The Christmas and New Year holidays are approaching and maybe some time off. Soon we can put another eventful and challenging year behind us and look forward to new ideas, exciting research and education.
When I look back and summarize the past year, there are several important achievements and notable results. First, and most important, are the efforts everyone has made in these challenging times. This year, CTF celebrates 37 years, and what comes to my mind are the discussions we have had during the year about the development of service research.
In the 80s, service research was something that belonged to the service sector. We developed theories and research on customer service and customer satisfaction. From the turn of the millennium onwards, services became a logic, a way of thinking about your organization and how you can better help your customer create value. Today, I feel that we are at the door of the third wave of service research. This wave involves service research taking the step to become a system for how individuals, organizations and societies jointly facilitate value-creating experiences in different ways. This perspective is not least important if you want to contribute to a more sustainable social development, and here I hope that our research can contribute to supporting individuals and organizations.
Today, CTF consists of around 80 people, active in both research and teaching, from no less than six scientific disciplines. We also have five international visiting professors who contribute with their knowledge and experience to make our research more cutting-edge and better internationally positioned. During the year, we received support from the Anne-Marie and Gustaf Ander foundation to recruit and to collaborate with these visiting professors during a three-year period.
During 2023, we carried out several different events, one example is the Service Innovation Day with the Swedish Innovation Index as the highlight as well as the “Value-creating conversation” which is a seminar series conducted in collaboration with The Hamrin Foundation. We have received funding for a number of new research projects, and at the same time two large research projects, Discern (SEK 17.7 million) and TRUEdig (SEK 11.5 million) have been completed. We have welcomed two new PhD students and several of our researchers have received distinguished international prizes and appeared on academic ranking lists. Our Graduate professional development program ISE, has now reached the halfway point, and now has no less than 17 courses in its course catalogue. This investment is a fantastic opportunity for us to create value for individuals and organizations that want to strengthen their skills. It is a pleasure to be able to teach these courses as the participants give back as much knowledge as the lecturers share.
I would like to conclude by thanking colleagues and partners for your efforts and for good collaboration and wish you all happy holidays!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Pelle
