Interaction-Based Foundation of Services

Services are central parts of developed economies. They are growing in numbers, varieties and complexities. Continuous expansion of service economic activities and their rich diversity have been posing challenges for researchers and academics in developing comprehensive foundations and conceptual frameworks. The gap between spectrum of services and viable elucidation methods has been increasing. The authors attempt to bridge the gap by presenting a suitable foundation for studying service economic activities. The novel foundation originates from a higher-order interaction-based perspective on services. This perspective enables encompassment of a broad range of service economic activities. It also allows micro and macro observations. The introduced foundation and framework permits study of services in a formalized and rigorous manner. Formal descriptions of services are beneficial for computer-based modeling and simulations. The description and modeling framework is sufficiently flexible and expandable. Expandability of the framework allows for inclusion of novel and emerging services. Flexibility is beneficial for providing a desired examination depth. The presented foundation and framework for elucidation of service economic activities is a potent instrument for advancing service studies.