Conference article

Service design as a new market category has emerged quite rapidly since the first pioneers; live|work in 2001 and Engine 2002 started offering service design commercially and claimed the label. Since then; a service design field has developed; which features institutions such as the Service Design Network; Master courses at universities; and academic conferences. Recently; the success of service design attracts management consultancies; which include service design as part of their core offering. This represents a challenge for the pioneers; as modifications of the practice might lead to ambiguous meanings and hence the category as a whole can suffer from devaluation by audiences. As a consequence; the entire category is likely to turn into a fad. In order to prevent this from happening; pioneers have several strategic options at their disposal. In the following; we propose a research design; which suggests the theory of ‘Authentic Adaptation’; pioneers might react in drawing from their heritage; while also adapting to the new context.

service design; market category; fads & fashion; pioneer; meaning