Call for Papers: Special Issue on Teaching Service Science

In the last five years, many academic institutions have developed programs, courses, seminar series and student projects related to Service Science. Some of these have built upon established areas such as Service Operations Management and Service Marketing, while others such as Knowledge Services and Information Services are relatively new fields of study. Together they are often grouped under the broader framework of Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), and this special issue welcomes submissions relating to any of these topics. Classes in these areas have been offered in both undergraduate and graduate programs as well as across business, engineering and information systems schools.

For instructors, there are significant challenges, not only in developing and delivering courses in Service Science, but also in attracting the right students and justifying the transition to these new focus areas within their own institutions. The instructors themselves typically come from diverse academic and industry backgrounds, and may be new to the field themselves. The lessons learned to date and best practice examples can therefore be of great value to the academic community.

This ITE special issue focuses on presenting faculty experiences in the development and delivery of Service Science courses with emphasis on identifying best practices. The articles in this issue will address several aspects of Service Science course development, including the following:

• Curriculum development
  • How is the curriculum selected, what is considered core to the subject, and how has this been refined?
  • How have well-established courses related to Service Science been adapted as a result of recent attention in the field?
  • What are currently the best teaching resources available? Textbooks? Case studies? Research papers? Guest speakers?
  • What are the challenges in introducing these courses and how are they addressed?
• Delivery of courses
  • Are courses taught by academic faculty? By practitioners? What are their backgrounds?
  • Have courses been offered across multiple schools or programs, and how has the integration worked?
  • Do schools offer short courses in service science designed for executive education?
  • How are students evaluated? Is there significant project work involved and if so how are the projects managed?
  • How engaged are related industries in the delivery of courses, management of projects etc.?
  • Do faculty incorporate their own research in the courses and class discussions?
• Student engagement
  • What students have been most/least receptive to new courses in Service Science?
  • Have enrollments grown or decreased as a result of major changes?
  • What subjects appear to compete directly with courses in Service Science?
  • How well has this education been received upon completion and graduation?

Service Science has been identified as a critical area for curriculum development. In this context, our objectives for the special issue are:

1. To reflect the breadth of interpretations of what Service Science includes, while moving closer to gaining a common understanding of what constitutes core curriculum.
2. To highlight the challenges and opportunities of developing curriculum in this field
3. To provide insights on how best to prepare students and faculty for Service Science education.
4. To provide ideas and resources (e.g., examples and templates) to assist educators who are developing curriculum in this field.
5. To generate discussion about effective methods for successful teaching of Service Science.

We welcome articles describing Service Science experiences within Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Systems, Mathematics, and Business programs at all levels.

Submission Guidelines

Papers should follow the INFORMS Transactions on Education submission guidelines (see http://www.informs.org/site/ITE/article.php?id=11 ) and should include a cover letter noting that the paper is for this special issue. Additional information and past issues are available at the journal’s home page ( http://ite.pubs.informs.org ). Please note that ITE is published electronically, and resources such as case studies, models, and data sets can be made available through the website.

Submission Timeline

The editors encourage potential authors to contact them with ideas for papers before a full submission.

Contact Information For Special Issue Editors