I am heartily thankful to our tutor and supervisor, Joakim Netz, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an

understanding of the subject. His support and knowledge allowed me to work in friendly and professional way.

I would like to show my gratitude to all managers of Ericsson company who participated in this research and it would not have been possible without them to complete this project on time.

Also I would like to thank my parents and sisters for supporting me throughout all studies at Malardalen University, giving advice and sharing experience that is helpful to complete writing thesis.

Special thanks I would like to express to my father Mr. Aitpayev who participated and guided this writing process.

Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the thesis.

Dalila Aitpayeva Västerås, Sweden

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my mother and sister, both of which have been unconditionally supportive of me, veritable pillars of encouragement, during my university studies (and well before!). I would also like to express my enormous appreciation for the care, concern, patience and support extended to me by my wife, Cim. Thanks must also be

expressed to my friend, Chris, for inspiring me to pursue my studies in Sweden. Many good things have come as a result of my Swedish sojourn.

Special thanks go out to my friend, George, for his friendship and practical help, especially during my Bachelors studies at San Francisco State University. His interest and practical support in my studies was key in setting the stage for all that was to follow.

There are many others – family, friends and colleagues – which I would like to express my appreciation to. You all know who you are!

Dejan Mandic Göteborg, Sweden

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ... I  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...II  TABLE OF FIGURES ... IV  INTRODUCTION ... 1  1.1 Background ... 1  1.2 Purpose ... 3  1.3 Target audience ... 3  1.4 Limitations ... 4  THEORETICAL OVERVIEW ... 5  2.1 Values ... 7  2.2 Services ... 8  2.3 Customer Expectations ... 11  2.4 Customer Satisfaction ... 13  METHOD ... 16  3.1 Research design ... 16 

3.2 The choice of company ... 17 

3.3 Data collection ... 18 

3.3 Interviews ... 19 

3.4 Data analysis ... 20 

3.5 Validity and Reliability ... 21 

EMPIRICAL DATA ... 22 

4.1 Company Overall ... 22 

4.2 Company Background in Kazakhstan ... 22 

4.3 Ericsson’s Values ... 23 

4.4 Values and Customer Expectations ... 25 

4.5 Values in Services and Customer Relationships ... 26 

ANALYSIS ... 28  5.1 Findings ... 29  5.1.1 Commitment ... 30  5.1.3 Shared knowledge ... 31  5.1.4 New Technology ... 32  5.2 Patterns ... 33 

DISSCUSSION and CONCLUSION ... 35 

6.1 Managerial Implications ... 36 

6.2 Recommendations for managers ... 37 

6.3 Implication for further research ... 38 

APPENDIX I ... 39 

Interview questions for managers ... 39 

APPENDIX II ... 40 

Interview questions for customers ... 40 

APPENDIX III ... 41 

Service Description ... 41 

TABLE OF FIGURES 

Figure 1 Theoretical framework ... 6 

Figure 2 Table of The Seven criteria of perceived service quality ... 14 

INTRODUCTION 

The following section will contain background information about concepts of core values, previous studies and researches. In addition, purpose of this project will be introduced.

1.1 Background

Companies around the world have adopted statements about corporate values. Companies’ values guide their business models, attitudes and behaviors of their leaders, employees and customers. However, little attention has been devoted by scholars and practitioners about the importance of companies’ values for customers and stakeholders. Furthermore, most of the study of time service management has focused on areas such service offerings, service quality, encounters, technology in service, competition and strategy (Edvardsson, 2006). Nowadays, in order to be competitive companies must pay attention to its core values that define company’s overall business strategy, social responsibility, value-based service, commitment to employees, shareholders, ethical behavior, teamwork and trust. As stated by Jaffe and Menlo Park (1993, p.22) one of the most important keys to greater effectiveness is a close link between personal and organizational values. A recent survey carried out by the American Management Association of 1,460 managers and chief executives proposes that an understanding of this relationship will provide organizational straight to the company comparing to those companies who disregard this phenomena. If not managed properly, the relation between personal and corporate values can create tension and become an obstacle to successful business operations (Jaffe and Scott, 2005). The survey provided solid evidence that shared values between the individual and the company can benefit companies’ overall performances. These values are the basis of both personal and organizational efficiency of the company.

Another research study was conducted by Costa and Bjellan (2006) where authors made observations about the importance of companies’ values. They identified that chief executives take extreme risks when they diversify their core businesses in untried technologies and acquiring companies in unrelated sectors. In this case, as it often happens, executives are likely to ignore companies’ core values. This lack of value based decision making can be one

of the common weakness and risks in company. Thus, companies should develop and maintain their core businesses and corporate values in order to generate financial growth and operational effectiveness, boost their reputation, receive respect and also avoid further risks. In recent studies Jaffe and Scott (2005) noticed increases in discussions about principles that govern commercial enterprises. This research was conducted in order to better understand how companies ‘define, apply, measure and benefit from their corporate values’. According to the research, organizations have understood the importance of their statements of corporate values and for most of these companies researched, operating without these statements is unthinkable. (Jaffe and Scott, 2005).

However, it is notable that values closely associated with revenues and earnings growth such as initiative, adaptability and innovativeness appear in only 30 to 60 per cent of official value statements (Jaffe and Scott, 2005). Terrence and Allan (1993) notice:

“If employees know what their company stands for, if they know what standards they are to uphold, then they are much more likely to make decisions that will support those standards. They are also more likely to feel as if they are an important part of the organization. They are motivated because life in the company has meaning for them”

(Terrence and Allan, 1993, cited in Jaffe and Scott, 2005, p 2)

Hence, corporate values have sustained attention upon mainly internal efficiency (Grönroos, 2007) rather than as a source to competitive advantage. How a company’s corporate values affect and interact with its customer base to leverage external efficiency (Grönroos, 2007) is described in further research. This research study will take somewhat new direction from previously conducted studies and investigate the direct effect of a company’s core value on its customer expectations and ultimately, its effect on the customer satisfaction.

