Amy L. Ostrom, Mary Jo Bitner, Stephen W. Brown, Kevin A. Burkhard, Michael Goul, Vicki Smith-Daniels, Haluk Demirkan, and Elliot Rabinovich, all of Arizona State University, published “Moving Forward and Making a Difference: Research Priorities for the Science of Service” in the February 2010 issue of Journal of Service Research.
The abstract:
Given the significant, sustained growth in services experienced worldwide, Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership embarked on an 18-month effort to identify and articulate a set of global, interdisciplinary research priorities focused on the science of service. Diverse participation from academics in a variety of disciplines working in institutions
around the world—in collaboration with business executives who lead organizations ranging from small startups to Global 1000 companies—formed the basis for development of the priorities. The process led to the identification of the following 10 overarching research priorities:
• Fostering service infusion and growth
• Improving well-being through transformative service
• Creating and maintaining a service culture
• Stimulating service innovation
• Enhancing service design
• Optimizing service networks and value chains
• Effectively branding and selling services
• Enhancing the service experience through cocreation
• Measuring and optimizing the value of service
• Leveraging technology to advance service
For each priority, several important and more specific topic areas for service research emerged from the process. The intent is that the priorities will spur service research by shedding light on the areas of greatest value and potential return to academia, business, and government. Through academic, business, and government collaboration, we can enhance our understanding of service and create new knowledge to help tackle the most important opportunities and challenges we face today.
Kevin Burkhard interviews the authors in a series of three podcasts about the article. In the first podcast, Kevin Burkhard interviews Amy Ostrom and Mary Jo Bitner. Given the significant, sustained growth in services experienced worldwide, Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership embarked on an 18-month effort to identify and articulate a set of global, interdisciplinary research priorities focused on the science of service. This podcast gives an overview of the project.
To learn more about the Journal of Service Research, click here.
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