Abstract
This book’s theme is “The Science of Service Systems,” yet there is substantial question about whether the definition and nature of service systems have been articulated adequately. This paper examines definitions of service and service system that could frame or otherwise influence future developments in service science and could have implications for what should and should not be included within service science. It argues that the initial development of service science should use straightforward definitions that are understandable, useful, broadly applicable, and teachable. It proposes a definition of service system that is different from the definition proposed in this book’s Call for Chapters and in the 2008 White Paper produced by a service innovation symposium attended by many leaders in the effort to create service science. In comparison with that definition, this paper’s alternative definition is more understandable, useful, broadly applicable, and teachable.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alter, S. (2002). Information Systems: The Foundation of E-Business, 4th ed., Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Alter, S. (2003). 18 Reasons why IT-Reliant Work Systems Should Replace the IT Artifact as the Core Subject Matter of the IS Field. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 12(23), 365–394.
Alter, S. (2006a). The Work System Method: Connecting People, Processes, and IT for Business Results. Larkspur, CA: Work System Press.
Alter, S. (2006b). Pitfalls in Analyzing Systems in Organizations. Journal of Information System Education, 17(3), 295–302, Fall.
Alter, S. (2008a). Service System Fundamentals: Work System, Value Chain, and Life Cycle. IBM Systems Journal, 47(1) 71–85.
Alter, S. (2008b). Service System Innovation. Proceedings of IFIP Working Group 8.2 Conference on IT and Change in the Service Economy, Toronto, Canada, August 2008.
Fitzsimmons, J.A. & Fitzsimmons, M.J. (2006). Service Management, 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Hill, T.P. (1977). On goods and services. The Review of Income and Wealth, 23, 315–338.
IBM Research. (2009). Services Science, Management and Engineering. http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/ssme/services.shtml. Accessed 19 Sept. 2009.
IfM & IBM. (2008). Succeeding through Service Innovation: A Service Perspective for Education, Research, Business and Government. Cambridge, United Kingdom: University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing. ISBN: 978-1-902546-65-0. http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/ssme/documents/080428ssi_us_letter.pdf. Accessed 19 Sept. 2009.
Karmi, R. & Kaner, M. (2007). Integration of a Service Taxonomy. The TRIZ Journal, October, http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2007/10/04/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2009.
Kotler, P. & Keller, K. (2006). Marketing Management, 12th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Leavitt, T. (1960). Marketing Myopia. Harvard Business Review, 38(4), 45–56.
Petkov, D. & Petkova, O. (2006). The Work System Model as a Tool for Understanding the Problem in an Introductory IS Project. Paper presented at the 23rd Information Systems Education Conference (ISECON 2006), Dallas, TX.
Rai, A. & Sambamurthy, V. (2006). Editorial Notes – The Growth of Interest in Services Management: Opportunities for Information System Scholars. Information Systems Research 17(4), 327–331.
Sampson, S.E. & Froehle, C. M. (2006). Foundations and Implications of a Proposed Unified Services Theory. Production and Operations Management 15(2), 329–343.
Spohrer, J., Maglio, P.P., Bailey, J. & Gruhl, D. (2007). Steps Toward a Science of Service Systems. IEEE Computer 40, 71–77.
Spohrer, J., Vargo, S.L., Caswell, N. & Maglio, P.P. (2008). The Service System is the Basic Abstraction of Service Science. Proceedings of HICSS-41, The 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Waikoloa, HI.
Springer. (2008). Call for Chapters. http://www.public.asu.edu/~hdemirka/index_files/CFC_SS_Books_Springer.pdf. Accessed 19 Sept. 2009.
Truex, D.P. & Alter, S. (2010). Systems Analysis for Everyone Else: Empowering Business Professionals through a Systems Analysis Method that Fits Their Needs, Proceedings of ECIS 2010, the European Conference on Information Systems, Pretoria, South Africa.
Vargo, S.L. & Lusch, R.F. (2004b). The Four Service Marketing Myths. Journal of Service Research, 6(4), 324–335.
Vargo, S.L. & Lusch, R.F. (2004a). Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68, 1–17.
Womack, J. P. & Jones, D.T. (2005). Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together. New York, NY: Free Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science and Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alter, S. (2011). Making a Science of Service Systems Practical: Seeking Usefulness and Understandability while Avoiding Unnecessary Assumptions and Restrictions. In: Demirkan, H., Spohrer, J., Krishna, V. (eds) The Science of Service Systems. Service Science: Research and Innovations in the Service Economy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8270-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8270-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-8269-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8270-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)