Research conducted with a large number of executives on related topic indicates that most companies believe that values influence two important strategic areas such as relationship and reputation. On the other hand, just a small number of companies find their value have direct influence on bottom line of company’s income statement (Jaffe and Scott, 2005). Previous studies have investigated and described the importance of core values and its possible influence on shareholders’ value; however, not enough research is performed which explains the direct relationship of core values on customers’ expectations, their satisfaction and ultimately on direct effect of these relationships on the overall performance of the company

(service provider) and thus indirectly its reputation. Corporate values have been defined as ‘principles that organizations express through their corporate and working culture’ (Van Lee, Fabish & McGaw, 2005). Despite that, it is assumed that companies with strong, clearly stated core values outperform other companies by a significant margin at job creation, stock prices and company performance (Kotter &Heskett, 1992). We define our research question as follows: how can a company deploy its core values into customer relations to increase customer satisfaction?

1.2 Purpose

The research and understanding of a company’s core values and its influence on customers’ expectations is interesting and valuable topic for academic research that hasn’t been yet explored significantly by scholars and professionals. We maintain that this research can contribute to existing knowledge and enable readers to gain better understanding of the significance of a firm’s core values and their impact on that firm’s overall performance. The purpose of this study is to explore how a company’s core values can interact with customer expectations, and as assumed in customer relations, make an impact on overall customer satisfaction.

1.3 Target audience

We will use the case study method for this study. The primary audiences of this report are Ericsson representatives and managers in the Kazakhstan office, as well those managers in corporate headquarters in charge of business development in the Central Asian region. Also, the aim of this research paper is to conduct research of Kazakh market with respect to customers’ expectations and the core values of service providers in order to inform and suggest to managers possible solutions for further development of business performance. Furthermore, findings and suggested solutions could be useful to other companies interested in understanding how their core values can become a valuable source of customer satisfaction as well as for wider academic audience interested in topics about company values and their effects on customers’ expectations.

1.4 Limitations

This report is mainly based on information found in the course of online research and interviews with employees and customers of the Ericsson representative office in Kazakhstan. While conducting primary research, the authors had a relatively limited number of participants. The study therefore is limited in its ability to generalize.

Due to the nature of the research topic chosen, as well as the choice of research techniques and time limitations, primary data was collected from Ericsson managers and their customers by means of interviews. No surveys or questioners were distributed for data collection. Moreover, since this company is within the telecommunications sector, findings from this study will benefit most companies in the same or similar industry sector. Additionally, although this study is primarily concerned with business-to-business practice, we hope that findings resulted from this study can be beneficial for business-to-customer based businesses as well.

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW

The following chapter will introduce the theories that will be used in research paper. Literature regarding concepts of company’s core values, services, customers’ expectations and satisfaction will be presented and critically reviewed.

There are many theories developed to analyze customer satisfaction. Some theories require quantitative research, while others involve qualitative research techniques. The authors of this study have limited their research to the qualitative technique described in more detail in the methodology portion of this paper. Thus, building the theoretical framework was developed to capture valuable notions, as tools for analysis, rather than empirically test it. As outlined, the focus of this study is to formulate a better understanding and analysis of Ericsson’s core values embedded in its services and its customers’ expectations of these services and, therefore, this study was limited to customer expectations directly connected to the core values of the company. The conceptual framework according to Fisher (2007) is a phase when authors define concepts that will be applied and theories that deeply explains these concepts in the research. The framework is based on the theories that will be used in the research for examining, analyzing and answering the research questions. The conceptual framework illustrated in Figure 1 was developed by the authors and presents proposed relationships analyzed in this research study.

Ericsson Kazakhstan Customers Company’s Core Values Service Expectations Services Offered Customer Satisfaction

Figure 1 Theoretical framework

The proposed conceptual framework consists of four main factors such as company’s core values and services provided by Ericsson Company in Kazakhstan to its customers, service expectations that once service is performed can preferably lead to customer satisfaction. We argue that this company’s core values define the main business orientation of the firm and therefore have significant influence on their performance in general. Therefore, we chose theories regarding a firm’s core values as a starting point of our proposed analytical model. Furthermore, we anticipate that these values are embedded in services that company is offering to its customers. Hence, to better understand proposed relationship, we will examine theories regarding services. Moving to the next relation proposed in this model, we argue that while existing values have influence on customers’ expectation, to some extent, customers’ expectations can in the long run have an impact on the creation of the new values of its suppliers, in this case of Ericsson Kazakhstan. Theories regarding customers’ expectations are used to elucidate this segment of our model. Furthermore, this model advocates that value-based services are connected with customers’ expectations, meaning that some expectation can be understood from service provider as possible direction or demand for particular segment of service offerings. Moreover, customer expectations are formed depending on previous experience with service provider; meaning, that how a company delivers its values through service offerings in the past will determine future expectations of its customers. Finally, proposed relations in this model suggests that company should take into consideration

what customers expect from the service provider and if customers’ expectations are met with perceived quality then this will lead to customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the provided services.

2.1 Values

Values can be determined as principles, standards, ethics and ideals that companies have (Waddock and Bodwell, 2007). Values can be characterized in two categories: a company’s core values that are a basis of the company’s culture and foundation values that reflect general society’s norms (Edvardsson and Enquist 2009).In the similar fashion, value-based business is based’on combination of company core values and foundation values and sustainable business service’ (Edvardsson and Enquist, p. 2, 2009). Values are the essence of company’s philosophy in achieving success. According to Jaffe, Gerould and Tobe (1993) values provide common direction and essence of daily behavior of employees inside the company. Shared mission, values and vision are fundamentals for bringing people together. In companies where practice of sharing values is developed people believe that they have power to contribute directly to the success of the firm according to authors. Moreover, it is more and more apparent that values of the company depend both on business strategies and people inside the firm involved on the all levels of the operations. Jaffe, Gerould and Tobe (1993) argue that organizations must be clear on where they stand when it comes to implementation of their mission statements and corporate values in relation to both, their customers and other stake holders in general. Furthermore Bolman and Deal state:

“Values characterize what an organization stands for, qualities worthy of esteem or commitment. Unlike goals, values are intangible and define a unique distinguishing character. Values convey a sense of identity, from boardrooms to factory floor and help people feel special about what they do.” (Bolman and Deal, 2008, p. 255)

Business operations, especially in the service industry, often require employees to make spontaneous, difficult and important business choices. Understanding and implementation of corporate core values is of essence in these crucial times. Understanding this necessity of corporate core values and mission statements, and their importance in day-to-day business operations, organizations are putting lot of effort in their conceptualization. Bolman and Deal

notice:“…values (and vision) bring cohesiveness, clarity, and direction in the presence of confusion and mystery.” (Bolman and Deal, 2008, p. 278)

However, vision and mission are incomplete if they define only the major external focus, they also should define a guiding principles for internal behavior. It is invertible that differences among company values and those of their employees will not always be in line; however, finding a middle ground or accord is vital for successful organizations. In demanding conditions of business environment where costly decisions are made every day, strong corporate vales can prove to be very profitable asset of the company. Additionally, Jaffe and Scott (2005) define values:

“Values provide the foundation for the strategy, the mission and the structure. Values are a set of understandings in an organization about how to work together, how to treat other people and what is most important.”

