Theories are to provide order and meaning to things that are well-studied and known to be true. Paradigms are assumptions. shared by members of a given discipline. Locke (Ref. 1) identifies six characteristics of good inductive theory: 1. It is based on observations and data. 2. It defines concepts in a way that differentiates from other concepts. 3. It integrates concepts and resolves apparent contradictions. 4. It identifies causal relationships. 5. It typically takes time to develop. 6. It is open ended, allowing for extensions and reapplications. The foundation core of the unified services theory is as follows: "With service processes, the customer provides significant inputs into the production process." The presence of customer inputs is a necessary and sufficient condition to define a production process as a service process.
展开▼
