A Dynamic Theory of Service Management: Implications for Managing Service Improvements Avoiding the 'Service Jungle'

摘要

Despite the demonstrated benefits of industrial services in driving competitive advantage, mostcompanies found it extremely difficult to manage the transition from product manufacturer toservice provider successfully. In this context, we observed different phenomena. One phenomenonwe term the “service jungle”. The service jungle describes the phenomenon that service programshave often led to declining business because of increasing costs, which could not be recoveredwith corresponding returns. That leads overall to decreasing margins and weakens company’scompetitive positions. Despite of the high popularity of services and numerous serviceprograms, just few companies have gone into what we call “service garden”. For the last fouryears, we have worked with a variety of firms to understand the processes that lead to the “servicejungle”. This paper discusses the phenomenon on the basis of a dynamic theory of servicemanagement and describes guidelines to overcome it.