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This paper aims to identify the focal elements of performance in Finnish welfare service organisations, how performance is measured in welfare services, and what are management needs regarding the development of performance measurement in the sector.

First, the relevant performance management literature of welfare services is reviewed, then interviews with 15 managers of Finnish welfare service organisations in public, nonprofit and for‐profit sectors are reported.

The paper identifies the key elements of performance in Finnish welfare services. The results of the research indicate that Finnish welfare service organisations are relatively active in their performance measurement. Development needs relate to acquiring more systematic performance measurement approaches and new measures for the quality and long‐term effects of services.

Research elaborates the concept of performance in welfare services, thus enabling practitioners to analyse and develop their organisations' performance. The summary of current measurement practices and development needs in current practices serves to develop suitable performance management tools for welfare services.

In welfare services, performance management is a rather complex issue. Research on the topic, especially that on nonprofit, for‐profit and public Finnish welfare service organisations. is meager. This paper provides new information about the issue in Finnish welfare services.

Because of the increasing importance of access over ownership, the purpose of this paper is to propose a service ecosystem perspective to help managers navigate hypercompetition. With the rise of cloud-based services and the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy has shifted toward hypercompetition, a state characterized by organizational advantages that are rapidly created and then destroyed by intense competitive moves. Because advantages are quickly eroded, organizations must be aggressive in the number of actions they take and the speed with which they execute these actions. The service ecosystem perspective focuses on relationships that allow organizations to jointly adjust to one another and to their environment.

This paper first reviews traditional strategies for navigating hypercompetition. Then, it presents an explanation of the service ecosystem perspective. Finally, the three north stars and media examples are provided.

The service ecosystem perspective asserts “north stars” that can guide managerial decision-making in hypercompetitive environments. These north stars are: cultivate system norms, facilitate feedback loops and embrace servitization.

In today’s world, organizations are increasingly seeking access to resources instead of ownership of them. The proposed approach suggests that, rather than an organization owning the resources it needs to achieve advantages, organizations are increasingly relying on accessing resources by coordinating with other organizations to draw upon the resource(s) as needed, without incurring the additional burdens of ownership. Examples from the media industry are used to illustrate the three north stars of the service ecosystems perspective.

Presents a review of the literature on the methods and approaches for identifying and satisfying customer requirements for professional service organizations and thereby facilitating a process of continuous improvement. Finds that putting in place a process of continuous and company‐wide improvement in professional service organizations is not easy owing to intangible outputs, high buyer interactions and a lack of heterogeneity. Points out that the entire client interaction process requires careful management control and the provision of professional services which meet the needs and requirements of clients, requires well developed recruitment, training, internal communications and appropriate reward and recognition systems.

Little attention has been given in the literature to operating decisions in professional service organisations. A better understanding of the power relationships within a professional service organisation provides insight into the way these decisions are made. A model is proposed which categorises professional service organisations according to the relative power of the major stakeholders: professionals within the organisation; clients; and top management. The major factors which affect each of these are discussed.

It is reasonable to assume that levels of business excellence will vary considerably amongst a group of organisations; two recent studies of organisations in north east England support this hypothesis. Draws on these benchmarking data. Relates to 28 business excellence practices and 19 operational performance measures covering strategy, human resources, service delivery and quality, service design and innovation, service value and measurement and business performance. Identifies the extent of any significant differences in overall practice and performance attainment levels between service leaders and their counterparts. Also considers combinations of attributes that best discriminate between levels of attainment. Derives a subset of measures that have the potential to provide an insight into a service organisation’s level of practice adoption and corresponding performance. Also considers additional characteristics to ascertain what association, if any, they have with the level of practice adoption and operational performance amongst the service organisations. All significant differences are highlighted at the 5 per cent significance level unless otherwise stated.

Quality has always been a competitive advantage for every organisation that strives for customer satisfaction when offering services or products. Technological advancements during the industrial revolutions have enabled organisations to grub improvement and transition opportunities into a new paradigm in operating business processes. In light of the fourth industrial revolution (FIR), in which Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) leveraged its technologies, this study establishes the need for service organisations to transition to Q4.0. It unveils the awareness level within the organisation, the existing challenges and the benefits of transitioning to Q4.0.

