CERS (Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management) is a research- and competence centre at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. The centre operates in conjunction with the department of marketing, and specialises in research on service management and relationship marketing. There are currently 13 senior researchers and 35 doctoral students associated to CERS, of which one third are acting as full-time researchers. The centre is a part of the Helsinki Business Campus
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History
CERS was founded in 1994 by professor Christian Grönroos and set up in cooperation with professors Martin Lindell, Sören Kock, Tore Strandvik and Kaj Storbacka. The centre was founded to do frontline academic research on relationship marketing and service management and to uphold the research traditions of the Nordic School of marketing.
Activity
33 doctoral theses have been defended and published at CERS, along with a number of academic articles. According to the Finnish Journal of Business Economics (1/2007), CERS founder Christian Grönroos is the most cited business professor in Finland, with CERS professors Veronica Liljander and Tore Strandvik among the top 15. CERS maintains an active co-operation with the business community and arranges workshops for its partner companies. It also organizes the annual CERS Award–competition for excellence in relationship marketing.