From Core Values to Customer Satisfaction: Ericsson in Kazakhstan  Mälardalens högskola School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology (HST) 

International Marketing Master Thesis EFO 705 

2009

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Authors:Dalila Aitpayeva 870301, Dejan Mandic 730129 Tutor: Joakim Netz 

2009‐09‐7 

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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.

Keywords Values, services, customer expectation, customer satisfaction

 

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 ii

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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 

REFERENCE LIST .................................................................................................................. 42 

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TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 Theoretical framework ................................................................................................. 6 

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

Figure 3 Analytical Strategy .................................................................................................... 28 

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

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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

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(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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.”

(Edvardsson et al, 2000, p. 45)

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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

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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.

15

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

16

‘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.

17

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.

18

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) .

19

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

20

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.

21

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

22

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).

23

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.

24

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

25

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

26

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.

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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 

Costum

ers Expe

ctations 

Perseverance Professionalism Respect

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

28

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.

29

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.

30

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

31

detailed instruction and education regarding use of the latest technologies that they provide. It

is important to notice that sharing knowledge with its customers is not a onetime thing, but a

repeated practice that highlights another of Ericsson’s values, perseverance.

Moreover, Vyacheslav Chubukov, of K-Cell GSM Kazakhstan, points out that Ericsson offers

professional advice to his company on regular bases. This cooperation is orchestrated trough

number of scheduled meetings with Ericsson’s consultants where consultants demonstrated

high level of expertise and technical skills. First criteria of Grönroos (2007) perceived service

quality model, professionalism and skills, help us understand this dimension of K-Cell GSM

satisfaction. This persistent willingness, ingrained in the company’s core values, to share

knowledge over a long period of time with is customers has enabled Ericson to be a

trustworthy partner for many companies around the world.

Our findings indicate that all interviewed representatives, i.e. Ericsson’s customers, in

Kazakhstan are interested in supplementary trainings for new products and technologies and

firmly believe that those parts of service offerings play a major role for their competitiveness,

further confirming that their satisfaction of received services is based on Ericsson’s

willingness to share knowledge.

5.1.4 New Technology 

Ericsson in Kazakhstan offers a new technology that helps customers to hold the leading

position in the mobile communications market making both Ericsson and its customers more

competitive. All participating Ericsson’s customers in this research expected offerings and

solutions that are technically superior. Edvardsson (1996) and Grönroos (1996) argue that

customer expectations are based on their needs and wishes as well as service provider

reputation, among other things. Customer expectations to receive newest technology from

Ericsson, it can be argued, influenced company to some degree to be one of the most

innovative companies.

Mr. Coello was clear when explaining Ericsson’s strategy that technology and innovation are

part of value-based service and that Ericsson invests into development of its core business

regularly. This strategic direction points out that professionalism is deeply rooted in

Ericsson’s operations and that “lead through innovation” as listed on their web page

32

explaining professionalism part of their core values, is not just a collection of empty words on

paper, but a strong base for strategy development within the company.

Furthermore, customers that participated in this research indicated that high quality service

and innovativeness of Ericsson play a major role in their level of satisfaction with received

services. Interviewed Chubukov, Miroshnikova and Fedoseyev stated that their companies

expect to get new, innovative technological solution from the service provider on a consistent

basis through their relationship. Therefore, it is not a surprise that delivering new and

innovative technologies were one of the main criterions for their cooperation and renewal of

services with Ericsson. Our research therefore confirms Fornell’s (2008) observation that

repeated purchase or renewal of service is one of most accurate ways to evaluate customer

satisfaction.

While Ms. Miroshnikova explained that new technology is helping the efficiency of her

company, Mr. Chubukov was pointing out that new technology provided to them by Ericsson

have a significant influence on cost reduction for their operations. Our analysis confirms that

new technologies provided by Ericsson contribute to overall satisfaction of services received

by its customers and are seen as important element of their competitiveness.

5.2 Patterns

Our findings suggest that commitment, shared knowledge and new technologies have

considerable importance on level of service satisfaction of Ericsson’s customers in

Kazakhstan. Regardless if satisfaction derivate from achieved efficiency, lowered operational

cost or in other words, from improvement of firms’ competitiveness, companies that

participated in our research expressed that their expectations regarding Ericsson’s services

offerings have been met and in some instances surpassed. Furthermore, careful analyses of

collected data points out that Ericsson’s core value are rooted deeply into creation process of

those services practices. Interviewed managers in this research have, directly and indirectly,

stated that if service provider has values ingrained in their services that ultimately can provide

their company with a source of competitiveness, they will be willing to continuously purchase

their services.

In the final part of our analytical process, we wanted to look at a larger picture and tried to

identify patterns in above described categories and their relations. It appears that Ericsson’s

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core values are seen as one and no distinction between them was emphasised by its customers.

