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The consolidation of numerous highly‐fragmented US service industries has attracted considerable capital inflows during the 1990s. Fundamental questions about this phenomenon include the sources of value in consolidations, and how these firms avoid the diseconomies of scale and scope noted in the service management literature. This paper introduces the consolidation phenomenon, discusses relevant theory, and begins to develop a framework useful in the understanding of scope economies for services.

The purpose of this article, which is based in the tradition of critical theory, is to present a number of reasons for preserving a strong production economy given that the aim of the nation state is to work for improved competitive advantage.

The critical theory approach is used in this paper.

The paper is also an attempt to show why a majority of Western countries have defended the transformation from a predominant production economy to a service economy by explaining the shift as a result of class interests, using new class theory. It argues for why a materialist perspective in economic theory is relevant today.

The Western world should focus more on the production economy and less on the service economy.

To the author's knowledge, no other paper has gathered as many arguments on the issue before.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an endogenous growth model, as a component of a broader study of servicization with skill premium and its policy implications in the evolving digital economy.

This paper develops a two-sector endogenous growth model which allows for the observed characteristics of digitally empowered structural changes. Specifically, the driving force of economic growth is the expanding variety of intermediate services as a consequence of innovation in services. The introduction of new intermediate services specifically contributes to total factor productivity in the production of service sector, and thus an uneven growth path with skill premium toward a service economy generally exists.

The principal finding of this paper is that the digitally empowered expanding variety of intermediate services due to innovation contributes significantly to total factor productivity in the production of service sector, and thus a servicization with skill premium generally exists along a steady-state path. In addition, this paper derives an optimal innovation policy to rule out the market failures due to innovation externality and market power in monopolistic competition conditions, and shows the Rybczynski effects of exogenous endowment changes in the evolving digital economy.

The principal contribution of this paper is to determine how unbalanced endogenous growth along a steady-state path is linked with a service economy with skill premium in the evolving digital economy. In addition to this analysis, this paper provides policy implications – namely, that a positive but finite innovation subsidy can achieve the social optimum in the digital economy, and that an exogenous increase in high-skilled labor can speed up a digitally empowered economic growth.

As sharing economy has become increasingly popular, researchers from various disciplines begin to pay more attention to this important phenomenon. However, the current literature is fragmented and lacks a framework to integrate previous studies and guide future research. This study aims to systematically review the literature to better understand what one knows and what one need to know about sharing economy and provide a road map for future research in the context of sharing economy.

A systematic review was conducted with EBSCO and science direct database. In total, 91 studies were identified.

The review shows that previous studies focus on different stakeholders, including consumers, peer service providers, platform providers, and competitors. The authors further identify the main topics and limitations of the literature (integrated into a framework) and provide possible directions for future studies. For example, the authors find that few studies have examined individual and technical factors. The findings also show that consumers’ other activities and outcomes have received little attention. To address these limitations, future studies that examine how individual and technical characteristics influence sharing economy’s usage intention/behaviors are suggested. The authors also suggest future studies to explore other activities during the process of sharing economy services.

The framework and directions provided can further the sharing economy research by addressing important gaps in the current literature.

This review identifies many opportunities for researchers to better understand the phenomenon of sharing economy.

This article examines the nature of service provision in the platform-based collaborative economy from the perspective of entrepreneurship theories. It departs from a knowledge gap about the individual and contextual determinants of service provision through digital platforms. By exploring these determinants for the service provision in two main sectors of the collaborative economy, transportation and accommodation, the study provides a first conceptual introduction of these activities and their nature for the existing entrepreneurship research.

The analysis is based upon Eurobarometer microdata (2018), covering 28 European countries with about 27,000 observations, and uses a seemingly unrelated Probit model.

The likelihood of service provision through platforms in the collaborative economy is highest for individuals aged 25–34 years but decreases continuously with age. Occupation, sex and population density of the place of residence are other relevant determinants. By contrast, the regulatory system and GDP per capita of the region are not relevant.

The findings illuminate the under-studied individual and contextual determinants related to individuals engaging with entrepreneurial activities in the collaborative economy. Future research should investigate the role of previous self-employment, skills and spatial context.

The collaborative economy is still a marginal sector in Europe that is likely to grow bigger. Particularly the young, highly educated entrepreneurial persons located in urban regions may spur this expected growth. Supporting policy measures aimed at this social stratum might foster digital entrepreneurship and contribute to growth in the digital economy.

By exploring the individual and contextual determinants for the service provision in the two main sectors of the platform-based collaborative economy, transportation and accommodation, the study provides a first conceptual introduction of these activities and their nature into existing entrepreneurship research.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the theory of services‐led industrial policy in services dominated but industrially lagging developing Asian economies and discuss its implications for employment, competitiveness, and diversification.

An inductive approach using qualitative methodology is adopted reviewing the available literature and evidence from Pakistan. The critical synthesis of the history of economic growth and industrial policy has followed Kuhn's paradigm approach.

