Topic outline

  • Zoom link for participants. The online meetings take place on Wednesday mornings, usually starting at 10:00 (or as detailed in the module descriptions).

    The Service Operations Management course focuses on the analysis, design and management of services and service systems and the processes supporting sustainable value creation in service operations. For this purpose, the course develops the knowledge and skills needed to manage and develop operations in a world of advanced service. 

    The course provides the opportunity to learn about the principles of managing service-centric operations across different industries. Through completing this course, the participants will learn to identify the key opportunities and challenges in service business, and develop novel ways of acquiring, managing and delivering products, services, and solutions for improved efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability. The participants also learn the contemporary developments around networked, customer and value-focused, and digital platform-enabled value creation.

    The course content is divided into six themes and modules, focusing on the fundamentals of services economy, value creation by service, customer-centric service systems, scalable and efficiently implemented service solutions, networked value creation by digitalizing service ecosystems, and the institutional change of business beliefs, rules, and cooperative norms by service transformation.

    Each module spans two weeks. The theme of the module is explored from theoretical and practical viewpoints by online lectures and company cases. Learning assignments include pre-reading article reviews in groups, quizzes, learning diaries, and a course essay in groups.

    The following diagram illustrates the flow of module assignments. For most weeks, there is pre-assignment, usually pre-reading, which is reviewed by one group of students. The article review is uploaded by the group for everybody else to explore and grade as a peer-review. Then, there is an online meeting on Wednesdays between 10 and 12 (unless otherwise communicated). After the online meeting, your learning is evaluated by a quiz, which is opened at 12:00, and closes at 18:00. Once started, the quiz is open for 20mins to complete.


    Course assignments

    • Pre-reading article review presentation: A video review of the day's assigned pre-reading article in groups of 3-4 students (10% of the grade, which is determined by a peer-review), prepared & submitted ahead of the the online meeting. See instructions on the "Article review group choice"
    • Peer-review of the article presentation: Each student performs and submits a peer-review of the article presentation. 10% of the grade is determined by peer-review activity and quality.
    • QuizzesAn online questionnaire based on the day's online lecture content and materials. The quizzes determine 15% of the grade. See instructions on the "Quiz" page.
    • Learning diaryA structured reflection of each theme. 30% of the grade. One submission for each theme. See instructions on the "Learning diaries" page.
    • Course essayA group project to write an essay on a topic that spans the course content (35% of the grade). The essay group is the same as the article review group. See instructions on the "Course essay" page.

    • General news and announcements by course staff.
    • Ask your general course related questions here.

      If you have personal questions, send email to course teachers and put course code TU-E2013 in the beginning of your email header.