Viable service systems and decision making in service management (original) (raw)
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Purpose -The paper aims to enrich conceptual frameworks of Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, and Network and Systems Theory by integrating their pillars in a common interpretative approach and providing a tool to support a better understanding of service functioning as well as design in Service Systems. Design/Methodology/approach -The paper proposes an integrated literature review in order to link Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, and Network and Systems Theory in a common transdisciplinary conceptual framework. Building upon this, the practical approach of recommender system and the modelling functionalities of IBM Bluemix are used to define an application overview of service design. Finally, theoretical and empirical reflections herein are developed within the context of Smart City Findings -The paper proposes a multi-dimensional constructive tool for service and systems analysis in order to better understand the interactions among users, services, and infrastructures in a shared environment.
International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 2010
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to combine service science (service science, management and engineering, and SSME) and service dominant (S-D) logic contributions with the network and systems-based theories of many-to-many marketing proposed by Gummesson and the viable system approach (VSA), proposed by Italian researchers and highly diffused in Italy during the 2000s. Design/methodology/approach -This paper is a conceptual analysis based on recent developments in service science, S-D logic and network/systems theory. Findings -Being grounded in network theory, systems thinking and value co-creation, many-to-many marketing is found to be particularly supportive to both service science and S-D logic. It is also found that VSA, being broad, interdisciplinary and based on systems theory and resource-based theory, and with strong influences from biology, sociology and mechanics, is a key to the interpretation of complex phenomena. Both many-to-many and VSA embrace the whole and the general while still considering the detail and its contextual dependency. Both theories are highly suitable for analysing and designing service systems.
Service Dominant Logic and Service Science: a contribute deriving from network theories
Board member of the So.Re.Sa Company Regional health of the Campania region, in the 2005 responsible for a 297 project aimed at achieving a DSS based on logic ASV for MIUR, CUEIM, Datamat e RCOST. In 2002 component of communication technology assessment for MIUR. In 1989 elected President of Confcommercio of the province of Avellino. [email: sergio.barile@uniroma1.it].
Purpose –This paper aims to highlight how systems thinking contributes to decision making in uncertain contexts that are characteristic of service systems. Based on the assumption that service systems face complex conditions, we posit that systems thinking may support the understanding of key issues in service management. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes an interpretation of complexity in the context of service systems, which highlights the perspective change that occurs when a systems approach is adopted. The offered conceptual perspective is then brought to an operational level, in spite of the complexity of the decisions driving a viable system, by modeling a service system as a network of agents, resources, processes and decisions through the use of fuzzy logic. The paper reviews service management research streams, and takes a deeper look at the concepts of service systems and complex service systems. The paper then proceeds to discuss how systems thinking contributes to service management by proposing a systems interpretation of complexity. Findings – Service management theories and models may be enhanced by integrating prevailing approaches, based on a quantitative and mechanistic view of service systems dynamics, with systems thinking-based meta-models that can be used in better understanding service exchanges. The findings of the paper also show how the integration of an engineering approach can be insightful to the understanding of service systems; adopting a Viable Systems Approach (VSA) as a meta-model can be useful in fully comprehending market behavior in uncertain conditions. Research limitations/implications – The paper introduces the VSA as a useful meta-model capable of better addressing decision making in service systems under conditions of complexity. The paper also proposes the adoption of fuzzy logic models to deal with the vagueness and ambiguity that characterize complexity contexts. Future research ought to investigate the analysis of complex phenomena, such as the service exchange, when adopting both the VSA and several operative models and constructs, in order to strengthen the observer’s capacity to understand reality. Practical implications – The VSA’s contribution to decision making in the service exchange is clear when practitioners choose to adopt it as a meta-model that offers a terminological setting and general interpretative approaches. In this sense, practitioners may valorize this proposal to integrate its insights with operative models that support decision making in service systems and with a more powerful understanding of both the structural and operative levels characterizing their governance and development. Originality/value – The originality of this paper lies in exploring the contribution of systems thinking, in particular of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA), to service management and decision making. .
Editorial Column —Service Research Integration and Future Directions—The Naples Forum on Service
Service Science, 2012
M anagement and marketing research in service is at a turning point, and service research is increasingly challenging existing marketing myths and questioning the validity of traditional approaches. In this mainframe, service-dominant (S-D) logic and service science, along with many-to-many marketing and the viable systems approach, have captured the attention of researchers worldwide in their attempt to advance service research. With S-D logic tracing a new cultural approach to market exchange, systems and network theory represents a set of general interpretation schemes-as insightful metamodels-to be coupled with specific theoretical models in order to better understand the complexity characterizing service science. In this light, it seems unwise to search for the "best model" or the best theoretical proposal capable of framing all marketing or management problems. More appropriately, we are convinced that researchers should try to valorize the integration of scientific approaches positioned at different theoretical levels. Despite the challenge of integrating various cultures, models, approaches, and perspectives, we sense that there is a gradual convergence toward a holistic framework in management and marketing research.