guest article by Jay Kandampully
In the advanced economies, the steady growth of the service sector over many decades has led to a balance in knowledge creation (research), knowledge dissemination (education) and practice. This, however, is not the case in most advancing economies. Although emerging economies have seen extensive growth of the service industry over the last 10 years, there has been a limited focus on indigenous knowledge creation (research). Their needs often differ markedly from advanced economies, so imported knowledge does not always result in the intended development of practice and/or education. Today the emerging economies are therefore faced with an increasing need to enhance the supply of quality education and indigenous research if they are to implement change, meet the growing demands of the service industry, and realize their goals. The “Service Education Research and Innovation – Initiative (SERI-Initiative)” www.seri-initative.org was established to support these aims. SERI-Initiative serves as a platform that brings together scholars, professionals and practitioners from various disciplines and countries in a unified effort to study and learn how service theory and knowledge can be applied in dynamic service economies around the world. This has led to SERI’s subsequent development of the IRSSM Symposium, where the primary aim is to nurture research interest in the next generation of researchers and teachers in emerging economies.
SERI has also established “Young Service Researcher Awards” to motivate and promote research among researchers and teachers in the emerging economies. The word ‘young’ here essentially refers to those who are relatively new to research, and who demonstrate a keen interest in enhancing their research and teaching. We have been fortunate in gaining support from leading universities and research centers through award scholarships. These scholarships are supported, for example, by Karlstad University (Sweden), Cornell University (USA), Fordham University (USA), IPSOS Loyalty (USA), The University of Queensland (Australia), University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), Oslo School of Management (Norway), Hanken School of Economics (Finland), University of Canberra, (Australia), University of Newcastle (Australia), and by numerous individual donors. The aim of these scholarships is to establish research and teaching-focused relationships between researchers and teachers from the emerging economies and researchers and teachers at the sponsoring institutions. The Symposium ‘opens’ with a one-day research workshop, where experienced researchers and teachers provide guidance on research, publishing and course/program development skills. Unlike typical conferences, Symposium attendance is limited to 100 participants. This enables everyone to attend as many presentations as possible, thereby enabling participants to learn from each other and to gain valuable feedback from senior researchers. Those senior researchers willing to serve as research mentors are matched with less experienced researchers from emerging economies, and offer research guidance as developmental reviewers, help scholars to improve their manuscripts and, ultimately, to publish their research in academic journals. IRSSM Symposiums therefore provide many meaningful opportunities for sponsoring institutions and faculty from advanced economies to establish research collaborations with young scholars from emerging economies.
1st IRSSM Symposium
The first Symposium (IRSSM-1) was hosted by the University of Mauritius in 2010, and attracted over 78 participants from many African countries. IRSSM-2 was hosted by the University of Pembangunan Nasional, Indonesia, in 2011, with approximately 100 participants from over 15 Asian countries. IRSSM-3 was hosted by The University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing, China, in 2012. IRSSM-4 was hosted by the Marian International Institute of Management, Kerala University, India, in 2013; and, IRSSM-5 was hosted by Tartu University, Parnu College, Estonia, in 2014. IRSSM-6 will be held at the University Technology Mara, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, August 11-15, 2015 http://www.sarawak.uitm.edu.my/irssm6/default.html .
If you are interested in becoming involved and would like to support this initiative, please get in touch with me. Many thanks.
Professor Jay Kandampully
Chair: SERI -Initiative and IRSSM
Editor – Journal of Service Management
The Ohio State University
