The New Service Economy - KK-stiftelsen

The New Service Economy
• published 51 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and 96 conference
papers. In addition to this, two books within the field of userdriven
service development and nine books in interrelated areas have
also been published
• achieved close cooperation with 13 companies and strong relevance to
industry
• made a considerable impact on education
• steadily increased the number of senior researchers within the research
environment
• found new and substantial external funding after the profile period has
ended.
The profile has created results both from an academic and an industrial
point of view. The most prominent academic results have been the accomplishment
of a more stable and sustainable research environment, access to
empirical data and validation of research findings from within the cooperating
companies, an influx of new researchers and new skills for the research
environment, international esteem and cooperation, publications and research
findings. For industry, the profile has resulted in the development of
new frameworks, processes and methods for service development, in dialogue
and process support, the supply of manpower and publicity.
Not all activities turned out as they were initially planned. During the
profile period, user-driven service development and the creation of value
have been given a stronger focus, while other areas have been abandoned.
NSE initially planned to involve a blend of large, medium-sized and small
companies, but ended up cooperating mostly with large companies and became
increasingly involved with regional industry. Early on, the profile had
high expectations of receiving a new professorship from the University,
which has not yet been realised. Finally, NSE chose to apply a more dispersed
organisational model than was initially planned.
The profile period has contained events that have characterised and influenced
NSE’s performance and outcome. Among the most critical events that
occurred were the change of organisational strategy early on, the allotment
of the editorship of a prestigious journal (IJSIM) and the publication of articles
in highly ranked US journals. During the period, some cooperations
with companies were discontinued, while other industrial partners were
added. It is worth mentioning the cooperation with IKEA here. The midterm
evaluation of the profile resulted in several measurements from the
profile’s management and, at the end of the profile period, a set of important
transfers of research findings and relationships were made into new research
programmes. The Vinnväxt SAMOT programme may be the most prominent
of these.
A set of factors has been critical to the successful operation of NSE. For
example, the pre-history of the research environment and its relations to
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