Kvalitetssäkring av tjänsteinköp
Quality Assurance in Service Procurement --- Total Quality and Total Quality Management refer to popular management philosophies in organizations these days. The purchasing department has an important part in the strive for organizational quality as several studies show corporate spend is significant and increasing. In this master thesis I study the actions companies take to ensure quality in service procurement. I argue that managing quality when sourcing services is particularly tricky, because of the special characteristics that belong to services. The purpose of the study is to examine whether different actions are taken to ensure the quality of different kinds of services. I study 14 purchases, and divide them into four categories based on their respective characteristics in the dimensions prosumtion and intensity of interaction. Thereafter, I compare and discuss the actions taken by the customer company to ensure quality is delivered. The study results in propositions for future studies. It seems that some combinations of prosumtion and intensity of interaction result in distinct patterns of quality assurance for specific phases of the procurement process.