Forthcoming and Online First Articles

International Journal of Services Sciences

International Journal of Services Sciences (IJSSci)

Forthcoming articles have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication but are pending final changes, are not yet published and may not appear here in their final order of publication until they are assigned to issues. Therefore, the content conforms to our standards but the presentation (e.g. typesetting and proof-reading) is not necessarily up to the Inderscience standard. Additionally, titles, authors, abstracts and keywords may change before publication. Articles will not be published until the final proofs are validated by their authors.

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International Journal of Services Sciences (2 papers in press)

Regular Issues

  • A framework for examining theoretical and empirical perspectives on definitions of service   Order a copy of this article
    by Teija Aarnio, Mervi Rajahonka 
    Abstract: In recent years, little research has considered how theoretical definitions of service relate to practice. The purpose of this study was to compare the definitions of service given by practitioners to the approaches presented in the service marketing literature. Based on a literature review, a framework was developed to illustrate changes in service marketing thinking. The framework was used to analyse empirical data, consisting of definitions of service presented by practitioners during thematic interviews conducted in Finland. The findings indicated that the practitioners’ definitions reflected the diverse theories presented in the service marketing literature. However, no firm evidence could be found that, for example, practitioners’ age, sex, or service sector would affect the definitions they gave. The findings indicated that both researchers and practitioners should be aware of the diversity of definitions. In companies, practical problems may be avoided by formulating well-structured common definitions.
    Keywords: definitions of service; concept of service; service; service marketing; service marketing research; theory vs. practice; personal perceptions; thematic interview; Finnish practitioners.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCI.2022.10045345
     
  • Servitization and product-service systems: literature review   Order a copy of this article
    by Mariapia Cutugno, Tindara Abbate, Fabrizio Cesaroni, Antonio Crupi 
    Abstract: This document aims to map the development of studies related to servitisation and product-service systems (PSS), and to examine and discuss the main findings of the scientific literature. The study is based on co-occurrence analysis, co-citation analysis and bibliographic matching of 421 articles selected using Vosviewer software. Through the identification of thematic clusters, the study underlines the growing interest in the field of servitisation strategy and the development of a product-service system. In recent times, together with the development of the architecture of services, solutions, systems of products and services (PSS) and servitisation, new fields of research are opening up, combine digitisation with these new commercial practices, establishing the very dynamic characteristics of research on servitisation. Albeit the study has been conducted by only analysing publications listed on the Web of Science database, results help understand the evolution of the servitisation and PSS literature and may provide suggestions on possible directions for future research.
    Keywords: servitisation; PSS; innovation; collaboration; bibliometrics; co-citation; bibliographic coupling.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCI.2022.10054852