(Jaffe and Scott, 2005,p 2)

According to Jaffe and Scott (2005) a majority of organizational values are unconscious and are rarely talked about. They are often understood, but lie beneath the surface. Authors further argue that having core values brought up on the surface more often would improve agreement and connections within an organization. Hence, they can enable better customer relations and indeed affect business performance.

2.2 Services

Services are processes where company’s resources interact with customers and value is generated in the customer’s activities and processes. Marie Jönsson in her “Development of business services” article refers to services The International Organization of Standardization (ISO 9004-2) gives service the following definition: “the results generated, by activities at the interface between the supplier and the customer and by supplier internal activities, to meet customer needs” (Jönsson, 1996, p.4). Grönroos (1990) characterizes a service as

“…an activity of series of activities of more or less intangible nature that normally, but not necessarily, take place in interaction between customer and service employees and/or

physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are provided as solutions to customer problems.” (Grönroos, 1990, p. 27)

Furthermore, Grönroos (2007) explained that service has a logic that facilitates processes with supporting customers’ value creation in their activities. When we say customer in this research, we refer to “whoever is the direct receiver of the result of the operation” (Edvardsson, 2000, p. 6). Furthermore, successful relationship marketing demands organizations to define its business as a service business. Thus, it has become important to understand how to create and manage total service offering. According to Grönroos (2007), organizations have to know and practice service management. Moreover, they have to understand it implication on theory and state central requirement in management to appreciate service perspective as strategic approach and understand how to manage the firm, achieving service offering. A service perspective can be characterized as offering that is required to support customer’s value-generating processes and core solution in combination of goods and services. More traditional description of services and how they differ from products can be seen in Penrose works;

“The important distinction between resources and services is not their relative durability;

rather it lies in the fact that resources consist of a bundle of potential services and can, for the most part, be defined independently of their use, while services cannot be so defined, the very word ‘service’ implying a function, an activity.” (Penrose, 1959, p. 25)

Total service offerings include parts of the customer relationship like ‘product components, service components, information, personal attention’ and such. Creation and implementation of these offerings should be of tactical significance to customers (Grönroos, 2007). The service perspectives require a relationship approach. Value is created for customers in long-term customer relationships. Company that is well managed provides its customers with the quality and value they need resulting in increased profits for both parties. Long-term commitment and the service approach result in value creation for customers, more importantly that will be delivered persistently trough time (Grönroos, 2007). Value for customers is created throughout relationship by the customer, to a certain extent in interaction between the customer and service provider. To support his claim Grönroos (1990) argues:

“A service can be characterized as a chain of (sequential, parallel, overlapping and/or recurrent) value crating activities or events, which form a process. In this process the customer often takes part by performing different elements in interaction with the employees

of the service company (other customer’s equipment) for the purpose of achieving a particular result.” (Grönroos, 1990, p. 32)

The essence is on value creation and formation and support of value-creating process rather than just distributing ready-made value to customers. Customers do not only look for goods or services, they rightfully demand service offering that includes everything from information about the best use of the product to delivering, installing, updating, repairing, and maintaining solutions for the products that they bought. Hence, value-based management has gained ground as an enabler to competitive advantage (Grönroos, 2007).

Pruzan (1998) developed the notion of service quality in accordance to management perspective of control and values. He stated a number of reasons for value-based management. Some are that: it simply pays off at the end; stakeholders have rights to make their demands; companies have a social responsibility. Additionally, in large organizations leaders are losing touch with reality and the best employees look for a working environment with values that fit their personal values. Ultimately, the author claims that one of the reasons for value-based management is the simple fact the language of money is just too narrow to guide a successful organization.

The value-based thinking includes also stakeholder perspectives such as leadership, responsibility and ethics. Meaning, if a company’s culture and values match customer values then value-based thinking provides the basis for understanding and potentially high service quality (Edvardsson, 2007).

In his writings Edvardsson (2007) states that value-based companies are more successful than companies that pay less attention to sustainable business and social responsibility. He argues that companies should have value-based culture that must be communicated to their customer. Managerial implications, according to Edvardsson (2007) concerning value-based service are that management’s focus should be on understanding their customers and values that they hold and ultimately to relate to these customer values. Additionally, while managing quality services manager ought to promote sustainable business practices and highest ethics standards.

2.3 Customer Expectations

In order to give the right guarantee, according to Edvardsson and Olsson (1996) firstly, company should understand customers’ needs, wants and expectations, and manage its marketing accordingly. Additionally, the company must have both the will and the ability to provide services those customers expect from them. Vargo and Lusch (2004) suggest that working on co-creation and relationships with customers will ultimately create value in regard to customer needs. More customer involvement in co-production of offerings will positively affect process of satisfying customer needs. Edvardssson explains factors influencing customer expectations:

“Expectations is based on the customer’s needs and wishes but its also influenced-often to a considerable extant- by the company’s image or reputation in the market, the customers previous experience of the service company or the service company’s marketing to mention just a few.” (Edvardsson, 1996, p. 17)

Grönroos has a similar understanding of what determines customer expectations:

“Expectations, of course, are formed through market communication and selling, word-of-mouth and image, prior experiences and the needs and desires of the customer.” (Grönroos,

1996, p.115)

Furthermore, a customer-oriented view of service quality, according to Edvardsson’s (2007) article, is service where customers’ expectations should be in accordance to satisfaction of their needs and requirements. But a service provider should not rely only on customers’ expressed needs, it is also necessary for them to understand non-verbalized customer needs. Moreover, Edvardsson (2000) argues in favor of dialogue between service providers and their customers:

“Customers cannot always, for example, articulate their needs and expectations. In a dialogue with the customer, the professional service producer, its management and staff can obtain greater insight and thereby an improves basis of service development” (Edvardsson et

al 2000, p.26)

Additionally, Edvardsson (2005) states that service quality is thus perceived and determined by the customer in co-production, delivery and consumption experience. Grönroos (2007) proposes the theory that states that customer expectations are measured after the service experience occurs, but usually what is measured is more that was received from the

experience. The customers’ experiences of the service process may change their expectations and should be compared to determine the actual quality perception of a customer. Additionally, customer expectations can be defined as the set of standards that company providing services should be evaluated upon.

