Abstract: Service standards can reflect the sovereignty of a country in the service sector， which play a significant role in promoting the development of service industry. In general， the overseas research on service standardization can be reviewed from six aspects: definitions and classifications， economic benefit analysis， pitfall analysis， supply and demand analysis， system theory analysis and policy analysis. In the current research on service standardization， there are three schools of thought， i.e.， public goods theory， competitive tool theory and system engineering theory. Public goods theory has led to the increasing analyses on economic benefits and pitfalls of service standardization. Competitive tool theory has made the supply and demand analysis of service standardization a prevalent topic， while system engineering theory has laid a firm foundation for the system theory based research on service standardization. A comprehensive analysis of the theoretical progress of overseas research on service standardization can provide a valuable reference for the relevant research in China.

Key words: service standardization, the analysis of economic benefit, system engineering