Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

10-2026

Abstract

This dissertation examines how high-contact, on-site service firms scale up. The central challenge is the stable reproduction of a recognizable service template across dispersed branches under customer heterogeneity, frontline discretion, relationship continuity, and local capacity pressure. Replication quality is defined as the branch-level stability of the service promise, execution rhythm, and exception-handling logic. It is measured directly through retention outcomes and service-failure outcomes, which capture continued acceptance of the service promise and visible breakdowns in service delivery.

The theoretical argument centers on two ambidextrous competitive logics. Local responsiveness requires branches to adapt service timing, provider matching, communication, and recovery work to customer-specific conditions. Template consistency requires the firm to keep branch-level delivery recognizable, repeatable, and managerially governable. These logics pull branch action in different directions, yet scalable growth requires both to be preserved together. Execution variability captures the point at which local adaptation and capacity pressure destabilize the service template in daily branch work.

Two panel-based empirical modules test this dual-governance mechanism using operating data from a national high-contact, on-site service chain in China. Empirical Module 1 analyzes 45,769 branch-month observations from 1,697 branches in a relationship-intensive service module. Service customization increases execution variability, execution variability lowers next-month branch-level activity retention and raises refund exposure, and a formalized service-continuity workflow reduces the customization-to-variability slope by approximately 60 percent. Empirical Module 2 analyzes 46,300 branch-month observations from 1,437 branches in a capacity-intensive service module, including 26,514 observations in the below-saturation demand-supply-ratio core sample. Demand-supply pressure increases execution variability below the saturation threshold; execution variability lowers next-month same-branch retention and raises next-month refund users; and queue-enabled digital process integration weakens the capacity-pressure-to-variability relationship.

The findings show that replication quality links branch pressure with branch-level competitive performance. Retention captures continued acceptance of the replicated service promise. Service failure, proxied by refund exposure and refund users, captures visible breakdowns in that promise. Branch-level competitive performance follows from replication quality because stable branches preserve reliability, repeat usage, and local competitive credibility. The dissertation translates replication quality from template transfer into branch-level execution stability and identifies process formalization and digital process integration as complementary governance capabilities for scalable growth.

Keywords

scalable growth, replication quality, high-contact service firms, ambidextrous competitive logics, local responsiveness, template consistency, execution variability, process formalization, digital process integration, retention, service failure

Degree Awarded

SMU-SJTU Doctor of Business Administration

Discipline

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Strategic Management Policy

Supervisor(s)

YIU, Wing Yee

First Page

1

Last Page

130

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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