The data for this study was acquired through a survey methodology; it involved qualitative and quantitative methodologies and a mix of primary and secondary sources. The challenges and benefits regarding Q4.0 adoption were obtained from the relevant literature and used as a base of assessment in the selected service organisations. Minitab version 20 and SPSS 21.0 software packages analysed the gathered data.

The study found a high level of awareness regarding Q4.0 among the selected service organisations. Despite the high level of awareness, it was revealed that neither of the Q4.0-related technologies have been implemented nor in the process within the selected service industries. This is due to numerous challenges, including inadequate high-speed internet, a high cost of investment, inadequate skilled personnel and inadequate scepticalness to the implementation outcomes. Despite these challenges, leveraged technologies, potential benefits and Q4.0 awareness all demonstrate the need for Q4.0.

The study introduces the advent of the FIR and the disruptive nature of the associated technologies. It also unveils the potential of the contemporary technologies of the FIR that could elevate quality service provision to increase their competitiveness. Moreover, it also assists service organisations in planning and properly allocating their resources to ensure all the challenges are addressed in the Q4.0 adoption process. The study is limited in that it merely considers service organisations in Tanzania without categorising what type of service organisations were considered, i.e. banking, telecommunications, health, etc. thus generalising the findings.

Much has been discussed in the literature regarding Q4.0 in manufacturing organisations, focusing less on service organisations. This study uniquely assessed the need to transition to Q4.0 for service organisations, which has yet to be covered in the literature.

Service organizations operate in an increasingly complex and uncertain context that makes decision-making challenging. Despite well-recognized changes in the operational context of government as service organization, service literature has given surprisingly limited attention to what these changes imply for organizational decision-making. This study aims to face with the lack of fit of decision-making theorizing with the reality, within which most service practitioners operate, in order to foster the relevance of decision-making in service research and properly approach the false assumptions and misguided instructions for action.

To rectify the situation, the purpose of this paper is to advance a more holistic understanding of decision-making in government as service organization. The authors do so by reviewing the sparse, though insightful, prior literature on decision-making in service research and identifying four foundational assumptions of decision-making in the service context, that radically differ from the traditional assumptions of decision-making within the wider management literature.

The authors contribute to service research by further advancing the emerging dynamic understanding of decision-making by developing eight systems thinking-informed research propositions and a connected research agenda. In doing so, the paper offers the essential ground work that can revitalize the field of service management and equip it for facing the challenges that government as service organization is encountering in the 21st century.

The formulated eight research propositions demonstrate that decision-making in a government as service organization occurs within complex adaptive systems composed of multiple subsystems and is characterized by a high degree of unpredictability. It is a process influenced by multiple actors part of the system and subsystems, through multiple feedback loops, where the implications of prior decisions inform the future decisions.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

This chapter addresses the potential for knowledge, learning, and collaboration (KLC) cultures in public sector organizations. Public sector organizations are among the most complex for introducing or nourishing a KLC approach because there are multiple levels of cultures with varying levels of influence. We describe these complex cultures as tiers. First, we define public sector organizations’ business goals, purpose, and strategies. Then, the authors translate and interpret all five levels of culture for public sector organizations. The chapter also details the nature of cultural complexity, namely the four tiers of public sector cultures: (1) the company culture (Tier 1); (2) the public service culture (Tier 2); (3) the culture of the external environment (Tier 3); and (4) the internal KLC cultures (Tier 4). This chapter establishes a framework for describing an organization’s complex culture and determining the best KLC approach for the context.

This paper aims to create a conceptual model that connects learning organizations, service innovation and technology acceptance.

The importance of the interaction of variables benefiting both individuals and organizations has been comprehensively explained by combining two well-known theories – learning organizational theory and service innovation theory – with the technology acceptance model. In the first part of the study, conceptual model has been constructed and then applied to the hospitality industry of which results have been presented in the second part of this paper.

It is hypothesized that learning organization, service innovation and technology acceptance have significant relationships. It is also suggested that the learning organization plays an intermediary role in the relationship between technology acceptance and service innovation. Empirical results in this regard have been presented in the second part of the paper.

The relations have been established and tested in the hospitality industry in Antalya. However, the model can be applied and established relations tested in other industries.

This research contributes to our knowledge of the intricate linkages that exist between learning organizations, technology acceptance and service innovation. Originality of the paper is related to the novel multilayered model illustrating three-way interactions between the three dimensions of learning organization, technology acceptance and service innovation.