The La Londe Conference 2010

Citation

Goudarzi, K., Llosa, S. and Orsingher, C. (2011), "The La Londe Conference 2010", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 22 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/josm.2011.08522eaa.001

The La Londe Conference 2010

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Service Management, Volume 22, Issue 5

Connecting and integrating knowledge in service activities

“The International Research Seminar in Service Management”, or the La Londe Conference, as it is more commonly known, takes place every two years in France. The conference was founded in 1990 by Pierre Eiglier and Eric Langeard who, more than 20 years ago, foresaw the academic and managerial implications of the interdisciplinary nature of services. Throughout the years, the conference has followed the development and the direction of the service debate.

This special section of the Journal of Service Management features three stimulating papers that were presented at the 11th La Londe Conference, which was held in 2010 and comprised/attracted 100 participants from 18 countries. The papers reflect the spirit as well as the content of the conference. They include a mix of conceptual thinking and field research; a mix of nationalities and a mix of disciplines – marketing, human resources management, and strategy – which constitute the heart and the wealth of services as a research area.

The paper by Matthias Gouthier and Miriam Rhein highlights the prominent role of organizational pride in the human resources of service organizations. Their research is based on a quantitative analysis of 733 service employees’ responses collected through an online panel provider. The research differentiates two dimensions of organizational pride – emotional and attitudinal – and demonstrates a strong relationship between these two constructs. Organizational pride helps to reduce turnover intention and increase commitment to customer service and creativity.

The paper by Thomas Eichentopf, Michael Kleinaltenkamp and Janine Van Stiphout revisits the concept of customer script and the blueprinting technique within the debate of value creation in services. The authors argue that service blueprints, which represent the provider’s view of the service activity, and scripts, which represent the customer’s view of the service activity, should be integrated to enhance value creation. Building on two dimensions of script, necessity and learnability, the authors propose a classification of services that calls for different types of transaction costs and specific governance mechanisms for the service firm.

The paper by Howard Lightfoot and Heiko Gebauer investigates how determinants of service innovations are aligned with service strategies. A qualitative, multi-case study on 12 Western European goods manufacturers including 24 service innovation projects was employed. The findings indicate the complexity of aligning service strategies with determinants for service innovations. While configurations of determinants are associated with innovation success, alternative configurations can lead to counterproductive effects and limit the success of service innovation projects, as well as the implementation of service strategies.

We cannot conclude this editorial without thanking Jay Kandampully for having supported the appearance of these papers in this issue.

Kiane Goudarzi, Sylvie Llosa, Chiara OrsingherGuest Editors