Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The Service Triad: From mutual harmony to dialectic tension in the service encounter

Andersson Cederholm, Erika LU orcid and Gyimothy, Szilvia LU (2006) EIRASS conference in retail and service science
Abstract
Models of service encounters are often fraught by reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Georg Simmel’s depiction of the triad as a specific social form.... (More)
Models of service encounters are often fraught by reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Georg Simmel’s depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting for example loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
hybrid market, service relationships, service triad, corporate travel
conference name
EIRASS conference in retail and service science
conference location
Budapest, Hungary
conference dates
2006-07-09 - 2006-07-12
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
88c49bf2-c48a-453d-bed6-95d4e9b8c295 (old id 759763)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:30:43
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:20:44
@misc{88c49bf2-c48a-453d-bed6-95d4e9b8c295,
  abstract     = {{Models of service encounters are often fraught by reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Georg Simmel’s depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting for example loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories.}},
  author       = {{Andersson Cederholm, Erika and Gyimothy, Szilvia}},
  keywords     = {{hybrid market; service relationships; service triad; corporate travel}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{The Service Triad: From mutual harmony to dialectic tension in the service encounter}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}