Title: Perceived importance of contract value, offshore market experience and buyer attractiveness among SME service suppliers in Norway

Authors: Arnt Buvik; Øyvind Halskau

Addresses: Department of Economics, Molde University College, Servicebox 2110, 6402 Molde, Norway ' Department of Economics, Molde University College, Servicebox 2110, 6402 Molde, Norway

Abstract: This paper focuses on the perception of offshore market attractiveness among SME service suppliers in the Norwegian offshore market. From the buying companies' perspective, it is desirable to recruit and maintain a sufficient great supplier base of local service suppliers in the Norwegian offshore market in line with the national industry policy in Norway. This research analyses possible barriers to entry for small service suppliers in the Norwegian offshore market. The empirical findings demonstrates that the suppliers' perceived importance of contract value, materialised as contract size and contract duration play an important role for increasing new entries of service suppliers into the offshore market. The perception of the importance of contract value is in particular important for enhancing the perceived attractiveness of offshore buying companies among service firms outside this market (solely onshore suppliers), while this effect is rather modest among service suppliers who have entered the offshore market.

Keywords: service supporting facilities; customer relationship management; CRM; quality management; offshore market experience; perceived contract value; buyer attractiveness; Norway; SME service suppliers; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; market attractiveness; local suppliers; industry policy; contract size; contract duration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2014.068269

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2014 Vol.6 No.4, pp.327 - 338

Received: 03 May 2014
Accepted: 10 Nov 2014
Published online: 08 Apr 2015 *

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