Asset reuse and service science: The delicate balance

The need to increase efficiency and productivity is driving an increase in the creation of service assets, which embody the essence of service functionality and can be used across engagements. This move towards reusable service assets reduces some of the cost of service solution design, is less labor-intensive, and reduces the need for particular service professionals. However, service and the study of service innovation called Service Science, is inherently people-based. People, interactions, and relationships are at the core of the discipline and technology plays a pivotal role in supporting these entities. The tension between the emphasis on people, which implies customization and differentiation, and service asset reuse, which implies standardization and commoditization, may pose a problem for the service industry in the long term. Replacing the people component in the production equation with service assets may significantly reduce the drivers for the field of Service Science to continue in the future. This paper presents a cautionary tale of reusable service assets, where the balance between the knowledge and skills embodied in the asset and the utility of having expertise embodied in people is examined. Suggestions for bridging this divide and easing the tension are discussed.