The 2011 Naples Forum on Service – Service Dominant logic, Network & System Theory and Service Science: integrating three perspectives for a new service agenda.
THE 3 PILLARS OF THE NAPLES FORUM
The 2009 Naples Forum on Service was our first effort to address service development from novel theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives. We wanted to focus on urgent issues for the future and a renewal of the service mainstream. To our joy the Forum was very well received. When we now announce the 2011 Forum, its 3 Pillars are the same but we want to show what has happened between the two events and what is in the making for the next few years.
Cultural and behavioral changes of customers, globalization of systems and competition, developments of information technology and social media, and other changes require new management and marketing theories. Such theories have been brewing for the past decades. Still we are left with a fragmented and confusing view of service. The discipline has reached a turning point calling for more systemic and integrative theory. For example, service research has not visibly contributed to solving the recent global economic crisis. In the core of the crisis are malfunctioning and partially corrupt financial service systems, and health care service is a costly headache for every nation; no pill has managed to cure it. The 3 Forum Pillars, the themes of the 2011 Naples Forum, are catching the imagination of scholars and practitioners worldwide as viable efforts to improve service and service systems to the benefit of companies, government and non-government organizations, consumers and citizens, in brief: be beneficial to every nation. The 3 Pillars are:
Service-Dominant (S-D) logic. Itpresents its message through 10 foundational premises which are a synthesis of the best contributions of the past decades of service research and the exclusion of the non-relevant parts. In brief, these premises put the following to the fore. Service is the fundamental basis of exchange and all social and economic actors (firms, customers, etc.) are resource integrators that interact through mutual service provision to co-create value. “Service” refers to the process of one actor’s resources for another actor’s benefit, and should not be confused with “services” – traditionally referred to as “intangibles” as opposed to tangible goods; goods are merely distribution mechanisms of service provision. Both firms and customers are viewed as active participants in the value-creation process as opposed to the mainstream marketing idea that firms create and deliver value and customers just react and consume it. That is, the customer is always a co-creator of value. Thus, firms can only offer a value proposition; value actualization is performed by customers idiosyncratically, in the context of their own lives. The network aspect is implicit through the statement that all social and economic actors are resource integrators, implying that value creation takes place through interaction in complex networks. S-D logic is intended to capture evolutionary thinking about value creation and exchange and is subject to ongoing, open development. A large number of articles and book chapters are continuously being published. For an overview of S-D logic, see especially two articles by Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (vol. 36, no. 1, 2008): “Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution” (pp.1-10), and “Why ‘service’?” (pp.25-38); and further based on the 2009 Naples Forum on Service: Gummesson, E., Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, S.L. (2010), “Transitioning from service management to service-dominant logic: observations and recommendations”, International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 2, no.1, pp. 8-22.
Network and Systems Theory. These approaches are not new but so far their potential is little exploited in service research. They are especially helpful in addressing complexity and context; they contribute to a better systemic and holistic understanding of the service-based society. These theoriesoffer both ways of thinking in terms of relationships and interaction, and research techniques. They can be used with different degrees of sophistication: as a basis for verbal treatise (discussion or text), graphics (from simple sketches of nodes and links to unlimited computer generated diagrams), or mathematical applications. Network theory is a systems approach which in marketing has mainly been applied to B2B (business-to-business) marketing but has equal potential for B2C/C2B (business-to-consumer/consumer-to-business) marketing and consequently to marketing in general. Marketing is part of or a perspective on management and to become efficient marketing should be seen in a management context; marketing-oriented management rather than marketing management. Two systems and network approaches are currently the object of growing scholarly and practitioner interest. One is the Viable System Approach (VSA), grounded in systems theory and postulating that every business and its service is a system immersed in a relational context looking for competitive profiles (viability) through interaction with other actors and stakeholders. The other is Many-to-Many Marketing which is a general marketing approach that describes, analyzes and utilizes the network properties of marketing. It applies to marketing in general and recognizes that both suppliers and customers operate in complex network contexts. Other network and systems approaches are welcomed. See further two articles in Service Science (vol. 2, no. 1/2 Spring-Summer, 2010) by Barile, S. and Polese, F., ”Smart Service Systems and Viable Service Systems”(pp. 21-40); and by Mele, C., Pels, J., and Polese, F., ”A Brief Review of Systems Theories and Their Managerial Applications” (pp. 126-135). See further the book by Golinelli, G.M. (2010), Viable Systems Approach: Governing Business Dynamics”, CEDAM-Kluwer; and Gummesson, E. (2007), “Exit Services Marketing – Enter Service Marketing”, Journal of Customer Behaviour, vol. 6, no. 2, pp.113-141.
