Succeeding through
Service Innovation
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Background
The field of Service Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME) has made substantial progress in recent years. There is a growing perception, however, that it is time to take stock and to explore the possibility of bringing some coherence into the emerging strands of knowledge and experience. For instance, Rust (1) argues that the scope of SSME is narrowly defined and more attention should be placed on customer and revenue. At a more recent event it has been suggested that the foundation for SSME already exists but further effort is required to identify the knowledge warehouse (2). Indeed, it appears that SSME has come to a defining moment. Without a clear understanding of the scope of the research domain and its connections with established theories, there is a danger that the field will continue to be fragmented.
Objectives
The symposium is designed to bring together a small group of leading academics and senior industrialists in an open and interactive forum that recognises practical challenges, identifies theoretical underpinnings, and explores promising avenues for development. It is believed that the unique value of the meeting would be best captured by a white paper that outlines the consensus in answering the questions below.
Part I: Clarifying the rationale (PM Day 1)
- What is the research problem?
- Who are the stakeholders?
- Why does such a research problem matter? (beyond the statistical reasons)
Part II: Framing and positioning (PM Day 1)
- What are the important dimensions of the research problem?
- Is there an overarching framework outlining the problem space at multiple levels?
- What foundations have been laid by existing theories?
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Part III: Identifying the gap (AM Day 2)
- Where is the knowledge gap?
- What is the research agenda for addressing the gap?
- How can different disciplines be integrated toward a more complete understanding?
Part IV: Recognising the priority (AM Day 2)
- How do global trends affect the nature of the research problem?
- What substantive services merit more attention than others?
- What practical and theoretical issues are worthy of more concern?
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- Prof Roland Rust, Education for the 21st Century, October 2006, http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/summit/pres/6rust.pdf
- Prof Christian Grönroos, Nordic Services Science Summit, February 2007, http://www-5.ibm.com/fi/news/events/nsss/pdf/Panel_summary.pdf
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