Abstract. World economies have changed into service economies in the last decade, as services became the main dynamic component of economic competition. Therefore, this study explores how the globalization and, moreover, the knowledge-based economy could influence the conceptualization of service management. The findings of this study reveal that some of the hypothesis on service management are no longer valid, being replaced by new hypothesis more suitable within the global world and the knowledge-based economy. The study was carried out by combining a wide variety of sources, such as research papers, literature reviews, conceptual papers and books. The results reported in this research may be used for designing new methods and models for the management of service organizations so as to consider the changes in conceptualizing service management.

Keywords: service management; information and communication technology; global world; knowledge-based society.