Service

An intangible product, service is a value that is produced and delivered simultaneously from provider to customer. The delivery and operation of a service rely on a variety of assets, processes and activities that may include, alone or in combination, people, knowledge, resources, methods, processes, and technologies. In addition, the service value is normally co-created jointly and reciprocally in interactions between provider and customer, using a constellation of integrated resources and capabilities that both parties share, combine and renew. Recently, a new paradigm was proposed that aims to overcome many of the limitations inherent in “goods-dominant (G-D) logic” for thinking about commerce, marketing and exchange. Known as “service-dominant (S-D) logic”, it suggests that the focus be moved from the exchange of goods to that of services, and that in fact, all exchanges between producers and consumers are based on services. Finally, as service research has become multidisciplinary, including concepts from marketing, computer science, information systems, and operations as well psychology and sociology, a new discipline entitled service science, whose goal is to create a platform for systematic service innovation, was advanced.