Special Issue on Service Science Management and Engineering (SSME) or Service Science, International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology (IJWET) Volume 5 - Issue 3 - 2009

Engaging the SSME challenge: An agenda for research at the Faculty of Information Science and Technology (2009),Yahya, Y.; Abdullah, S.; Mukhtar, M.; Saidin, H.; Hamdan, A.R.; Jailani, N.; Abdullah, Z.
Electrical Engineering and Informatics, 2009. ICEEI, Volume 02, Issue , 5-7 Aug. 2009 Page(s):362 - 366

Services science management and engineering (SSME) is a new field that recognizes the importance of the services sector. It has created a worldwide movement in terms of curriculum development both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In Malaysia several universities have offered masters programmes in SSME. In UKM itself efforts are still under way to develop a Masters programme in SSME. Realizing the fact that research and teaching are two sides of the same coin, a research initiative in the area of SSME has been undertaken by the formation of a service science group currently hosted by members of the Faculty of Information Science and Technology. This paper reports the research agenda formulated by the group and the challenges faced in realizing the agenda.

Adding Layers of Skills to a Science Background (2009), New York Times, August 2009

Lifelong Learning on a Smarter Planet, N. Donofrio, Presentation June 2009

Download LifeLongLearningSmarterPlanet_Donofrio.pdf [1.63MB]

A Service Science Perspective on Human-Computer Interface Issues of Online Service Applications (2009), Pinhanez, C, International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector, Vol. 1 (2) 2009
This paper proposes a framework for online service applications based on Service Science which identifies and enables a better understanding of the different issues faced by online service designers, engineers, and delivery personnel. The application of the Service Science framework is made possible by carefully distinguishing online service applications not only from traditional personal software applications but also from online information applications, such as the ones used by news and entertainment websites, through a process of specializing Pinhanez’s definition of customer-intensive systems (Pinhanez, 2008) to online applications. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, we consider the six basic characteristics of services, as traditionally defined in Service Science — customer-as-input, heterogeneity, simultaneity, perishability, coproduction, and intangibility — and derive from these characteristics a list of 15 different issues that are highly important for the design and evaluation of the human-computer interface of online services.

Toward an Integrated Conceptualization of the Service and Service System Concepts: A Systems Approach (2009). Mora, Manuel; Raisinghani, Mahesh S.; O'Connor, Rory; Gelman, Ovsei, International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector, Vol. 1 ( 2)
Service and service systems concepts are fundamental constructs for the development of the emergent SSME, ITSM, and Service Oriented Software (SOS) knowledge streams. A diversified literature has provided a richness of findings, but at the same time, the lack of standardized conceptualizations is a source of confusion to IT practitioners and academics. Given this problematic situation, we pose that a systems approach is useful to address it. In this article, we review and synthesize key studies in these knowledge streams to design: (i) a framework to characterize both concepts under a system view and, (ii) harmonized definitions (e.g. identification of shared and essential properties) for such fundamental concepts. Our main contribution is scholastic, but we are confident that the posed conceptual artifacts can be further used to elaborate standardized definition for the IT service and IT service system constructs, as well as analysis tools for describe real service systems.

The Architecture of Service Systems as the Framework for the Definition of Service Science Scope (2009) Targowski, A., International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector, Vol. 1(1)
The purpose of this study is to define generic service processes, their system, and a scope of service science developed originally by the author. In the presented approach, the main criterion is the class of serviced users, since this leads to the six kinds of process recognition and eventually helps in planning e-service systems’ architecture. E-service system (e-SS) is defined as a mission-goal-strategy-driven configuration of technology, organizational processes and networks designed to deliver HTservicesTH that satisfy the needs, wants, or aspirations of customers. Marketing, operations, and global environment considerations have significant implications for the design of an e-service system. Four criteria which impact e-service systems’ architecture have been defined as: service business model, customer contact and level of involvement (Service User Interface), service provider’s enterprise complexity (Enterprise Systems and Networks), and scope of goods involved in service. It was proved that the e-service system is the intermediary layer between Service User Interface and Enterprise Systems and Networks. Two examples of e-SS have been modeled.

Strategic reasoning about business models: a conceptual modeling approach (2009), Samavi, R.Yu, E.Topaloglou, T., Information Systems and E-Business Management, Vol 7(2) March 2009
Strategic reasoning about business models is an integral part of service design. In fast moving markets, businesses must be able to recognize and respond strategically to disruptive change. They have to answer questions such as: what are the threats and opportunities in emerging technologies and innovations? How should they target customer groups? Who are their real competitors? How will competitive battles take shape? In this paper we define a strategic modeling framework to help understand and analyze the goals, intentions, roles, and the rationale behind the strategic actions in a business environment. This understanding is necessary in order to improve existing or design new services. The key component of the framework is a strategic business model ontology for representing and analyzing business models and strategies, using the i* agent and goal oriented methodology as a basis. The ontology introduces a strategy layer which reasons about alternative strategies that are realized in the operational layer. The framework is evaluated using a retroactive example of disruptive technology in the telecommunication services sector from the literature.

From business to software: a B2B survey (2009), Dorn, J. Grun, C.Hannes, W. Zapletal, M., Information Systems and E-Business Management, Vol7 (2) March 2009
In recent years business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce has been subject to major rethinking. A paradigm shift can be observed from document centric file-based interchange of business information to process-centric and, finally to service-based information exchange. On a business level, a lot of work has been done to capture business models and collaborative business processes of an enterprise; further initiatives address the identification of customer services and the formalization of business service level agreements (SLA). On a lower, i.e., technical level, the focus is on moving towards service-oriented architectures (SOA). These developments promise more flexibility, a market entry at lower costs and an easier IT-alignment to changing market conditions. This explains the overwhelming quantity of specifications and approaches targeting the area of B2B—these approaches are partly competing and overlapping. In this paper we provide a survey of the most promising approaches at both levels and classify them using the Open-edi reference model standardized by ISO. Whereas on the technical level, service-oriented architecture is becoming the predominant approach, on the business level the landscape is more heterogeneous. In this context, we propose—in line with the services science approach—to integrate business modeling with process modeling in order to make the transformation from business services to Web services more transparent.

Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Design (SSMED): An Emerging Discipline - Outline & References (2009),  Spohrer, J. & Kwan, S. K. Int. J. of Information Systems in the Service Sector, 1(3).May 2009.
The growth of the global service economy has led to a dramatic increase in our daily interactions with highly
specialized service systems. Service (or value-cocreation) interactions are both frequent and diverse, and may include retail, financial, healthcare, education, on-line, communications, technical support, entertainment,
transportation, legal, professional, government, or many other types of specialized interactions. And yet surprisingly few students graduating from universities have studied anything about service or service systems. Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Design (SSMED), or service science for short, is an emerging discipline aimed at understanding service and innovating service systems. This paper sketches an outline and provides an extensive, yet preliminary, set of references to provoke discussions about the interdisciplinary nature of SSMED. One difficult challenge remaining is to integrate multiple disciplines to create a new and unique service science.

