Members of the RESER Council:
Céline Merlin Brogniard (University of Lille), Gisela di Meglio (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); José Luis Navarro-Espigares (University of Granada), Marie Christine Monnoyer (Université de Toulouse 1), Markus Scheuer (RWI Essen), Patrik Ström (University of Gothenburg, President), Lars Fuglsang (Roskilde University, organizer of 2015 conference) Luna Leoni, .
(Members of council excused: Alexander Schletz (Fraunhofer IAO, Stuttgart); Laurentiu Tachiciu (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest); Maria Savona (SPRU, UK), Risto Rajala (Aalto University), Pedro Costa (University Institute of Lisbon),
Members of the RESER and other participants:
Jean Philippe (Aix Marseille University), Metka Stare (University of Ljubljana), Jon Sundbo (Roskilde University), Flemming Sørensen (Roskilde University), Zhuo Zhang (Aix Marseille University); Estibaliz Hernandez (Mondragon Innovation and Knowledge); Jose Aureliano Martin Segura (Granada University), Cesar Perez Lopez (IEF), Luna Leoni (Rome University), Janina Evers (RIAS)
20 personnes
Agenda
- Opening of the GA
- Approval of Copenhagen 2015 GA Minutes
- Council Activity Report 2015-2016
- Priority activities in 2015/2016
Grants
Publications
Collaboration and awareness
PHD activities
- Financial account and budget approval
- Elections of new council members
- Conference 2017
- Other
- Opening of the GA
The RESER president Patrik Strom opened the GA and thanked the local organizers in Naples for an excellent conference.
- Approval of Copenhagen 2015 GA Minutes
The first point of the agenda is the approval of the 2015 General Assembly Minutes –which can be found in RESER website. PS makes a summary of the main topics treated. The minutes are approved.
- Council Activity Report 2014-2015
The council activity report was presented by the President. He explains that, for unforeseen reasons, our secretary could not send the 2015-2016 Activity Report to RESER members by email. However, the report is available on RESER website. PS presents the main activities of the RESER council during 2015-2016: The activity report was discussed with the GA participants, and is annexed to these minutes. A comprehensive and sequential presentation of the several items was made, with particular focus on the accomplishment of the several RESER Council priorities for 2015/16 and the implementation of medium term RESER action plan.
- GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE RESER COUNCIL WORKS
– Council meetings and communication with members
– Membership
- Copenhagen RESER 2015 CONFERENCE
- RESER COUNCIL activity report 2015-2016
- Collaboration with the organization of the 2015 annual conference, in Copenhagen
- PhD Colloquium, The format adopted after Roskilde University fitted quite well and the Council is satisfied with the results.
- Publications :Papers from the 2015 RESER conference are published in the conference proceedings, which are available on the website. Other papers were included in edited volumes. After RESER broke its relationship with the Service Industries Journal (SIJ) we have aimed to publish conference papers in a number of journals targeted to the topic of each conference. As we are a multidisciplinary organization, it makes sense having different types of journals as potential places for publication .
- PhD Mobility Grant : This year a PhD mobility grant was granted to Luna Leoni (LL). PS stresses that more efforts should be invested in launching projects and in pushing joint research across our network.
- Relation with REDLAS : Marja Toivonen (MT) will be the keynote speaker in REDLAS 2016 Conference that will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil during October. The Council agreed to gave MT financial support to attend the Conference representing the RESER network.
- OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNCIL
- WEBPAGE MANAGEMENT: needs feedback from the network. PS makes a call to RESER members to send info to our webmaster, Marie-Christine Monnoyer (MCM). This year our webpage will start using open source access. Alexander Schletz (AS) will help in this transition and will join MCM as the webmaster of RESER webpage.
- ENHANCING AND MAPPING RESER COMMUNITY :information has been collected in 2016 RESER Conference registration. LL is working with the PhD database and tries to maintain it updated.
- ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCIAL ISSUES : PS thanks José Luis Navarro (JLN) to keep control of RESER financial issues;
- Others issues :
- Conference 2017 (Bilbao), 2018 ?
