翻译.docx

翻译.docx

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翻译

Theserviceconcept:

themissinglinkinservicedesignresearch?

SusanMeyerGoldsteina,∗,RobertJohnstonb,JoAnnDuffyc,JayRaod

aDepartmentofOperationsandManagementScience,UniversityofMinnesota,32119thAvenueS,Minneapolis,MN55455,USA

bWarwickBusinessSchool,UniversityofWarwick,CoventryCV47AL,UK

cGibsonD.LewisCenterforBusinessandEconomicDevelopment,SamHoustonStateUniversity,Huntsville,TX77341-2056,USA

dManagementDivision,BabsonCollege,BabsonPark,MA02457,USA

Abstract

Theserviceconceptplaysakeyroleinservicedesignanddevelopment.

Butwhilethetermisusedfrequentlyintheservicedesignandnewservicedevelopmentliterature,surprisinglylittlehasbeenwrittenabouttheserviceconceptitselfanditsimportantroleinservicedesignanddevelopment.Theserviceconceptdefinesthehowandthewhatofservicedesign,andhelpsmediatebetweencustomerneedsandanorganization’sstrategicintent.Wedefinetheserviceconceptanddescribehowitcanbeusedtoenhanceavarietyofservicedesignprocesses.Asillustrationshere,weapplytheserviceconcepttoservicedesignplanningandservicerecoverydesignprocesses.Employingtheserviceconceptasanimportantdriverofservicedesigndecisionsraisesanumberofinterestingquestionsforresearchwhicharediscussedhere.©2002ElsevierScienceB.V.Allrightsreserved.

Keywords:

Serviceconcept;Servicedesignplanning;Servicerecoverydesign

1.Introduction

Aserviceorganizationcanonlydeliveraserviceafterintegrating（oroutsourcing）investmentsinnumerousassets,processes,people,andmaterials.Muchlikemanufacturingaproductcomposedofhundredsorthousandsofcomponents,servicessimilarlyconsistofhundredsorthousandsofcomponents.However,unlikeaproduct,servicecomponentsareoftennotphysicalentities,butratherareacombinationofprocesses,peopleskills,andmaterialsthatmustbeappropriatelyintegratedtoresultinthe‘planned’or‘designed’service.

Indesigninganewserviceorredesigninganexistingservice,managersanddesignersmustmakedecisionsabouteachcomponentoftheservice,frommajordecisionslikefacilitylocationtoseeminglyminordecisionslikenapkincolor.Forevenarelativelysimpleservice,numerousdecisionsaremadeintakinganeworredesignedservicefromtheideastagethroughthedesignphasestoadeliverableservice.Andinmanycases,theseprocessesareongoingasserviceorganizationscontinuetoinvestintheirphysicalassetsandthetrainingoftheirworkforce,aswellasmakechangesandimprovementsinfrontroomserviceencounterprocessesandbackroomservicesupportprocesses.Thelargenumberandwidevarietyofdecisionsrequiredtodesignanddeliveraservicearemadeatseverallevelsintheorganization—fromthestrategicleveltotheoperationalandserviceencounterlevels.Amajorchallengeforserviceorganizationsisensuringthatdecisionsateachoftheselevelsaremadeconsistently,focusedondeliveringthecorrectservicetotargetedcustomers.

Fromtheserviceorganization’sperspective,designingaservicemeansdefininganappropriatemixofphysicalandnon-physicalcomponents.Butdocustomersdefineaserviceasasumofcomponents?

Ordocustomersdefineaserviceasasingularoutcometheyareseekingwhentheyobtainorpurchasetheservice?

Similarly,howdoserviceproviders（i.e.serviceemployees）definetheservicetheydeliver—asanintegrationofservicecomponentsorasonepackage?

Regardlessofhowtheserviceorganizationdefinestheirserviceandhowcustomersperceivetheservice,adeliveredserviceshouldfunctionseamlesslyforcustomerstoperceiveitcorrectly（i.e.asdesigned）.Customershaveapreconceivednotionofwhataserviceis,eveniftheyhavenotexperienceditpreviously（JohnstonandClark,2001）.Inotherwords,customershaveanimageoftheserviceconceptregardlessofwhetherithasbeendefinedbyword-of-mouthorothersourcesofinformationorfromrealserviceexperiences.Before,during,andafterservicedelivery,serviceorganizationssetcustomerexpectations.Theseexpectationsrelatetothenatureoftheservicepackage,aswellastothenature,duration,andcustomerflexibilityduringtheserviceencounter.Toensurethattheservicepackageandserviceencounterfittheneedsofthecustomerandtheserviceorganizationitself,organizationsmustfocusonthedesignanddeliveryoftheirserviceconcept.

Inthispaper,weproposethattheserviceconceptcanbethekeydriverofservicedesigndecisionsatalllevelsofplanning.Weprovidethreelevelsofdiscussioninrelationtotheserviceconcept.First,wedefinetheserviceconceptandhowitdrivesdesigndecisionsfornewandredesignedservices.Anorganization’sdefinitionofitsserviceconceptisnecessaryatthestrategiclevelofplanning.Second,wedescribehowtheserviceconceptisusefulattheoperationallevelduringservicedesignplanning,particularlyinintegratingservicestrategyintotheservicedeliverysystemandindeterminingappropriateperformancemeasuresforevaluatingservicedesign.Third,servicerecovery,onecomponentofservicedesign,isusedtoshowtheusefulnessofapplyingtheserviceconceptindesigningandenhancingserviceencounterinteractions.