Educating Services Science leaders to Think Holistically About Enterprises (2008), Donna H. Rhodes and Deborah J. Nightingale; in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.) in Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008

Modern enterprises are complex, highly integrated systems comprised of people, processes, and enabling technologies. A strategic business model defines the enterprise landscape and associated strategies for achieving the enterprise goals and mission. The elements of the enterprise exhibit multifaceted interdependencies and interrelationships which are dynamic in nature. The challenges inherent in these modern enterprises are driving an unprecedented demand for high end business services, where a service can be defined as a provider/client interaction that creates value. At the same time, availability of new technologies and the desire to be competitive in the marketplace are driving a focus on standardized service offerings. With this comes the critical need for many more skilled individuals who are able to lead and manage complex service projects; this need can only be fulfilled in a timely and effective manner through a partnership of service provider companies and academic institutions.

The service system is the basic abstraction of service science (2009), Paul P. Maglio, Stephen L. Vargo, Nathan Caswell, Jim Spohrer, Information Systems E-Business Management (DOI 10.1007/s10257-008-0105-1) Online First Springer Verlag 2009.
During the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution was built on many powerful abstractions, such as mass, energy, work and power. During the twentieth century, the information revolution was built on many powerful abstractons, such as binary digit or bit, binary coding and algorithmic complexity. This paper proposes an abstraction for the 21st century, in which there is an emerging revolution in thinking about business and economics based on a service-dominant logic. The worldview of service-dominant logic stands in sharp contrast to the worldview of the goods-dominant logic of the past, as it holds service - the application of competences for the benefit of others - rather than goods to be the fundamental basis of economic exchange. Within this new worldview, the paper suggests the basic abstraction is the service system, a configuraton of people, technologies and oher resources that interact with other service systems, including families, cities and companies, among many others. The paper demonstrates how the service-system abstraction can be used to understand how value is co-created, in the process laying the foundation for an integrated science of service.

Design and management of business models and processes in services science (2009), Yves Pigneur and Hannes Werthner, Information Systems and E-Business Management: Vol. 7 (2), March, 2009 : Special Issue on Design and Management of Business Models and Processes in Services Science

Embedding the New Discipline of Service Science: A Service Science Research Agenda (2009), Ng, I and Maull R., IEEE/INFORMS 2009
This paper presents a discourse for embedding the new discipline of service science. It argues for service science to be free of the paradigmatic research influences of existing disciplines and propose service science as an integrative discipline of engineering, technological and, social sciences (including business and law) for the purpose of value cocreation with customers, much like medicine is an integrative discipline of physical and biological sciences for the purpose of healing. The paper proposes a research agenda for service science and considers five salient issues for knowledge production. It locates the argument for service science knowledge production alongside disciplinary knowledge of service and in so doing, suggests that service science is not a logical development within any discipline and proposes that the time is right for it to emerge into a discipline of its own.

Preparing Future IT Managers for the Services Economy (2008), Piers R.J. Campbell, Beverley G. Hope, Ahmad D. Jaffar , services, pp.53-56, 2008 IEEE Congress on Services - Part I, 2008
This paper presents a new postgraduate program in IT Management which contains a core component designed to equip IT professionals in the United Arab Emirates with the necessary skills to transition to the emerging services driven economy. Candidates enrolled in this program will be graduates from an IT related field who wish to develop their career path into a management role. The program is aimed to provide a solid platform for management of a diverse range of specialist IT management while exposing candidates to the changes required in shifting to the design, delivery and support of services.

Toward a conceptual foundation for service science: Contributions from service-dominant logic (2008), R. F. Lusch, S. L. Vargo, and G. Wessels, IBM Systems Journal Vol. 47 (1) 2008
Advancing service science requires a service-centered conceptual foundation. Toward this goal, we suggest that an emerging logic of value creation and exchange called service-dominant logic is a more robust framework for service science than the traditional goods-dominant logic. The primary tenets of service-dominant logic are: (1) the conceptualization of service as a process, rather than a unit of output; (2) a focus on dynamic resources, such as knowledge and skills, rather than static resources, such as natural resources; and (3) an understanding of value as a collaborative process between providers and customers, rather than what producers create and subsequently deliver to customers. These tenets are explored and a foundational lexicon for service science is suggested.

Service system fundamentals: Work system, value chain, and life cycle (2008), S.Alter, IBM Systems Journal Vol. 47 (1) 2008
Service systems produce all services of significance and scope, yet the concept of a service system is not well articulated in the service literature. This paper presents three interrelated frameworks as a first attempt to define the fundamentals of service systems. These frameworks identify basic building blocks and organize important attributes and change processes that apply across all service systems. Although relevant regardless of whether a service system uses information technology, the frameworks are also potentially useful in visualizing the realities of moving toward automated service architectures. This paper uses two examples, one largely manual and one highly automated, to illustrate the potential usefulness of the three frameworks, which can be applied together to describe, analyze, and study how service systems are created, how they operate, and how they evolve through a combination of planned and unplanned change

Service science: Catalyst for change in business school curricula (2008), Davis, M.M., Berdrow, IBM Systems Journal Vol. 47 (1) 2008
For a service delivery system to produce optimal solutions to service-related business problems, it must be based on an approach that involves many of the traditional functional areas in an organization. Unfortunately, most business school curricula mirror the older traditional organizational structure that dominated businesses throughout most of the twentieth century. This structure typically consisted of vertically organized functions (or silos), such as production, marketing, and finance, with each silo operating largely independently of the others. Similarly, business schools today are usually organized by functional departments-such as marketing, finance, accounting, and operations management-with little interaction among them. Within this traditional silo-structured environment, it is very difficult to properly develop a curriculum, or even a course, in service management. Consequently, a significant gap exists between the education received by business school graduates and the skills that they need to succeed in today's service-intense environment. This paper explores the underlying causes of this gap and suggests ways in which the emerging field of service science can facilitate the changes in business school curricula that will make them more relevant in meeting the needs of today's businesses and organizations

SPECIAL ISSUE on  Service Intelligence and Service Science (2008) Service Oriented Computing and Appllcations, Vol 2 Issues 2 and 3, July 2008

Re-looking at services science and services innovation (2008), Hong Cai, Jen-Yao Chung, Hui Su, Service oriented Computing and Applications Vol 2 (1) April 2008
In lots of countries, service economy has become the dominant economy. Modern services industries require talents skillful at multidiscipline subjects including IT services, business models, management skills, psychology, etc. There is the rise of services science, service-oriented computing, and services computing. The multidiscipline features bring new challenges for services science. In this paper, we go beyond the traditional view of services and propose a three-layer framework for services science and services innovation. The framework covers service needs, service competencies, and service resources. We believe that these are the common building blocks and foundations for modern services industries. We use Amazon as an example to show the relevant of the framework for analyzing patterns of services innovation. We also use this framework to derive a set of service curricula for training talents for modern services.

