Päivi Aro
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Mikko Heinonen
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Timo Parkkola
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Emma Vironmäki
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Helena Ahola
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Juha Iso-Aho
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Marja-Liisa Järvelä
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Reetta Kerola
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Kati Reijonen
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
Taina Vuorela
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Business and Information Management, Oulu, Finland
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Published in: ServDes.2012 Conference Proceedings Co-Creating Services; The 3rd Service Design and Service Innovation Conference; 8-10 February; Espoo; Finland
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 67:1, p. 1-7
Published: 2013-10-16
ISBN: 978-91-7519-482-0
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rarely apply the methods of service design in developing their businesses. In part; this arises from the shortage of available service design expertise. Universities of applied sciences (UASs) have acknowledged the need for service design education; but do not yet have enough experience and practical knowledge to include the studies into curricula.
The PALI project (Competitive Advantage through Service Design) facilitates co-learning of service design amongst UASs. The project is a collaborative effort of HUMAK; Novia; Oulu and Savonia UASs; which form an interdisciplinary environment with several educational fields; tourism; cultural management; design and business administration. Co-learning in the project is based on real-world service development cases implemented in co-creation teams of UAS staff; UAS students and SME representatives.
This paper looks at how the co-learning environment has been constructed throughout the project. The most crucial question turned out to be knowledge transfer; which has been based on an iterative cycle consisting of three phases; progressing; learning by doing and reflecting. The challenge of integrating teaching and research has been addressed by creating a Broker model in which each UAS has a service design expert acting as a project generator between the UAS and SMEs.
