Background
Service economy in Switzerland is changing
Worldwide, service industry forms a growing proportion of the economy. This is valid for Switzerland, too. The service sector comprises about 70% of the GDP (2001), and 72% of the workforce (2003), and trends point to continued growth. In addition, an increasing part of the Swiss manufacturing industry is related to services rather than to production. As such, service plays a major role for the Swiss economy.
Major changes have radically altered the service industry during the last 20 years:
- New communication technologies like email, mobile phones, or web-based networks have revolutionized the way people are connected to each other. Based on these new possibilities, completely new business models have been developed. New forms of social networks like internet forums will continue to change the way business is done.
- Globalization has had a huge impact not only on production, but also on service companies. Call centers operated in India and the off-shoring of financial products are just two of many examples.
- The development of huge distributed information systems such as the internet has completely altered the role of information, a key element for service. Many traditional service areas are threatened by this; at the same time there are enormous new opportunities for service.
As a consequence, the service sector today is rapidly changing, and we expect these dynamics of change to increase in importance in future years.
Looking closer, many of these dynamics are created by the existence of new communication and information technologies which play the role of “enablers”, making possible completely new approaches and solutions. Most of these technologies are new, with a history of 10 years or less, creating a situation that is historically unique. For instance, consider the role of a search engine like Google and compare it with the situation only 10 years ago.
Given this dynamics, it is obvious that many of the new opportunities are not yet exploited, generating a wide field of opportunities for the Swiss service economy now and in the near future. It will be crucial for the economic prosperity of Switzerland to exploit this field and strengthen the already strong position of Switzerland as a service dominated workplace.
Why this institute has been founded
The five research institutes that joined for creating the Swiss Institute of Service Science have already been working successfully in different fields of the service economy. During recent years, it became more and more clear that three main perspectives must be integrated to create winning solutions: the business perspective, the engineering perspective, and the human factors perspective.
Each of the institutes already has a history of interdisciplinary research, of trying to bring these different aspects together. The founding of the SISS is the logical step on this path. We believe this integration to be a critical success factor, and we are strongly committed to an inter- and transdisciplinary approach in this context.
We contribute not only our specific expert knowledge, but also years of experience in interdisciplinary research. Our mission is to create a unique and powerful think-tank with a strong impact on the Swiss service economy.