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Abstract

The objective of this book is to enhance the understanding of service management concepts and their applications to service design. Arguably, little progress has been made since Ted Levitt’s influential Harvard Business Review article ‘Production-Line Approach to Service’ was published in 1972. Since then, it has been common for services to be treated like production lines in the academic literature and more widely in management practice. However, the belief that achieving economies of scale will reduce unit costs has been a common feature of management decision-making.

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© 2011 Keivan Zokaei, John Seddon and Brendan O’Donovan

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Zokaei, K., Seddon, J., O’Donovan, B. (2011). Introduction. In: Zokaei, K., Seddon, J., O’Donovan, B. (eds) Systems Thinking: From Heresy to Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299221_1

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