Factories or theatres? The future of service

Abstract

The pervasiveness of the service economy is as evident as it is frequently underestimated. Particularly, while the main attention is paid to the so called economy of the experience, a relevant change is taking place, what we called the service industrialization. It is the consequence of a twofold phenomenon: on the one hand, the adoption of the new technologies in order to run the service operations; on the other, the transfer of the most effective management practices from the goods manufacturing context to the service one. The service industrialization can enable the convergence of the two fundamental service operations models we have identified, namely the Service Factory and the Service Theatre.