Understanding service management: a systematic literature review of services characteristics and classifications

This dissertation presents a systematic review of the literature about the distinctive characteristics of services, often studied in terms of the similarities and differences when compared to goods, and about the classifications that scholars have developed to improve the understanding and management of services. Both topics have characterized the service management literature since its emergence. Academics have extensively used four attributes to argue that services are uniquely different from goods, as well as for arguing that the differences are not meaningful: inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity, intangibility, and perishability. Arguments according to different functional and theoretical perspectives and different levels of analysis are reviewed. Ultimately, it is argued that a goods/services dichotomy is irrelevant, and that research should focus on the distinctive features of a generic product/service. Management scholars have always used classifications to foster the understanding organizations at both academic and managerial levels. Most of the typologies regarding the management of services, either from a marketing or an operations management perspective, are descriptive, and only a few attempt to prescribe design and management. Classifications make use of theoretical rationales with different degrees of robustness, and utilize a large variety of dimensions to type organizations. The development of both topics has been eminently conceptual; empirical research supporting the major tenets is scarce. The systematic character of the review means that an explicit effort is made to provide transparency and traceability to the researcher's decisions and criteria. A review methodology relatively new to management research is used, and it proves to be highly valuable. The fit between the research project characteristics and the operationalization of the systematic review principles is pointed out as a contribution to the development of this methodology for management research.