Microsoft Word Volume 2 Service and Service Quality Final docx

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Business Service Management White Paper - Volume 2 
Page 20 of 46 
Table 2: Distinguishing electronic services (Hofacker et al., 2007) 
 
GOODS 
ELECTRONIC SERVICES
SERVICES 
1. Tangible 
Intangible, but need tangible 
media 
Intangible 
2. 
Can be inventoried 
Can be inventoried 
Cannot be inventoried 
3. 
Separable consumption 
Separable consumption Inseparable 
consumption 
4. 
Can be patented 
Can be copyrighted, patented 
Cannot be patented 
5. Homogeneous 
Homogeneous 
Heterogeneous 
6. 
Easy to price 
Hard to price 
Hard to price 
7. 
Cannot be copied 
Can be copied 
Cannot be copied 
8. 
Cannot be shared 
Can be shared 
Cannot be shared 
9. 
Use equals consumption 
Use does not equal consumption 
Use equals consumption 
10. 
Based on atoms 
Based on bits 
Based on atoms 
 
Summary 
Just as the review of service definition and conceptualisation has revealed, there appears to be a lack 
of a common classification scheme that is widely adopted. There are many different perspectives 
adopted to make sense of the myriad service types, and these different perspectives often result in 
different dimensions used to distinguish services, resulting in starkly different classification schemes. 
As Cook et al. (1999) observed in their survey of 40 typologies and found that (up until that time) 
‘most schemes have been developed and accepted on the basis of their intuitive appeal and have not 
been empirically tested’ (1999, p.323). Cook et al. believe that: ‘the fact that so few studies, 
attempting to empirically validate the proposed service typologies, have been conducted indicates this 
area of research is in its infancy’ (p.323). Shafti, van der Meer and Williams (2007) summarised 
critiques of existing classification schemes and conclude that they lack a cohesive framework, are hard 
to interpret, define the link between axes poorly, lose valuable information, fail to consider the whole 
service process, offer only limited clarification of complex issues, and lack a practical interpretation.
This complexity will increase as boundaries between products and services become blurred, the role of 
ICT in providing and using services increases, the alternative channels and combinations of channels 
by which services are delivered multiply, and as more organisations (including those in traditionally 
product-based industries) rely on new and innovative services for revenue and profit growth.
This complexity poses a dilemma for our research: on one hand, the need for a generic service quality 
model that enables comparison and parsimonious management of quality of different services 
continues to increase as organisations strive to provide more and better services; on the other hand, the 
complexity also means that such a generic model may not be possible. If we strive for an abstraction 
that is independent of the complexities highlighted, we will end up with a model that is too simplistic. 
However, if we strive for a detailed measurement model that could cater to all the possible variations 
outlined, the model will be too complex for it to be pragmatically useful.

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Business Service Management White Paper - Volume 2 
Page 21 of 46