A Prototype for Service-Based Costing

Service systems consider the co-creation of values in a process between provider and con¬sumer with a win-win situation for both. Service-Dominant Logic demands a new view on eco¬nomic activities where the most important re¬source for value creation are the competences and knowledge of the provider and sometimes also of the consumer. Given these assumptions, we investigate whether costs in a service system shall be accounted in a different way to reflect the change in view. Given that service provision is seen as a process, process accounting or ac¬tivity-based cost models seem to be appropri¬ate at a first glance. We argue that an extension is necessary, because a service is co-created by resources of service provider and consumer. Furthermore, activities performed by the con¬sumer are not under full control and therefore additional uncertainty has to be considered. We illustrate our approach in a scenario derived from a manufacturing company whose sales depar¬tment is confronted with the problem of computing costs with a high variability in serv¬ices that enhance their products. Our research question is whether we are able to compute service costs with a higher degree of accuracy.