Service Systems as Customer-Intensive Systems and Its Implications for Service Science and Engineering (2008), Claudio Pinhanez, hicss, pp.117, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008), 2008
What does differentiate service systems from traditional subjects of systems engineering such as manufacturing, and software? We address this issue by defining customer-intensive systems, based on ideas by Sampson , and show how customer-intensive systems encompass almost all service systems. After proposing a new form of visualization for customer-intensive processes and discussing its merits and shortcomings, we argue how in customer-intensive systems the presence of human beings and organizations inside the production process radically modifies fundamental tenants of systems engineering. We then describe four fundamental changes in traditional science and engineering system methodologies to adapt them to the realities of customer- intensive systems. We conclude by arguing whether the complexity often observed in service systems is, in fact, a reflection of the complexity of human beings and organizations that are input to them.

Toward a Ubiquitous Personalized Daily-Life Activity Recommendation Service with Contextual Information: A Services Science Perspective (2008), Chen-Ya Wang, Yueh-Hsun Wu, Seng-Cho T. Chou, , Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008), 2008
In recent years Services Science has been an emerging discipline that aims to promote service innovation and increase service productivity by aligning scientific, management, and engineering perspectives. It emphasizes that service innovation should be able to create value for both services providers and consumers. To realize the core thinking of services science, that is, high value and high productivity, service design has to incorporate many factors into its consideration. Based on the ideas of this new research field, we develop a personalized daily-life activity recommendation service that includes information behavior, business value, and technology architecture as our service design considerations. Our service can be requested under a ubiquitous environment and include users' contextual information which is an important factor in information behavior. With regard to IT architecture, we use the service-oriented architecture (SOA) that provides the flexibility and extensiveness of technology as well as permit new innovative services to be easily added. .

Towards an Ontological Foundation for Services Science (2008), Ferrario, R, Guarino, N: in First Future Internet Symposium, Selected Papers: Vienna Sept 2008 : Series Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer
Most of the efforts conducted on services nowadays are focusing on aspects related to data and control flow, often disregarding the main goal of the future Internet of services, namely to allow the smooth interaction of people and computers with services in the actual world. Our main claim is that it is crucial, to achieve such goal, to build a global service framework able to account for complex processes involving people and computers, which however have always people at their ends. That’s why in this paper we mostly emphasize the role of social and business-oriented services, whose consideration is needed to evaluate the global quality of e-services in relation to their ultimate social benefits, taking the overall impact on the organizational structure into account. Along these lines, the contribution of this proposal is a first concrete step towards a unified, rigorous and principled ontology centred on the notion of service availability, which results in useful distinctions between service, service content, service delivery and service process. Services are modelled by means of a layered set of interrelated events, with their own participants as well as temporal and spatial locations.

Services innovation: knowledge transfer and the supply chain (2008), Paton, R. A. and McLaughlin, S European Management Journal, 26 (2).
The past decade has seen, in response to the growth in service industries, increasing interest in what has been termed services science and innovation. This embryonic research field has been promoted by far sighted enterprises, government agencies and academics, the basic premise being that for far too long we have concentrated on the study and practice of physical and aesthetic innovation: designed to add value through maintaining end product leadership. Services science embodies and marshals a multi-disciplinary approach: science, engineering and management; in an effort to address and build upon complex service related opportunities. A sub-set, or possibly the driving force, of services science, is services innovation: dealing not so much with the end product but rather with the support, development and delivery of services: that are now the lifeblood of our developed economies. This paper provides a brief overview of services science and innovation, articulating a case for ensuring that we do not, in our pursuit of sustained competitive advantage and short-term economic growth, adopt a too narrowly defined and puritanical view of innovation and ignore the importance of the service exchange. Sustainable growth, we argue, is based upon identifying, supporting and nurturing meaningful service exchanges that exploit, develop and embody value added knowledge transfer within and across industry. It is time to broaden the services innovation debate in an effort to reach the many practitioners, academics and policy makers not as yet engaged with this exciting now field

Designing Multi-Interface Service Experiences: The Service Experience Blueprint (2008),Lia Patrício, Raymond P. Fisk, and João Falcão e Cunha:, Journal of Service Research, May 2008; vol. 10: pp. 318 - 334.
This article introduces the Service Experience Blueprint (SEB), a multidisciplinary method for designing multi-interface service experiences, and illustrates its application with two case examples of the redesign of the service experiences of a multichannel bank. The SEB method starts by studying the customer service experience to understand customer experience requirements for different service activities and how these requirements can be satisfied through alternative service interfaces. Based on this analysis, the multi-interface service is designed to allocate service activities to the interfaces best suited to provide the desired experience, defining channel specialization and integration. Finally, with the SEB method each service interface is designed to best leverage its unique capabilities and guide customers to other service interfaces whenever that interface better enhances the overall customer experience. By incorporating the contributions of service management, interaction design, and software engineering, the SEB method is a multidisciplinary tool and terminology for service design.

The Emergence of Service Science: Toward Systematic Service Innovations to Accelerate Co-Creation of Value (2008), Spohrer, J, Maglio, P.P. POMS Journal, Vol.17 (3)
The current growth of the service sector in global economies is unparalleled in human history—by scale and speed of labor migration. Even large manufacturing firms are seeing dramatic shifts in percent revenue derived from services. The need for service innovations to fuel further economic growth and to raise the quality and productivity levels of services has never been greater. Services are moving to center stage in the global arena, especially knowledge-intensive business services aimed at business performance transformation. One challenge to systematic service innovation is the interdisciplinary nature of service, integrating technology, business, social, and client (demand) innovations. This paper describes the emergence of service science, a new interdisciplinary area of study that aims to address the challenge of becoming more systematic about innovating in service

Research & Education in Service Economics & Management at China Center for Service Sector Research (CCSSR)(2008), Jiangfan Li: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.). Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
China Center for Service Sector Research (CCSSR)of Sun Yat-sen University was established in 2001 as the first tertiary industry research institute in China. It specializes in research focused on the service sector and is a leader in service economy research in China.

Service Science—A Japanese Perspective: Pitfalls and Opportunities (2008), Kurokawa, T: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.). Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) has become a hot issue in Science and Engineering Communities in Japan; however, there are discrepancies on what is and how to do SSME. Typical example can be found that those who claim practitioners in SSME in Japan are not in Science and Engineering community but in Management of Enterprises and of Technology. I will point out some pitfalls in SSME in Japan, and explore how to avoid them and also try to depict a few unique opportunities in SSME in Japan. The pitfalls discussed are: lack of clear goals of SSME, lack of leading figures of SSME, lack of focused customer of SSME, lack of agreed government role in SSME, and the obscure relationship between innovation and SSME. Traditional Japanese superb service and ecosystem are listed in unique opportunities.

A Master Program in Services Engineering and Management at the University of Porto (2008), J. Falcão e Cunha, Lia Patrício, Ana Camanho and Raymond Fisk: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.). Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
The education of professional engineers has been mainly oriented towards the requirements of industry, although many graduates will start and end up working in service organizations. Services always involve interaction, either directly between people or using machines. Most services now require the use of technology, including self service machines, Internet and mobile equipments and may involve complex social and organizational issues. Although engineering programs have evolved in order to accommodate changes in the economy, new proposals must be taken into new graduate and postgraduate education. This paper proposes MESG1, a Master program in Services Engineering and Management compatible with the Bologna European framework. It is still a program to educate professional engineers, in the sense that graduates will be prepared to Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate (CDIO) complex value-added engineering systems. But MESG has a strong emphasis on: (i) understanding the innovative technologies now required for service provision, (ii) understanding the functional and the experience requirements of people using services, and (iii) management of the service CDIO process and understanding its value. Knowledge and experience about people and about business, in social-organizational environments, are important components in the advanced education of service engineers and managers.

Holistic Trinity of Services Sciences: Management, Social, and Engineering Sciences (2008), Richard C. Larson: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.). Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
Services industries comprise about 75% of the economy of developed nations. To design and operate services systems for today and tomorrow, we need to educate a new type of engineer who focuses not on manufacturing but on services. Such an engineer must be able to integrate 3 sciences -management, social and engineering – into her analysis of services systems. Within the context of a new research center at MIT – CESF (Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals) – we show how newly emerging services systems require such a 3-way holistic analysis. We deliberately select some non-standard services, as many business services such as supply chains have been studied extensively.

Educating The Service Manager in Europe—Assessing Gaps And Opportunities (2008), Pasini, P: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.). Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
The objective of this paper is to outline the initiatives related to service science at SDA Bocconi School of Management, particularly in the field of executive education. Over the last decade it has become more evident that the ideal curricula of managers in European companies go beyond excellent competencies in a single functional area. Over and over the market requires managers, both of manufacturing and service industry, to cross functional expertise and gain, instead, more developed knowledge of the interdependencies between traditional functions, as well as about the various options that companies have to related with the external environment (e.g. outsourcing, network of alliances, etc.). Based on that, we are starting delineating specific initiatives for executive education of service managers in Europe.

Service Science, Management and Engineering (2008): Special Issue. IBM Systems Journal: vol 47 (1) 2008
Recognizing the growing significance of service innovation in the global economy, many in academia and industry have suggested that there is a need for a new science of service systems whose chief goal is the development of efficient and scalable methods for service system analysis, design, implementation, and delivery. This issue presents 14 papers on a variety of aspects of service science, management, and engineering in an effort to help define and promote research in this emerging multidisciplinary field.

Progress Report of Efforts Towards a Research and Education Agenda for Services Science in the EU and Greece (2008) , Christos Nikolaou: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.) in Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
SSME is necessary to understand and predict trends in the emerging world service economy. Progress
in determining an appropriate research agenda in Europe is reported. A new way for combining
training and research is proposed. Ongoing, planned and proposed R&D activities at the University
of Crete in Greece are reported.

Data Support Design for Services Science Modeling (2008), Terry P. Harrison, Seán McGarraghy: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.) in Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
The emerging area of “Services Science” is centered on the principles of understanding of how to organize, model, implement and execute supply chains which are heavily based on human capital. A key aspect of this work has been identifying and developing concepts from traditional manufacturing-oriented supply chains and applying them to supply chains where the primary deliverable is a service. A fundamental and necessary part of any services supply chain implementation is the availability of a detailed, flexible and extensive database of human resource attributes. Given the greater variability and uncertainty of service operations, data modeling with stochastic elements is especially critical We describe our work to define and implement an architecture to provide access to a wide variety of data resources in support of services science modeling. Our approach is especially oriented towards a flexible and extensible use of data, so that new sources of data may be added to support future modeling and business needs.

Services Science Journey: Foundations, Progress, and Challenges (2008), Mary Jo Bitner, Stephen W. Brown, Michael Goul, Susan Urban: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.) in Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
With the explosive growth of services in economies worldwide comes the growing recognition of a need for trans-disciplinary research, new business models, and innovative degree programs to propel innovation in services. This paper paints a picture of the history as well as new initiatives at Arizona State University that are aimed at addressing these needs. Building on over twenty years of research that is anchored in ASU’s Center for Services Leadership in the W. P. Carey School of Business, we are currently embarking on a Services Science Initiative to enlarge our successes beyond the business disciplines and to engage a broader academic community. This paper shares our current vision of where we are headed as well as some of the challenges to overcome and resources needed to move forward.

Education and Research of Service Science and Technology in Tsinghua University (2008), Jie Zhou, Qiaoge Liu and Yanda Li: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.) in Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
With the coming of services economic times in China, the importance of education and research of service science should be emphasized. As a new subject, both talents and research related to service science are challenging. In this paper, the effort of Research Center of Modern Services Science & Technology of Tsinghua University is reported, both in education and research.

Bringing Service Design to Service Sciences, Management and Engineering (2008), Stefan Holmlid and Shelley Evenson: in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.) in Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
Service design is defined as applying design methods and principles to the design of services. Service design is complimentary to conventional service development approaches and as such should become a contributor to Services Sciences, Management and Engineering (SSME). Two examples of the unique contribution of methods that Service Design offers are described.

An E-Service SOA Model for Virtual Service Enterprises(2008), Christian Zirpins and Wolfgang Emmerich , in IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 283; Pervasive Collaborative Networks; Luis M. Camarinha-Matos, Willy Picard; (Boston: Springer)
Economic theory defines services as customisable, interactive processes that providers have the potential to carry out together with clients that benefit from their effects. It is understood that service transactions are best organised by means of virtual collaborative networks, where ICT allows configuring multiple providers and processes on a per-request basis. Existing conceptual models for virtual service enterprises propose service virtualisation to allow for flexible and agile regulation and enforcement of coordination between multiple providers and clients. In this paper, we present an approach for realising business service virtualisation based on software service technology. In particular, we propose a SOA model for representing virtual business service processes as e-services. E-service models specify interactions between multiple providers and clients of virtual service enterprises by means of patterns and allow for flexible regulation and enforcement of their coordination.

Business Process Design: Towards Service- Based Green Information Systems (2008), Barbara Pernici, Danilo Ardagna and Cinzia Cappiello; in IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Vol. 280: E-Government: ICT Professionalism and Competences: Service Science; Antonino Mazzeo, Robeto Bellini, Gianmario Motta (Boston; Springer)
This paper discusses the impact of energy consumption on information systems and business processes design. The goal is the development of context aware and sustainable information systems where energy consumption reduction is considered at the technological level, on the basis of adaptable technology, on the governance level, with the design of context-aware processes and data, and at the strategic level. The adoption of a service-oriented approach and the interconnection among the different levels are discussed.

