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Guest article by\u00a0Bart Larivi\u00e8re,\u00a0Recipient of the 2016 SERVSIG Emerging Service Scholar Award<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean, flying from New York to Brussels \u2013 unlike other passengers \u2013 I cannot fall asleep. Not because of my neighbor is snoring continuously. No, the adrenalin and excitement of the past few days are keeping me awake. I was fortunate to be part of the 5th<\/sup> (and celebration!!) edition of the Let\u2019s Talk About Service (LTAS)<\/a> workshop being held at Fordham University. I met young service scholars with brilliant research ideas and listened to the wise feedback from established scholars who were passionate about mentoring these young scholars. Such events always remind me how wonderful and supportive our SERVSIG community is.<\/p>\n Being a great \u201cservice scholar\u201d implies much more than doing research on one of the miscellaneous topics that are listed on the websites of various service journals or called for papers and special issues. Equally important is to help to shape our field in various other ways. In the next paragraphs, I reflect on three avenues worth considering \u2013 all relating to \u201cserving\u201d our service community in different ways. I encourage you to use your service DNA to engage in them.<\/strong><\/p>\n Service Avenue 1: Service research is often too narrowly perceived and understood as being a subdomain of the marketing discipline (e.g., the marketing of services as opposed to the marketing of goods). As a result, service \u201cmarketing\u201d is considered as another subfield in addition to consumer behavior (CB) and modeling.<\/p>\n This false perception by outsiders is partially caused by the fact that (i) many of our leading scholars are faculty members at a marketing department, and (ii) SERVSIG \u2013 our service community \u2013 acts as a special interest group of the American \u201cMarketing\u201d Association.<\/p>\n Most research fields aim at multidisciplinary research, for instance by drawing on literatures from various fields beyond their own discipline. Nevertheless, service research is different\u00a0and more interdisciplinary in nature. For instance, the mission and goal of the Center for Service Intelligence (CSI) at Ghent University is defined as follows:<\/p>\n \u201cOur ambition is to intertwine academic rigor and managerial relevance by envisioning\u00a0excellence\u00a0in\u00a0Research\u00a0(Think),\u00a0Education\u00a0(Learn), and Seminars & Conferences\u00a0(Network).\u00a0<\/em>An integrated approach on the\u00a0custome<\/strong>r (Marketing<\/strong>), the\u00a0personnel<\/strong>\u00a0(Human Resources<\/strong>) and\u00a0processes <\/strong>(Operations and IT<\/strong>) is warranted to foster service innovations<\/strong> and meet today\u2019s challenges in diverse industries:\u00a0private, public and social profit. The best experience for different stakeholders<\/strong> is the one that achieves the\u00a0greatest mutual value\u00a0for all parties involved: delivering what customers want\/need in an effective and cost-efficient way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This interdisciplinary vision of CSI is visualized in Figure 1:<\/p>\n Fig. 1: Service management from an interdisciplinary perspective @ CSI Ghent<\/p><\/div>\n And these are not just words or figures, the facts prove that scholars from 7 different departments at Ghent University are united and join forces under the umbrella of CSI:<\/p>\n The first five departments are part of the Faculty of Economics, the sixth of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the last of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. As such, during our food for thought seminars and monthly (i.e., 3th Friday of each month) meetings \u2013 which we call \u201cHappy Fridays\u201d \u2013 we meet with a diverse group of scholars having different backgrounds and talking about and sharing the same passion: service research!<\/p>\n Paradoxically, in my opinion, marketing is rather a subfield of \u201cservice management\/research<\/u>\u201d than the commonly held belief that \u201cservice marketing\/research<\/u>\u201d is a subdomain \u2013 and hence, fraction \u2013 of the marketing discipline. You can\u2019t value what you can\u2019t define. You can\u2019t appreciate what is unknown.<\/p>\n I encourage service scholars to become true apostles of our field in their respective regions, by better promoting and making clear what \u201cservice research\u201d stands for<\/strong>. As a result, we won\u2019t only get the recognition that we deserve, we will also be able to welcome more scholars from other fields to join forces with us in order to address (business) problems more holistically.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Service Avenue 2: It\u2019s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change (quoting Charles Darwin, Evolution Theory). Despite this conventional wisdom, one of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change (Bower & Christensen, 1995; Christensen, Raynor, & McDonald, 2015).