Expectations are postulations about the probability of something happening. Alternatively, they reflect anticipated performance. Most customers prefer quality services to be performed in an atmosphere that is both friendly and professional. Furthermore, since customers generally have expectations that can be regarded as basic, the importance of delivering basic services and keeping initial promises to customers is essential to all organizations. Millson-Martula (1998) suggested that customer service expectations can be categorized in the following fashion, there are two major categories: services as an end result and service processes. The former includes the ability of a company to deliver dependency and accuracy of promised services. On the other hand, service as process stands for a number of different elements such as knowledge and trustfulness of service employees and their sensitivity while handling customer problems.

Current studies indicate that customer expectations are most likely to fall in to two categories. The first category represents expectations regarding service that will be most favourable and represents a mix of what can be performed as services and what should actually be. The remaining one represents the level of services that customer perceive to be suitable or up to required standards (Grönroos, 2007).

Customers often describe the quality of received services to be inconsistent. The importance of certain elements of quality services is another factor where the perceptions of service providers and customers sometimes are not in agreement. Detection and deeper understanding of these factors remain one of the most important challenges for quality service managers (Grönroos, 2007).

However, Edvardsson’s (1996, 2000, 2005, 2007) and Grönroos’ (1996, 2007) theories regarding customer expectations underestimate to some extent the fact that customer expectations are largely based on prior experience with service provider and that this phenomena might be a major contributor to in forming their expectation. This criticism can be

supported by writings from Fornell who suggests the importance of investigating customer expectations is overestimated in management theory and practice: “…[s]ince most purchases are repeat purchases, there is little a seller can do to manage expectations beyond what is reflected in the product or service “(Fornell, 2008, p.93). To support his claim, Fornell further argues that “[c]ustomer expectations can only be manipulated when customers don’t have relevant experience” (Fornell, 2008, p. 96), making his point that previous experience with service provider is the most influential factor in process of creating expectations .

Finally, during our research we were not able to find theories that directly address the influence of core values of service providers on expectations of their customers. This fact furthermore highlights contribution of this research to the theoretical understanding and future practical implementation about the aforementioned.

2.4 Customer Satisfaction

The notion of consumer satisfaction has an essential position in marketing management literature and business practice. The significance of the concept is best seen in its role in the marketing theory “[t]hat profits are generated through the satisfaction of consumer needs and wants” (Churchill & Surprenant 1982). On the other hand, some authors claim,”[C]ustomer satisfaction [is] measured, but not much attention seemed to be paid to it” adding, “[but] the problem has been the failure to find a relationship between intangible assets and tangible profits”(Fornell, 2008, pp. 128 and 67). Many scholars have defined customer satisfaction, some state that overall customer satisfaction has three antecedents: perceived quality, perceived value and customer expectations (Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha and Brant, 1996). In other words, as stated by Johnson and Fornell: “Customer satisfaction is [……..] a customer's overall evaluation of the performance of an offering to date” (Johnson and Fornell 1991, cited in Gustafsson et al. 2005). Bo Edvardsson summarizes his understanding of what service satisfaction is stating:

“It is customer’s total perception of the process and outcome that make up the service and is

the basis for quality perceptions and customer satisfaction.”

However, to better serve purpose of this study, which is primary concerned with B2B service provider and its customer, we will employ customer satisfaction theory constricted by Grönroos (2007); his concept is developed for identifying service quality where expectations of the best-in-category service should be measured. This model has seven criteria of perceived service quality where customer satisfaction is measured by set of attributes that reflect key product features. Customers firstly perceive quality features of the product and then taking into account all dimensions decide either satisfied or not with the quality of that service. This proposed model with seven criteria of perceived service quality where professionalism and skills is outcome of technical quality dimension. Reputation and credibility is in the image related dimension. The next four criteria are attitudes and behavior, accessibility and flexibility, reliability and trustworthiness and service recovery represent functional quality dimension. A last criterion is a service scope that is related to process.

Criteria Description

Professionalism and Skills Employees, operational systems and physical resources have knowledge and skills required to solve professionally customers’ problems. Attitudes and Behaviour Service employees are concerned about

customers and interested in solving problems friendly.

Accessibility and Flexibility Access to the service and preparation to adjust demands and wishes of the customer in flexible way

Reliability and Trustworthiness Customers can rely on service provider and its employees in any occasions and service provider perform promises

Service Recovery Immediate actions in solving customers’ problems and finding acceptable solution Servicescape Customers’ positive experience of the service

process

Reputation and Credibility Good performance and values which can be shared by customers and service provider

Figure 2 Table of The Seven criteria of perceived service quality (Grönroos, C., p. 90, 2007)

This seven criteria model can be applied in order to identify customers’ satisfaction in service and relationship process between customers and service provider. Overall these main principles should be taken into consideration while measuring customers’ expectations and

service experience that leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Furthermore, presented criteria were base for creating interview questions where authors tried to investigate satisfaction with service offerings. While analyzing collected data, we used these criteria as guidance to evaluate customer satisfaction while in the same time we examined quality of Ericsson’s services understanding that in a service perspective customer satisfaction is comparable to overall evaluations of service quality (Boulding et al. 1993, cited in Gustafsson et al. 2005). Furthermore, in addition to Grönroos seven criteria, we observed how many customers have renewed (repeated) their services with Ericsson. This was done in order to provide more tangible evidence of customer satisfaction since Grönroos seven criteria is concerned more with intangible outcome of customer satisfaction. A combination of interview questions and records of repeated business was described by Fornell (2008) when he described his preferred way of measuring customer satisfaction: “…customer satisfaction [but it] can be measured objectively. /…/ We stabilized its measures by combining the responses to several questions about overall satisfaction in such a way that the resulting measure was maximally related to repeat business. /…/ Without calibration to repeat business, the resulting measure will lack economic relevance.” (Fornell, 2008, pp. 192-193). Additionally, shortcomings of above proposed relationship of repeated business and customer satisfaction can be observed in market environments where customers have little or no choice of service providers. Therefore, in certain circumstances, these limitations can be seen as factors that lead to renewal of their services with service provider regardless of the level of their satisfaction.

METHOD 

Methodology used in this research study will be presented. This chapter will introduce research approach and design. The choice of company will be described. Also, data collection and analysis will be introduced.

There are two types of research approaches according to Fisher (2007), these are quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The chosen approach depends on the study of research. This thesis applies a qualitative research methodology. The purpose of this study is an attempt to investigate how company’s core values when interrelate with customers’ expectations influence their relationship and ultimately make impact on overall business performance of the company.

Inductive research was used for data collection and analysis because the study is explorative and thus mainly based on interviews and document analysis. According to Merriam (1988), ‘qualitative data is characterized by detailed descriptions of activities, people, interactions, and observed behaviors’. Direct quotes from individuals showing their experiences, attitudes, opinions, and thoughts are considered to be qualitative data. That also includes parts of notes, letters, registers and case studies. The qualitative research approach consists of seeking answers by using predefined set of procedures for answering questions. Also it collects evidence and produce findings that were not determined in advance and applicable beyond boundaries of the study (Fisher, 2007). While deciding on possible alternatives for research approach for this study, authors agreed that qualitative research method is the most suitable one.

3.1 Research design

The research design as Malhotra (2006) states is a framework for conducting research. It contains procedures that are necessary for obtaining information needed to structure or solve problem. One of the most used qualitative methods is the alleged case study research (Yin 1994). Case study was chosen to design this study because it is proven to be one of the most convenient research methods for qualitative approach. Yin (1994) defines this approach as an

‘empirical inquisition concerning a contemporary phenomenon within its specific situation’. According to Yin, the case study method is especially suitable when dealing with the intersection between a phenomenon and context. Merriam (1988) writes that ‘the case study is characterized by the obtaining of insights into a particular situation and how individual experiences interpret the situation. To investigate processes or courses of events in present time, without manipulating the relevant variables, the case study method is preferable’. Case study research is detailed account and analysis of one or more cases. According to Yin (1981) ‘case study is an empirical research of coexisting phenomena within its real life context and where boundaries and phenomenon and context are not clear’. Further, Yin (1994) also argues that ‘case studies as the most suitable alternative when answering “how and why”-type of research questions’. A case study intends to create a deep understanding of the research topic. The case study is used to study a specific phenomenon (Merriam, 1988) which in this thesis is: how company’s core values drive company when offering service to its customers and how they fulfil customers’ expectations that preferably can lead to customer satisfaction and ultimately help company’s overall performance. Moreover, the case study provides an opportunity to understand deeply research questions and apply different theories.

3.2 The choice of company

Ericsson was chosen for the case study in this report because it has an international presence and strong corporate core values, a starting and necessary constituent in our research. Moreover, Ericsson is a large provider of B2B telecommunication services in Kazakhstan which furthermore fulfils our requirement for research topic that includes service offering component. Ericsson already has branches in many parts of the world, and it developed and opened offices in Central Asian region which adds value to this research assuming that findings resulted from this study can be of use for Eriksson’s office elsewhere in the region. Moreover, mobile and telecommunication services are highly globalizing nowadays which also makes this field important for further research analysis. Kazakhstan was chosen as a target country because it is one of the countries where Ericsson launched its representative office back in the 1997 and has a number of well known customers that can be used in our research, but at the same time, due to the rapidly growing country’s economy, there are still potentials for the growth of the market share in the region.

3.3 Data collection

When choosing the case study research method, the importance of collecting empirical data was crucial to this study. Merriam (1988) specifies information of a qualitative, quantitative or both qualitative and quantitative nature as collecting empirical information in a case study. The option of using several methods in the collecting process is one of the strengths of the case study. Interviews and documents shall be seen as an important empiricism as well.

Both the in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted for this study as well as the complementary document studies are used to compose the empirical part of chapter four. As stated before, the information used in this study is based on secondary and primary data. Primary data was collected for the first time and for the specific purposes and secondary data was collected from previous researches and studies.

Problems with the validity and reliability of this secondary information are possible. Secondary information may be too optimistic and especially when the company information is in question (Ghauri & Cateora, 2006). In this study, we tried to solve the reliability and validity problems by using many different sources. The country information was mainly gathered from official governmental websites and scholar articles. The company information was principally gathered from the Internet sources such as company web site and business literature concerned with chosen industry. Furthermore, information was collected through a number of interviews with employees and managers of the company. Information gathered via internet was collected and examined carefully since problem with some internet sources is that reliability and validity of sources is difficult to verify (Ghauri & Cateora, 2006).

The interview, as a part of the primary data collection, was chosen to be a research method because it provides access to the inside information about the central aspects for research. Through the depth of the interviews it is possible to get deeper insights and identify substantive issues when the topic is complex (Malhotra, 2006). Thus, in-depth interviews were essentially needed to explore the embedded values of Ericsson and its customers.

3.3 Interviews

Authors decided to conduct semi-structured interviews as a preferable research tool, this type of interviews represent the balance between two extremes such as an open and pre-coded interviews (Fisher, 2007). The advantage of the semi-structured interviews is that persons conducting the interview have a chance to suggest direction, and if necessary to direct respondents towards the main topics and issues that need to be covered.

We interviewed two Ericsson’s managers for this research study: • Raul Coello, Marketing Manager, Ericsson, Almaty, Kazakhstan;

• Galikhan Mukhamed-Rakhimov, Solution Manger of Networks Department, Ericsson, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Additionally, we conducted three interviews with Ericsson’s customers. It is important to mention that all three customers are located in different region of Kazakhstan:

• Vyacheslav Chubukov, Head of Information Technologies Department of K-Cell GSM Kazakhstan;

• Anastassiya Miroshnikova, Specialist of Communications department of KatKaz, Aktau, Kazakhstan;

• Fedoseyev Sergey, Head of Industrial Communications Department "Munaygazkurylys" LLP Aktau, RoK.

