HAS SEEC - Service Economics * (Q2)

Faculty
To be announced

Course Coordinator
Ana Maria Munar

Prerequisite/progression of the course

The course is part of the BSc. in Business Administration & Service Management at CBS. Nevertheless, the course may be followed both by students from the Service Management study and by other students as an elective, according to the prevailing rules. The students must document a level in English equal to TOEFL 575 and a level in mathematics equal to Danish level B.

Please note: This course is only open to exchange students here for a full year, as the exam will take place in week 2, 2011, and cannot be moved.

Aim of the course

The aim of the course is to understand the full concept of service and to achieve the basic knowledge of tools for managing services in order to create a competitive advantage for service industries.

Course content, structure and teaching

A presentation of how service has been treated in the history of economic theory leading to a discussion of the conceptual meaning of “service” and of the three core dimensions: Service is immaterial, perishable and often consumed while produced. Service is discussed as a supplement to physical products, as a special property of the goods, and as a quality indicator, consequently the provision of service may be organized in many different ways.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course the students should be able:

To understand the differences between products and services
To have knowledge on the different views theoretically and in practice on what service economics is from 1960 till now
To enable the student to understand a basic service operation within a framework developed from a combination of a theoretical base and examination of practical operations
To develop an understanding of the elements which compromise a service operation and of the means by which their effectiveness is assessed
To know, understand and apply the core service economics models
To provide an appreciation of the nature of the processes embedded in a service operation and to examine the relationship between all functional areas such as marketing, information, management, finance and human resources
To develop an understanding of the strategic impact of decisions made in the operation of a service organization
To know how to measure quality and economy theoretically and case related
To develop and apply blue prints for service
To understand the role of front line personal in service economics

Type of examination, exam aids and assessment

Individual 4-hour written exam, counts for 100 % of the final grade of the course.

Teaching methods

The overall unit outline is presented in a one page schedules overview and posted on Site-Scape. This unit outline is subject to change, and the student must at all times check their student home page prior to class for any changes. Any cancelled session will always result in a make up session.

Class times are composed of 2- and 3- hour sessions including a mix of lectures, student case studies and article presentations as well as in depth discussions. It is assumed that the assigned reading, articles, and cases for each session have been read by all students prior to classes.

During lectures theory will be presented and applied to real time service industries, and time will be spent ensuring that the student has understood the material and is able to adapt the theory into practise.

Case study sessions require team presentations focusing on the ability of exploring new developments and extensions from the basic service concepts. Informal assessment of the case presentation is designed to recognise individual as well as team effort. This is consequently done to reflect the business environment where effective teamwork is essential to the achievement of individual success. In syndicate sessions teams (of own choice) should analyse and discuss the key issues of the case prior to creating the case presentation for class. Each team will be presenting their casework during the course and towards the end of each session all students will take part in a follow up discussions of other team presentations. Students are also encouraged to discuss the topic for the individual home assignment in their team.

For optimal learning students are encouraged to complete at least one of two individual home assignments of 3 pages during the course. The assignment topic is decided by the professor and posted on Site-Scape. The students will have one week (extracting holidays) to complete the assignment.

Course literature

Fitzsimmons, J &M: “Service Management – Operations, Strategy and Information Technology, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill, International Edition 2005
Fitzsimmons, J & M: “New Service Development – Creating Memorable Experiences”, Sage Publications, Inc., USA, 2000 ISBN: 0-7619-1742-x

Last updated by CBS International 27/05/2010