Service delivery systems: the transformational context

Abstract

This paper suggests that many of the works found within the services literature require reappraisal to ensure their relevance and utility in a radically changing business landscape. Approaching inquiry from a General Systems Theory perspective the paper proposes a new framework for future research on service design through an operations management lens. This framework suggests that research is needed to address the transformational context of service delivery systems, in particular the correlation of ‘customer input’ type with ‘transformation types’, categorized by material, information, and customer. This potentially provides archetypical forms of service delivery systems which are more closely aligned to organizational practice. These archetypes may be used for the logical derivation of future hypothetical propositions and subsequent confirmation through empirical investigation and thus provides a platform for future research. We suggest that this approach facilitates the pursuit of theory which informs organizational practice in a changing and expanding service context.