RESER 2017 Call for Papers is organized around seven main themes, but welcomes contributions that are close to these areas.

• City Service
• Servitization
• Service ecosystems
• Service innovation
• International Perspectives
• Value creation
• Methodological challenges in service studies: complexity, pluralism and interdisciplinary

1. City Service

The city is the place where services and, particularly, advanced services, are being specially developed in the last few decades. In this track we want to analyse how to make the city an effective environment for the expansion of this sector. Discussion will be addressed around the following issues: the role of public policies for the development of the sector, service drivers such as knowledge ecosystems, smart city services that can create higher well-being rates for its citizens through a safer, more inclusive, healthier environment and the like.

In this theme, the following topics exemplify the central interests:

• Smart cities
• Public service policy
• Service drivers
• KIBS in cities
• Citizens well-being

2. Servitization

Services are acquiring a very important role in the manufacturing industry. The digitalized factory generates, through big data and another new ICT technologies, opportunities to generate new sources of turnover through services that complement and give added value to the product. But, there is a lack of knowledge on how to bring this chance to reality so we want to collect new perspectives, practices, and studies in this field. In general, in this track we would like to collect new perspectives on the growing digitalization of the economy and its impact on the services sector.

We welcome contributions to the following sub-themes:

• Servitization in manufacturing context
• Industry 4.0 in the servitization perspective
• Service digitalization
• New digital capabilities
• ICT based experiences

3. Service Ecosystems

Nowadays, global value chains made up of products and services are increasingly moving the global economy. However, it is not easy to create an effective and efficient process of collaboration between industrial and service companies to tackle this new paradigm. In this track we are very interested in discovering the key aspects that can facilitate this alliance and co-creational process. In addition, service companies are challenged to collaborate with each other in order to create ecosystems to foster new and competitive business models. Finally, there is a third kind of scenario related to how services providers collaborate in a local and international basis with knowledge systems (universities, technology centres…) in order to add value and innovate in their value propositions.

This track addresses the following and related issues:

• Product Service Systems (PSS)
• Service networks
• Governance and viability of ecosystems
• Knowledge infrastructure for services
• Sustainability & Financial issues
• Resilient ecosystems and territorial development

4. Service innovation

Traditionally, innovation has been linked to new product development. But, innovation processes related to services require a new approach and new perspective for service innovation that need to be developed. In this track we are interested in collecting new perspectives and practices on the management of innovation in a service context. More specifically in: business model innovation, monetization strategies of innovative services, or the development of distinctive competitive value propositions. Service innovation is giving rise to many new entrepreneurial initiatives and that is why this track asks about the specific nature of entrepreneurship in a service research context. In this sense, research studies carried out to analyse specifically the entrepreneurial ecosystems are of particular interest.

Bringing together these different perspectives is highly desirable and we therefore welcome papers on the following or related topics:

• New business models
• Value proposition development
• Monetization strategies
• Social innovation and new forms of service innovations in emerging countries
• Entrepreneurship & intrapreneurship

5. International Perspectives

Globalization process experienced in the last decades bears a very direct relation with services and the internationalization of services is leading to a new phase of globalization. The internationalization of services, including an increased mobility of capital, people, know-how and other resources, increase the interdependency of economies. This process in turns changes the geography of services and requires an in-depth understanding of how services emergence and locate in certain local, urban, and dense areas. Many studies address the internationalization of services in terms of Foreign Direct Investment; International Trade in Services; Multinational enterprises. Additional research focuses on the spatial aspects and impacts of service development.

Contributions to the following and related issues are thus welcome:

• Geography of services
• Services in emerging countries
• Human Resources
• Internationalization strategies
• Trade and foreign direct investment

6. Value Creation

In services, the relationship with the user is a fundamental and absolutely differential aspect. In this track we are interested in contributions throughout the classic process of knowing, relating and co-creating/adapting the service together with the client or final user. Particularly interesting will be the contributions that can be made on customer experience since the latest researches have shown that a proper management of this aspect can be decisive in the competitiveness of companies and/or user satisfaction. Finally, and as is usual in the RESER conference, the papers that tell us about open innovation will also have a relevant space.

Contributions to the following and related issues are thus welcome:

• Customer knowledge and relationship management
• Co-creation
• Customer experience
• User experience
• Open innovation
• User driven innovation

7. Methodological challenges in service studies: complexity, pluralism and interdisciplinary.

The ontological, epistemological and methodological foundations of service studies constitutes a new challenge that scholars are invited to take up to provide directions for ongoing service research.

This track aims at providing evidence of new research approaches based on interdisciplinary and pluralist research approaches. It strives to map out how in the research process different principles, methods, techniques and tools could be integrated to deeper better the understanding of inherent complexity of society. Following topics should be investigated:

• Pluralist epistemology to service research
• Practice-based study methods
• Complexity theory
• Mixed methods

A special Industry Track will be organized with invited speakers from business and economic institutions.

Accepted papers will be presented at the conference.

Authors are invited to publish their papers in the conference proceedings, and a selection of them will be invited for submission in special issues of International Journals.