Insights into service industries: the productivity management view

As a follow-up to the preliminary results, presented at EurOMA 2000 (Shafti et al. 2000), of an on-going research project into the management of productivity in service industries, this paper presents and discusses further important results and findings. Twelve UK service industries have been chosen for study. The aim of the research is to determine which of the service dimensions that have been proposed - mainly on theoretical grounds - by different authors, could serve as relevant indicators of various managerial challenges in services. The present set of results shows that among the service dimensions popularly suggested, 'Customer Contact', 'Customisation' and 'Front/back Value Added' could be used as indicators for certain aspects of productivity management in services