Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 8 von 10 P, Jonkoping International Business School (-), course: International Marketing, 16 entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: Discusses four typologies of services by McLoughlin - Fitzsimmons -1996, Lovelock -1983, Valikangas - Lehtinen -1990, and Clark - Rajaratnam -1999 and their implications for the standardisation versus adaptation trade-off. However, we will first give an overview about earlier research done within this field. Co-Authors: Sofie Hildingsson, Patrick van der Honing. 328 KB, abstract: 1Introduction Within the course International Marketing, the third project deals with academic research in international marketing and internationalisation. We have chosen to focus on the inter-national dimension of standardisation versus adaptation in service marketing. We will mainly discuss four typologies of services by McLoughlin & Fitzsimmons (1996), Lovelock (1983), Valikangas & Lehtinen (1990), and Clark & Rajaratnam (1999) and their implications for the standardisation versus adaptation trade-off. However, we will first give an overview about earlier research done within this field. Some services were international in scope long before the term "scientific management" was ever invented or the first marketing course was taught. Shipping was an essential in-gredient in opening up early trade routes, with banking and insurance following and then facilitating them. In time, large companies emerged to operate international marine freight and passenger services, developing a network of agents in different ports to represent them. As more and more organisations offer services in foreign markets - often around the world - and as international trade in services increases, important questions are being raised concerning the design and implementation of international service marketing str