Defining a Curriculum for Service Systems Engineering (2008), Sheryl A. Sorby, Leonard J. Bohmann, Tom Drummer, Jim Frendewey, Dana Johnson, Kris Mattila, John Sutherland and Robert Warrington in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.): Series Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008
The U.S. economy has gradually changed from one based in agriculture, to one focused on manufacturing, to one now that relies heavily on the service sector. The service sector, including governmental agencies, retail stores, the entertainment business, public utilities, and providers of similar services, now makes up more than 80% of the total U.S. economy. Engineering programs, which typically have their roots in the era of manufacturing, have a focus on the design and fabrication of “products” rather than the design and creation of service systems. While curricula such as engineering management and industrial engineering provide some support to service systems engineering, their legacies are tied to the manufacturing sector, and as a result, they are not optimized to support the service sector. With this in mind, a Delphi Study was performed to identify the features, characteristics, and topics relevant to a service systems engineering curriculum. This paper describes the planning, conduct, and results of the service systems Delphi Study and how this information is being used to establish a new engineering degree program at Michigan Tech

Moving the Service Science Concept to Curricular Reality (2008), Eleanor L. Babco, Carol B. Lynch and Patricia McAllister in Service Science, Management and Engineering Education for the 21st Century(2008), Hefley, Bill; Murphy, Wendy (Eds.), Series: Service Science: Research and Innovation in the Service Economy, Springer Press 2008

As the focus of the U.S. economy changes from manufacturing to services, as the participants in higher education diversify, and as global market pressures induce educational institutions to create new programs and practices, there is increasing need for comprehensive knowledge about how graduate education responds to these new circumstances. Two matters need attention: What is the fundamental knowledge base underpinning a service science field? What are the appropriate curricular responses at the post baccalaureate level across fields of study?

Services Sciences and Management Engineering (2008), Richard Taylor, HP Labs, Presentation, Manchester March 2008 Download Manchester-SSME-Meeting.ppt [1.82MB]

Business Models and Evolving Paradigms: a Systems Science Approach (2008), Ing, D, Presentation to ISSS Madison 2008 Download 20080716_ISSS_Ing_BusinessModelsEvolving.pdf [0.60MB]

Business Models and Evolving Paradigms: a Systems Science Approach (2008), Ing, David, Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Conference of ISSS (ed) Jennifer Wilby, July 13-18 2008, Madison, USA Download 2008_ISSS_v52_Ing_BusinessModelsEvolving.pdf [0.43MB]

The evolution of services science (2008), Siasat, S.H, Buyut, V.C, Abidin, W.Z.,  5th International Conference Service Systems and Service Management - Exploring Service Dynamics with Science and Innovative Technology, ICSSSM'08, art. no. 4598564,
Services science has emerged as the key factor in developed economies as it becomes the main driver of productivity and economic growth. With the evolution of consumer and business processes, it has become a large part of economy. Services have become the main differentiator guided by the principle that every business has to be a service business in order to survive and compete effectively. The explosion of recent service research has shown the growing importance of services science in today's economy with the increasing efforts to focus more on the service sector in improving the standard of living and boosting productivity. Besides, technological advances have revolutionized businesses to focus more on service. IT has also opened up new revenues through improved services which is a more attractive strategy for success. In this paper, we present the evolution of services science based on the chronology of the research in services and hence postulating the progression of its academic research and the paradigm shift of services through an in-depth literature review. The future of services science is also discussed in this paper

Proceedings - 2008 IEEE Congress on Services, Services 2008 , PART 1, 616 p.

The proceedings contain 92 papers. The topics discussed include: towards provisioning the cloud: on the usage of multi-granularity flows and services to realize a unified provisioning infrastructure for SaaS applications; grouping distributed stream query services by operator similarity and network locality; using Laplacian spectra to analyze project based services; towards services computing curriculum; using problems to learn service-oriented computing; a reference curriculum for service engineering; integration of services computing curricula in information technology; developing an SSME initiative for instruction and research at Morgan state university; when service computing meets software engineering; preparing future IT managers for the services economy; discipline comparison of SSME with IS and its education implications; compliance measurement framework (CMF); and data service modeling in the aqualogic data services platform.

Discipline comparison of SSME with IS and its education implications (2008), Gou, J., Li, X., Li, X., Zhao, P, (2008) Proceedings - 2008 IEEE Congress on Services, SERVICES 2008, PART 1, art. no. 4578295, pp. 57-61.
Service economy and service computing are taking a surge in interest in what is being called SSME (Service Science, Management, and Engineering). From the historical perspective, this paper compares the birth and research object of SSME and IS disciplines, proposes that SSME has much similarity with IS discipline, fundamental change comes from the digital society's evolution. There is a leap in the process of IT-driven social evolvement between IS and SSME, that is from IS solution to digital service system. A comprehensive comparison shows their essential differences. Then three issues are proposed according that of the IS. They will help explain the SSME research field. Some suggestions on the education issues and curricula design for SSME are made referring those of IS. © 2008 IEEE.

Service Science (2008), Spohrer, J.,Anderson, Laura, C.,Pass, N.J., Ager T, Gruhl.D.Journal of Grid Computing, Vol 6 (3), Sept 2008
This paper is a first exploration of the relationship between service science and Grid computing. Service science is the study of value co-creation interactions among entities, known as service systems. Within the emerging service science community, service is often defined as the application of competences (resources) for the benefit of another. Grid computing is the study of resource sharing among entities, known as virtual organizations, which solve complex business, societal, scientific, and engineering problems. Within the Grid computing community, service is sometimes defined as protocols plus behavior. Both Grid computing and service science are connecting academic, industry, government, and volunteer sector collaborators on a range of projects including eScience, healthcare, environmental sustainability, and more. This paper compares and contrasts the notions of resource, entity, service, interaction, and success criteria for the two areas of study. In conclusion, new areas for collaborative inquiry are proposed. Download ServiceScienceSpohrer2008.pdf [0.22MB]

Fundamentals of service science (2008),  Paul P. Maglio and Jim Spohrer, Journal of the Academy of Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 1
Service systems are value-co-creation configurations of people, technology, value propositions connecting internal and external service systems, and shared information (e.g., language, laws, measures, and methods). Service science is the study of service systems, aiming to create a basis for systematic service innovation. Service science
combines organization and human understanding with business and technological understanding to categorize and explain the many types of service systems that exist
as well as how service systems interact and evolve to cocreate value. The goal is to apply scientific understanding to advance our ability to design, improve, and scale service systems. To make progress, we think service dominant logic provides just the right perspective, vocabulary, and assumptions on which to build a theory of service systems, their configurations, and their modes of interaction. Simply put, service-dominant logic may be the philosophical foundation of service science, and the service system may be its basic theoretical construct.

From goods to service(s): Divergences and convergences of logics (2008), Vargo, S. L. and R. F. Lusch Industrial Marketing Management, 37 (3), 254–259.
There are two logics or mindsets from which to consider and motivate a transition from goods to service(s). The first, “goods-dominant (G-D) logic”, views services in terms of a type of (e.g., intangible) good and implies that goods production and distribution practices should be modified to deal with the differences between tangible goods and services. The second logic, “service-dominant (S-D) logic”, considers service – a process of using ones resources for the benefit of and in conjunction with another party – as the fundamental purpose of economic exchange and implies the need for a revised, service-driven framework for all of marketing. This transition to a service-centered logic is consistent with and partially derived from a similar transition found in the business-marketing literature — for example, its shift to understanding exchange in terms value rather than products and networks rather than dyads. It also parallels transitions in other sub-disciplines, such as service marketing. These parallels and the implications for marketing theory and practice of a full transition to a service-logic are explored

Services sciences, management and engineering (2007), Juhnyoung Lee, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 236 archive, Proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on Data enginering issues in E-commerce and services: In conjunction with ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC '07

As part of their e-business activities, enterprises create, share, recombine, and process an ever increasing amount of data and documents that range from simple transactional data to complex business process definitions. In many respective processes, multiple spheres overlap, e.g. (1) inter- with intra-organizational data sources in collaborative processes, (2) master data with transactional data, (3) regular data with behavioral aspects of processes, or (4) facts with normative assertions. Since business entities are members of multiple value chains, same as data sources are often used in multiple contexts and processes, there are often conflicting requirements on the representation of such data.

