Business services are a recognisable subset of economic services, and share their characteristics. The essential difference is that businesses are concerned about the building of

service system A service system (or customer service system, CSS) is a configuration of technology and organizational networks designed to deliver services that satisfy the needs, wants, or aspirations of customers. "Service system" is a term used in the serv ...

s in order to deliver value to their customers and to act in the roles of service provider and service consumer.

Definition

A service is a set of one-time consumable and perishable benefits that are: *delivered from the accountable service provider, mostly in close co-action with his internal and external service suppliers, * effectuated by distinct functions of technical systems and by distinct activities of individuals, respectively, * commissioned according to the needs of his/her service consumers by the service customer from the accountable service provider, * rendered individually to a consumer at his/her dedicated trigger, * and, finally, consumed and utilized by the triggering service consumer for executing his/her upcoming business activity or private activity.

Service specification

Any service can be clearly and completely, consistently and concisely specified by means of the following 12 standard attributes which conform to the MECE principle (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive):

Service-commodity goods continuum

There has been a long academic debate on what makes services different from goods. The historical perspective in the late-eighteen and early-nineteenth centuries focused on creation and possession of wealth. Classical economists contended that goods were objects of value over which ownership rights could be established and exchanged. Ownership implied tangible possession of an object that had been acquired through purchase, barter or gift from the producer or previous owner and was legally identifiable as the property of the current owner.

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

’s book ''The Wealth of Nations'', published in Great Britain in 1776, distinguished between the outputs of what he termed "productive" and "unproductive" labor. The former, he stated, produced goods that could be stored after production and subsequently exchanged for money or other items of value. The latter, however useful or necessary, created services that perished at the time of production and therefore did not contribute to wealth. Building on this theme, French economist Jean-Baptiste Say argued that production and consumption were inseparable in services, coining the term "immaterial products" to describe them. Most modern business theorists see a continuum with pure service on one terminal point and pure commodity good on the other terminal point.Anders Gustofsson and Michael D. Johnson, Competing in a Service Economy (San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 2003), p.7. Most

products Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

fall between these two extremes. For example, a

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

provides a physical good (the

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is in ...

), but also provides services in the form of ambience, the setting and clearing of the table, etc. And although some utilities actually deliver physical goods — like water utilities which actually deliver water — utilities are usually treated as services. In a narrower sense, service refers to

quality Quality may refer to: Concepts *Quality (business), the ''non-inferiority'' or ''superiority'' of something *Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property *Quality (physics), in response theory * Energy quality, used in various science discipl ...

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...

: the measured appropriateness of assistance and support provided to a customer. This particular usage occurs frequently in

retailing Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

Economic services

Economic services that are recognised in practice are listed in economic services.

References

External links

Athens University of Economics and Business: ''An Introduction to Services Marketing'' - s.
* Valerie Zeithaml, A. Parasumaran, Leonhard Berry (1990): ''Delivering Service Quality'', , The Free Press

'' - s.]
Sharon Dobson: ''Product and Services Strategy'' - s.

* James A. Fitzsimmons, Mona J. Fitzsimmons: ''Service Management - Operations, Strategy, Information Technology'' - s. *
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Russell Wolak, Stavros Kalafatis, Patricia Harris: ''An Investigation Into Four Characteristics of Services'' - s.

Sheelagh Matear, Brendan Gray, Tony Garrett, Ken Deans: ''Moderating Effects of Service Characteristics on the Sources of Competitive Advantage - Positional Advantage Relationship'' - s.
* Robert Johnston, Graham Clark: ''Service Operations Management – Improving Service Delivery'', - s. * Pascal Petit (1987). "services," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 4, pp. 314–15. * Alan Pilkington, Kah Hin Chai
"Research Themes, Concepts and Relationships: A study of International Journal of Service Industry Management (1990 to 2005),"
International Journal of Service Industry Management, (2008) Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 83–110. {{DEFAULTSORT:Service (Business) Goods (economics) Services (economics) Services marketing