Moreover, while describing their expectations, Ericsson’s core “values” and professionalism

was the most repeated terms. On the other hand, while describing their satisfaction with

received services, interviewed representatives most of the time mentioned Ericsson’s value in

the same sentence with commitment and/or shared knowledge and/or new technologies. More

interestingly, while talking about Ericsson’s values and shared knowledge and/or new

technology, interviewed managers frequently mentioned term competitiveness. This pattern

opens up a new direction for further research where firm’s core values can be theoretically

connected to the customer competitiveness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DISSCUSSION and CONCLUSION 

The purpose of this explorative study was to investigate how this company’s core values

interact with customers’ expectations and as a part of customer relations influence

performance of organization and to contribute to existing knowledge about correlation of core

values and overall business performance of the company. Exploration was conducted

empirically through Ericsson case in Kazakhstan as well as theoretically.

Deep analysis showed that Ericsson in Kazakhstan delivers its core values through the all

stages of the business processes, starting from endowing values to its employees minds,

ending with customer relationship management. Ericsson’s managers have special training

programs before starting to work for the company where they are introduced to company’s

way of doing things, once they start working, every two months they have courses for

improvement of their technical skills and knowledge. After analyzing client’s perspective on

their experience with service provider, we can conclude core values of Ericsson such as

perseverance, respect and professionalism play the crucial role in their business performance

in Kazakhstan. This can be interpreted as the rationale behind the fact that all interviewed

clients of Ericsson Kazakhstan expressed positive feedback and are ready to continue to

renew their relationship with the company.

Its long presence on the world telecommunication market and business etiquette acquired

through those years eventually gave Ericsson strong position in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, it is

evident that professionalism and respect present in Ericsson’s everyday business practices,

positively influences overall services offerings and performance in general of Ericsson in

Kazakhstan. Since its beginnings in the region, company has managed to communicate their

values to its customers on and that fact played major role in their success.

Ericsson firmly holds the leading position as a business-to-business service provider for the

leading mobile operators in Kazakhstan. The company offers new modern technical and

technological solutions to its customers. New technology, which development is stimulated by

the core values of the company, seems to be one of the key aspect customers’ satisfaction, and

therefore, future development of Ericsson in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, offerings of customer

trainings for new technologies can be seen as a base for increasing cooperation with Ericsson

and its customers in region.

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These trust-based relationships with its customers give an opportunity for the successful

continuation of Ericsson’s business in the Kazakh market. The company’s image and

reputation of strong leadership and professional concerns with stakeholders and customers has

a positive influence on customers’ expectations concerning high-quality products and

services. Values that the company has are directed toward offering service where customers’

expectations are met with positive outcome of satisfaction. Ericsson provides better solutions

to customers’ problems and keeps its values in delivering the best service by offering total

package to its customers. This suggests that 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. Concluding, Ericsson, a value-based company, employs

successfully its core values through unique and high professional service offerings that meet

and in many cases exceed high customer expectations and ultimately satisfies its customers in

Kazakhstan.

6.1 Managerial Implications

The company’s core values play an important role when it creates products and services.

Moreover, these values also greatly influence customer’s expectations and therefore

determine level of their satisfaction with received services. Our research indicates that

customers are most of the time aware of service providers’ core values and that they base their

expectations upon them. The company that has core values deeply imbedded in its corporate

culture and has been on market for a long time preserving its values, without question has

customers that have high expectations with regard to services that they provide. The only way

for companies in this position to ensure customer satisfaction of the highest levels is to

continue to preserve its core values, to continue to follow, and in some cases to be a leader of

society’s developments in regard with ethical behavior. However, this compliance with

highest standard of business ethics represented in company’s core values is just a first step to

success of the company.

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Managers and employees should have in mind that high expectations from customers, as a

positive motivating force, can lead to profits and higher market share only if their

performance always meets and exceeds expectations of its customers. Performing on the

highest standards all the time can be a difficult task and is often used to justify drop in

customer satisfaction. Once customer’s high expectations are fulfilled, their expectations of

future services get even higher. This is a difficult task that every technology/market leader has

to face. Perseverance, indeed, is what is needed from Ericsson’s managers if they are to

continue to satisfy their customers and to remain a market leader in Kazakhstan.

6.2 Recommendations for managers

After careful analysis of collected primary and secondary data we came to conclusion that

although Ericsson in Kazakhstan does a good job employing its core values when creating

service and products offerings, some additional capacities of its values can be employed

further in order to satisfy its customers even on higher level and consequently increase its

profits and market share. Further employing of capacities of its core values can be done in a

couple of instances. We suggest that some additional capacities can be employed in following

manner:

Interviews conducted with Ericsson managers pointed out that company does a great job

respecting its customers and employees. However, during our interviews, while talking about

company’s core values manager never mentioned their values in relation to their competitors

on the Kazakh market. Therefore, we suggest the improved and more collaborative direction

of relationships with company’s competitors in Kazakhstan should be given higher priority.

With respect to a part of its stated core values, as cited in Ericsson’s corporate statements, to

promote diversity and shared vision as an advantage of the company. However, the emphasis

should be put on possibilities of improved collaborative relations with its competitors with

‘respect’ and rooted in the core of that relationship. These new relationships, embedded with

mutual respect, can lead to environment that can provide preferable circumstances for

technological innovations of product and services provided by all companies operating in the

same area.