Research in Service Ecosystems (2007), Sawatani Y, This paper appears in Management of Engineering and Technology, Portland International Center

A "services sciences, management, and engineering (SSME)" initiative has been started to study the movement to service economies involving computer science, operations research, industrial engineering, business strategy, management sciences, social and cognitive sciences, and legal sciences, and to develop the skills required in a services-led economy. Manufacturing industries show high interest in SSME, compared to services industries, since beyond follow-up sales of product-based services, the business strategies of manufacturing companies are changing to focus on services as key differentiators in their new business models. Those shifts to focus on the services businesses of manufacturing industries affect their internal business processes, which include research organizations. In this paper, first, we look into value chains for services comparing with product-based value chains, which are quite different. Some level of services, such as maintenance services for products, can be delivered using the as-is product- based value chains, where research organizations could contribute to businesses in the same way as when companies delivered products. However, a shifting to services focused business models requires changes of value flows. We discuss the difference between product-based value chains and the value chains for services. Since research organizations roles in value chains for services could be transforming, we look at some examples where these transformation have started.

Establishing the Core of Service Science through the Integration of System Science, Knowledge Management and Cognitive Science (2007), Kiyoshi Niwa, PICMET 2007 Proceedings, 5-9 August, Portland, Oregon - USA

A "service science" is an emerging technology management field for the coming service-led economy as stated in the 2005 report of US Council on Competitiveness. Because it is in the infant stage of its development there have been various kinds of discussions on service-related cases in many fields such as computer science, operations research, the management sciences,industrial engineering, business, and the social sciences during the last few years at various service science workshops. In contrast to such divergent discussions, this paper addresses the importance of convergent discussions on a framework of service science. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to implementing the core of the service science framework. Since service is defined as provider and client interactions that create value by solving clients' problems, this paper first determines three key elements of service activities, clients' problem definitions from wider viewpoints, problem solving by using clients' domain knowledge, and communication with clients. Next, these three elements are related to three relatively new disciplines: systems science, knowledge management and cognitive science, respectively. Finally, the three disciplines are integrated into a service science framework that represents the core structure and functions of service science.

America COMPETES ACT  (America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in
Technology, Education, and Science Act ): 9 Aug. 2007: Section 1106 Study of Service Science

Section 1106: Study of Service Science
(a) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that, in order to strengthen the competitiveness of United States enterprises and institutions and to prepare the people of the United States for high-wage, high-skill employment, the Federal Government should better understand and respond strategically to the emerging management and learning discipline known as service science. 

(d) Service Science Defined- In this section, the term `service science' means curricula, training, and research programs that are designed to teach individuals to apply scientific, engineering, and management disciplines that integrate elements of computer science, operations research, industrial engineering, business strategy, management sciences, and social and legal sciences, in order to encourage innovation in how organizations create value for customers and shareholders that could not be achieved through such disciplines working in
isolation.

Research and development (R&D) beyond manufacturing: the strange case of services R&D (2007), Ian Miles, R&D Management Vol. 37(3), 2007
The share of business research and development (R&D) expenditure stemming from the services sector of the economy has been growing rapidly in many (though not all) OECD countries, according to official statistics. The same data sources also indicate, however, that services contribute less to R&D than would be expected given their large shares of employment and output in national economies. In part, incomplete sampling of services in R&D surveys may lead to some underestimation of their R&D activity, but this is unlikely to account for their apparently poor performance. This paper draws on an analysis of existing statistical sources, and on interviews and workshops with service firms’ managers. It finds difficulties
associated with the ways in which R&D has been operationalised in survey questions. Examination of survey questionnaires suggests that the formulation of these questions, focusing on technological R&D and ruling out much social scientific R&D, disproportionately reduces the reporting of R&D by service firms. But beyond this, the R&D concept itself has some problematic features where it comes to documenting innovation in service firms. This was investigated through a programme of interviews and workshops with service firms,
where a lack of familiarity with the R&D concept and R&D management practices was found to be commonplace. R&D performance and innovation activities vary across services of different sorts, even though most service subsectors appear to be low R&D investors. It is thus important to examine services’ innovation patterns and processes, to establish what types of R&D-like activity are underway in these subsectors. While some modification in R&D measurement would be desirable to capture services’ activities, effort to understand the non-R&D elements of services innovation is also important – for management and for
policy (given that governments are seeking to create R&D incentives and targets for services and other sectors).There are grounds for expecting (a) services’ share of business R&D to continue to grow; (b)this share to continue to be well below what would be expected from the prevalence of services in economic activity, and (c) for many services’ innovation to continue to rely heavily on sources that are not directly associated with R&D.

Knowledge Services: A New Research Field between KM and SSME (2007) Haoxiang Xia Zhongtuo Wang Yanzhong Dang, Proceedings of KSS'2007: The Eighth International Symposium on Knowledge and Systems Sciences : November 5-7, 2007, [Ishikawa High-Tech Conference Center, Nomi, Ishikawa,JAPAN], Organized by: Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

In this article the authors give a suggestion to develop a possible new research field called “knowledge services”, which is regarded on one hand as an evolution of the field of knowledge management, and on the other hand as a key branch of the emerging discipline of service science, management and engineering (SSME). Consequently some key research issues of this new research field are briefly discussed.

Tacit Knowledge in rapidly evolving organisational environments (2007),  Jones, B, Failla, A, Miller, B : Int. Journal of Technology and Human Interaction Vol 3 (1) 2007
Constant renewal of the self-image and self-knowledge of the organisation becomes part of the day-to-day knowledge-in-use of front-line practitioners. The Network Enterprise is a model of business conducted by shifting alliances of partners developing innovative products and processes in close collaboration with their clients. Organisations abandon the concept of a central product, redefining themselves as providers of solutions. We draw on the experiences of two “solution providers”, one-for-profit and one not-for-profit. The concept of a solution or transition requires practitioners to consider each individual case drawing on personal knowledge of the organisation’s accessible competences and capacities. Choices among the possible solutions to the client’s problems can have unpredictable effects on the dynamics of the wider organisation. The necessarily personal use of heuristics magnifies the inescapable elemnt of “drift” inherent in the network enterprise. The dynamics generated by this will require the wider organisation to develop new standards and solutions bundles.

