Introduction to Service Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME) Minitrack

Service Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME), or "service science" for short, is the interdisciplinary study of service systems, economic entities connected by value co creation relationships. Service science integrates methods from analysis, design, and more to understand value creation phenomena generally and to improve service systems specifically. The scope of service science is wide. In addition to considering problems of value creation within individual, focal service systems, such as an individual customer interacting with an individual provider, service science research often tracks influences among connected service systems, such as governmental public services, socio-technical infrastructure service systems, and so on. Thus, intertwined socio-economic and cultural systems are often taken into account in service science studies. Such interdisciplinary research efforts require contributions from both academics and practitioners to inform the design, implementation, and management service systems under different conditions and contexts. The SSME minitrack, begun in 2008 (HICSS-41), has incorporated papers and presentations on topics including service process modeling, service delivery management, service innovation, IT service, service technologies, and issues specific to various service sectors. The SSME minitrack aims to fit research into the novel theoretical framework of the service system, and ultimately to contribute to development of service science itself.