Overview of Service Science Research System

When used to elaborate the laws of service management, the management theory based on traditional manufacturing industry does not hold water and is thus encountered with a series of new problems due to typical characteristics of service activities, such as Intangibility, Perishability, Simultaneity and Heterogeneity. The production and operation management theory of traditional tangible products proves to be more inadequate especially for analysis on intangible service operation practice. Therefore, most predecessor scholars took service operation management as the entry point, explored special laws of service activities, captured basic features of service operation management and applied corresponding research results to service marketing, service innovation and other fields to promote the development of service management theory. As an emerging discipline, Service Science takes service activities in the service economy era as major research objects. Not only should it take the particularity of service activities into consideration, but it should fuse with applied theory of modern information technology against the background of the new age. Its disciplinary research system should inherit and develop the traditional service management theory. Based on the main characteristic of interactive contact between service providers and receivers in service activities, this book starts from the interactive service activities, analyzes the content and features of the elements of service operation management, and combs through the cognitive system of predecessors on the management framework of service operation. Besides, a research system of service science with management as the main line was put forward on the basis of the practice and research results of the service economy age.