Introduction: Objectives, approach and main lessons learned

Abstract

Literature on service sector has increased substantially along the last two decades, particularly the analysis focused on some specific industries and activities, like trading, business and financial services, transport, communications and tourism. But, despite recent and important advances, services are still lacking of much more attention by researchers and frequently underestimated by politicians. The regional aspects of services growth is a field needing additional researches and contributions, because the continuous expansion of services has a variety of important effects and consequences from the territorial point of view. This book offers interesting and new contributions to this topic and the aim of this Introduction is to summarize the objectives pursued and some of the main findings reached. The chapter suggests also some of the main lessons that can be drawn from the analysis and contributions included into the book.