Includes bibliographical references (pages 146-149) and index.
"This book contains a simple but powerful definition of services, based on a separation between back-stage and front-stage activities. Services deal with front-stage interactions, production, and manufacturing with back-stage operations. Teboul uses this distinction systematically to explore the important issues of the field within a coherent set of concepts and maps, including the service mix, the service triangle, and the service-intensity matrix. This is a novel approach to services that challenges the traditional view."--Jacket.