- Calls for proposals
- Preparation of electoral process
- Priority activities in 2015/2016
Grants :
– Mobility grant
There is a group discussion on our major problem related to this point: how to attract more applicants to the PhD mobility grant call. MCM reminds us that the aim of this grant is to link students with research teams working on services by means of our network. The students can choose a place or a team and spend some time working there with the financial support of RESER. There is a call launched every year at RESER website and a set of forms that potential applicants must send to the Council. Then, there is a selection process. A debate on the point: is it compulsory that student and hosting team are Reser member ?
It is not an heavy charge to become a Reser member : 50 euro for a student and 70 euros for a team , so finally, we agree on putting things clearer in the website and spread the awareness of this support as much as we can. we will improve the communication and the process on this grant.
– Research grant
This grant has been proposed to facilitate the connexions between the different teams. PS explains how this grant works. This is a collaboration grant aiming at facilitating meetings, and promoting connections among our network. There is an open discussion on whether we should link this grant to the mobility grant. For the moment, we agree on keeping both grants separately. We will try to find new ways of improving both grants. PS underlies the importance of reinforcing our collaborations trough projects: the research grant is a way of doing this. Previously, Markus was involved in the ESIC project;
The assembly is OK for continuing the process, but it seams useful to improve the communication about this grant which can be linked with the mobility grant.
Collaboration and awareness
PS and MT were both involved in the EU High Level Group. PS suggests that is time to rethink our relationship with the European Commission, after they have restructured. The grant could support the collaboration across our teams to do so. MS argues that we are not dealing with the top people at the EC because our contact has retired. Thus, now we need to enter through a new door and this is difficult. PS agrees on this, and suggests inviting someone from the EC to our next 2017 RESER Conference in Bilbao, as we did in previous editions. We also may have some financial support for this. It seams compulsory to improve our relationships with the European commission. We will try to invite some members at Bilbao (Spain)
Publications
PS explains that the Council is having a discussion with Edward Elgar for editing a RESER book when Reser is ready after our conferences. This would be a way of increasing the awareness of our network. PS and MCM suggest looking back and seeing how we have previously managed the editions of books within RESER.
A new review for RESER : ERSEM : European review service economics and management / REEMS : revue européenne d’économie et management. The editor in chief is Pr Faiz Gallouj, the general Now, EGS has left the room to ERSEM (European Review of Service Economics and Management) edited by Faiz Gallouj. Secretariat Celine Merlin, the publisher, editions Garnier (Paris), the email address to propose papers : ersem@univ-lille1.fr, ERSEM will launch two numbers every year: in September and in March. This is a possibility for publication for us –better than EGS that only had one issue per year. MCM will put all the relevant info in the RESER website. Obviously, this possibility for publication should not be seen as a competitor of the RESER book
The first number will be ready at the end of September 2016.
Some reviews, quite interesting in services themes are welcoming Reser members papers
– Journal of Inspiration Economics (new journal, with selection process coordinated by F. Gallouj);
– Journal of Energy and Environment (from their initiative, selection of papers on environment and sustainable issues)
– Journal of Service Science (ongoing process, special issue, on social innovation issues)
– Journal of Industry and Innovation (special issue on social systems of innovation, which process of selection started recently)
MCM highlighted the importance (and the need) to have a comprehensive list of persons who published in each journal, to give the information in the website. Conference organizers will provide that information.
PhD activities
TR comments on this year PhD colloquium in which students got inspiring methodological insights for their research. LL emphasizes the importance and usefulness of this activity for students in the beginning of their PhD. Students have learnt how to structure a dissertation, or a research project. She suggests that, in the next edition, the colloquium could have a lecture for students at the beginning of their PhD proposal; and another one for those at the end. PS stresses that, although we have discussed having the colloquium every two years, this year it worked out fine with a limited number of students. We could try to maintain this activity every year.
- Financial account and budget approval
JLN presents the RESER financial report. The main chapter within our incomes is fees. However, this year, only one institutional member (out of four) has paid the institutional fee. After a group discussion, we agree to re-launch the notice for payment for the 3 members that have not paid yet. JLN thinks that the problem is that the email is being received by an admin person and not by the RESER contact.
JLN comments on the 2015-2016 expenditures: mobility grant (4,000 euros – an amount larger than usual as the candidate asked for one month extension), REDLAS support, PhD colloquium, website maintenance, reimbursement of the Council meeting face-to-face. The current financial deficit of around 2,000 euros will be compensated with the fee payment of this year. All in all, we will stay in a similar position as in previous years.
