Service Sector: Characteristics, Types, and Operations

1.1 Service Sector

  • Clark-Fisher Model: 5 stages (extractive, production, first services, trade services, social services)
  • Riddle Model

1.2 Competitiveness

Levels: Countries, sectors, companies.

1.3 Productivity

Efficiency: Technical, economic.

1.4 Evolution in the Service Sector

  • Technology (electronic services)
  • Population changes
  • Competence, rivalry

Key Characteristics of Services

2.1 Intangibility

2.2 Inseparability

2.3 Heterogeneity

2.4 Expiration (Perishable Nature)

Types of Services: Business Classifications

3.1 Browning and Singelmann Classification (Traditional)

  • Extractive Activities (Primary Sector)
    • Agriculture and fishing
    • Mining
  • Processing Industries (Secondary Sector)
    • Construction/Building sector
    • Food processing
    • Clothing industry/Textile industry
    • Metal industry/Metallurgical industry
    • Mechanical industry
    • Chemical industry
    • Other manufacturing industries
    • Utilities (electricity, etc.)
  • Distribution Services
    • Transportation and storage
    • Communications
    • Wholesale trade
    • Retail trade (excluding retail food and beverage)
  • Production Services
    • Banking services
    • Insurance
    • Real estate services
    • Engineering and architecture services
    • Accounting services
    • Legal services
    • Other operation services
  • Social Services
    • Health services
    • Hospitals
    • Education
    • Social and religious assistance
    • NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations)
    • Postal service
    • Public administration
    • Various professional services
  • Personal Services
    • Domestic service
    • Hotels and similar services
    • Restaurants and similar services
    • Repair services
    • Laundry and dry cleaning
    • Beauty parlors and barber shops
    • Entertainment and leisure services
    • Various personal services

3.2 Gershuny and Miles Classification (Modern)

  • Marketable Services
    • Financial services
    • Professional services
    • Maintenance services
    • Transportation and storage
    • Communications
    • Wholesale and retail trade
    • Personal services
  • Non-Marketable Services

Distinctive Features of Services

4.1 Generalizations

  • Everyone is an expert in services.
  • Services have their own distinctive characteristics.
  • Work quality vs. service quality.
  • Most services have a mixture of tangible and intangible characteristics.
  • Effective service company management is based on marketing, human resources, and operations.

4.2 Types of Service Activities According to Operation Management

  • Business services (service companies)
  • Internal services

4.3 Service Triangle

4.4 Process as a Product

In services, the process is often the product.

  • Service aspects where customer implication is important:
    • Service essence (needs)
    • Service delivered (process and design)
    • Service received
    • Customer’s experience
    • Results

4.5 Service as an Open System

  • Characteristics of a system: Artificial, finalist, open, feedback, hierarchical.
  • System cycle: Objectives, Systems, Planning, Control.

4.6 Operations and Competitiveness in Service Firms

Four stages:

  • Customer seek
  • Service quality
  • Introduction of new technology
  • First-line managers