Embedding the new discipline of service science: A service science research agenda

This paper presents a discourse for embedding the new discipline of service science. It argues for service science to be free of the paradigmatic research influences of existing disciplines and propose service science as an integrative discipline of engineering, technological and social sciences (including business and law) for the purpose of value co-creation with customers. The paper proposes a research agenda for service science and considers five salient issues for knowledge production. It locates the argument for service science knowledge production alongside disciplinary knowledge of service and in so doing, suggests that service science is not a logical development within any discipline and proposes that the time is right for it to emerge into a discipline of its own.