Inter-organisational cooperation becomes increasingly necessary in order to create solutions, customer value and customized services in public transport systems. However, although most actors claiming to be positive to cooperation per se, in practice, inter-organisational services systems face several managerial challenges. Drawing on a series of case studies within the field of public transport mobility management where various actors together have develop traditional public transport systems into an attractive door-to-door travel alternative also for travellers with special needs, the present paper discusses some of these challenges. The study indicates that sustained collaborative and coordinated action should not be taken for granted in this kind of loosely coupled organisational system. From the outset, organisational tasks as well as underlying discourses differ among the participants. Perceptions of problems, solutions and roles in the common project are often vague or non-existing. Further, insufficient financial resources and vague links to the day-to-day work agenda lead to decreased incentives to really prioritize and fulfil changes agreed upon. We conclude that a well defined vision of the extended service offering - formulated from the customer's perspective - can help overcome some of these difficulties. Such an extended service vision provides a common point of reference for the parties involved that clarifies roles and interdependencies and offers a conceptual arena for resolving differences between the actors. However, arenas for physical meetings are required as well, where the actors can get together to create such multi-organisation spanning service visions as well as develop a feeling of mutual understanding and commitment to the common task (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.
Abstract