Service businesses play a predominant role in today’s economy. They account for more than 50% of the European Union’s GDP and—perhaps more importantly—more than 70% of its jobs. The service industry is thus a major source of economic growth and job creation. And yet, in France at least, service industry management and marketing are poorly understood.

From a cultural standpoint, the service professions are often looked down upon—perhaps due to a perceived relationship between service and servility. However, if services businesses are to become more professional and earn the recognition they are seeking, they must adopt a "services engineering" approach. In other words, they must develop their own management models on a par with those used by businesses in other sectors, such as industry.

The mission of the Institute for Management and Service Industry Dynamics, working in partnership with the Académie du Service (Accor), is to meet this need by creating and disseminating knowledge in the field of service industry management.

The Institute’s work is built around three main pillars:
 

• Teaching, via a Master’s in Service Industry Management program
• Academic research in service industry management and marketing
• Applied research, via in-company assignments in partnership with the Académie du Service (Accor) 

 
The Institute’s activities are oriented toward four service industry management issues:
 

• New service industry marketing methods that could be leveraged to give the service industry a more professional approach 
• Service guarantees to consumers
• Services, technologies and innovations; or how to manage innovation in the service industry • Management of public services in the market sector