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Sponsored by IBM and Bentley College

Meeting Announcement

Service management, as a distinct field of study and practice, is currently undergoing a renaissance. The New York Times highlighted this in an article published on April 18, 2006 titled "Academia Dissects the Service Sector, but Is It a Science?" To address that specific question, the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) is pleased to announce its first miniconference which will focus specifically on the emerging academic discipline labeled "Service Science." This miniconference, which is sponsored by IBM and Bentley College, is open to all who are interested in advancing understanding and theory in Service Science. It will be held on May 24-26, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. It will begin Thursday evening, May 24 with an opening reception, and is expected to end early Saturday afternoon, May 26.

What is Service Science?

Service Science is a rapidly emerging intellectual discipline with a transdisciplinary focus that provides the opportunity for both researchers and practitioners to develop a structured approach to identifying, analyzing and solving business-related issues within the service sector. Services by their very nature are transdisciplinary, in that there are several traditional academic disciplines that must be taken into consideration simultaneously in order to achieve optimal results. These include operations management, marketing, human resource management, information technology, and design innovation.

Supported by initiatives at IBM and a growing cadre of academic researchers across a wide variety of disciplines, Service Science is quickly becoming a revolution in services thinking. A number of universities -including, among others, UC-Berkeley, Arizona State University, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, and Stanford -have responded to this revolution and are specifically designing Service Science courses and curriculum.

Information for Contributors

Individuals from academia, business and government are invited to submit refereed research papers, non-refereed research abstracts, and proposals for workshops, panels, and symposia and that contribute to advancing the Service Science field. All submissions should have a clear services focus and be transdisciplinary in nature; that is, they should involve more than a single traditional discipline.

Authors will have a choice of submitting either a research paper that will undergo a blind review by at least two referees, a non-refereed research abstract of 300 words maximum, or a session proposal. All submissions will be submitted electronically following the detailed instructions provided below.

All refereed research papers that are accepted will be published in the Conference Proceedings. In addition, all accepted refereed papers will be further reviewed for inclusion in a Special Topics Forum on Service Science, which will form part of an issue of the Decision Sciences Journal. Research papers not accepted as such will automatically be accepted as a research abstract.

The submission of a research paper or research abstract means that the authors certify that the research is not copyrighted, it has not been accepted for publication in a journal, it has not been presented or accepted for presentation at another professional meeting, and it is not currently under review for presentation at another professional meeting. Further, authors certify their intent to register for and attend this meeting to present the paper, abstract, or proposal. The copyrights for all forms of presentation at this meeting will remain with the authors.

Submission Deadlines

The submission deadline for refereed research papers is February 15, 2007. The submission deadline for non-refereed research abstracts and proposals is March 15, 2007.

Best Paper Awards

There will be two best paper awards of $750.00 each. These awards are being sponsored by IBM and Bentley College. Hotel Information

(Forthcoming)

Instructions for Electronic Submissions

(Forthcoming)

Contacts

For further information or questions regarding this conference please go to the conference website at http://atc3.bentley.edu/site/dsiminiconference/ or contact any of the following individuals:

General Conference Chair:
Mark M. Davis, Professor of Operations Management
312 AAC
Bentley College
Waltham, MA 02452
Email: mdavis@bentley.edu
Phone: (781) 891-2739

Program Co-Chairs:
Tor Andreassen, Associate Professor of Marketing
BI Norwegian School of Management
Room # C4-078
Nydalsveien 37
PoBox 20
N-0442 Oslo, NORWAY
Email: tor.w.andreassen@bi.no
Phone: 47 46410525

Birgit Mager, Professor for Service Design
Ubierring 40, Room 320
Koln International School of Design 50678 Cologne
50678 Cologne
GERMANY
Email: mager@service-design.de
Phone: 49(0)221 8275-3220

Larry Menor, Associate Professor of Operations Management
Richard Ivey School of Business
The University of Western Ontario
1151 Richmond Street North
London, Ontario N6A 3K7
CANADA
Email: lmenor@ivey.uwo.ca
Phone: (519) 661-2103

Peter Mills, Gerald B. Bashaw Professor of Business
Department of Management, Lundquist College of Business
1208 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR, USA .97403-1208
Email: pmills@lcbmail.uoregon.edu
Phone: (541) 346-2691

Conference Proceedings Editor:
Mellie Pullman, Willamette Industries Professor of Supply Chain
P.O. Box 751
School of Business Administration
Portland State University
Portland, OR 97207
Email: mpullman@pdx.edu
Phone: (503) 725-4768