The Council approves the financial report.
Then, JLN presents the budget proposal for the period September 1 2016 to August 31 2017: previous figures are maintained supposing the fee payment of 3 institutional members (since the Italian institutional member has not attended this year conference). We also maintain the small research grant and the RESER PhD mobility grant in its highest amount (4,000 euros). Support for the PhD colloquium in the next conference is also included.
PS suggests having a Council strategic meeting similar to the one previously organized by MS. We should discuss how to engage with the EC, how to attract more institutional members to our network, etc. He asks JLN to take this expenditure into account. MS recalls that that was a productive meeting and that it could useful to rethink how RESER is positioned; how RESER establishes links with other services networks (i.e.: as with the service marketing association in previous years). She also suggests having some funding to support a group of members that attend other conferences with the aim of increasing the awareness of RESER. PS thinks this is a good idea, we should have a group of people attending other meetings and showing the RESER flag at those places. GDM suggests inviting other associations to the RESER conference, offering them a track within the conference, for instance. PS agrees that this could work both ways.
- Elections of new council members
PS announces that Brita Hermelin is not going to continue in the Council. PS proposes to reelect Markus, Maria Savona and Gisela Di Meglio for a 3-year term. The council agrees. LL who has entered the council the past year, now enters the council for a 3-year period on more formal basis. Tiziana was in the Council last year as the organizer of the naples conference. We elect her for a 3 year term. Estebaliz Hernández is also entering the Council as local organizer of 2017 RESER Conference. We also invite David Sánchez, from Mondragon Innovation & Knowledge.
New entering: MCM talked with Jan Broechner from Chalmers University of technology Sweden, who was close to retirement. He suggests a professor from his institution. We agree on including her into the council for one year and see how it works, just like with Luna Leoni
- Conference 2017
The next RESER Conference will take place in Bilbao. Dates: 7-9th September. David Sánchez thanks the Council for the confidence. The Conference will have the support of the Mondragon University and of the Bilbao municipality. PS offers the council support for any matter related to the organization of the Conference.
Strategic meeting
The Bled meeting was fructul, so the president encouraged by Metka Stare (past president and organizer Bled meeting) says that we will discuss further on the inclusion of institutional members along the year and in our Council strategic meeting.
- Others
MCM wants to discuss certain issues related to our webpage. She tells the Council that our webmaster partner in Slovenia is no longer in the business, so we need to think other ways for organizing the website. Now, RESER brand is split in 2 parts: the RESER website, on the one hand, and the RESER conference webpage, on the other. From a marketing perspective, it is interesting to join both sites. MCM and AS are working on this idea, and will present a proposal to the Council at the face-to-face meeting.
– MCM insists that those who want to put the Conference paper on the website can do it, free of charge. If someone do not want that the paper is on the website, this should be notified to MCM. She can rapidly remove the paper from the webpage. She says that maintaining the website is not a heavy job, but updating it is hard if no one sends information. She reminds that the teams can refesh their information very easily, she ask us to send info, photos, papers. The most appropiate format is a word file.
MS claims that the lack of information is an old disease of RESER. She proposes that the communication from the Council to the rest of the network increases. The Council could send more information to the members, i.e.: by sending the minutes. In those e-mails, an alert could be included reminding the updating of info in the website. MS also says that the number of parallel sessions in the Conference is too high. She suggests that, at the beginning of the Conference, we could notify the attenders that there is nothing wrong with changing rooms. In particular, this may encourage younger members or the new comers. We all agree.
– Metka requested more information about the High Level Group conference; PS reported briefly the dynamics of transformation in the structure with new European Commission formation and new DG’s; It was also reported information provided by Peter Smith to some members, considering that this would be a good moment to seize opportunities, seizing the changes in the organizational structure of the European Commission. It was discussed that new influent persons should be aware of RESER activities, and may be a way can be that they can be invited to next conference (as occurred in the past).
No further issues.
Pedro Costa was absent so
Gisella di Meglio et Marie-Christine Monnoyer
Download the report in PDF : Reser General Assembly 2016 – Napoli