A Prototype for Service-Based Costing

Service systems consider the co-creation of values in a process between provider and consumer with a win-win situation for both. Service-Dominant Logic demands a new view on economic activities where competences of provider and consumer are the most important resource for value creation. Given these assumptions, we investigate whether costs in a service system shall be accounted in a different way to reflect the change in view. If service provision is seen as a process, activity-based cost models seem to be appropriate. We argue that an extension is necessary, because a service is co-created by resources of service provider and consumer. Furthermore, activities performed by the consumer are not under control and therefore additional uncertainty has to be considered. Our research question is whether we are able to compute service costs with a higher degree of accuracy than with traditional cost models.