Service Value Networks

The current industry driven trend of providing flexible e-services lays the ground for the new research area "service value networks\´\´ (SVNs). We observe a rising number of industry oriented publications provided by research departments of large companies such as IBM or SAP as well as the fact that more and more IS conferences offer special tracks on that issue. However, when it comes to formalizing and economically analyzing such SVNs that offer joint complex services to service customers, scientific approaches are in their infancy. We intend to fill this research gap by providing a clear understanding of service value networks by defining their characteristics, their structure, and their components. Mapping these aspects into a formalized model, we intend to establish a reference point for future work in the area of service value networks.