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Finally, we propose that one of the ways to ensure customer satisfaction, bearing in mind their

high expectations, is for the company to persistently emphasize their core values that foster a

constant process of innovation that will result in continuous improvements and a new

differentiated provided services and product to its customers. During our research couple of

factors emerged to be of high importance for Ericsson’s customers, among others, Ericsson’s

willingness to share knowledge with its customers as well as their ability to constantly

provide new technologies. Its core values such as professionalism and perseverance are

important when Ericsson design its offerings. However, since professionalism stands for

listening to your customer, Ericsson can possibly give their customers a more active role in

their new technology development practices. Although, customers interviewed in this study

were satisfied with new technologies provided by Ericsson it could be detected that they

would appreciate a more active role in development of new service offerings. This enriched

relationship could just benefit both sides and should not be disregarded lightly by Ericsson’s

managers.

6.3 Implication for further research

Findings from this study indicate that strong direct relationship exist among core values of

service providers and expectations of their customers. However, evidently further in-depth

research is needed to examine factual implication of that relationship on level of customer

satisfaction. More successful ways to conduct the analysis might possibly be through

extensive quantitative studies where larger number of respondents will have to participate in

order to get enough data and enable researchers to generalize. Additionally, finding and

analyzing data from dissatisfied customers will further enrich findings on this subject.

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APPENDIX I 

Interview questions for managers

Questions about company’s values in Ericsson:

1. What makes Ericsson culture unique and how it affects on company’s values? 2. How company culture here in Kazakhstan differs from its original foundation in

Sweden? 3. How Ericsson’s culture differs from those of its competitors here in Kazakhstan? 4. How core values effect every day work inside the company? 5. In your opinion, how each value affect on the offering and delivering services to your

customers? 6. How employees in Ericsson act upon company’s values in their delivering of services?

Questions about company’s services:

1. What types of service does Ericsson offering to its customers here in Kazakhstan?

2. How would you describe relationships that Ericsson has with its major customers?

3. Can you please explain how Ericsson supports its customers with delivering services?

4. What types of services are requested the most from your customers?

5. How does Ericsson cooperate with its customers through meetings and trainings?

6. In your opinion, how does Ericsson deliver its values when responding to customer

request for certain type of services?

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APPENDIX II 

Interview questions for customers

Questions about customer expectations and experience of company’s services:

1. How do you evaluate overall quality of delivered services and products from Ericsson?

2. What are your overall expectation regarding Ericsson’s services?

3. Do provided services match your expectations?

4. On average, would you describe your experience with Ericsson’s services as positive

or negative one?

5. What is a most noticeable cause of this experience?

6. Do Ericsson’s employees have physical resources, knowledge and skills required to

solve your problems?

7. Does Ericsson’s staff solve your problems in professional manner?

8. How would you describe your overall satisfaction of Ericsson’s products and services?

9. Would you describe Ericsson’s employees as concerned about customers?

10. Are they (Ericsson’s employees) interested in solving problems in friendly manner?

11. Does Ericsson react immediately when presented with your service problems?

12. Do they find acceptable solutions for our service problems?

13. Can you rely on Ericsson and its employees in any occasion?

14. Does Ericsson always perform its promises to our company?

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APPENDIX III 

Service Description

Consulting Services for Development business

“Consulting services are concentrated in the areas of business, processes, networks and skills.

Each service is provided by highly qualified consultants, each of whom is a specialist in the

chosen field. First-hand knowledge about the development of the market and the vast

experience gained in working with operators, led Ericsson to take a strong unique position.

Company give advice how to expand business and develop the telecommunications network

to ensure future profitability in the best manner.”

(Ericsson, 2009a)

Integration services

“Services to ensure the integration of design, implementation and integration of

telecommunications networks and IS / IT systems, using equipment from various

manufacturers. Services integration support operators in expanding the networks and systems

for optimization of technical solutions along with support systems and business applications

to end users. They cover the whole range of services for the development of the network,

from launching a new network to upgrading, expansion and transition of existing networks.

The system integration capabilities allow network operators to support the latest applications

and fully integrate into a network of systems such as billing and customer relationships.”

(Ericsson, 2009a)

Network management and support services

“Company provides decisions on network management and support, the main focus is on the

operation of the network. The range of services is wide - from the basic support of hardware

and software to outsourcing of network operations. Managing complex processes of network

operators, Ericsson ensures high quality services to end-user and operational characteristics of

the network and assuming the planning, construction, optimization, operation, maintenance

and support of network.”

(Ericsson, 2009a)

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Interviews

Coello, R. ( Marketing Manager) at LM Ericsson International AB, Central Asia Market Unit in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 05/04/09

Mukhamed-Rakhimov, G. (Solution Manger of Networks department) at LM Ericsson International AB, Central Asia Market Unit in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 04/29/09

Chubukov, V. (Head of Information Technologies Department) at LLP K-Cell GSM Kazakhstan, 05/07/09

Miroshnikova, A. (Specialist of Communications department) at KatKaz, Aktau, Kazakhstan. 05/07/09

Fedoseyev, S. (Head of Industrial Communications Department) at "Munaygazkurylys" LLP

Aktau, RoK. 05/18/09