Service Classification and Management Challenges

Abstract

Coincident with the increasing importance of services as a primary componentof the economies in developed countries, a number of theoretically derivedservice typologies have been developed, yet there has been virtually no empiricalvalidation of the proposed ideas. We conducted a survey of 273 managers infour service industries (Fast Food, Auto Repair, Retail Sales, Legal Services) totest how management challenges differ across different service industries. Wealso empirically tested a widely accepted service typology developed bySchmenner (1986) within the context of management challenges. Discriminantanalysis was utilized to test the degree to which companies can be classified intogroupings similar to the Schmenner's service process matrix according to empiricaldata rather than anecdotal observations. Our findings indicate thatwhile the service process matrix can be partially validated using empirical data,the distinctions between various industries are much ''fuzzier'' in practice.Different service industries can be classified according to empirical data, butmisclassifications do occur. In particular, misclassifications are most prevalentwhere two service industries share a common characteristic as described by theservice process matrix.

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