Abstract
This chapter discusses a Unified Service Theory (UST) that has been set forth as a foundational paradigm for Service Operations, Service Management, and now Service Science . The fundamental purpose of the UST is to unify the various phenomena we call “services” (i.e., service processes) in a way that demonstrates both how they are distinct from non-services and how they share common managerial principles. The UST prescribes boundaries for Service Science and reveals a gamut of service topics of interest to designers, managers, and researchers. Although the UST has its origins from a business operations perspective, it draws a common thread between the various perspectives pertaining to service.
This chapter is dedicated to the late and great Christopher Lovelock. Few have contributed more to service management thought than Christopher, and he epitomized the ideal of interdisciplinary collegiality.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Throughout this chapter the term “services” is used to mean “service processes” or “processes which are each characterized as a service.” Unfortunately, in some fields the term “services” has acquired an undesirable connotation of “intangible products,” and some have proposed banning the use of the plural term “services” altogether (Vargo and Lusch 2008b). Herein the plural term “services” is used for grammatical convenience in referring to multiple service processes, and is not intended to be a digressive reference to intangible products. A risk of abandoning the plurality of “services” is trivializing the vast variety of “service” manifestations. Note that the singular term “service” has specific meanings in contexts such as the military, religion, horse breeding, and so forth, so even that singular term requires some contextual understanding.
- 2.
Vargo and Lusch have claimed that their version of Service-Dominant Logic is neither a theory nor a paradigm, but rather a mindset (Vargo and Lusch 2008a, p. 9). They argue that it does not have a “worldview” status, but then suggest that it is “a foundation for a general theory of marketing,” and “a basis for reorienting theories of society and economic science.” They also describe it as an “alternative to the traditional goods-centered paradigm….” We therefore treat Service-Dominant Logic as a paradigm, or something comparable to a paradigm.
- 3.
Arguably, Computer Science had a similar history, with strong motivation coming from industry, particularly IBM.
- 4.
The UST classifies traditional make-to-stock manufacturing a non-service when it is accomplished without inputs from customers. Custom manufacturing requires at least an information input from customers, therefore would be categorized as a service. For more explanation, see (Sampson and Froehle 2006, p. 336) or (Sampson 2001, p. 142).
- 5.
- 6.
Note that this discussion refers to the traditional market perspective that companies sell goods and/or services. Recall that the UST perspective does not consider goods and services to be two distinct things, since tangible items (goods) are often involved in processes that have customer-component inputs (services).
References
Bitner, M. J., W. T. Faranda, A. R. Hubbert, V. A. Zeithaml. 1997. Customer contributions and roles in service delivery . International Journal of Service Industry Management 8(3) 193.
Chervonnaya, O. 2003. Customer role and skill trajectories in services. International Journal of Service Industry Management 14(3) 347-363.
Edvardsson, B., A. Gustafsson, I. Roos. 2005. Service portraits in service research: a critical review. International Journal of Service Industry Management 16(1) 107-121.
Ellram, L. M., W. L. Tate, C. Billington. 2004. Understanding and Managing the Services Supply Chain. Journal of Supply Chain Management 40(4) 17-32.
Fitzsimmons, J. A., M. J. Fitzsimmons, 2004. Service Management: Operations, Strategy, and Information Technology, 4th Edition, Irwin / McGraw-Hill, New York.
Grove, S. J., R. P. Fisk, J. John. 2003. The future of services marketing: Forecasts from ten services experts. The Journal of Services Marketing 17(2/3) 107.
Gummesson, E., 1995. Relationship marketing : Its role in the service economy. Understanding Services Management, W. J. Glynn and J. G. Barnes, eds., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 244-268.
Hill, T. P. 1977. On Goods and Services. Review of Income & Wealth 23(4) 315-338.
IfM and IBM , 2008. Succeeding through Service Innovation: A Service Perspective for Education, Research, Business and Government. University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Judd, R. C. 1964. The case for redefining services. Journal of Marketing 28(1) 58.
Kuhn, T. S., 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd Edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Laroche, M., J. Bergeron, C. Goutaland. 2001. A three-dimensional scale of intangibility. Journal of Service Research 4(1) 26.
Lovelock, C. 1983. Classifying Services to Gain Strategic Marketing Insights. Journal of Marketing 47(3) 9-20.
Lovelock, C., 2001. Services Marketing, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs: New Jersey.
Lovelock, C., E. Gummesson. 2004. Whither Services Marketing? In Search of a New Paradigm and Fresh Perspectives. Journal of Service Research 7(1) 20-41.
Merriam-Webster , 2008. Online dictionary. (website: http://www.m-w.com)
Morris, B., R. Johnston. 1987. Dealing with Inherent Variability: The Differences Between Manufacturing and Service? International Journal of Operations & Production Management 7(4) 13.
Nelson, P. 1974. Advertising as Information. Journal of the Political Economy 82(4) 729.
Nie, W., D. L. Kellogg. 1999. How Professors of Operations Management View Service Operations? Production and Operations Management 8(3) 339-355.
Riddle, D. I., 1986. Service-Led Growth: The role of the service sector in world development, Praeger Publishers, New York.
Sampson, S. E. 2000. Customer-supplier duality and bidirectional supply chains in service organizations. International Journal of Service Industry Management 11(4) 348-364.
Sampson, S. E., 2001. Understanding Service Businesses: Applying principles of the Unified Services Theory, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Sampson, S. E., 2010. A Unified Services Theory. Introduction to Service Engineering, G. Salvendy and W. Karwowski, eds., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 31-47.
Sampson, S. E., C. M. Froehle. 2006. Foundations and Implications of a Proposed Unified Services Theory. Production and Operations Management 15(2) 329-343.
Sampson, S. E., L. J. Menor, S. A. Bone, 2010. Why We Need a Service Logic? Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship 15 (3)
Schmenner, R. W., 1995. Service Operations Management, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Silvestro, R., L. Fitzgerald, R. Johnston, C. Voss. 1992. Towards a Classification of Service Processes. International Journal of Service Industry Management 3(3) 62.
Spohrer, J., P. P. Maglio. 2008. The Emergence of Service Science: Toward Systematic Service Innovations to Accelerate Co-Creation of Value. Production and Operations Management 17(3) 238-246.
Vargo, S. L., R. F. Lusch. 2004a. Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing. Journal of Marketing 68(1) 1.
Vargo, S. L., R. F. Lusch. 2004b. The Four Service Marketing Myths: Remnants of a Goods-Based, Manufacturing Model. Journal of Service Research 6(4) 324.
Vargo, S. L., R. F. Lusch. 2008a. Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. Academy of Marketing Science. Journal 36(1) 1.
Vargo, S. L., R. F. Lusch. 2008b. Why “service”? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 36(1) 25-38.
Wemmerlöv, U. 1990. A taxonomy for service processes and its implications for system design. International Journal of Service Industry Management 1(3) 13-27.
Wright, J. N., 1999. The Management of Service Operations, Cassell, London.
Zeithaml, V. A., 1981. How Consumer Evaluation Processes Differ Between Goods and Services. Marketing in Services, J. H. Donnelly and W. R. George, eds., American Marketing Association, Chicago, 186-190.
Zeithaml, V. A., M. J. Bitner, D. D. Gremler, 2006. Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sampson, S.E. (2010). The Unified Service Theory. In: Maglio, P., Kieliszewski, C., Spohrer, J. (eds) Handbook of Service Science. Service Science: Research and Innovations in the Service Economy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1628-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1628-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1627-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1628-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)