After the XVIIth International Conference of RESER 13-15 September 2007, Tampere, Finland

“Service Competitiveness and Cohesion – Balancing Dynamics in the Knowledge Society”

Services and service industries are becoming increasingly more important as private and public decision-makers search for new sources of growth and competitiveness. High expectations are set on a diverse collection of services to enhance competitiveness, provide complementary competences, and open up new businesses thus potentially improving welfare and providing quality jobs that have been acknowledged also within the Lisbon strategy of the EU. Globally, services have recently become the most important sector for employment.

Owing to the heterogeneity of services, factors of competitiveness, level of wages, productivity and growth rates, patterns of geographical distribution and internationalization – all these show considerable differences between service sub-sectors and industries and even within a single industry or national economy.

Services internationalization and their production and consumption have been augmented by information and communication technologies, and have led to often rapid and unexpected changes in competitive positions. New technologies enable many service operations to overcome restrictions placed on their activities by the friction of distance and yet there are also indications and tendencies towards geographical agglomerations, often occurring in large metropolitan areas that are facilitated by developed infrastructure. In some occasions, globalization of service production chains weakens national and regional cohesion while on the other hand providing new competitive advantages to firms that are able to operate on a multinational scale. This wider landscape with developing international (de-)regulation is setting new rules of competition as well as demanding new competences from firms. Policies at the regional and national level also have a role to play in fostering and/or balancing these dynamics.

One of the key tensions in the development of services and service sectors is between competitiveness and cohesion. This issue reflects difference between the European social model and economic strategies deployed in the US and to a lesser extent the UK. The development of a service economy can enhance social polarisation and reduce societal cohesion. In this context different forms of service and economic competitiveness need to be explored and juxtaposed with an analysis of social cohesion. Is the present development leading towards increasing gaps in productivity, innovativeness and wage levels and between service occupations, firms, industries and regions? Is it possible to develop national and regional policies that foster development but also ensure that socially undesirable disparities are balanced out? How can these kinds of tensions be governed on European as well as international levels?

In the European context social cohesion in the knowledge society between social groups, occupations, industries and regions is considered desirable for two reasons. First, to avoid any large gaps that are likely to emerge that could lead to high social costs. Second, cohesion is required to foster connectivity between different segments of society and to increase the number of interfaces that provide new platforms for learning and innovation.

The relationship between national/regional competitiveness and wider process of social cohesion provides the overall conference theme. There are many different ways to address these complex issues. This conference begins with two key-note presentations by Professor William Baumol and Professor Jean Gadrey. Their work, along with many RESER members and friends, has ensured that services have become central to both academic and policy debates. Since its establishment in 1987 the RESER community has been permanently addressing and researching new service trends aimed at multidisciplinary research of service issues. At the moment we can see the first service-centred research programmes conducted in some countries and also emerging within the EU FP7.

The RESER conference is interested in studies ranging from the micro to macro level. There is also interest in studies focusing on regional and local dynamics of service development and their counterpart, internationalization of service provision and consumption and increasing service FDI and emerging global service production systems. Productivity and innovativeness in services can be explored at the level of the firm or bat a regional and national level. Therefore, papers that explore the following and related themes are welcomed

Main theme 1: Service competitiveness, growth and globalization
• Constitution of service competitiveness
• Commodification and industrialization in service production
• Quality and customer-orientation in service competitiveness
• Technology-based service competitiveness
• Low cost strategy in services
• Service competitiveness in the manufacturing sector
• Services and creative industries
• Internationalization of services, global service production and consumption
• Firm-level and sector studies on service competitiveness and growth
• Studies on national and regional policies to foster service development.

Main theme 2: Service innovation, service engineering and science
• Characteristics of service innovation
• Co-production of service innovations
• Services and innovation systems
• Productivity challenge in services
• Service engineering and “service science”
• Innovation and R&D policies fostering service development.

Main theme 3: Service development; tendencies of polarization and cohesion
• Cohesion and services: geographical, occupational and industrial disparities and polarization in services
• Firm-level studies on social polarization in services
• Sector studies on cohesion and the sustainability of services
• Regional studies on balancing service competitiveness and cohesion
• Analysis into high vs. low road strategies to service/knowledge economy.
• Studies on policies to sustain cohesiveness among service and other industries.

The Closing Session of the Conference will deal with policy implications and future service research. The main speakers will be R. McKay and M. Beredjani of the EC and Tina Ahonen from TEKES

William B. BEYERS, University of Washington, USA
Joël BONAMY, CNRS -GATE, Lyon, France
John BRYSON, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
José A. CAMACHO, University of Granada, Spain
Pedro COSTA, ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal
Peter DANIELS, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Faiz GALLOUJ, University of Lille 1, France
Pim Den HERTOG, Dialogic, the Netherlands
Sven ILLERIS, University of Roskilde, Denmark
Mika KAUTONEN, University of Tampere, Finland
Jari KOLEHMAINEN, University of Tampere, Finland
Jari KUUSISTO, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
Marjatta MAULA, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Marie Christine MONNOYER, University of Toulouse 1, France
José L. NAVARRO, University of Granada, Spain
Mika RAUNIO, University of Tampere, Finland
Luis RUBALCABA, University of Alcala/Madrid, Spain
Grete RUSTEN, University of Bergen, Norway
Markus SCHEUER, RWI, Germany
Markku SOTARAUTA, University of Tampere, Finland
Metka STARE, Faculty of Social Sciences, Slovenia
Marja TOIVONEN, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Anne TUHKUNEN, University of Tampere, Finland

Ronald MacKay
Tiina Tanninen-Ahonen

All the conference papers can be downloaded

The keynote speakers' presentations are available
with a click at the bottom of this page or

on url:http://www.uta.fi/conference/reser2007].

Mr Mika Kautonen, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee
Phone: + 358 3 3551 6895
E-mail: Mika.Kautonen@uta.fi

Since two years, RESER honored those who are working for the development of the resarch on service activities,

P.Sjoholt in 2006 has received his award during the congress
W.Baumol and Jean Gadrey in 2007

William Baumol : Senior Research Economist and Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Princeton University

Faiz Gallouj : Professeur d'économie à l'université de Lille

You can download W.Baumol 's presentation