Service Science: The Foundations of Service Engineering and Management

Preface

This book essentially introduces a new perspective of service study. By taking a holistic view of the service lifecycle, we discuss approaches to explore the real-time dynamics of service systems and networks. We advocate that a service must be defined as a value cocreation and transformation process. As such, we can holistically analyze the performance of service systems that enable and execute complex and heterogeneous services. By leveraging the advances in computing and network technologies, social science, management science, and other relevant fields, we present the concept and principles of putting people first in service and demonstrate that service networks in light of service encounters can be comprehensively explored in a closed-loop and real-time manner. The presented framework can be potentially applied in facilitating service organizations to understand and capture market trends, design and engineer service products and delivery networks, execute service operations, and control and manage the service lifecycles for competitive advantage.

Service research is not new. In fact, service research in the field of marketing has an over 30-year-history. In addition to research and development in service marketing, academics and practitioners have actively developed a variety of theories, methods, and tools and then applied them to address service delivery efficiency and effectiveness issues in service operations and management across the service industry for decades. ...