Focusing on Pakistan, the paper synthesizes the history of industrial policy to identify the major paradigm shifts, especially the structural reforms era of the 1990s. The evidence suggests that the reforms under the structural adjustment program (SAP) have proved to be the necessary but not sufficient conditions for inclusive growth and industrial competitiveness in services dominated economies. Services‐led growth without an integrated and competitive industrial sector can lead to severe external accounts deficits and unemployment. The traditional role of services as “driver of demand/growth” is extended as “driver of productivity/competitiveness” through forward linkages with other sectors of the economy. The services sector's enabling role as the “software” of the economy and its impact on total factor productivity growth, diversification, and inclusive growth is postulated.

A quantification of forward and backward linkages is needed to identify the potential of services sub‐sectors in driving growth and productivity, respectively.

The paper identifies the need to match the existing industrial policy regimes with the economic structures in services‐dominated developing economies. The role of forward linkages in the productivity growth has implications for measurement of services output in national accounts in order to fully capture the contribution of this sector.

The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations.

Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multiple questions for each topic are proposed to guide research efforts. The topics and questions, while wide-ranging, are only representative of the many ongoing research opportunities related to service operations.

The field of service operations has many interesting research topics and questions that are largely unexplored. Furthermore, these research areas are not only increasingly integrative across multiple themes within operations but often transcend functional disciplines. This creates opportunities for ever more impactful research with a greater reach throughout the service system and suggests that service researchers, regardless of functional affiliation, can contribute to the ongoing conversation on the role of service operations in value creation.

Leveraging the collective knowledge of the JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel to expand on the research themes generated from the Delphi study, novel questions for future study are put forward. Recognizing that the number of potential research questions is virtually unlimited, summary questions by theme and topic are also provided. These questions represent a synopsis of the individual questions and can serve as a quick reference guide for researchers interested in pursuing new directions in conceptual and empirical research in service operations. This summary also serves as a framework to facilitate the formulation of additional research topics and questions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine peer-to-peer sharing platform business models, their sources of competitive advantage, and the roles, motivations and behaviors of key actors in their ecosystems.

This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, tourism and hospitality, and strategy literature.

First, this paper defines key types of platform business models in the sharing economy anddescribes their characteristics. In particular, the authors propose the differentiation between sharing platforms of capacity-constrained vs capacity-unconstrained assets and advance five core properties of the former. Second, the authors contrast platform business models with their pipeline business model counterparts to understand the fundamental differences between them. One important conclusion is that platforms cater to vastly more heterogeneous assets and consumer needs and, therefore, require liquidity and analytics for high-quality matching. Third, the authors examine the competitive position of platforms and conclude that their widely taken “winner takes it all” assumption is not valid. Primary network effects are less important once a critical level of liquidity has been reached and may even turn negative if increased listings raise friction in the form of search costs. Once a critical level of liquidity has been reached, a platform’s competitive position depends on stakeholder trust and service provider and user loyalty. Fourth, the authors integrate and synthesize the literature on key platform stakeholders of platform businesses (i.e. users, service providers, and regulators) and their roles and motivations. Finally, directions for further research are advanced.

This paper helps platform owners, service providers and users understand better the implications of sharing platform business models and how to position themselves in such ecosystems.

This paper integrates the extant literature on sharing platforms, takes a novel approach in delineating their key properties and dimensions, and provides insights into the evolving and dynamic forms of sharing platforms including converging business models.

Consumers’ intentions to participate in the sharing economy have received much attention from researchers in recent times. However, little attention has been paid to consumers’ actual participation in the sharing economy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that drive customers in Ghana to use Uber.

The authors used surveys as the research design. There were 500 participants who were users of Uber. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires.

The findings of this study show that trust, customer return on investment and search convenience are the key factors that contribute to riders’ usage of Uber service. Furthermore, this study shows that consumers’ need for prestige and social connection do not play a significant role in consumers’ (riders’) usage of Uber services.

Studies investigating consumers’ participation in the sharing economy from an emerging economy context using the social exchange theory is limited. This study identifies elements of the economic and socio-emotional dimensions of the social exchange theory and the strength of their impact on people’s participation in the sharing economy.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new service framework for managing nature and physical resources that balances the needs of people and planet.

The process used in this paper was a rapid literature review and content analysis of 202 articles in service journals and learned that there are limited papers on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #6 (clean water and sanitation) or SDG #7 (affordable and clean energy) and very few articles on SDG #12 (responsible production and consumption) that focused on environmental components of services. This highlighted the need to conceptualise a service framework for managing these resources sustainably.

The proposed regenerative service economy framework for managing natural and physical resources for all humans (without harming the planet) reflects insights from analysing the available service articles. The framework draws on the circular economy, an Indigenous wholistic framework and service thinking to conceptualise how service research can manage natural and physical resources in ways that serve both people and the planet.

This paper introduces the regenerative service economy framework to the service literature as an approach for guiding service researchers and managers in sustainably managing natural and physical resources in a sustainable way.