"Dematerialization" in advanced economies is a key process that characterize evolution patterns in Service Management and Marketing studies and practices. The weight of services in the GDP is constantly growing in all Western countries and services firms (as well as increasing "servitization" processes within manufacturing/industrial and agricultural firms) represent a central node of the economic development.

The course aims at offering the students basic knowledge of the functioning of the service sector as well as knowledge of the specific problems and managerial tools in marketing and management of services firms.

In this respect in the course will be analyzed following issues: The role of services in contemporary economy; Competition in the service sector; Service Quality and Customer centrality; Relationship Marketing; Service management and marketing; Service profitability and productivity; SPF (Service Professional Firms).

• Basic Concepts
  • The service sector and its role in the contemporary economy;
  • The strategic perspective on Service.
• Competitive strategy and Service Marketing
  • Service strategies based on customers' and clients' relationships;
  • Segmentation and targeting in the Services market;
  • The offering system design in services;
  • The role of cusomers in the service process;
  • Organizational aspects of service marketing: full time and part time marketers, transactional and relationship marketing;
  • The role of Image and Communication in the service firm.
• Quality, productivity and profitability
  • The importance of total quality in services.
  • GAP model in service marketing and management;
  • Services productivity;
  • Services profitability.
• Professional Services Firms (PSFs)
  • The nature of professional services;
  • The importance of knowledge development and management in PSFs;
  • Marketing activities in PSFs.

Knowledge and understanding

• Students should acquire knowledge and effective understanding of the main theoretical models developed in the Service Marketing field and of the operational tools in service design and management.

Applying knowledge and understanding

• Students should be able to apply the acquired knowledge and fully understand and solve problems with reference to a variety of contexts that characterize services' markets, using, when necessary, interdisciplinary competences.

Making judgements

• Students should autonomously use the acquired knowledge both at the conceptual and at the operational level showing effective capabilities in analyzing different contexts that caracterize the service sector.

Communication skills

• Students should acquire the technical language that characterizes the discipline in order to clearly and effectively communicate with practitioners, managers, experts and academics. At the same time they should be able to relate and communicate with non professional people.

Learning skills

• Students should develop learning abilities that allow them to autonomously study and investigate advancements in the service marketing discipline especially in the working environment in which they’ll operate.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

• Lecturers from managers and entrepreneurs in the service sector;
• Case Studies development and discussions during lectures.

Teaching

The course will be based on different didactics methods:

• Frontal lessons;
• Lecturers from managers and entrepreneurs;
• Group project works and discussions based on case studies and/or on ad hoc material (papers, other publications, companies' website analysis...).

Course books

• C. Gronroos (2009), Management e Marketing dei Servizi, Isedi - excluded some chapters that will be indicated during lessons.
• Selected publications that will be shared during classroom and will be available on Moodle › blended.uniurb.it.

Assessment

The final assessment will be based on a written text, consisting of 3 open questions on the topics covered during the course. The student is expected to answer these questions in an articulated and consistent manner, in order to demonstrate:

• to have fully acquired and understood the main concepts and themes covered during the course;
• to be able of applying those concepts to the understanding and to the solution of practical situations and problems related to the management of companies that operate in the service sector;
• to be able to present their arguments in an effective and consisten manner in the time available and with an appropriate technical language.

The time available to answer questions is one hour and a half. The overall assessment will be made taking into account both the answer to every single questions and the elaborate structure as a whole. Attending students are invited to respond to questions properly using the contents developed and built interactively in the classroom.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Course books

• Zeithaml V.A., Bitner M.J., Gremler D.D., Enrico Bonetti E. (Eds) (2012), MARKETING DEI SERVIZI (3/ED), McGraw-Hill.

Assessment

The final assessment will be based on a written text, consisting of 3 open questions on the studied topics. The student is expected to answer these questions in an articulated and consistent manner, in order to demonstrate:

• to have fully acquired and understood the main concepts and themes covered during the course;
• to be able of applying those concepts to the understanding and to the solution of practical situations and problems related to the management of companies that operate in the service sector;
• to be able to present their arguments in an effective and consisten manner in the time available and with an appropriate technical language.

The time available to answer questions is 90 minutes. The overall assessment will be made taking into account both the answer to every single questions and the elaborate structure as a whole.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.