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. 2006;15(3):257–283. doi: 10.1007/s11518-006-5019-1

On services research and education

James M Tien 1,✉, Daniel Berg 1
PMCID: PMC7104593  PMID: 32288406

Abstract

The importance of the services sector can not be overstated; it employs 82.1 percent of the U. S. workforce and 69 percent of graduates from an example technological university. Yet, university research and education have not followed suit. Clearly, services research and education deserve our critical attention and support since services — and services innovation — serve as an indispensable engine for global economic growth. The theme of this paper is that we can and should build services research and education on what has occurred in manufacturing research (especially in regard to customization and intellectual property) and education; indeed, services and manufactured goods become indistinguishable as they are jointly co-produced in real-time. Fortunately, inasmuch as manufacturing concepts, methodologies and technologies have been developed and refined over a long period of time (i.e., since the 1800s), the complementary set of concepts, methodologies and technologies for services are more obvious. However, while new technologies (e.g., the Internet) and globalization trends have served to enable, if not facilitate, services innovation, the same technologies (e.g., the Internet) and 21st Century realities (e.g., terrorism) are making services innovation a far more complex problem and, in fact, may be undermining previous innovations in both services and manufacturing. Finally, there is a need to define a “knowledge-adjusted” GDP metric that can more adequately measure the growing knowledge economy, one driven by intangible ideas and services innovation.

Keywords: Services, manufacturing, customization, innovation, education, intellectual property

Footnotes

James M. TIEN is the Yamada Corporation Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also an Honorary Professor at several Chinese Universities and an elected member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering. He received the BEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1966) and the SM, EE and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1967, 1970, 1972). He has held leadership positions at Bell Telephone Laboratories (1966–69), at the Rand Corporation (1970–73), and at Structured Decisions Corporation (1974-Present). His areas of research interest include the development and application of computer and systems analysis techniques to information and decision systems. He has been honored with both teaching and research awards, including being elected Fellow (of IEEE, AAAS, and IN FORMS) and being a recipient of the IEEE/SMC Joseph G. Wohl Outstanding Career Award, the IEEE/SMC Norbert Wiener Award, and the IEEE/EAB Major Educational Innovation Award.

Daniel BERG is an Institute Professor of Science and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (R.P.I.). While at Westinghouse, he was an adjunct Professor of Industrial Administration and Engineering at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, and Engineering School of Carnegie-Mellon University. He served as Professor of Science and Technology and Dean of Mellon College of Science as well as Provost at Carnegie-Mellon. At R.P.I. he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost and President. His present research interests concern the role of technology in the service sector. He is acting director of the Center for Services Research and Education at R.P.I. and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a Fellow of AAAS, AIC, IEEE and INFORMS. Dr. Berg is active as a board member for and advisor to many universities, federal agencies, and industrial organizations.

Contributor Information

James M. Tien, Email: tienj@rpi.edu

Daniel Berg, Email: bergd@rpi.edu.

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