However, owing to the increasing price erosion and budget pressure in practice, it has become essential for companies to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the services offered. The groundwork of effective and efficient service is a market- and customer-oriented service portfolio. This in turn requires a service-controlling system based on well-founded market research within the automotive sector.Automotive managers should not hesitate to conduct market research to achieve optimized service, since customers in this sector have considerable knowledge of market success factors and an enormous aptitude to judge. To this end, market studies can provide significant insights and support a performance-oriented management of service actions. The manageable number of target customers in the automotive sector also supports the market research approach. Furthermore, the costs of market research are comparably minimal due to the fact that the customer base in this sector is very narrow. Moreover, the highly involved customers in the branch lead to higher rates of return, compared to the fast-moving customer goods branch, for example.The champions in the automotive supplier industry are aware of the performance potential of product-supporting services and have been offering such services for decades. The performance potential of service becomes particularly relevant if the products brought into the market by global competitive market players have a similar level of quality and functionality.This is the case by now in many product categories in the automotive supplier industry since each firm possesses comparable production techniques, even from a worldwide perspective. This fact alone makes it very hard to create, achieve and/or hold durable product-related competitive advantages. Services are the differentiating points in markets with technically and functionally homogeneous products and they have an effect beyond the price as the sole decision criterion. A customer-oriented service portfolio can overcome the technological position and decreases price erosion in the market.Business-to-Business (B2B) customers want more than a core product. They want a bundle to solve their problems. Services can support the development of long-term customer relationships and partnerships. They leverage the core product and increase the customer value of the offer.Additionally, services offer the opportunity to gain insights into the customers’ daily business and processes. This groundwork makes it possible for the supplier to offer attractive cross-selling options to the customer. In addition, services are market entry barriers, in particular for foreign companies that typically are not able to establish a domestic service organisation at competitive costs.Another advantage of product-supporting services in the automotive supplier industry is the reduction of risk through diversification in the field of service: The corporate development of service competencies offers the opportunity to develop attractive new business segments. Moreover, a corresponding pricing of services leads to increased turnover and profit. A product-supporting service portfolio has a positive impact on the perceived corporate and brand images.The existence of real commitment protects against discounters and ensures a long-term corporate existence by credible collaboration. For example, Doney and Cannon (1997) found an impact of perceived trust in the supplier firm and their salespersons on a buying firm’s current supplier choice and future purchase intentions. Furthermore, Rutherford et al. (2008) verified the effect of perceived commitment on a buyer’s propensity to stay in a B2B relationship. In this regard, a customer- and market-oriented service planning can strongly support the development of real commitment.In case you are interested for details please send a mail to [email protected].

The case involved allegations of U.S. patent infringement: plaintiff was seeking a declaratory judgment that it was not infringing the defendant’s U.S. patent. After filing the Complaint and failing to convince defendant’s counsel to accept service of process on defendant’s behalf, plaintiff’s counsel filed a request for consent to serve the defendant at his business in Taiwan by FedEx.Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) Rule 4 allows process to be served on a foreign defendant by any internationally agreed means of service, such as means permitted by the Hague Convention, but Taiwan is not a party to most international agreements, including the Hague Convention.Rule 4 also authorizes service by letters rogatory or pursuant to the foreign country’s laws governing domestic service of process. However, the letters rogatory process takes months to complete, as it requires the assistance of courts and government offices in both countries. Service of foreign process pursuant to Taiwan’s laws is no less cumbersome, because Taiwan’s law requires service to be made by the clerk of Taiwan’s court.So the plaintiff turned to FRCP 4(f)(2)(C)(ii), which permits process to be served on a foreign defendant – unless prohibited by the foreign country’s law – by mail that the clerk addresses and sends, which requires a return receipt. Upon plaintiff’s request, the U.S. clerk mailed the summons and complaint to the defendant’s office in Taiwan by FedEx and one of defendant’s employees signed the delivery receipt.The defendant then moved to dismiss the action for insufficient service of process, claiming service by FedEx is not permitted under Taiwan law, so it must be deemed prohibited, for purposes of FRCP 4(f)(2)(C)(ii). The court disagreed, holding service is not prohibited under foreign law unless it is expressly prohibited and it found the service by FedEx was proper.Incidentally, the plaintiff also could have turned to FRCP 4(f)(3), which permits process to be served “by other means not prohibited by international agreement” (upon court order). It should be noted that courts are not unanimous in approving fast-track solutions to international service of process. However, numerous Western courts have approved expedited solutions, allowing international service by e-mail, Facebook and by service on the foreign company’s U.S. attorney.As a practical matter, service by FedEx may be an acceptable solution where one is only seeking declaratory relief in the U.S., but a plaintiff should think twice before attempting such a tactic in a case where enforcement may be required in the defendant’s country. In Taiwan, a foreign judgment cannot be enforced until it has been recognized by a Taiwan court and there’s a fair likelihood Taiwan courts may refuse to recognize any judgment where service was made by mail, e-mail or other unorthodox means.Finally, defendants should be reminded to never ignore attempted service of process, regardless of how improper it appears, as the plaintiff may then take defendant’s default and obtain a default judgment, which may be near impossible to overturn. Best practice dictates that the defendant should always file a motion to quash the attempted service.