Ateachofthesethreelevels—theserviceconcept,servicedesignplanning,andservicerecovery—wediscusstheexistingliteratureintermsofwhathasbeenstudiedandwhatdeficienciesremain.Also,ateachlevel,weprovideusefulresearchquestionsthatintroducefutureresearchideasforprogressinginstudyingtheserviceconceptanditsrelatedcomponents.First,wediscussthepositioningoftheserviceconceptwithintheserviceliterature.

1.1Newservicedevelopment,servicedesignandserviceinnovation

Thereareseveraltermsusedintheliteratureaddressingrelatedideasabouthowserviceorganizationsdesignnewserviceofferingsfromeitherthecustomer’sviewpointorthedeliveryorganization’sviewpoint.Themostrecentofthetermsisnewservicedevelopment（NSD）andthereappearstobesomedegreeofagreementaboutitsmeaning.NSDisthe“overallprocessofdevelopingnewserviceofferings”（Johnsonetal.,2000）andisconcernedwiththecompletesetofstagesfromideatolaunch（Cooperetal.,1994）.ThisviewissharedbyotherwritersincludingEdvardssonetal.（2000）,whoextendthescopeofNSDtoencompassstrategy,culture,andservicepolicydeploymentandimplementation.

Thetermservicedesignhasbeenmorenarrowlydefined,notablybyGummesson（1991）,as“theconcretizationoftheserviceconceptindrawings,flowcharts...”.Norlingetal.（1992）defineitastheworkofspecifyinganideaaboutanewserviceindrawingsandspecifications.Othershaveusedthetermservicedesigntocoverthewholeprocessfromideatospecification（see,forexample,Zeithamletal.,1990;MartinandHorne,1993）.Serviceinnovationhasalsobeendefinedinanumberofwaysfromanarrowviewofbeingconcernedwiththe“ideageneration”portionoftheNSDprocess（Edvardssonetal.,2000）tothewholeprocessofservicedevelopment（Sundbo,1998）.

OnefeaturecommontomostoftheresearchonNSD,servicedesign,andserviceinnovationistheserviceconcept.Theserviceconcept,whichisdescribedindetailinthefollowingsection,isacoreelementofprocessesforservicedesign,development,andinnovation（see,forexample,ScheuingandJohnson,1989;TaxandStuart,1997）.Indeed,oneofthemostrecentmodelsoutliningtheNSDprocesscycle（Johnsonetal.,2000）putsconceptdevelopmentandtestingattheheartofservicedesign.Mostauthorsrefertotheserviceconceptasacentralcomponentindesigningservices（see,forexample,Norlingetal.,1992）andasakeystageintheprocessofNSD（see,forexample,Johnsonetal.,2000）.However,untilnow,muchoftherelatedresearchhasfocusedonotheraspectsofdesignanddevelopment,suchas:

•theprocessofservicedesignandNSD（e.g.Donnellyetal.,1985;ScheuingandJohnson,1989;Bowers,1989;Johnsonetal.,2000）;

•dynamicsofinnovation（Johnsonetal.,2000）;

•processofinnovation（Sundbo,1998;Edvardssonetal.,2000）;

•typesofnewservicesandserviceinnovation（Lovelock,1984）;

•designoftheserviceencounter（GuptaandVajic,2000;TansikandSmith,2000）;

•processversusserviceproductinnovation（Boone,2000）;

•capacitydesign（Pullmanetal.,2000）;

•innovationmethodologies（Behara,2000;Edvardssonetal.,2000）;

•successandfailureinservicedesign（deBrentani,1989,1995;MartinandHorne,1993;EdgettandParkinson,1994）and

•measurementofservicedesignandinnovation（Vossetal.,1992）.

2.Theserviceconcept

TheserviceconceptisafrequentlyusedtermintheservicedesignandNSDliterature,andindeedmuchoftheaboveworkrecognizes,explicitlyorimplicitly,theimportanceoftheserviceconcept.However,surprisinglylittlehasbeenwrittenaboutthiscentralissueinservicedesignanddevelopment.Mostworktodatehasbeenconcernedwithitsdefinition.Theserviceconcepthasbeendefinedinmanydifferentways.Heskett（1986）definesitasthewayinwhichthe“organizationwouldliketohaveitsservicesperceivedbyitscustomers,employees,shareholdersandlenders”,i.e.theorganization’sbusinessproposition.Ithasalsobeendefinedastheelementsoftheservicepackage,orwhatCollier（1994）callsthe“customerbenefitpackage”,i.e.thethingsthatprovidebenefitandvaluetothecustomer.Thisapproachofdefiningthenatureofaserviceintermsofitsconstituentpartshasalsoappearedinthemarketingliterature.LovelockandWright（1999）,forexample,usethe“8Ps”of