Skip to main content
Contribution to Book
Making a Science of Service Systems Practical: Seeking Usefulness and Understandability while Avoiding Unnecessary Assumptions and Restrictions
The Science of Service Systems (2011)
  • Steven Alter, University of San Francisco
Abstract
This book’s theme is “The Science of Service Systems,” yet there is substantial question about whether the definition and nature of service systems have been articulated adequately. This paper examines definitions of service and service system that could frame or otherwise influence future developments in service science and could have implications for what should and should not be included within service science. It argues that the initial development of service science should use straightforward definitions that are understandable, useful, broadly applicable, and teachable. It proposes a definition of service system that is different from the definition proposed in this book’s Call for Chapters and in the 2008 White Paper produced by a service innovation symposium attended by many leaders in the effort to create service science. In comparison with that definition, this paper’s alternative definition is more understandable, useful, broadly applicable, and teachable.
Keywords
  • service science,
  • service systems,
  • service,
  • work system,
  • work system framework
Publication Date
2011
Editor
H. Demirkan, J.C. Spohrer, and V. Krishna
Publisher
Springer
Citation Information
Steven Alter. "Making a Science of Service Systems Practical: Seeking Usefulness and Understandability while Avoiding Unnecessary Assumptions and Restrictions" HeidelbergThe Science of Service Systems (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/stevenalter/57/