<\/p>\n As noted by Kay Lemon during the LTAS workshop (December, 9, 2016): \u201cOur service field is important because our research starts from addressing real business problems<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n I fully agree, it is important to acknowledge real business problems as well as societal effects and trends. Just to name a few: our field is pioneer in addressing the impact of technological changes on customer \u2013 firm relationships, in understanding what is making customers loyal, in linking employee performance to firm profits through customer experience, in studying co-creation with customers and building networks or ecosystems to better serve the customer and finding service innovations, in adopting a multi-stakeholder perspective on well-being (e.g., transformative service research) in various industries, and countries (also having attention for the base of the pyramid), etc.<\/p>\n I encourage service scholars to address real (business) problems and to consider the managerial and societal impact of their research efforts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n We are in the best position to address these challenges, especially if we create an interdisciplinary team. To quote the wise words of Roland Rust \u201cWhat should companies do differently? How will your insights change their behavior?<\/em>\u201d It is essential to keep this relevance check in mind throughout the entire research journey: from problem definition to finding a team to data collection to analysis to the dissemination of new knowledge.<\/p>\n Service Avenue 3: Similar to the Circle of Life, I am convinced that we need to envision the \u201cCircle of Academic Life\u201d. There exists an opportunity to see the bigger picture. Much like a PhD trajectory is more than a bunch of bundled papers, so is your entire academic career. You cannot make a \u201ctrue\u201d difference by solely focusing on yourself and your own track record (e.g., how many papers you have published). For sure, these are important, but don\u2019t necessarily set you apart and make you happy.<\/p>\n When I wrote about my role models for a former <\/a>SERVIG newsletter, I acknowledged that \u201cwe should be very grateful to the pioneers of our service community: the ones who wrote textbooks on service marketing and management that changed our conventional way of thinking, the ones who founded and organized our service conferences, and the founding and subsequent editors of all our service journals. It\u2019s their \u2018service\u2019 enthusiasm that laid the foundation for our service research community.\u201d<\/p>\n I still remember a conversation that I had with Lerzan Aksoy and Tim Keiningham years ago when I asked them how I could ever pay them back for what they had done for me. Their answer was pretty straightforward: \u201cyou don\u2019t need to pay us back, you have to pay forward, that\u2019s how the system works<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n The \u201cCircle of Academic Life\u201d is a mindset, a way of working. It is about doing something back for the community, not just because reciprocity is a proper thing to do, but rather since paying back is rewarding. \u201cThe best way to pursue happiness is to help other people, because there\u2019s nothing else that will make you happier<\/em>\u201d (Quote by George Lucas).<\/p>\n I encourage service scholars to find their own spot<\/strong> in the \u201cCircle of Academic Life.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>People are a company\u2019s greatest assets. The same applies to our SERVSIG community. Equally important is to realize that people are known for their heterogeneous skills. We don\u2019t need everyone to set up journals, become an editor, or organize events\u2026 it is important to find your own strength in helping the community moving forward, which can be as simple as doing a friendly review, sharing great examples and cases for teaching purposes, welcoming and encouraging people to contribute to our field, mentoring young scholars, sharing great ideas on our SERVSIG Facebook and Twitter account, etc. It doesn\u2019t matter what you do; the act of \u201cserving\u201d in your own way is more important.<\/p>\n In sum: Let us use our service DNA to advance our field. Every single detail matters and can make a huge impact\u2026 Let\u2019s envision a great community and a great future together!<\/p>\n Recipient of the 2016 SERVSIG Emerging Scholar Award<\/em><\/p>\n Associate Professor of Service Management \u2013 Ghent University<\/em><\/p>\n Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Service Intelligence \u2013 Ghent University (www.CenterforServiceIntelligence.org<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n Co-Founder of the Let\u2019s Talk About Service (LTAS) workshop (www.LetsTalkAboutService.org<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nMake a Difference by Better \u201cMarketing<\/em>\u201d our Service Discipline!<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"picture1\"](\"http:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Picture1.png\")
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\nMake a Difference by Addressing Problems that Matter<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMake a Difference by \u201cPaying Forward\u201d in Your Own Way \u2013 That\u2019s the \u201cCircle of Academic Life\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"bart\"](\"http:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/bart-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Bart Larivi\u00e8re<\/em><\/p>\n