CONTEXTUALISING - TECHNOLOGY, RELATIONSHIPS AND TIME IN A FINANCIAL SERVICES VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION

Technology is markedly absent from marketing theory, and especially fo r services. This is a case analysis of an insurance claims adjusting f irm operating in a network. Results showed: (1) reliance on human capi tal; (2) technology used to manage a virtual service network and produ ce the product: information and (3) the importance of time. The conver gence of these capabilities led to an hypothesis for the network proce ss of 'contextualising', the ability to use human capital, technology and time to extract data embedded in the context, process it into valu e added information, and utilise it in the network.