All interviews were conducted in person and average time of interviews was around two hours. Interview questions were divided into different categories, where managers of Ericsson Company had to answer two sets of questions. The first set of questions concerned Ericsson’s core values while the second set referred to services that the company provides customers.

In similar fashion, questions for Ericsson’s customer were conducted to provide in depth understanding about their expectations regarding services that Ericsson provides to them and also to acquire insight about level of satisfaction once services were performed (for the complete list of interview questions for Ericssson’s managers and its customers see Appendix I and II) .

In addition to information collected during interviews this study includes secondary data sources such as relevant literature, scholars’ writings, study material, published articles and previous research works. All useful sources of secondary data will be used by authors in order to get reliable information and material for this research study. During data collection phase of this research, secondary source, Ericsson-Kazakhstan corporate website, provided a lot of useful information to compliment primary data collected by researches. In addition to the company’s official reports and statements available on their web page, to better serve the purpose of this project, we have collected information about company from independent sources such as business magazines and journals.

3.4 Data analysis

After collecting the information, the data have to be analyzed linking to the chosen theories. Analysis for qualitative study is a process of generating, developing and verifying concepts. Corbin and Strauss (2008) described analysis as a process that accumulates and derives concepts from data over time. Data are compared for similarities and differences against next set of data. Analysis in this case is coding raw data by using such techniques as analytical procedure.

“Data analysis requires astute observation, questioning, relentless search for answers and

active recall. It is a process of piecing together data, making the invisible obvious, recognising significance from insignificance, linking seemingly unrelated facts logically, and fitting categories one with another and of attributing consequence to antecedents.”

(Morse, 1994:25, cited in Goulding, 2002, p 21)

Information gathered for empirical data by the means of interview and secondary data presented in the empirical data chapter has been analyzed by using integration process of coding data. This process consists of collection of concepts that must be linked and filled to construct theory out of data (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The first step in the integration process is deciding on central category or main theme of the research. Central category has analytical power and should be linked to all other categories developed over the course of study. The topic of the research is core values embedded in services offered, and customer relationship they create, these concepts should be linked to all other categories and concepts in the study. Other concepts and their relationship researched in this study are customer

expectations and customer satisfaction and company’s core values that influence them. Categories emerged during coding data are professionalism and commitment, standards, shared knowledge and new technology. These findings were analysed in detail using theory described in our theoretical overview. Ultimately, we are able to recognise patterns and relationships between analysed categories. .

It is important to mention, that all information collected during this research has been analyzed critically due to researches awareness of the subjectivity of the sources, which are respectfully, two Ericsson’s managers and three of their customers in Kazakhstan.

Once analysis has been completely done and summarized authors were be able to come up with the comprehensive conclusion and useful recommendations in regard with Ericsson company performance in Kazakhstan and use of core values as source customer satisfaction that resulted in firm’s success on Kazakhstani market.

3.5 Validity and Reliability

Validity and reliability are two factors that should be concerned while conducting and designing study, analyzing research material and judging the quality of the study. In small samples, generate qualitative material and evaluate whether findings are transferable can only be answered by judgement (Fisher, 2007).

While conducting interview only valid questions were designed on principles and basis of theories. The study is based on interviews and documentation in order to increase validity. “The reliability of qualitative studies is to a great extent dependent on how the interviews have been carried out” (Jönsson, 1996, p.49). Bearing in mind that interview questions and the plan were prepared before conducting interview to ensure reliability part of collected data. All information was recorded and interviewer took notes at the same time.

EMPIRICAL DATA 

In this chapter the collected information and data will be presented in form of the case-presentation. Case-presentation will include information about company and its position on Kazakhstani market, company’s values in general and their role in service offerings and customer expectations will be presented, ultimately, describing Ericsson’s relationships with its customers.

4.1 Company Overall

Ericsson started its first operations back in 1876. The company’s headquarters are located in Stockholm, Sweden. Because of its dedication to R&D, Ericsson today has an intellectual property portfolio of more than 23,000 patents (Ericsson, 2009).

Along with networking equipment for mobile and fixed communications, Ericsson offers to its customers in 175 countries worldwide professional services for design and optimization of communication networks, as well as a wide range of products through joint venture "SonyEricsson" in the field of mobile multimedia devices. Currently more than 1,000 networks around the world use Ericsson’s equipment enabling more than 40% of all mobile calls to be made through their systems (Ericsson, 2009).

4.2 Company Background in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is a fast developing country and year by year the needs and expectations of local businesses are increasing. In such market a company has to stay competitive and improve its positions on the market. Kazakhstan market demands more services each year. Ericsson, previously being present in many developing markets, rapidly adopts its values through the new service offerings and ideas, having the experience from the similar situations in the past, knowing ahead of the time that Kazakhstan market will develop demand for value based services.

The market of mobile communication and mobile communication equipment in Kazakhstan is one of the most actively developing markets in the country nowadays. In doing so, the actual

cellular section remains one of the fastest growing segments of the telecommunications market of Kazakhstan (Fomicheva, 2007).

As Kazakhstan became an attractive market for foreign investors and international companies, most of the world leading companies entered into the country during the last 10 years. Ericsson was one of the successful examples of cooperation and investment for Kazakhstan in 1997.

Since 1997, LM Ericsson International AB, the world's largest supplier of telecommunications equipment and solutions for telecom operators and service providers, is operating in the Republic of Kazakhstan. (Ericsson Kazakhstan). Ericsson’s customers are the major mobile operators in Kazakhstan. At this time, Ericsson supplies equipment to all mobile operators in Kazakhstan: Kcell, Neo, Beeline and Dalacom. More than 60% of all calls from mobile phones in Kazakhstan are operated with help of Ericsson’ equipment (Fomicheva, 2007).

Approximately two-thirds of mobile subscribers throughout Kazakhstan maintained telecommunications equipment and advanced technology from Ericsson. Thus, approximately 60% of all calls from mobile phones in Kazakhstan are done by using equipment from Ericsson. Occupying a leading position in the field of wire line equipment, Ericsson is planning to take an active part in the development of Kazakhstan's new generation of network operators (New Generation Network) solutions based on multi-ENGINE. (KazNews, 2008).

