Learning outcomes

This course explores key issues in service strategy, service design and service delivery, and successful ways to manage them as demonstrated by world-class companies. In general, the concept of “services” is used to refer to activities for which customer contribution is required and the main value lies on intangible outputs. However, as we will see in the course, very often the differentiation between service and product is rather artificial. Industries examined include hospitality, entertainment, airlines, banking and financial services, as well as a sampling of retail and some non-profit organizations. A central theme is the exploration of the approaches used by companies to facilitate the development of organizational competencies that make their names synonymous with service excellence.

The course develops a profile of the strategic and operational capabilities required to create a high-performance service organization while maintaining the flexibility necessary to compete in this dynamic sector. The course will put a special emphasis on strategic and operational issues, but we will also build on marketing, finance and human resources management. The change towards global thinking has also affected some services extensively. Hence the course will specifically address global issues, like the outsourcing phenomena or the emergence of internet-based service models.

The main objective of this course is to explore the characteristics of customer and operations management which are specific to services, to be applied in a traditional service company or in a service department of any company.

Goals

Critical and Integrative Thinking

Each student shall be able to identify key issues in a business setting, develop a perspective that is supported with relevant information and integrative thinking, to draw and assess conclusions. Assessment: case reports, final exam

Content

Designing service processes; Capacity and queue management; Revenu and Yield management, Discrete choice models, Pricing and Contracts, B2B Services, Procuring services

Table of contents

  1. Introduction to Service Operations Management: Servitization, strategic vision of services
  2. Process analysis
  3. Capacity and queue management I: Matching supply with demand, queueing theory
  4. Capacity and queue management II: Application of queue management in services
  5. Revenue and Yield management I: Introduction to revenue management, newsvendor model and its applications
  6. Yield Management II: Single resource multiple classes capacity control, optimal solution, heuristics
  7. Yield Management III: Network capacity control
  8. Application of Revenue and Yield Management
  9. Designing new services: Discrete choice models
  10. Pricing services: Insurance pricing, moral hazard and adverse selection
  11. Procuring services: contract design
  12. Emerging trends

Exercices

Group assignments answering questions based on business cases that would be discussed in class. The questions for each homework will be posted online on the course website on Webcampus. 2-3 assignments expected.

Assessment method

Case reports (40%)

Final exam (60%)

Sources, references and any support material

Course notes (distributed in class)

Main references : J.A. Fitzimmons and M.J. Fitzsimmons, Service Management, Fifth Edition, McGraw Hill, New York 2006

Johnston R. and Clark, G. Service Operations Management: Improving Service Quality, 2nd Ed., FT Prentice Hall, 2005

Talluri K. and Van Ryzin G.J. The Theory and Practice of Revenue Management, Springer 2005

 

Language of instruction

French