Highlights in service research

Services have rapidly become a central topic of both concern and interest in research and business. Both the public and the private sector are facing increasing demand, cost, and quality challenges in their attempts to deliver services effectively and efficiently. The changing structure of the population, growing competition and mobility through globalisation, and new opportunities for services' digitalisation are among the factors forcing us to re-knit the web of services needed for enabling a sustainable operation environment for companies, providing citizens with adequate conditions for good quality of life, and protecting our environment from overload caused by human activity. This collection of highlights of VTT's service research illustrates the versatility of service research. Service research has become a theme under which synthesis of traditionally separate research domains thrives. These range from industrial manufacturing to safety and security, from information and communication technologies to the building sector, and from media studies to public-sector innovations. Service research brings researchers from many disciplines together to discuss innovation, design, development, and adoption of services in diverse domains, enabled by emerging technological breakthroughs.