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Service Characteristics in Transition: Influence of Transition from Traditional Health Services to e-Health Services in Service Characteristics

Service Characteristics in Transition: Influence of Transition from Traditional Health Services to e-Health Services in Service Characteristics

Raija Järvinen (Consumer Society Research Centre, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland) and Uolevi Lehtinen (University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland)
Copyright: © 2015 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/IJESMA.2015100101
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Abstract

The main objective of this article is to study the influence of transition in service characteristics. The transition occurs from traditional health services to e-health services. The theoretical roots of the article rely on service characteristics and new service development (NSD). Four empirical case examples serve as an exploratory examination of service characteristics in transition. In this examination, interpretative analysis and comparative methodology were used. The case examples show that the level of manifestation of service characteristics varies from service to service regardless of them being e-services or traditional services. In both traditional services and e-services process nature and non-ownership seem to be the most representative characteristics, but all the studied characteristics are important. Interaction and perishability seem to materialise much less in the connection of e-services than in the context of traditional services.
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Defining And Characterizing Services

There are many different definitions of services and many different conceptions of essential service characteristics. Any service definition and conception is more or less problematic. Finding an ideal definition and a corresponding list of characteristics is very difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, we have to start with some reasonable definitions and corresponding characteristics. Our choice is the service definition by Lehtinen (1984):

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