ICSSME2012 conference greetings!

by Dr. Päivi J Tossavainen

Regards from the ICSSME2012 conference. ICSSME2012 is a newcomer conference of service research field. Organized by World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET), the conference took place October 8-9 in Dubai, UAE. There were about 100 participants in the event from countries around the world.

The two days provided an extensive amount of research discussions on various topics.  There was some confusion with the organizing aspects of the conference while the papers in each session were drawn from a number of disciplines. However, it provided good opportunities to share your own thoughts and research interests. And I had the opportunity to explore research areas not so close to home.

I shared with the audience  a co-authored – Päivi J. Tossavainen, Leena Alakoski, Katri Ojasalo – paper called “Building a Service-Centric Business Model in SMEs in the Business-to-Business Context”. The paper is based on the externally (Tekes) funded research project ServBis. The paper enlightens the challenges small and medium sized firms (SMEs) face when developing their service-centric business models. It examines the premise for knowledge transfer and capability development required. The objective of this paper is to increase knowledge about SME’s transformation to service-centric business models. My presentation received an enthusiastic welcome due to the empirical evidence provided.

For me, the most important research topics presented at the conference – the top 3 – were:

1. Modeling IT-mediated value encounters between citizens and local government by Elin Uppström and Andreas Nilsson from Stockholm University, Kista, Sweden.
2. Development of a Model for the Comprehensive Analysis and Evaluation of Service Productivity by A. Petz, S. Duckwitz, C. Schmalz, S. Meyer, S. Mütze-Niewöhner, and C.M. Schlick  from RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, Germany
3. An Empirical Analysis of the Influence of Application Experience on Working Methods of Process Modelers by Alexander Nielen, Susanne Mütze-Niewöhner, Christopher M. Schlick from RWTH Aachen University, Germany

I also enjoyed the presentation of the paper “Gender Diversity Culture Check (GDCC): Influencing factors of the organisational culture on the number and acceptance of women in leadership positions in the Aviation Industry in Germany by Yvonne Ziegler, Regine Graml, and Caprice Weissenrieder from FH Frankfurt am Main – University of Applied Science, Germany.

Besides the conference, the surroundings of the sandy Dubai provided an interesting and welcomed contrast to the rainy Finnish autumn: The temperature rose over 40C outside the conference venue.

Dr. Päivi Tossavainen, principal lecturer