Service Science, Management, Engineering and Design (SSMED), usually just referred to as service science. It is a global development program run by IBM together with more than 250 universities, primarily schools of technology and business schools. It is a proposed academic discipline and research area that would complement – rather than replace – the many disciplines that contribute to knowledge about service. Its philosophy is in line with S-D logic, many-to-many marketing, and VSA. The ultimate goal of service science is to apply scientific knowledge on the design and improvements of service systems for business and societal purposes.IBM wants to utilise information technology to design a ”smarter planet” where people are better served in a wide range of endeavours such as water supplies, electricity distribution, public transport, education, and health care.The concern is that we do not master seamless and reliable service systems at a time when systems are becoming increasingly complex and global, making us increasingly vulnerable to systems sluggishness and failure. Every service system is both a provider and client of service that is connected by value propositions in value-creating networks and systems. Read more on service science on Google but stick to entries from the past six months; the program is developing fast and older entries may be misleading. For a recent and condensed update, see Maglio, P.P. and Spohrer, J., (2008), “Fundamentals of service science”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 36, no.1, pp.18-20; and Maglio, P., Kieliszewski, C.; Spohrer, J., eds. (2010), Handbook of Service Science, Springer, with contributions from 67 authors.
Connecting the themes. As is already obvious from the above descriptions, the 3 Pillars are supportive to each other and the Forum treats them in this integrative spirit. S-D logic transforms the divides between goods/services and supplier/customer into value propositions, resource integration, and co-created service. Service science attempts to provide better and innovative service systems. They foster the development of a new theory of service, and require methodologies that address complexity and context and the whole and the parts, especially through network and systems theory. The integrative approach further attempts to bridge the gap between service theory and service practice.
Call for Papers
We invite papers dealing with themes within one or several of the 3 Forum Pillars: S-D logic, service science, and network/systems theory. We especially encourage submissions with an integrative perspective. The papers could be theoretical and/or empirical and be based on qualitative and/or quantitative research. In order to submit a proposal directions are given within the www.naplesforumonservice.it web page. Topics could include (but are not restricted to) the following:
- The role of networks, interaction and relationships
- Value co-creation and the changing role of suppliers and customers
- Value propositions
- Customer centricity vs. a multi-party stakeholder orientation (balanced centricity)
- Integration and management of resources and capabilities
- Business relations and social relations
- Social media
- Service innovation
- Service processes and engineering
- Many-to-many marketing and markets as networks
- The Viable Systems Approach (VSA)
- Business models to manage networks and service systems
- Stochastic models of service systems
- Experiences of service science projects in research and/or education
- ICT for service
- Web 2.0 or Web 3.0, the semantic web
- Brand communities
- Methodological challenges and issues in service research
IMPORTANT:These and possible other subthemes must have a clear connection to one or several of the 3 Forum Pillars.
Doctoral Workshop
To stimulate academic scholarship, discussions of ideas and dialogue among students and researchers from different countries in the field of service, we would like to invite doctoral students to attend this doctoral workshop. PhD students in early and middle stages of their PhD research project are particularly encouraged to present their research proposals, preliminary results and their reflections on issues related to theory, methods and analysis. In case the PhD dissertation is not a monograph and is made of a series of articles on a common theme, the candidate can present a part of the work and a two-page summary of the overall dissertation theme.
Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee members will act as advisors to the Chairs and support the scientific level of the Forum. Important tasks for the members are the participation in the review process of submitted abstracts and the selection of the Best Paper Awards; The Scientific Committee members will serve as discussants during sessions.
President: Gaetano Golinelli, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy
Claudio Baccarani, University of Verona, Italy
David Ballantyne, University of Otago, New Zealand
Ralph Badinelli, University of Virginia Tech, USA
Sergio Barile, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy
Rod Brodie, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Roberto Cafferata, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Antonella Carù, University of Milan “Bocconi”, Italy
Bernard Cova, Ecole de Management, Marseille, France
Daniele Dalli, University of Pisa, Italy
Renato Fiocca, University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
Michael Kleinaltenkamp, University of Berlin
Robert Lusch, University of Arizona, USA
Paul Maglio, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, USA
Irene Ng, University of Cambridge and University of Exeter, UK
Jaqueline Pels, University of Torquato de Tella, Argentina
Enzo Rullani, Venice International University, Italy
Jim Spohrer, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, USA
Paolo Stampacchia, University of Naples “Federico I”, Italy
Kaj Storbacka, Hanken School of Economics, Finland
Annalisa Tunisini, University of Urbino, Italy
Stephen Vargo, University of Hawaii, USA