Book Chapter: Sustainability in Services: Issues, Challenges, and Implications

Book: International Service Management in the Context of Sustainable Development

Synopsis: The last decade has witnessed a boom in the services industry encompasses a wide spectrum including public sector, private and the not-for-profit sectors. Moreover, services have emerged as a potential tool for brands to differentiate themselves from competitors. With a significant increase in the growth of the services, addressing the issue of sustainability becomes critical. This chapter address this issue in some detail.

It is increasingly understood that sustainable solutions require a unified view of environmental, corporate and social aspects. The authors provide a basic framework to understand the underlying factors that drive sustainability in organizations and link it to a set of five generic principles (Avoid-Reduce-Reuse-Renew-Extend) to deploy meaningful initiatives.

They present several examples of how organizations have deployed these concepts. These examples amply demonstrate a wide range of possibilities for service firms to craft new business models in the context of creating sustainable solutions.

Technological advancements have aided the service growth paving way for new business models in the service sector that addresses the critical issue of sustainability. The authors discuss, in some detail, two emerging business models that greatly promise deploying sustainable solutions and show that these models indeed draw ideas from the five basic principles that they have identified. Finally, they also discuss some service design elements that can promote sustainable behavior.

The full citation of this book is: Kandampully, J., Smyczek, S. (eds.) 2023. International Service Management in the Context of Sustainable Development, Katowice: Publishing House of the University of Economics in Katowice, Poland. ISBN 978-83-7875-874-7; e-ISBN 978-83-7875-875-4