Competing In A Service Economy: How To Create A Competitive Advantage Through Service Development And Innovation

Competing in a Service Economy is a hands-on guide to creating services, with illustrative examples from service-oriented companies including Disney, Ericsson, IKEA, National Association of Convenience Stores, Ritz Carlton, Scandinavian Airline Systems, Sterling Pulp Chemicals, and Telia Mobile. This practical resource for executives, general managers, and managers in marketing, operations, and human resources reveals how to gain a competitive advantage by creating and implementing a strategic plan that will ultimately improve their organization's services. Written by the authors of the best-selling book Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit, this important new book will help business professionals to think and plan strategically to dramatically improve services, service development, and service innovation within their organizations.

* Case studies on IKEA, Disney, Volvo Trucks, Sterling Pulp Chemicals and EMC2 illustrate various approaches.

* Authors bring extensive knowledge base through years of both academic and applied research in collaboration with a variety of firms and organization.

* Hands-on approach to structuring and implementing new service development activities.

Anders Gustafsson teaches service quality management at Karlstad University, Sweden. He is a research leader at the Service Research Center, working on topics such as technology readiness, user-driven service development, and customer orientation.

Michael D. Johnson is the D. Maynard Phelps Professor of Business Administration and professor of marketing at the University of Michigan Business School. He has been instrumental in the development of national satisfaction indices around the world. He teaches services marketing management in the Michigan MBA program.
Johnson and Gustafsson are the authors of UMBS best-selling book Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit, from Jossey-Bass.