Introduction

Abstract

This special section on services science is intended to broaden and challenge traditional thinking about services and service innovation. To the majority of computer scientists, whether in academia or industry, the term "services" is associated with Web services and service-oriented architectures. However, there is a broader story to be told of the remarkable growth of the service sector, which has come to dominate economic activity in most advanced economies over the last 50 years.Globalization, increasing automation, the growth of the Internet, and the dynamic componentization of business are driving the reconfiguration of service value networks at a scale and pace never before seen in history. The opportunity to innovate in services, to realize business and societal value from knowledge about service, to research, develop, and deliver new information services and business services, has never been greater. The challenges are both the multidisciplinary nature of service innovation, which combines business, technology, social-organizational, and demand innovation as well as the lack of formal representations of service systems.