Service Industries in the Global Economy is a comparative international reference collection which identifies and reprints the most important articles on services and the service economy written by geographers, economists and sociologists. The focus is on the growth and evolution of service activities in the advanced economies of Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim within the framework of the global economy. The first volume explores the shift away from manufacturing employment towards a variety of service occupations in the advanced economies. It provides an empirical and theoretical account of the transformation, exploring the growth and nature of service employment as well as the evolution of a service class and the issue of social polarisation. The second volume explores the relationship between service activities and economic development as well as the relationship between producer services and manufacturing companies. It also provides an analysis of the growth of multinational service firms and examines the relationship between services, technological change and globalisation.

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Exploring Service Science (IESS), held in Porto, Portugal, in February 2015. Service science constitutes an interdisciplinary approach to systematic innovation in service systems, integrating managerial, social, legal, and engineering aspects to address the theoretical and practical challenges of the service industry and its economy. The 27 full papers accepted for IESS were selected from 69 submissions. The papers consider the topics service innovation, service exploration, service design, IT-based service engineering, and service sustainability.

This book offers a hands-on approach to prepare businesses for managing the impact of technology transformation by the pragmatic, consistent, and persistent application of proven business principles and practices. Technology is rapidly transforming our businesses and our society. Knowledge worker roles are being impacted, and as operations are being automated, business models are changing as the use of cloud-based services lowers costs and provides flexibility. This book provides a guide towards managing the environment of uncertainly caused by the rapid changes in technology by combining strategy and leadership to influence the environment, instil the right behaviours, and strengthen the skills that will enable businesses to be adaptive, responsive, and resilient.

A service economy era is coming! As the basic discipline of service dominant era, service science mainly studies common rules of service activities, aiming to provide theoretical bases for creating service value in the new era. The book, which integrates knowledge of service management, operational management, logistics and supply chain management, constructs a research system for this emerging discipline. Service science research system constitutes service philosophy, resource allocation, operational management and service technology. Many cases about China's service enterprises are incorporated in the book, in the hope of providing readers an insight into not only service science but also the development of China's service economy.

The book is devoted to the analysis of promotional material of tourist activities on tourism websites, including walking, dining, and visiting natural and cultural heritage sights, as instances of multimodal texts through a case study of Croatian and Scottish tourism websites.

Analysing in-depth data from 11 European countries, this collection explores the rise of the European running market, the reasons and motives for running, and the most important players in the field. The volume sets out policy challenges and marketing possibilities and addresses issues of participation, cost and health.

This book discusses the mutual relationship between service and sustainability. It covers methodologies and approaches and describes measurements and tools that can promote sustainability on the service market. Lastly, it presents the different applications of sustainability, together with examples of sustainable services. Environmental concerns have become integral to any decision-making process in the design and implementation of goods and services. With the increasing dominance of the service sector, and as service systems become more complex and interdisciplinary, the focus must move from the exchange of products to that of services. Newly created services should thus aim to incorporate sustainability into their designs while viewing sustainability as a service in its own right. Integrating sustainability in the service design and development process is essential to improving the sustainability of our society and preserving the environment. Moreover, doing so shifts the service boundaries from values that are focused only on personal, local, and current needs and economic profit to those that are broader and more future oriented, ultimately placing greater social and environmental responsibility on all stakeholders. In addition, it advances the current state-of-the-art in sustainable development and service design and contributes to improving the quality of life on a global scale.

Foundations for Efficient Web Service Selection describes the foundational framework for efficient Web service selection. It lays out a theoretical underpinning for the design of models and algorithms for searching and optimizing access to Web services. Excerpts from Prof. Fabio Casati's foreword: " This excellent book looks at the search problem from a broader perspective. Instead of narrowing down on a specific aspect or subproblem of service search, it dissects and analyzes the fundamental problems in search and presents concrete, applicable solutions as well as the theoretical foundations behind them...One aspect I found particularly significant in the book is the mind shift it generates from thinking about service modeling for the sake of supporting deployment or invocation to modeling for supporting search. This design for search approach is exactly what we do when we design databases because search is what we worry about in that case, and there is no reason why this shouldn't be the case for services if we want services to be searchable with a similar effectiveness."

Web services and service oriented environments are key enablers for the migration of entertainment, business, sociability, science and health-care from the physical world to the virtual world. The result of this on-going migration is a new place very much different from the physical world, one where interconnected services interact with human users, sensors and embedded devices. Yet for this vision to become reality, trust needs to be addressed as members of the global e-society r- ularly today deal with the question whether they can trust other, unknown parties. Trust is a vital component of internet-based interactions and service-oriented en- ronment, but all too often it is assumed to be an implicit property that exists in the background rather than being an explicit property that is well-de ned and quant- able. While providing trust is challenging in existing computing systems, providing trust in service oriented environments is much more complex due to the dynamic and adaptable nature of these environment which are often large scale and across domains. To date the problem of trust for service oriented environments has been largely unexplored. This book represents the rst comprehensivecoverageof the principles,methods and systems for trust management and evaluation in service oriented environments.