4.3 Ericsson’s Values

Ericsson describes their corporate governance as upholding three core values that best portray the company: professionalism, respect and perseverance. Professionalism stands for the importance of listening to your co-workers and customers and encouraging leadership through innovation. It stands for keeping commitments and being responsive; ultimately, to always seek the truth. Respect part, among other meanings, promotes diversity and shared visions as strengths of the organisation. Finally, perseverance endorses long term dedication, always giving extra effort and taking the role of the leader in shaping the future (Ericsson, 2009b).

Our research was conducted for better understanding how company employs above mentioned company core values in their every day operations while providing services to its customers in Kazakhstan.

Ericsson is a multicultural company and many of its employees have different backgrounds and experience. This environment creates a dynamic atmosphere and culture inside the company. Everyone in the company is given opportunity for advancement and development. This might be seen as one of the aspects of why Ericsson is such a successful and profitable organization. The management of the company tries to involve peoples of different national background and that can create breathing space for creating new and innovative ideas. Due to this diversity of cultural, educational and professional backgrounds, innovation as one of key drivers of Ericsson’s success can thrive.

Collected data furthermore indicates that Ericsson’s culture and business policies build strong image of successful and innovative company and that is also reflected in their services and solutions. Company gives realistic solutions and keeps high quality in their offerings and solutions.

This organizational culture that the company creates and develops with diversity helps to create unique performance of the work inside the company. Also some values it provides are similar for all subsidiaries all over the world. Kazakhstan is a country where the economy is developing rapidly and Ericsson is one of these examples where company has experience over 10 years on Kazakh market and from the beginning Ericsson kept their values fit local cultural specifications. These specifications can be explained as ethnicity, cultural and language differences, work style and organization. Leadership plays another important role in building a company where core values are essential factors for success. The charismatic and unique style of Ericsson’s management allows employees to realize innovative and strategic solutions and ideas to customers’ problems. All these aspects are valuable in the company. Management supports its employees by giving opportunity in developing professional skills with different trainings and diversity programs. This is kept in the company’s values as professionalism and its respect to share knowledge with employees.

Our findings further confirm that Ericsson is a well structured organization that provides training courses about its ways of conducting business to its employees. These courses are obligatory for all employees inside the company. They include basic standards of job requirements, ethics, business transactions and dealings, organizational culture and ethical behavior inside the company.

Ericsson follows all technology and innovation processes as this is core business of the company. It shows that core values as professionalism, respect and perseverance are always a driving force of the company and people inside the organization. These values are example of how company through solutions and offerings keep high standards of professionalism and commitment to the strategy for customers and other stakeholders as well.

Ericsson follows its strategy to be first in innovation and applied solutions for its customers. This is not only based on new ideas but also predicting customers’ needs and offering better solutions. Customers at the same time anticipate the best solutions and offerings from the supplier. Arguably, this can be seen as one of main sources of competitive advantage of the company among their competitors on the market in Kazakhstan. Ericsson, according to its managers, understands that their customers have high expectations concerning the company products and services and therefore always offers the latest technology available. This is a good motivation for the company to innovate and upgrade new technologies when needs and perceived quality are met with expectations. This is the base of professionalism from which this unique organization maintains a high level of commitment to its customers.

4.4 Values and Customer Expectations

According to the data collected, expectations of all customers in Ericsson’s product research and related services were almost on the same level. Findings indicate that Ericsson’s reputation and image as an international leader of innovative solutions affect customers’ opinions and decisions. Especially for corporate customers in telecommunication sector where technology and new ideas are developing and not many suppliers can offer better service and solutions in Kazakhstan. Customers mentioned that professionalism, high quality service, innovative ideas and commitment were the main expectations from Ericsson as a service

provider. Ericsson offers new technological products on the Kazakh market and customer experience demonstrates that expectations were generally met when service was delivered.

Research suggests that expectations were high concerning Ericsson products. Since innovative ideas and high quality service were main concerns for the customer, professionalism and commitment to customers played considerable role when choosing supplier. Most of the time, perceived quality of service was in line with customers expectations. Furthermore, it appears that professionalism played an important role when delivering high-quality service.

Experience of its services and products for customers was positive, which leads to customer satisfaction. Customers mentioned some factors that were main aspects for customer satisfaction. Professionalism and reputation affect the expectations of the service because of Ericsson’s international reputation as a leader in the telecommunications market, which it enjoys. Then, better solutions were the main point of customers satisfaction, i.e. customers were satisfied with quality of the products and service and innovative solutions and technologies that Ericsson provided. The last aspect of satisfaction customers named was the accessibility of service that is also important when considering access to service offerings. It was mentioned that aspects of customer satisfaction generally described Ericsson as providing service in keeping with the company’s values with an eye to catering to its customers’ needs. In depth descriptions of basic services that Ericsson offers to its customers, such as Consulting Services for Business Development and Integration Services, Network Management and support services, which is cited in Appendix III.

4.5 Values in Services and Customer Relationships

Ericsson offers systems, services and basic technologies for the production of mobile terminals and licensing through Sony Ericsson – a full line of products in the field of mobile multimedia solutions. Customers rely on company service and the unique ability to provide complete and effective solutions that guarantee the success of their business. Ericsson shapes the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet, as a leader in technology (Ericsson, 2009c). Ericsson provides services to the biggest mobile operators in Kazakhstan. All customers have a long history of its relationships with this service provider meaning that they have renewed

their serviced on multiple occasions. Through long-term relationships, Ericsson offers equipment and services with a high commitment and level of trust to its customers. The company informs its customers about new updates and new solutions continuously. Also the company provides its customers with free testing of new equipment. Another part of its overall service includes warranty service, maintenance and it supports the compatibility of equipment if some problems occur with exploitation or defects. Moreover, Ericsson usually offers business meetings with customers where the company demonstrates new solutions and equipment. These meetings also have strategic meaning where future directions of relationships are frequently discussed.

Moreover, Ericsson uses its values as leading by example when delivering service. It extends business from technology research through development of networks to running and improving systems. All values that were mentioned in the research conducted are the driving force of company business dealings and performance. These values create a strong base for better service to support the company’s aim to provide better solutions to its customers.

