Universities as complex service systems: External and Internal perspectives

Service systems are a main focus of service research; the advancement of Service Science relies on a thorough understanding of how service systems work. While the service research literature offers a range of theories to examine service systems, empirical evidence is still scarce. This paper reports a recent study into universities, which are among the most common yet probably the least understood service systems. More specifically, the nature of universities is explored from both external and internal perspectives. The external perspective considers the university as a single entity and analyzes its impacts on the city it resides in. It is found that universities have a significant contribution to localities as a source of employment, expenditure, knowledge and talent supply. Equally, universities rely heavily on the support of local communities. The internal perspective reveals the inner working of universities through case studies. A total of 12 functional domains are identified, including education, research, finance, buildings, utilities, among others, with each providing a wide range of services. A structured method is developed to improve service quality by analyzing value co-creation processes among different stakeholders, such as students, faculties and administrators. The paper provides fresh insights into service systems and we hope it will inspire more empirical research into universities and service systems in general.