bAcKground
The development of the field of services marketing
from the late 1980s onwards provided a new set
of concepts which could be used in the academic
development of IT as a service discipline. An
initial focus of service marketing was around
the intangible nature of services (Brown, Fisk &
Bitner, 1994; Bitner & Brown, 2006). A definition
of the characteristics of a service remains of
great significance to IT practice because of the
contrast that can be drawn with a manufactured
product. Although it should be recognized that
the definition of a “product” in marketing is wide
ranging, since a product can involve a service
as part of its makeup—financial products are a