This paper promotes the value of including many stakeholders in service development. The experience of co-creative service development is examined through the lens of action research. Engaging multiple stakeholders in face-to-face, in simultaneous joint activities, from various organisations, with different levels of hierarchy, and dissimilar positions, may increase the diversification through the broadness of the information, knowledge, and experiences, and increase the amount, and quality of the development suggestions. This paper is an attempt to tell the story of action research and how it was applied to increase the understanding of the usefulness of multiple stakeholders in service development. Outcomes of a research project are presented. The paper ends with discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the conducted research.
In the service business environment, new kinds of expertise in the development and management of services and service business are needed. New competence needs related to work have challenged higher education institutions that offer service business and service design to develop new types of pedagogical solutions. Laurea University of Applied Sciences is one of the first higher education institutions to offer EQF7 (European Qualifications Framework, level 7) level service design studies. At present, Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Laurea) has three degree programmes leading to a Master's degree in which service design is approached from the theoretical perspectives of marketing and management of services. The programmes are intended for those working in management, expert or development positions, and who want to become forward-looking service innovators.The purpose of this article is to deepen the understanding of pedagogical solutions for the EQF7-level studies in service design offered by Laurea. The theoretical starting point is the Trialogical epistemology of innovative knowledge communities developed by Paavola and Hakkarainen [1]. Trialogical approach refers to learning as a process of knowledge creation, which focuses on mediated processes where shared objects of activity are developed collaboratively. This approach promotes to elicit and helps to understand the processes of knowledge advancement that are essential to an advanced knowledge society.In this article, we assess the pedagogical solutions of the three study units of service design in the theoretical framework by comparing them against three metaphors of learning. The three metaphors of learning (monological, dialogical and trialogical) provide a valuable framework for evaluating pedagogical solutions. The results indicate that the learning process of an innovative knowledge community should consist of all three pedagogical solutions that support the different metaphors of learning.
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