In memory of Evert Gummesson (1936-2023)

Posted by on

In memory of Evert Gummesson (1936-2023)
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evert_Gummesson

Hanken notice here
URL: https://blogs.hanken.fi/cers/2023/04/06/the-passing-of-evert-gummesson/

ServSIG notice here
URL: https://www.servsig.org/wordpress/2023/04/evert-gummesson-has-passed-away/

(1) As noted by Christian Gronross, Evert Gummesson was one of the pillars of the Nordic School of service research, and generously contributed a chapter to the Handbook of Service Science, entitled “The future of service is long overdue” in which he offered “a travel account from service management to service science” and educated many of us newcomers on both the Nordic School as well as “Case Study Research and Network Theory.” Please read his chapter if you have a chance, it is rich with his humor and a wide-range of insights and predictions for the future of service research.
URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4419-1628-0_27

(2) Evert was also a co-founder of the Naples Forum on Service bi-annual conference, one of the best little conferences for service researchers on the planet, both to meet service research innovators and leaders as well as for the amazing hospitality of the hosts in the beautiful Naples region of Italy.
URL: https://naplesforumonservice.com

(3) Evert’s was extremely serious about the importance of service in everyday life and as a scholarly pursuit, but would often makes his points with clever quips and amusing anecdotes. For example, in “The SAGE Handbook of Serivce-Dominant Logic”, his chapter “Towards a Grand View of Service: The Role of Service-Dominant Logic” includes a wonderful section entitled “A blind-date with S-D logic” and the challenges of making sense of service research which might appear at first to new comers as “a smorgasbord of unrelated dishes.”
URL: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-sage-handbook-of-service-dominant-logic/book254774#contents

(4) My highest praise for Evert’s work is what I consider his masterpiece entitled “Case Theory in Business and Management: Reinventing Case Study Research.” I confess to needing to read sections of this book three times to begin to understand its deep insights about transcending simple categories such as quantitative and qualitative research. I keep going back to this book for inspiration when I question why some of us engage in such an impossibly hard challenge of deeply understanding service and it manifestation as service system interaction and change processes in a complex world of people with bounded rationality. At the end of the day, Evert through this work continues to inspire me to “Think Right” and “Do Right.”
URL: https://sk.sagepub.com/books/case-theory-in-business-and-management-reinventing-case-study-research

(5) Finally, as Ray Fisk noted: “Evert was a fascinating person with a generous spirit who personified service. He will be dearly missed!” For example, Evert invited me anytime I was traveling in Europe to please come visit him in Stockholm so we could have dinner at his house. He would be chef, and quickly whip up a simple fish stew and pour generous portions of white wine, while discussing life and friendships and ideas. I will treasure his colleagueship and friendship forever, and Evert will truly be dearly missed.
URL: https://service-science.info/archives/3348