Future Direction and Roadmap of Concurrent System Technology (2007),Uchihira, N., IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences 2007 E90-A(11):
Recently, technology roadmaps have been actively constructed by various organizations such as governments, industry segments, academic societies and companies [1]. While the common basic purpose of these roadmaps is sharing common recognition of the technology among stakeholders, there exists a specific role for each organization. One of the important roles of academic societies is to show the directions in which society is moving. The IEICE technical group on Concurrent System Technology (CST) established in 1993 stands at a turning point and needs to move forward in new directions after more than a decade of activities and contributions. However, neither top-down (market-pull/requirements-pull) nor bottom-up(technology-push) roadmapping is suitable for CST because CST is a kind of systems engineering. This paper proposes a new technology roadmapping methodology (middle-up-down technology roadmapping) for systems engineering and shows three future directions of CST and one roadmap for service systems that integrate CST and services science. (Special Section on Concurrent/Hybrid Systems;Theory and Application IEICE)

Towards Services Science, Engineering and Practice (2007), Qiu, R, Zhigeng Fang & Wei Zhang, International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, Vol 2 (2) 2007

Succeeding through Service Innovation: the emerging discipline of Service Science (2007), Street, S., presentation to EPSRC Manufacturing Futures Network, "Images of Manufacturing Conference" October 2007 Download ssmsstevestreetibm.ppt [3.44MB]

Service Science: Scientific Study of Service Systems (2007), Robin G. Qui, Service Science Journal , Nov 2008
Service cannot be held, and is typically intangible, perishable, difficult to port, hard to measure, and co-produced with customers. This paper introduces a new thinking of design and deployment of competent and competitive service systems by taking account of these service’s unique characteristics. It aims to help promote and advance Service Science that ultimately will empower enterprise service systems and make them highly adaptable and sustainable to the global, changing, and dynamic service environment (when, where and who to deliver and whom to be served, etc.) to meet the severe competition challenges Download qui2007.pdf [5.81MB]

A new academic discipline needed for the 21st century (2007), Gina Poole, Triangle Business Journal, April 2007

Services sciences, management and engineering (2007), Maglio, P.P.,

Services Science Journey: Foundations, Progress, Challenges (2007), Bitner, M.J., Brown, S.W., Goul, M., Urban, S, Cambridge Service Science, Management and Engineering Symposium,
Moller Center, Churchill College, Cambridge, UK, 14-15 Jul

Editorial: Towards service science, engineering and practice 1 (2007), Qiu, R.G., Int. J. Services Operations and Informatics, 2 (2).

Steps toward a science of service systems (2007), Spohrer, J., Maglio, P. P., Bailey, J. and Gruhl, D, Computer, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 71-77, Jan. 2007
The service sector accounts for most of the world's economic activity, but it's the least-studied part of the economy. A service system comprises people and technologies that adaptively compute and adjust to a system's changing value of knowledge. A science of service systems could provide theory and practice around service innovation.

Services Science: the opportunity to re- think what we know about service design (2007),  A position paper for the: IfM and IBM, Voss, C and Mikkola, J.H

 Competing Through Service: Insights from Service-Dominant Logic,” Lush, R. F., S. V. Vargo, and M. O’Brien (2007), Journal of Retailing, 83 (1), 5-18.

Services Science: (2007)  P.Van Droogenbroeck, IBM Presentation, Luxembourg Nov 2007 Download ServicesScienceVanDroogenbroeck.pdf [0.98MB]

Towards a Science of Service Systems (2007), Spohrer, J., Maglio, P.P., Bailey, J., & Daniel Gruhl, Computer Vol 40(1) Jan. 2007 IEEE Computer Society Press
The service sector accounts for most of the world's economic activity, but it's the least-studied part of the economy. A service system comprises people and technologies that adaptively compute and adjust to a system's changing value of knowledge. A science of service systems could provide theory and practice around service innovation.

Silo Busting: How to Execute on the Promise of Customer Focus (2007) , Gulati, Ranjay , Harvard Business Review, May 2007 Vol 85 (5) pp98-108
For many senior executives, shifting from selling products to selling solutions--packages of products and services--is a priority in today's increasingly commoditized markets. Companies, however, aren't always structured to make that shift. Knowledge and expertise often reside in silos, and many companies have trouble harnessing their resources across those boundaries in a way that customers value and are willing to pay for. Some companies have restructured themselves around customer needs to deliver true solutions. They did so by engaging in four sets of activities: Coordination--to deliver customer-focused solutions, three things must occur easily across boundaries: information sharing, division of labor, and decision making. Sometimes this involves replacing traditional silos with customer-focused ones, but more often it entails transcending existing boundaries.  Customer-centric companies develop metrics for customer satisfaction and incentives that reward customer-focused cooperation. Most companies also shake up the power structure so that people who are closest to customers have the authority to act on their behalf. Delivering customer-focused solutions requires some employees to be generalists instead of specialists. They need experience with more than one product or service, a deep knowledge of customer needs, and the ability to traverse internal boundaries. By combining their offerings with those of a partner, companies can cut costs even as they create higher-value solutions. To stand out in a commoditized market, companies must understand what customers value. Ultimately, some customers may be better off purchasing products and services piecemeal.

The Growth of Interest in Services Management: Opportunities for Information Systems Scholars (2006), Rai et al , Information Systems Research vol 17, no 4, December 2006

Across the global economy, we are witnessing a dramatic transformation toward a services economy. At
the same time, advances in information technologies provide significant opportunities for digitization of
services and the development of services management thinking within the information systems community.
This note aims to stimulate attention toward the promising research and teaching opportunities for information systems scholars in the domain of digitized services innovation, management, and use.

Creating offshore-ready it professionals: A global perspective and strong collaborative skills are needed (2006), Journal of Labour Research,Vol 27 (3) December 2006

And now for a syllabus for the Service Economy (2006), Holstein, W, New York Times, Dec. 2006

From Computer Science to Service Science?(2006). Kurokawa, T. in Kagaku (Science), Iwanami Shoten, August  2006.

Emergence of Service Science: Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) (2006). Mizuta, H. (ed) Special Issue: IPSJ Magazine, Inf. Proc. Soc. of Japan, May 2006.

