Establishing the Core of Service Science through the Integration of System Science, Knowledge Management and Cognitive Science

A "service science" is an emerging technology management field for the coming service-led economy as stated in the 2005 report of US Council on Competitiveness. Because it is in the infant stage of its development there have been various kinds of discussions on service-related cases in many fields such as computer science, operations research, the management sciences, industrial engineering, business, and the social sciences during the last few years at various service science workshops. In contrast to such divergent discussions, this paper addresses the importance of convergent discussions on a framework of service science. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to implementing the core of the service science framework. Since service is defined as provider and client interactions that create value by solving clients' problems, this paper first determines three key elements of service activities, clients' problem definitions from wider viewpoints, problem solving by using clients' domain knowledge, and communication with clients. Next, these three elements are related to three relatively new disciplines: systems science, knowledge management and cognitive science, respectively. Finally, the three disciplines are integrated into a service science framework that represents the core structure and functions of service science.