Services Science is a new research discipline that has received, over the last years, a growing attention from academia and practice. It combines research from various fields which have evolved more or less independently and is concerned with the development and management of service products. Whereas theories from organizational and marketing science usually capture the nature of these products, engineering disciplines focus on shaping and developing these information goods, and the information systems field on integrating services as encapsulated application functionalities by using standardized (XML) interfaces. All these research streams converge in the new interdisciplinary area of Services Science which integrates the principles, design, and management of economic and technical services. For the fourth time, the \\\\\\\"International Symposium on Services Science (ISSS)\\\\\\\" offered an outstanding platform for the advancement and discussion of research in Service Science. In 2012, the ISSS focused on knowledge-intensive business services, also known as Smart Services, and their application in theory and practice. The ISSS was part of the Multi-Conference SABRE (Software, Agents and Services for Business, Research and E-Sciences, 24th-25th September 2012) and was held in Leipzig, Germany as a one-day event on the 25th September, 2012. The symposium was organized by the Information Systems Institute and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Leipzig as well as the Institute for Applied Informatics (InfAI), Fraunhofer MOEZ and the Leipziger Informatik-Verbund (LIV). As reflected in the conference proceedings, the sessions included in the agenda dealt with Smart Services from different perspectives: Smart Services in Theory and Practice, Smart Services in Management and Application, and Smart Services in High-Tech-Sectors. Although the official language of the conference is English, the authors had the opportunity to write their research contributions in English or German.

Services Science is a new research discipline that has received, over the last years, a growing attention from academia and practice. It combines research from various fields which have evolved more or less independently and is concerned with the development and management of service products. Whereas theories from organizational and marketing science usually capture the nature of these products, engineering disciplines focus on shaping and developing these information goods, and the information systems field on integrating services as encapsulated application functionalities by using standardized (XML) interfaces. All these research streams converge in the new interdisciplinary area of Services Science which integrates the principles, design, and management of economic and technical services. For the fourth time, the \\\\\\\'International Symposium on Services Science (ISSS)\\\\\\\' offered an outstanding platform for the advancement and discussion of research in Service Science. In 2012, the ISSS focused on knowledge-intensive business services, also known as Smart Services, and their application in theory and practice. The ISSS was part of the Multi-Conference SABRE (Software, Agents and Services for Business, Research and E-Sciences, 24th-25th September 2012) and was held in Leipzig, Germany as a one-day event on the 25th September, 2012. The symposium was organized by the Information Systems Institute and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Leipzig as well as the Institute for Applied Informatics (InfAI), Fraunhofer MOEZ and the Leipziger Informatik-Verbund (LIV). As reflected in the conference proceedings, the sessions included in the agenda dealt with Smart Services from different perspectives: Smart Services in Theory and Practice, Smart Services in Management and Application, and Smart Services in High-Tech-Sectors. Although the official language of the conference is English, the authors had the opportunity to write their research contributions in English or German.