The services sector now accounts for over 70% of employment and value added in OECD economies. It also accounts for almost all employment growth in the OECD area. But despite its growing weight in OECD economies, productivity growth and employment ...

The services sector now accounts for over 70% of employment and value added in OECD economies. It also accounts for almost all employment growth in the OECD area. But despite its growing weight in OECD economies, productivity growth and employment rates in services remain low in many OECD countries. To improve the basis for future economic growth and to address the rapid globalisation of OECD economies, the services sector will need to do better than is currently the case. But how can services performance be improved? And which factors and policies are the most important?This report provides an overview of the role of services in economic performance, and the factors that affect services sector performance. This includes the role of labour and product markets, the impact of barriers to trade in services, the role of innovation in services and the impacts of information and communications technology (ICT) on the services sector. The report also includes a paper presenting case studies of successful services firms, which help illustrate the broader analysis from OECD data.The report shows that services are indeed of growing importance to OECD economies, but that not all OECD economies have sufficiently adjusted their policies to seize greater benefits from the potential for growth and innovation in the services sector. Adjusting these polices will help in preparing OECD economies for a future characterised by an increasingly internationalised and competitive services sector.

Services are transforming OECD economies on a massive scale, but are still impeded by regulations and policies that stifle innovation and competition. Comprehensive reforms need to be pursued internationally as well as in individual OECD countries ...

Within American service sector organizations there exists a gap between understanding customer service quality improvement (QI) theories and applying them. Improving Service Quality in the Global Economy: Achieving High Performance in Public and Private Sectors, Second Edition fills that gap by presenting theory, application models, and cases of successful customer service QI efforts in both the public and private sectors. The book emphasizes the selection and development of strategies for quality improvement in regulated public non-market-driven services such as education, government, and healthcare. This revised edition promotes managerial thinking that integrates QI and Knowledge Management (KM) concepts with leadership principles that enable effective responses to the changing demands of the global economy. The text provides step-by-step guidelines, recommendations, and action plans for implementing quality improvements in service sector industries, which now generate two-thirds of America's GDP. Throughout this volume, cases of successful QI efforts in service industries complement major points in each chapter, offering profiles of global service quality leaders that serve as examples to organizations in the public sector. Current and future managers will gain insight into how the global service quality revolution effects their daily work environments, inspiring improvement in products, services, and support that American companies provide to markets worldwide.

Abstract: This paper examines the structure and performance of the services sector in Eastern European and Central Asian countries during 1997-2004. Services represent an increasing share of total value added and employment with the major sub-sectors being wholesale trade, retail trade, inland transport, telecommunications, and real estate activities. A clear divide separates EU-5 countries from South Eastern European countries and Ukraine in terms of services labor productivity. Although a large gap in productivity also separates EU-8 countries from EU-15 countries, that gap was reduced from 1997 to 2004 as most services sub-sectors experienced fast productivity growth. High skill intensive sub-sectors and information and communications technology producers and users have exhibited higher productivity levels and growth rates relative to other sub-sectors since 2000. The author finds a positive effect of services liberalization on the productivity growth of services sub-sectors. The author also finds a positive and significant effect of services liberalization in both finance and infrastructure on the productivity of downstream manufacturing.

Recommended Techniques for Service Industry efficiency, customer-oriented services, application of Lean Six-sigma, Service TQM, Market and Business Study and Research, Digital marketing, Service process Re-engineering, and Efficiency improvement of Service industry for making Smart Service provider