The 20th Anniversary Seminar of the leading service research centre at Hanken School of Economics on 20 May

Hanken's Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS) has been pioneering service research focusing on service and relationship marketing for twenty years.

CERS was founded in 1994 as one of the first service research centres in the world. According to professor Christian Grönroos, one of the founders, the interest in service research increased strongly during 1980-1990, which laid the foundation for instituting the centre.

"The amount of published doctoral theses within service research, as well as the growing interest from the business community, indicate that we made the right decision in founding the centre", Grönroos says.
Professor Grönroos has been appointed "Legend in Marketing" - as the first person outside North America. His research, about 100 publications, have been compiled and featured in the "Legends in Marketing" series.
Today, CERS is the home of 15 senior researchers and 25 doctoral students.
CERS aims to create frontline academic knowledge through interaction with its international academic network as well as the surrounding business community.

"Finnish research conducted in the field of service marketing is internationally highly valued, which is a well-kept secret in Finland", says CERS Director Kristina Heinonen.

"In the future, our mission is therefore to raise the level of research even higher, to interact more closely with the business community and to function as an international service marketing platform - both in academia and the industry at large, by encouraging innovative research that challenges current knowledge in the service discipline", Heinonen continues.

CERS' 20th Anniversary Seminar on 20 May will be accompanied with prominent speakers from the service field, such as Professor Bo Edvardsson from Karlstad University in Sweden, as well as professors Christian Grönroos and Tore Strandvik from Hanken School of Economics, who share their insights of the future service opportunities within research and practice.

The seminar is for invited guests only.