PeopleMatter Now, More Than Ever THE SERVICE INDUSTRY including restaurants, convenience stores, and other retail companies has seen a tremendous amount of change in recent years and not all for the better. These businesses are facing some major challenges, from slim margins and high turnover rates to ever-changing workforce management issues infl uenced by politics, generational trends, and the new post-downturn economy. PeopleMatter puts forth the simple yet powerful idea that the key to overcoming these challenges lies with your people. You can t accomplish any of your goals without them, and if you can better understand who they are, what they want, and how to engage and motivate them, you can unlock a world of potential that will make a positive difference in more ways than one. The payoff can be huge, not just in terms of bettering your bottom line, but also in the lives of everyone involved including you. Your people are the most valuable asset you ve got, and helping them fi nd real meaning and purpose in their lives is both good for business and good for them. Plus, being able to do that for someone else is a pretty powerful and inspiring thing. Because real change is about more than just theory, PeopleMatter also provides action items that employers and managers can use right now to make their workplaces better, with the end result being happier employees and happier customers, which in turn leads to higher sales and better margins and who wouldn t want all that?"

Tourism Management, Marketing, and Development revolves around the implementation of ICT applications in the tourism sector: technology is engendering a major shift both in the performance of individuals and companies involved in the tourism sector and having an impact on the way individuals consume services and enjoy experiences in space and time.

The Festschrift in honor of Prof. Dr. Peter Keller, president of the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AIEST) since 1994, represents a wide range of tourism research as well as the current state of the ongoing debates in tourism as a scientific research field. The aim is to cover multiple topics and trends in travelling and to discuss future development possibilities in the leisure industry.

Tourism as a Resource-based Industry presents the conceptual framework of the Norwegian economic geographer Sondre Svalastog and functions as a practical tool for analyzing and identifying resources when working towards a more sustainable tourism industry. Tourism resources and their sustainability are analysed through the lens of a multidisciplinary approach which includes social, economic, cultural and natural dimensions. Contextual awareness is achieved by combining research-based knowledge with local know-how and information on local conditions. The book facilitates a way forward that examines both productivity and sustainability. The usefulness and value of Svalastog's conceptual work is demonstrated by a selection of new case studies by experts in the field, from different countries including Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, and the UK. This book: - Identifies local conditions and resources, climate change concerns, different types of tourists and a variety of challenges in high-cost and low-cost countries. - Considers how best to maximise potential and production, ensuring that both the host community and tourist benefits. - Provides a wide-ranging selection of case studies covering topics such as urban heritage, national parks, niche tourism and location-specific tourism products. - Presents ideas on how to secure sound planning within the industry, using conceptual and methodological tools. Tourism researchers and students will find this book helpful for understanding the development of tourism and how it can contribute to the UN Agenda 2030 which reflects the urgency for change, to secure cultural and natural resources, health and social resilience, and the stability of a socially constructed economy. Thus, tourism research needs to include a constant review and if required, renewal of processes that manage how society, culture and natural resources are used to achieve a balanced sustainable tourism process.

Since the early times of travelling architecture does constitute an important force of attraction and a vital element in marketing. Until today destinations try to increase their market positions by means of the development and restoration of the built environment. However, architecture is characterised by an enduring presence with impacts on visitors and residents alike. Hence, on a sustainable basis it needs to chime with place and situation. Where modesty might be suitable for one destination, spectacular architecture could be a transformation catalyst or unique selling proposition for another. Destination developers have to be aware of the local requirements as well as the reciprocal relationship between the modern practice of tourism and the built environment. To address the complexity of architectural tourism, throughout the book this topic is subject of a controversial discussion and approached with a contextual and interdisciplinary view.

Men, Masculinities, Travel and Tourism draws together established and emerging academics that have a key interest in men, masculinity, travel and tourism. Through the chapters collected in this volume the reader will be exposed to cutting edge research and writing that offer global and local perspectives within these fields.

Luisa Wolter examines the travel motivations and interests of natural park visitors to Mallorca with a special focus on sustainable tourism development. The data for the study were collected from tourists in the two natural parks s' Albufera and Llevant in the North of Mallorca. Based on the results of the analysis, natural area managers can develop new products and marketing strategies that address their very own visitors, contribute to the sustainable development of their region, and influence the visitors' views and behaviors by raising environmental awareness.

Applies Lean concepts to a high-variety, low-volume service business, which are more prevalent than high volume manufacturing companies. Illustrates all the Lean concepts in a real-world example that approached Lean management in the intended way-to support and develop people to continually improve processes in a respectful environment. Illustrates an effective organic change management process that grows the new culture rather than trying to force tools mechanistically on employees and assiociates. The vibrant graphic novel format visually brings the story to life. Co-Written by best-selling author Jeffrey Liker -- the world's expert on the Toyota Way.

