ServDes. 2016

Fifth Service Design and Innovation conference

Griffin, & Moenaert, Forthcoming). The current paper is an initial attempt to describe

aspects of the research presented during the first four Service Design and innovation

(ServDes) conferences, by looking at the authors of- and references made, in the 105

research papers published so far at ServDes. The study does not look at the content of the

produced research, but rather lays the foundation and identifies the context for future

studies of research content. Our interest lies in understanding what ServDes researchers read

and to some extent, what their backgrounds are. It is also of interest to look at the

progression within the field and the extent to which ServDes authors reference other

ServDes papers. We have conducted a search in the Scopus (Elsevier, n.d.) database using

the papers from ServDes, and made an analysis based on the references in the research

papers published in the proceedings

1

.

ServDes History

ServDes was initially called the Nordic Conference on Service Design and Service

Innovation, and the first conference was held in Oslo, Norway on the 24th

–

26th of

November 2009. On the ServDes webpage (ServDes, 2015) you can read the following

about the history of the conference:

ServDes conference was born on a bridge in Pittsburgh U.S. during the Emergence 2007 Service

Design Conference organized by Carnegie Mellon University. Professor Simon Clatworthy (AHO),

senior lecturers Virpi Kaartti (Laurea UAS) and Janne-Valtteri Nisula (Laurea UAS) decided to

create a scientific multidisciplinary Nordic Service Design & Innovation conference. Soon professor

Stefan Holmlid (Linköping University) and professors Nicola Morelli and Christian Tollestrup

from Aalborg University joined the initiative. ServDes founding members are: AHO, Laurea UAS,

Linköping University, Aalborg University.

The organizing committees of the conferences made some strategic decisions after the first

conference, such as making it a bi-annual event on years opposite to the Nordic Design

Research Conference (Nordes) and on the same years as the Participatory Design

Conference (PDC), but during the first half instead of the second half of the year. This also

helped avoid clashes with other possible fora for publishing service design. It was also

1

The proceedings can be found online.

2009: Simon Clatworthy, Janne-Valtteri Nisula, Stefan Holmlid (2009). Conference Proceedings

ServDes.2009; DeThinking Service; ReThinking Design; Oslo Norway 24-26 November 2009

http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_home/index.en.aspx?issue=059

2010: Stefan Holmlid, Janne-Valtteri Nisula, Simon Clatworthy (2010). Conference Proceedings;

ServDes.2010; Exchanging Knowledge; Linköping; Sweden; 1-3 December 2010

http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_home/index.en.aspx?issue=060

2012: Päivi J. Tossavainen, Milla Harjula, Stefan Holmlid (2012). ServDes.2012 Conference

Proceedings Co-Creating Services; The 3rd Service Design and Service Innovation Conference; 8-10

February; Espoo; Finland http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_home/index.en.aspx?issue=067 and

2014: Daniela Sangiorgi, David Hands, Emma Murphy (2014). ServDes.2014 Service Future;

Proceedings of the fourth Service Design and Service Innovation Conference; Lancaster University;

United Kingdom; 9-11 April 2014

http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_home/index.en.aspx?issue=099