Long-term relationships with customers are one of the main business aspects that Ericsson develops through its performance on the Kazakh market. Ericsson established strong relations built on trust with its customers, mobile operators in Kazakhstan. Its commitment to customers is based on value-based service where professional and trustful relationships are developed and nurtured.

ANALYSIS 

In the following section of this paper the empirical findings collected during research will be closely evaluated with the help of theories presented in the theoretical overview portion of this paper. Crucial factors of service offerings that contributed to customer satisfaction will be indentified and divided in categories. Finally, the role of core values in these categories will be analyzed.

Ericsson’s Values 

Costumers

 Expectations

Services Offered  

New Technology Shared Knowledge Commitment

Costumers Satisfaction 

Figure 3 Analytical Strategy

In the analysis we categorized values, expectations, service and satisfaction in different categories where values are basic elements of the company’s service and customers’ expectations that lead to satisfaction in it. The research findings indicate that values

embedded in service offerings greatly contribute to customer satisfaction of the service provided by Ericsson.

Although our research question is concerned with how the company itself can employ its core values in satisfying service offerings, at the beginning of our research equal attention was dedicated to understanding the role of Ericsson’s values on customer expectations and its service offerings. Being aware of the close relation between customer expectations and their satisfaction we thought that should be a proper course of our research. However, during our analysis of collected data, we concluded that empirical evidence overwhelmingly supports the claim that the relationship between core values and customer satisfaction is most notable when values are integrated in service offerings and to a lesser degree when influencing customer expectations. Therefore, while the role of values in customer expectations will be discussed, the main focus of our analysis section will be on the subject of core values and its direct influence on service offerings.

5.1 Findings

The described categories below emerged while the relationship between Ericsson’s core values, delivered through a number of different service offerings (that led to customer satisfaction) was analysed with the help of available theories. Research findings identified three main categories, all parts of offered services, which contributed the most to the customers satisfaction. These are commitment, shared knowledge and new technologies. Our interview questions were designed for two main purposes. Firstly, we wanted to understand how Ericsson’s managers perceive their company’s core values and their role in the service offerings that they provide. Secondly, in line with Grönroos’s ‘seven criteria of perceived quality’ model, we hoped to gain an understanding of how Ericsson’s customers in Kazakhstan evaluate their services received (note that the seven criteria are described in more detail in the theoretical overview). However, fortunately we were able to delve deeper in our analysis than just evaluating the importance of the service provider’s core values on the customer satisfaction level. Our profound analysis process enabled us to name the exact service components that directly contributed to customer satisfaction. These components are, as mentioned above, commitment, shared knowledge and new technologies.

While scrutinizing the collected interview data it became evident that all participating customer representatives were referring to Ericsson’s core values simply as “values” without trying to make distinctions between them, as Ericsson’s managers did, in professionalism, respect and perseverance. On the other hand, it is important to mention that “professionalism”, however, did appear during the coding process of material from the customer representative interviews, more often than “respect” and “perseverance”. Since in many instances interviewed service receiver managers referred to “professionalism” for the core value/part of service offerings that Ericsson managers referred to respect or perseverance (while describing same service offerings), this can be understood as a simple linguistic phenomena and during the coding process this occurrence was taken in consideration.

5.1.1 Commitment 

Values of Ericsson Kazakhstan are delivered through the service offerings and expectations of customers, which rely on the high quality service offered, where commitment plays a considerable role. In an interview, Anastassiya Miroshnikova, specialist of communications department of KatKaz in Aktau pointed out that Ericsson’s commitment to its customers has contributed greatly to their satisfaction of received services. Miroshnikova interpreted that as the keeping of its promises and a genuine interest by Ericsson’s staff to solve their problems as a sign of its commitment to KatKaz. This finding is in accordance with Grönroos’ (2007) model where attitudes and behavior of service employees greatly contribute to customer satisfaction. The same can be argued, as suggested by Grönroos, for the trustworthiness aspect of service provider.

As example Vyacheslav Chubukov, head of information technologies department of LLP ‘GSM Kazakhstan’, trademark ‘K-cell’ the leading mobile communication operator in Kazakhstan, explained that Ericsson, in his opinion, is the one of the companies with a long history and experience that shows how the long term commitment to its customers can lead to a successful and lengthy business relationships that benefit all involved. Mr. Chubukov further argued that instances when Ericsson devoted all their available resources to promptly response to their unexpected problems that required immediate attention have contributed to their overall satisfaction with service provider. Here we can apply reliability and service recovery criteria from the model designed by Grönroos (2007) to better understand the grounds of customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, Mr. Akhmetov of Kazakhtelecom explained its company’s experience with Ericsson. Bearing in mind the reputation that Ericsson has, they expected, according to Akhmetov, innovative ideas and high-quality service with professional attitude commitment to them. This is with accordance with Edvardsson (1996) theory regarding importance of service provider reputation on customer expectations. Moreover, from interview with a representative from Kazakhtelecom, it appears that this company is satisfied with all stages of business relationship starting from the interest that Ericsson has shown in solving their network extension problems and ending with post customer services after initial service is provided. Not being interested in just a one-time sale of service, but rather in building a relationship, proved to the Kazakhtelecom manager that Ericsson is willing to commit to them for a longer period of time. The customer’s ability to rely on Ericsson for a longer period of time can be evaluated through the reliability criteria of Grönroos (2007) model. Furthermore, this commitment was perceived to be result of Ericsson’s professionalism according to the interviewed manager.

5.1.3 Shared knowledge 

Sharing knowledge can be seen as one of the ways to make investment in to existing customer relationships. Ericsson has realised that making its customers more competitive can only benefit company in the long run. One way to do so is to continuously and with dedication share their knowledge in areas such as processes, networks and skills, where Ericsson provides qualified consultants, specialised in their particular areas of business. One of the core values of Ericsson, as stated in their corporate statements, is respect for its customers. According to Raul Coello, the company believes that through respect for their customer and willingness to share their knowledge with them, they can “build strength” together that will eventually benefit to all parties involved. According to Jaffe and Scott (2005) values provide direction and understanding how to treat other people. Interviewed manager example proves that the values Ericsson fosters are indeed represented in their every day dealings with its customers.

Ms. Miroshnikova also mentioned that Ericsson delivers services and, at the same time, shares knowledge with KatKaz in Aktau. Ericsson provides free-of-charge trainings to them, with