Academia Dissects the Service Sector, but it it a Science?(2006), Steve Lohr, the New York Times, April 18, 2006

Foundation and implication of a proposed unified services theory (2006), Sampson, S.E., Froehle C.M., Production and Operations Management 15 (2)

Grand Challenges for systems and services sciences (2006), Monahan, B, David,P, Taylor, R, Tofts, C & Yearworth, M. Paper prepared for FET/FP7 Workshop, Brussels, Jan 2006
Available as HP Labs Technical report HPL-2006-99

Service Science, Management, Engineering and eOrganisation (2006). Weinhardt, C., Holtmann, C., Ankolekar, A., Studer, R., Schnizler, B., Stojanovic, N. Engineering and eOrganisations KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Universitat Karslruhe 2006 Download kcms_fileKIT.pdf [0.05MB]

Education for Service Innovation (2006), Spohrer, J , Presentation to National Academy of Science, Education for Service Innovation, Washington DC., April 2006 Download Jim-Spohrer-NAS-Education-for-Service-Innovation-20060418Presentation.pdf [2.82MB]

Trends in services sciences in Japan and abroad (2006), Hidaki, K, Quarterly Review No 19, April 2006 Download Hidaki2006.pdf [0.69MB]

The emergence of service science: Toward systematic service innovations to accelerate co-creation of value (2006), Spohrer, J and Maglio, O., IBM White Paper Download spohrercocreation.pdf [0.11MB]

Research and education of SSME in Japanese Universities (2006), Takagi, H., Conference Education for the 21st Century, San Jose, CA

The Algorithmic Revolution - The Fourth Service Transformation(2006), Zysman, J., (2006) Communications of the ACM, Jul 06

What Academic Research Tells Us About Service Science(2006), Rust, R.T., Miu, C., Communications of the ACM, Jul 06

Services Science: A New Field for Today's Economy (2006), Paulson, L.D,Computer, 39 (8), pp. 18-21.
Aug 2006
Download Paulson.pdf [1.17MB]

Service Science (2006), Weinhardt, C., Holtmann, C., Ankolekar, A., Studer, R., Schnizler, B., Stojanovic, N., Management, Engineering and eOrganisations KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Universität Karlsruhe (TH) Position Paper, Oct

Services Science (2006), J. Spohrer and D. Riechen. Communications of the ACM  Vol 49 (7) Download p30-spohrer2006.pdf [0.54MB]

Service Systems, Service Scientists, SSME and Innovation (2006), Maglio, Paul P., Srinivasan, S., Kreulen, Jeffrey T., and J. Spohrer, Communications of the ACM July 2006/vol49.No.7 Download Maglio2006.pdf [0.19MB]

First German Services Science Conference (2006): Conference Proceedings

A research manifesto for service science. (2006)  Chesbrough, H. and Spohrer, J. Communications of the ACM 49(7),  Download p35-chesbroughsphrer2006.pdf [0.18MB]

Service science to be taught in NC state (2006), Allen, S. G., Mugge, P. and Wolff, M. F. Research Technical Management 49(6)

Exploring product and service innovation similarities and differences,(2006)  Nijssen, E. J., B. Hillebrand, P.A.M. Vermeulen, and R. G.M. Kemp, International Journal of Research in Marketing, vol. 23 no. 3, pp241-251
Article aims to provide an initial step towards a synthesis of new service and new product development research. Using a baseline model of innovation, applicable to innovation in general, authors hypothesize differential context effects between new service and product development.  Data from 217 service-based and 105 product-based companies in The Netherlands.

Service innovation and new service business models; harnessing e-Technology for value co-creation (2005),Rangaswamy, A.,Pal, N., An eBRC White Paper. 2005 Workshop on "Service Innovation and New Service Business Models" Penn State

Toward a science of services (2005), Chesbrough, H, Harvard Business Review 83, 16-17

Services sciences, management and engineering: Why? why now? and how? (2005), Kanungo, T., IEEE Services Computing onference, Orlando FL

The New Discipline of Services Science (2005), Paul, H. Business Week Online, pp. 1-24.
MasterFILE Premier

What is Service Science? (2005)  Abe, T., The Fujitsu Research Institute, Economic Center,Research Report
No 246 Dec 2005. Download 246Fujitsu.pdf [0.63MB]

The new discipline of Services Science: It’s a melding of technology with an understanding of business process and organization … and it’s crucial to the economy’s next wave, (2005) Horn, P. Business Week, Jan 21

The development of service science (2005), Abe, T. Japanese Economy, Fall 2005 33(3)

The Four Service Marketing Myths (2004) Vargo, S. L. and R. F. Lush ,Journal of Service Research, 6 (4), 324-335.

Knowledge-intensive business services as co-producers of innovation (2000), den Hertog, P., International Journal of Innovation Management, Dec 2000, Vol. 4, Issue.
This essay presents a four-dimensional model of (services) innovation, that points to the significance of such non-technological factors in innovation as new service concepts, client interfaces and service delivery system. The various roles of service firms in innovation processes are mapped out by identifying five basic service innovation patterns. This framework is used to make an analysis of the role played by knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in innovation. KIBS are seen to function as facilitator, carrier or source of innovation, and through their almost symbiotic relationship with client firms, some KIBS function as co-producers of innovation. It is further argued that, in addition to discrete and tangible forms of knowledge exchange, process-oriented and intangible forms of knowledge flows are crucial in such relationships. KIBS are hypothesised to be gradually developing into a "second knowledge infrastructure" in addition to the formal (public) "first knowledge infrastructure", though there is likelihood of cross-national variations in the spill-over effects from services innovation in and through KIBS, and in the degree to which KIBS are integrated with other economic activities.

Quality in new service development: Key concepts and a frame of reference (1997), Edvardsson B.,  International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 52, pp. 31-46.
In this article a frame of reference for new service development is presented. The focus is on designed-in quality. The outcome of the service development process constitutes the prerequisites for the service by three concepts: the service concept, the service process and the service system and resource-structure. The new service development process is described in four phases: the idea phase, the project formation phase, the design phase and the implementation phase. The service is produced in a customer process where customer, company and subcontractors are actors. The quality of the process is controlled by the prerequisites each actor takes with him into the customer process. These prerequisites are governed by the company's service concept, service process and service system. The service company must develop and offer a service concept which is appropriate to the customer's needs and which contains attractive added-value and a 'customer-friendly' and generic service process. The service system must provide the necessary resources for the service process. During the often brief periods of time in which a customer process is activated there is little chance of correcting the quality problems which may arise because of incorrect or poor prerequisites. Thus it is crucial for the quality of the service to develop services which create the best prerequisites. Service development must coordinate the development of concept, process and system where each aspect requires special treatment.

Service Logic”: Achieving Service System Integration. Kingman-Brundage, George, & Bowen, International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol 6: pps 20-39
Proposes a “service logic model” as a managerial tool for tackling cross-functional issues embedded in service systems. Uncovers and describes the logical components inherent in the three key service management functions – marketing, operations and human resources-and suggests that the real management challenge, above and beyond cross-functional co-ordination, is integration of these components as the real drivers of service experience. A step-by-step template is offered for using service logic to achieve the fundamental grass roots integration required in the creation of outcomes valued for customers.

Marketing intangible products and product intangibles. (1981) Levitt, T, Harvard Business Review, May- June
All products, whether they are services or goods, possess a certain amount of intangibility. Services like insurance and transportation, of course, are nearly entirely intangible. And even goods, while they can be seen, often can't be tried out before they are bought. Understanding the degree of a product's intangibility can affect both sales and postsales follow-up strategies. While services are less able to be tested in advance than goods, the intangible factors in both types of products are important for convincing prospective customers to buy. Sellers of services, however, face special problems in making customers aware of the benefits they are receiving. The author considers the intangible factors present in all products and also advises producers of services about how best to hold on to their customers.

A Service-Dominant Approach to Management Education: It’s Time, Ford & Bowen, (forthcoming), Academy of Management Learning and Education.