Service Innovation and Management

This open access book investigates how digitalization and service infusion are changing service provision and the customer experience. It highlights the central role of service management and service innovation in making these changes not only appear in theory but also implementing them in business practice. At the beginning of the 21st century, many manufacturing firms struggled to exploit the financial potential of service businesses, a phenomenon described as the service paradox. While many manufacturing firms are still struggling with this paradox, several firms (both service and manufacturing firms) are simultaneously struggling with digitalization. This phenomenon can be viewed as the digitalization paradox, i.e., as a situation in which companies invest in digitalization but struggle to reach the expected revenue growth. By applying the lens of service innovation to digitalization and service infusion, the book showcases how firms can overcome the service and digitalization paradoxes, transform service provision, and improve the customer experience. It offers comprehensive coverage, blending literature reviews, conceptualizations, empirical illustrations, and case studies to offer a multifaceted perspective on corporate strategies, illuminating pathways to address the challenges posed by the service and digitalization paradoxes.

Built on the latest research from the CTF Service Research Center at Karlstad University, Sweden, this book offers a valuable resource for managers seeking practical strategies and approaches to enhance their understanding and implementation of service management and marketing principles. It will also appeal to academics with an interest in service management and marketing.

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access Offers a comprehensive guide to overcome the service and digitalization paradoxes Blends theory with practice to enhance business understanding Guides readers in grasping key topics in service management and innovation

Autorentext

Lars Witell is a Professor at the CTF Service Research Center at Karlstad University, Sweden. He also holds a position as Professor in Business Administration at Linköping University, Sweden. His research interests include service innovation, customer experience, and service infusion in manufacturing firms. Over the past 20 years, he has led large research programs in collaboration with industry.

Inhalt

Managing service towards better customer experiences: Digitalization, service infusion, and service innovation.- Service management: Evolution and moving forward.- Service management through service platforms and digitalization.- Strategies for service growth.- Value co-creation through collaboration: The case of efficient load out.- Configure to conquer implementing configurators to improve competitiveness.- Enabling a Circular Economy through Green Service Strategies.- A Little Bit of That Human Touch Avoid and Recover Service Failures.- Enhancing the phygital customer experience in the digital world.- Balancing value propositions with privacy: Exploring data-driven digital wellness business models.- Service innovation in the eyes of customers: The Swedish innovation index.- B2B service innovation: How business customers perceive firm innovativeness.- Service innovation in healthcare: Service today versus service tomorrow.