Benchmarking the Customer Configuration Updating Process of the International Product Software Industry

.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Part I Introducing the thesis ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 1 Customer Configuration Updating fundamentals ............................................................................................................. 8 1.1 Problem analysis .................................................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Research context .................................................................................................................................................................. 10 1.3 Problem definition ............................................................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Research objective and goal ................................................................................................................................................ 11 1.5 Research buildup ................................................................................................................................................................. 12 1.6 Research questions .............................................................................................................................................................. 12 1.7 Research relevance .............................................................................................................................................................. 14 1.8 Thesis overview ................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2 Theoretical introduction and hypotheses ........................................................................................................................ 17 2.1 Theoretical and practical takes on CCU. ............................................................................................................................. 17 2.2 Hypotheses .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Part II Research method and theoretical fundament ................................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 3 Research method ............................................................................................................................................................ 22 3.1 Why survey ......................................................................................................................................................................... 22 3.2 Research steps ..................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 4 Theoretical framework ................................................................................................................................................... 31 4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................................................. 31 4.2 Theory ................................................................................................................................................................................. 31 4.3 Connecting the theory .......................................................................................................................................................... 41 4.4 Application .......................................................................................................................................................................... 41 4.5 Research framework ............................................................................................................................................................ 43 4.6 Processes ............................................................................................................................................................................. 44 4.7 Capabilities and questions ................................................................................................................................................... 48 4.8 Advice ................................................................................................................................................................................. 49 4.9 Construct questions ............................................................................................................................................................. 50 Part III Validation and Results ...................................................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 5 Validation conceptual framework and survey ................................................................................................................ 52 5.1 Conceptual framework ........................................................................................................................................................ 52 5.2 Survey ................................................................................................................................................................................. 52 Chapter 6 Results and interpretation ............................................................................................................................................... 55 6.1 Respondents and products ................................................................................................................................................... 55 6.2 CCU process result walkthrough ......................................................................................................................................... 56 6.3 Answering hypotheses ......................................................................................................................................................... 61 6.4 Testing relations .................................................................................................................................................................. 71 Part IV Discussion, Conclusion and Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 75 Chapter 7 Validity discussion ......................................................................................................................................................... 76 7.1 Limitations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 76 7.2 External validity .................................................................................................................................................................. 76 7.3 Relevance ............................................................................................................................................................................ 76 7.4 Future research .................................................................................................................................................................... 77 Chapter 8 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................... 78 8.1 Changes in the CCU process have significant impact on the product success ..................................................................... 79 8.2 The priority that the vendor associates with the CCU process influences the product success ............................................ 79 8.3 Eight general product characteristics have significant impact on the success ...................................................................... 79 8.4 The future: Completely automated and fully customizable updating tools .......................................................................... 79 8.5 International product software vendors are more successful than Dutch vendors ................................................................ 80 8.6 The state of the practice of international product software companies ................................................................................ 80 In conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................. 80 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................................................... 81 References ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 82