As one of the world’s leading service innovation groups, UQ Business School’s SIA offers a ‘one-stop shop’ for research and training – encouraging debate, providing insights, educating leaders, and informing the future of service organisations.
Our research is internationally recognised in the following three areas of excellence:
- customer experience
- service workers
- sustainable service innovation
The SIA aligns with UQ's research strengths in healthy ageing, technology for tomorrow, and transforming societies. We work with diverse government and industry partners including visitor attractions, hotels, resorts and service providers worldwide.
We help businesses improve productivity, train and manage their workforce, measure and manage customer experience, explore new ideas, and successfully introduce new technologies.
Read our Digital Service Transformation White Paper (PDF, 12.2 MB)
Customer experience
We look to understand customer needs, emerging markets, experience co-creation and design. An important focus is on technology trends, including understanding customer responses to service robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and addressing digital privacy issues.
SIA Leader, Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy's paper Gaining Customer Experience Insights That Matter explores customer experience in a business-to-business setting. Read her interview delving into the motivation and impact of this research.
Professor McColl-Kennedy also recently published an aricle titled Customer experience management is listed in the top ten priorities of CEOs around the globe in Research News Live.
Service workers
We're working to understand future labour market challenges, such as future workforce skills and the impacts of automation, mobile technologies and self-service technology, productivity, and emerging changes in employee-organisational relationships.
Read more:
- PhD student presents submission to Australian National Youth Commission Hearing
- On the future of work: in conversation with Dominic Barton, 2019 Rodney Wylie eminent visiting fellow
Service innovation
Service innovation explores service model design, measurement of service outcomes and digital technologies. We help service organisations to understand and implement technology trends, including how customers respond to robots and using big data to personalise their services.
Co-Lead Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy presented as one of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) Fellows in Adelaide. You can find her slides on Service Research – past 20 years' and the big topics for the next 20 years here.
Leads
Professor Janet R. McColl-Kennedy
Professor of Marketing
Associate Professor Christoph Breidbach
Associate Professor of Business Information Systems
Meet the Business School SIA Team
ARC Linkage Projects Grant “Transforming Primary Healthcare Service Delivery: A Digital-Human Approach” (2023-2026)
Researchers: Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead), UQ Emeritus Professor Mieke van Driel (PI) Kalwun Health Service, Associate Professor Lisa Hall (CI) UQ School of Public Health, Professor Damian Hine (CI) UQ GCI/QAAFI, Professor Mohamed Zaki (PI) Cambridge Service Alliance, The University of Cambridge, Associate Professor Christoph Breidbach (CI) UQ Business School, Ms Tracey Johnson (PI) CEO Inala Primary Care and Adjunct Professor Paresh Dawda (PI)
Funding: $1,258,024 including $596,349 cash ($496,349 cash from ARC and $100,000 cash from partner organisations)
Trailblazer Universities Program Grant “The University of Queensland Accelerating Growth in Australia’s Food and Beverage Manufacturing (F&B Accelerate; FaBA) (2022-2027)
Researchers: Matthew Morell, Janet McColl-Kennedy, Jason Stokes, Esteban Marcellin Saldana, Nidhi Bansal
Funding: $75 144 735
Solution to Dry Mouth – Market Analysis – Innovation Pathways (2024)
Researchers: Janet McColl-Kennedy, Edgar Brea, Ellen Derbyshire, Alexandria Gain
Funding: Trailblazer Universities $32,412
ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology (2017–2022)
ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centres.
Protecting international tourists from harm: Developing an effective tourist hazard information system (2017–2021)
Researchers: Professor Brent Ritchie, Takahashi Yoshino, Kade Sano, Hayato Nagai.
Funding: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (ARC Equivalent in Japan). Kaken Scientific Research B Grant in Aid: $2.9 million Yen (AU$205,000).
Home telehealth adoption in the aging population: Consumer perspectives 2017–2020
Researchers: T Russell, N Gillespie, N Hartley, D Theodoros, A Hill & L Gray.
Funding: NHMRC Project Grant: $252,000.
Development of an active video game for the long-term maintenance of exercise in people with COPD (2018–2019)
Researchers: Professor Trevor Russell Ms Jennie Money (MNHHS), Dr Nicole Hartley, Dr Allison Mandrusiak.
Funding: Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences-Metro North Hospital and Health Services (CISSS) Research Collaboration Seeding Grant: $39,535.
Enhancing the student experience within dual program courses: meeting the challenge of the new Bachelor of Advanced Business (honours) program (2018–2019)
Researcher: Dr Alistair Tombs.
Funding: UQ teaching fellowship grant: $50,000.
An investigation of the effects of education on data quality perceptions and data quality (2017–2019)
Researchers: Shazia Sadiq and Marta Indulska.
Funding: Mater Medical Research Institute Limited.
Encouraging voluntary purchasing of carbon offsets – a win-win (2016–2019)
Researchers: Professor Brent Ritchie and Professor Sara Dolnicar.
Funding: ARC Linkage Grant $160,000 + $40,000 from partners.
Youth employment in hospitality and tourism: impacts, effects and legacy of early employment experiences 2016–2019
Researchers: Professor David Solnet and Richard Robinson.
Funding: Queensland Tourism Industry Council $66,000
Creating wealth in smallholders farms through efficient credit systems in Pakistan (2017–2018)
Researchers: Associate Professor John Steen, Dr Shabbir Ahmad and Professor Martie-Louise Verreynne.
Funding: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
Role of permanent and transitional servicescapes in maintaining attachment to place in light of the Canterbury earthquakes (2017–2018)
Researchers: J Finsterwalder, A Tombs, C Chen, M Hall & G Prayag).
University of Canterbury (NZ) team based research initiative $19,756
Learning tourism destinations: Creating functional partnerships and initiating positive change for sustainable tourism development in local economies (2016–2018)
Funding: Asian Institute of Tourism, University of the Philippines PESO$1.5 million
Modelling multidimensional multiparty decisions to improve outcomes for customers and service providers: new theory and measurement tTools (2016–2018)
Researchers: Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy (Lead), Assoc. Professor Len Coote, Professor Claire Wainwright, (UQ Medical School) Professor Scott Bell (UQ Medical School), Professor Michael Brady – Florida State University.
Funding: ARC Discovery Grant: $330,000
The open innovation process: Factors and technologies that matter (2016–2018)
Researchers: Professor Marta Indulska, Professor Martie-Louise Verreynne, Associate Professor John Steen.
Funding: ARC Discovery Projects $330,000
Examining the effectiveness of patient-centred practices on health outcomes (2015–2018)
Researchers: Professor Pennie Frow – University of Sydney (Lead), Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy – UQ Business School, Professor Adrian Payne – UNSW, Dr Rahul Govind – UNSW.
Funding: ARC Linkage Grant: $1.1 million
Consumer preferences for voluntary carbon mitigation in the aviation sector (2015–2018)
Researchers: Professor Brent Ritchie, Professor Stefan Gossling, Professor Larry Dwyer.
Funding: ARC Discovery Grant $186,400
Contact us
Get in touch to learn more about our research or to explore opportunities with the Service Innovation Alliance.