Do we need new theories on service productivity? – Status Quo and implications from contemporary research

Becker Jörg, Beverungen Daniel, Knackstedt Ralf, Dietrich Hanns-Alexander, Breuker Dominic, Rauer Hans Peter, Sigge Daniel

Zusammenfassung

A service is a transformation process that creates a set of outputs from a set of inputs. The ratio of these two quantities defines a measure of productivity, which can be made operational using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a well-known method from the field of operations research. Before such an analysis can be conducted, appropriate factors have to be chosen. In the domain of service productivity their selection is strongly influenced by peculiarities that are only found when measuring services. In this work we identify them in a structured way from the literature of service productivity theory and construct a protocol that guides a user in the construction of appropriate input and output sets.