LEARNING OUTCOMES
The course is designed to encourage you to formulate a strong and insightful research question about service innovation. The course will go through past, current and future perspectives on service marketing and will look at the evolution of the field. We will focus on contemporary issues and innovation in service design, delivery and research opened up by this evolution.
At the end of this course, you will be able to
- Discuss different schools of thought and perspectives on services marketing and critically analyse insights from early services research
- Identify how conceptual/practical innovations connect to different schools of thought and perspectives on services marketing
- Explain the evolution of contemporary approaches to design and deliver services (e.g. sharing, non-ownership, platforms).
- Debate the impact of user-centric perspectives on service design, delivery and experience
- Discuss how technology can encourage service innovations and accelerate newer models of service marketing and customer experience
Credits: 6
Schedule: 24.04.2023 - 28.04.2023
Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Kristina Wittkowski, Kushagra Bhatnagar
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):
Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):
Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
valid for whole curriculum period:
This is an exciting time to be a services researcher. Services generate more than 74% of the GDP of developed economies and account for over 70% of employment (Deloitte 2018). Technological breakthroughs have brought about significant changes to the way service firms market and deliver to customers and elicit novel service-oriented business models to emerge. For instance, specialized service providers are now in fierce competition with traditional manufacturing companies and consumers who move into the service sector and provide their offerings as product-service-systems or prosumers. To better understand these dynamics, we need new research questions, new scales and diagnostics of measurement, new ways to conceptualize marketplace interactions between the server and the served. Above all, it requires a fundamental grasp of the past, present and future of the service innovation landscape.
To achieve the core aim of this course and to enable you to formulate strong research questions on service innovations, we will discuss recent innovations in services marketing. Specifically, we will critically analyse the differing conceptualizations of the customer (e.g. co-creator of value, insight and innovation), or the emergence of platform organizations that have loosened the strongly-connected triad of service provider, service firm and customer. Moreover, to equip you with a thorough understanding of the service marketing field, we will discuss the field s evolution over the past 40-odd years. We will examine distinct time-periods, and understand how their innovation zeitgeists and conceptual breakthroughs refined services marketing propositions in each era.
We will follow a design-thinking approach throughout the course, with group discussions, brainstorming, and other hands-on activities that encourage participants to collaborate, identify research gaps and formulate impactful research question(s). The co-created seminars will help you gain nuanced understanding of contemporary marketing landscapes for services and service innovation. You will get insights into how successive conceptual/practical innovations have shaped the services marketing field. You will leverage insights from the course to discover untapped research opportunities and collaborate with other participants on the seminar.
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
We will follow a PASS/FAIL criteria to evaluate student participation. We will not judge you on the level of familiarity with the assigned literature, but will try our best to help you leverage insights into crafting real research questions. This requires motivation, preparation and engaged participation from your side. Prior to the course sessions, it is essential that you make yourself familiar with the relevant readings and during the sessions, you should share your insights with the group. To obtain a better understanding of your practice and progress and to support you in developing your meta-cognitive skills, we will ask you to keep a learning diary prior to and throughout the course. In addition to the learning diary, the quality of your participation in the discussion sessions will count towards your evaluation.
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
6 ECTS represent approximately 160 hours of student workload. For this course, we estimate that you should spend your time on the (related) course activities as follows:
Contact teaching: 3 days @ 4 hours = 12 hours
Readings & Session Preparation: 138 hours
Learning diary: 10 hours
DETAILS
Substitutes for Courses
valid for whole curriculum period:
Prerequisites
valid for whole curriculum period:
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further Information
valid for whole curriculum period:
Teaching Language : English
Teaching Period : 2022-2023 Spring V - Summer
2023-2024 Spring V - SummerEnrollment :
Registration for Courses: In the academic year 2022-2023, registration for courses will take place on Sisu (sisu.aalto.fi) instead of WebOodi. via weboodi