Ecotourism is a unique facet of globalization, promising the possibility of reconciling the juggernaut of development with ecological/cultural conservation. Davidov offers a comparative analysis of the issue using a case study of indigenous Kichwa people of Ecuador and their interactions with globalization and transnational systems.

Explores the ongoing transformation of service relationships, focusing on the incorporation of the customer's active contribution to virtually all aspects and stages of the production process. This volume illuminates social relations and interaction between customers and service providers as well as between the users of web-based services.

The Science of Service Systems intends to stimulate discussion and understanding by presenting theory-based research with actionable results. Most of the articles focus on formalizing the theoretical foundations for a science of service systems, examining a wide range of substantive issues and implementations related to service science from various perspectives. From the formal (ontologies, representation specifications, decision-making and maturity models) to the informal (analysis frameworks, design heuristics, anecdotal observations), these contributions provide a snapshot in time of the gradually emerging scientific understanding of service systems. The Science of Service Systems, along with its companion text, Service Systems Implementation, is designed to present multidisciplinary and multisectoral perspectives on the nature of service systems, on research and practice in service, and on the future directions to advance service science. These two volumes compose a collection of articles from those involved in the emerging area known as service science.

Service Design and Delivery provides a comprehensive overview of the increasingly important role played by the service industry. Focusing on the development of different processes employed by service organizations, the book emphasizes management of service in relation to products. It not only explores the complexity of this relationship, but also introduces strategies used in the design and management of service across various sectors, highlighting where tools, techniques and processes applicable to one sector may prove useful in another. The implementation methods introduced in the book also illustrate how and why companies can transform themselves into service organizations. While the book is primarily intended as a text for advanced-level courses in service design and delivery, it also contains theoretical and practical knowledge beneficial to both practitioners in the service sector and those in manufacturing contemplating moving towards service delivery.

Service Systems Implementation provides the latest applications and practices aimed at improving the key performance indicators of service systems, especially those related to service quality, service productivity, regulatory compliance, and sustainable service innovation. The book presents action-oriented, application-oriented, design science-oriented (artifacts building: constructs, models, methods and instantiations) and case study-oriented research with actionable results by illustrating techniques that can be employed in large scale, real world examples. The case studies will help visualize service systems along the four key dimensions of people, information, technology and value propositions which can help enable better integration between them towards higher value propositions. The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, examine a wide range of substantive issues and implementations related to service science in various industries. These contributions also showcase the application of an array of research methods, including surveys, experiments, design science, case studies and frameworks, providing the reader with insights and guidelines to assist in building their own service systems, and thus, moving toward a more favorable service customer and provider experience. Service Systems Implementation, along with its companion text, The Science of Service Systems, is designed to present multidisciplinary and multisectoral perspectives on the nature of service systems, on research and practice in service, and on the future directions to advance service science. These two volumes compose a collection of articles from those involved in the emerging area known as service science.

Health, Tourism and Hospitality: Spas, Wellness and Medical Travel, 2nd Edition takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at the growing health, wellness and medical tourism sectors in a global context. The book analyses the history and development of the industries, the way in which they are managed and organised, the expanding range of new and innovative products and trends, and the marketing of destinations, products and services. The only book to offer a complete overview and introduction to health, tourism and hospitality this 2nd Edition has been updated to include: * Expanded coverage to the hospitality sector with a particular focus on spa management. * New content on medical tourism throughout the book, to reflect the worldwide growth in medical travel with more and more countries entering this competitive market. * Updated content to reflect recent issues and trends including: ageing population, governments encouraging preventative health, consumer use of contemporary and alternative therapies, self-help market, impacts of economic recession, spa management and customer loyalty. * New case studies taken from a range of different countries and contexts, and focusing on established or new destinations, products and services such as: conventional medicine, complementary and alternative therapies, lifestyle-based wellness, beauty and cosmetics, healthy nutrition, longevity and anti (or active)-ageing, amongst others. Written in a user friendly style, this is essential reading for students studying health, tourism and hospitality.

Conferences and conventions are one of the fastest growing areas of the events industry. This is a substantially important sector yet research into many dimensions is in its infancy. This timely book, uniquely presents a 'state of the art' synthesis of the research on both demand and supply sides of the industry as well as insights into how current and future trends are affecting conferences and conventions. This volume provides a critical review of the players involved in conferences and conventions; destination image and impacts; and current and future trends. The players in the industry include attendees/delegates, professional conference organisers, and association meeting planners. On the destination side, conference venues and facilities, along with convention and visitor bureaux are examined, as well as how destination image can be developed and improved. Further, this section considers the economic, social and environmental impacts of conferences and conventions. The final section considers some of the major trends that are likely to impact on the industry, including climate change, new technologies and risk and crisis management. To reflect the sector's international nature case studies and examples from different geographical regions are included throughout. By identifying gaps in our knowledge, and presenting a collection of themes to guide future research, this book not only adds to our current knowledge, but will underpin the advancement of knowledge in the future. This book is essential reading for all those interested in Events.