Developing service research – paving the way to transdisciplinary research
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how service, as an interdisciplinary area of research, can increase its potential for transdisciplinary contributions from the perspective of what signifies intra-, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research.
Design/methodology/approach
The essay first discusses common perspectives on the service concept before presenting a review on what signifies intra-, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research. The emerging theoretical framework is followed by a discussion on the challenges and opportunities for service research in making interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary theoretical contributions.
Findings
The research provides a typological framework for understanding intra-, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary service research and, implications related to how service research contributions can become increasingly inter- and transdisciplinary.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to widening the scope of service research by focussing on how the domain can overcome hurdles and increase its potential for making theoretical contributions that are applicable across and beyond established research disciplines.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank an anonymous reviewer for forwarding the insight that viewing “service as a perspective on value creation” is an idealistic and normative perspective and a common misperception of service phenomena common for researchers in Western democracies. Forwarding that value exploitation is the service experience of a large portion of humanity today and human history. Although such perspective on service may be suitable for service marketing the perspective is not applicable to service research as a whole.
Citation
Gustafsson, A., Högström, C., Radnor, Z., Friman, M., Heinonen, K., Jaakkola, E. and Mele, C. (2016), "Developing service research – paving the way to transdisciplinary research", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 9-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-03-2015-0098
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited