Introduction

摘要

The four articles in this special section span a wide variety of perspectives, from analyses of national economic data in the Apte et al. article to the individual firms' process blueprints found in the Bitner et al. article. Notwithstanding the many differences among the articles, some clear themes emerge. The role of information in services businesses is of paramount importance in all of the articles. The ability to capture, codify, and then re-use information is at the core of productivity improvement in services activities. Advances in information technology are thus a vitally important enabling technology throughout the services sector. The close, intertwined interactions between customers and suppliers in services figures prominently across the articles as well. It is clear that one cannot simply write complete contracts to address these problems. Instead, customers and suppliers must share information, adjust their roles, and co-evolve as they strive to jointly create value. Lurking within this dance between the parties are the respective business models of each party. Strategies of value creation (and, as part of the business model, value capture) determine the types of value co-creation that can be sustained between customers and suppliers. It is hard enough to innovate one's own business model.3 However, this is not enough. One must further align one's business model with that of one's co-creator in order to achieve the value co-creation necessary to realize services innovation.