Microsoft Word Volume 2 Service and Service Quality Final docx

Service Governance 
Service Portfolio Management 
Service Capability Management 
Service Innovation 
Management 
Service Marketing and Sales 
Service 
Retirement 
Service Ops & 
Maintenance 
Service 
Implement 
Service
Design 
Service 
Analysis 
Service Strategy
Management
Introduction 
Organisations rely increasingly on service differentiation for survival and growth. Even traditionally 
product-based organisations are turning to associated services for new sources of revenue 
(Allmendinger and Lombreglia, 2005). In this increasingly competitive service market, service quality 
has come to be recognised as a strategic source of competitive advantage; it is thus not surprising there 
has been extensive research into service quality. However, the conceptualisation and measurement of 
service quality continues to be hotly debated, particularly in the services marketing literature (Brady 
and Cronin, 2001; Pollack 2009). While there has been considerable progress as to 
how
service quality 
perceptions should be measured; there is little agreement on 
what
should be measured (Brady and 
Cronin, 2001).
Nevertheless, it is recognised, both by the smart services CRC and by the wider community, that a 
general conceptualisation of service quality is much needed for both academic and practical purposes. 
From the academic perspective, it would provide a common foundation upon which knowledge 
regarding services and service quality can be accumulated, compared, and extended. From the practice 
perspective, the lack of an agreed service quality model means various types of services continue to be 
measured idiosyncratically, on a type-by-type basis, thereby undermining confidence in each unique 
approach, impeding comparison of quality across services, thereby compromising potential for a 
common quality standard. A general service quality model could also inform and facilitate the 
management of service quality, one of the key enabling disciplines for effective management of 
business service life cycles (Rosemann, Fielt, Kohlborn, and Korthaus, 2009) as shown in Figure 1 
below.