Service Modularity, Architecture and Platforms

Special issue call for papers from International Journal of Operations & Production Management

Guest edited by Saara A. Brax, Anu Bask, Juliana Hsuan and Chris Voss

Deadlines

• Deadline for paper submission: May 31, 2015
• Reviewer first reports: October 15, 2015
• Revised paper submissions: January 15, 2016
• Reviewer second reports: April 15, 2016
• Final manuscript submissions to publisher: July 31, 2016

Special issue purpose

Developments in platform technologies have quickly made many services ubiquitous and enabled new services available to both consumers and businesses. It is important to acknowledge that platforms are linked to the broader research area of service architecture, and are based on modularization approaches. In other words, a platform can be considered as an enabling structure to deliver services that are modular and synergistic to the extent that they may share parts of their delivery system.

Operations Management has contributed significantly to the research of product and supply chain modularity in the past. Theory of product modularity draws on the physical aspects of modularity (e.g. Ulrich 1995). As services typically lack a physical core product, the applicability of pre-existing modularity theory has limitations in the service context. Outside the Information Systems discipline only sporadic research papers on service modularity, architecture and platforms have appeared so far (Miozzo & Grimshaw 2005; Meyer et al. 2007; Pekkarinen & Ulkuniemi 2008; Voss & Hsuan 2009; Bask et al. 2010; de Blok et al. 2010; Tuunanen & Cassab 2011).

The area of service modularity, architecture and platforms offers numerous relevant and fresh research topics and needs increasing attention from Operations Management scholars. This special issue aims to build a collection of high-quality research articles that advance the research problems, concepts, theory and knowhow about service-related modularity based on fresh empirical and/or conceptual research.

Scope of the special issue

This special issue welcomes manuscripts with research themes that combine a research problem in the area of modularization, modular architecture and/or platforms with a clear focus on services. Submissions should be relevant for the Operations Management community and address modularity, modularization, platforms or other structural aspects of business models and offerings in a service context.

We welcome manuscripts that present rigorous qualitative or quantitative empirical studies, including case based research and design science approaches. We also encourage submitting manuscripts with conceptual work that significantly develops the foundations and theory of modularity in services.

Full information is available here:

http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/writing/calls.htm?id=5708

 

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