Interview with Bo Edvardsson was conducted by Linda Nasr
Bo Edvardsson is Professor and Vice Rector at Karlstad University, Sweden. He is the founder of CTF, Center for Service Research that has become a major hub for service research. He has published extensively in international journals and books and served in organization committees for numerous service conferences. Through these activities, he has had a significant influence on the development of service research, especially in the area of service innovation.
What attracted you to marketing/service research as a discipline of study?
I was interested in the development of new products and my doctoral thesis had the title: “Company strategies for product development”. During the research for my PhD I discovered the importance of services in manufacturing companies and it lead me into services marketing and service research, service quality, new service development and service innovation. I also saw many research opportunities in the fields.
What surprises/obstacles did you experience in your early career? How did you address them?
Funding and time for more long-term research was a major issues as well as learning the skills needed to craft research articles accepted in good scholarly journals. Learn more about research methods was also an issue. To partner up with more experience scholars and to attend international conferences was so important.
What has been your most memorable publication/project?
Many projects have been most interesting and to sort out two articles it would be the article on “Key concepts in new service development” published 1997.It is still widely cited and the second would be the paper on service systems embedded in social system, emphasizing that actors are always guided my social forces and what is really meaningful for them (signification) but at the same time socially acceptable (legitimation) and possible to do (domination). The article is published 2011 in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science with Bård Tronvoll and Thorsten Gruber as co-authors.
Is there a contribution that makes you feel exceptionally proud?
May be it is up to others to assess but the contribution to key concepts in the new service development literature as well as to understanding actors in service co-recovery processes grounded in my ongoing research with IKEA.
Was there a pivotal moment or key person in your career?
Not really one but rather scholars I have meet and worked with over the years including Steve Brown at ASU, Evert Gummesson and Christian Grönroos for inspiration and also Tore Strandvik at Hanken and more lately Steve Vargo and the research within Service-Dominant Logic. However, most important has been all my colleagues and friends at CTF.
How do you pick research partners and/or co-authors?
Partners I like, wants to work with me and complement my own experiences and skills. People whom I can trust and who deliver.
What current trends in marketing/service research do you find fascinating?
Many areas are developed and can be described in terms of understanding value creation service systems or ecosystems in which technologies, digitalization, robotization and social media to mention a few areas create new opportunities for service research. I am particularly interested in service innovations that scale up very fast globally. How come? What can we learn?
How do you envision the future of our service research field?
Service research will have to include more of theories from other academic fields and develop beyond marketing that still is dominating. We need to partner up with scholars in other disciplines including Psychology, Human resources management, Compute science, Management science, Strategy and Media and communication. Also, there is a need to strengthen the link to the business community, public sector and government as well as to specific sectors such as Higher education and Healthcare.
What is your go to relax after a challenging day or at the end of a challenging project?
I like gardening, jogging or spending time in the woods and with my family but also to enjoy a good movie.
If you had not gone into marketing/academia, what would have been your alternative career?
I like what I have been doing and still like to go to work, at least most of the days. If not going into Marketing/academia I would probably have worked as a consultant and may be in the area of financial services or as a business executive.
What about you surprises new students and/or colleagues?
I cannot tell since then it would not be a surprise anymore?? Or when I was young I used to play the drums in choir; not very good…..
