Offerings as Commitments and Context: Service Systems from a Language Action Perspective

David Ing

The rise of the service economy contributes to turbulence in today’s world of business. This paper responds to the call for a new science of service systems with an approach based in the language-action perspective. This understanding of service systems is founded on the concepts of offerings and co-production developed by Richard Normann and Rafael Ramirez. It is extended with a model of conversation for action by Fernando Flores and Terry Winograd, and a commitment management protocol by Stephan Haeckel. Commitments to four types of obligations based in language-action are described, and placed in a larger context of peripheral events, language and action.

offeringsascommitmentsandcontext