Research insights and potential uses

The proposed interdisciplinary approach for service research in information systems reflects an alternative perspective on service systems that can provide several insights and can have many potential uses in future research efforts in this field.

First of all, the three-domain framework suggests the need for an end-to-end analysis in service systems that incorporates the technological, the business and the user concerns. Analyzing in conjunction the technologies used for service development and delivery, the business models employed and the usage of services by the end user can support the better understanding of the multifaceted relationships among technologies, business models and service usage patterns and the experimentation with their alternative configurations. For instance, providers realize frequently that their services are not used as they were designed, but the users adopt different uses in their practices. The point here is not the design process was inadequate or uninspiring, but the opportunity to learn from the way the users use services in their practices.

Likewise, the relationship between technologies and business models can provide insights for the use of alternative technologies or the development of alternative business models to support the same use patterns. In this realm, particularly interesting would be the development of methods that will integrate the outputs of service analysis from the user’s perspective with business modeling methods for the analysis of the business processes and software analysis and design methods for the development of information systems. In addition, the combined analysis of the digital and the physical aspects of services can provide insights for the development of cyber-physical service systems and augmented reality applications that can embed services on the digital or the physical environment of the users.

The users may adopt different use patterns according to their particular situation and the conditions of their physical or technological context. The concurrent analysis of technologies, business models and service use patterns will reveal or will provide insights for the impact of contextual and situational parameters on service use and value. Accordingly, the providers could develop alternative technological and business models or alternative services to address these contextual and situational circumstances. In general, the end-to-end analysis in service systems will advance the knowledge about the relationship between technologies, business models and service use patterns and will support the development of alternatives and service or technology/ business model innovations.

The identification of service use patterns is possible today in online and mobile service environments that can track a variety of data about the user, the contextual parameters and the timeline of service use. Other technologies enable the observation and measurement of human behavior, which can allow the analysis, modeling and experimentation with human behaviors, reveal behavioral patterns and support a dynamic adaptation of service provision. In addition, there can be insights for the development of user profiling applications that automatically capture the interest, the location and the context of the user

and apply data analytics techniques to combine this information with past behavior in order to personalize service provision or the behavior of similar users in order to enhance service provision with new services that can be helpful to the user.

The thesis suggests service analysis and design should be initiated in the User Domain. Further insights for research in the User Domain can refer to the analysis of the role of the provider in joint value creating activities with the user that take place in the service consumption processes of the user, as it is suggested by the Customer-dominant logic. Such a research effort would reverse the angle of the approach adopted in chapter 5. For instance, with concern to the preparation of the service use process, the provider can undertake ‘packaging’ activities that combine offerings produced internally or received from the market in order to compose integrated solutions for the customer and resolve complex customer’s needs. The customers, on their side, perform similar activities for the self-integration of offerings to produce personalized solutions for the needs they have in their daily life practices.

Service analysis can at a next stage move beyond the superficial level of describing relationships at the ‘line of interaction’ with the user to address the need of understanding the meaning of service use and the resulting value for the user. According to the ideas about service value from the service management literature, we understand that the value is subjective to each particular user and is affected by personal traits and situational and contextual characteristics. While the determination of service value is an arduous or even an illusionary objective, the approximation of service value is extremely significant for the success and the improvement of service offerings. The thesis takes a pragmatic approach and suggests service value is created in a progressive way along the phases of service development, provision and usage respectively in the three domains, through the direct or indirect interaction of technologies, service providers and users. This approach, together with the other propositions, concepts and methods developed in this thesis, can provide insights for the development of methods for the approximation of service value. In a much similar way, providers will be able to compare the value proposition of the service they offer and their understanding as approximation of the service value by the users in order to suggest improvement or service innovations.

The proposed user’s perspective emphasizes on the analysis of ICT-enabled services that become embedded to the life practices of the users. Mobile services especially are embedded in the life practices of the users in a ‘smart’

and flexible way, anytime and anywhere. The thesis highlights the opportunities of mobile services (e.g. the User-Service-Technology method was developed with reference to mobile services) and can provide insights for the analysis and design of mobile services. In a similar way, the thesis can provide insight for research in ‘connected living’ environments or ‘independent living’ projects for the elderly.

The study of ICT-enabled services that become embedded to the life practices of the users requires the integration of services from a variety of sources. For example, when travelling, such as in the case study of SBB, the passengers require a variety of other services that go far beyond transportation, which is the

core service provided by SBB. Such services can be related to eating, working, communicating on the phone, interacting online to receive a variety of online services, etc. The integration of transportation in the general fabric of the daily activities of the people (working, shopping, etc.) makes the analysis of services much more complex and multi-dimensional. As a step to address these requirements, SBB developed the ‘rail-city’ concept that attempts to integrate rail services with the daily life practices of the people in order to support a total customer experience, that involves transportation, socializing, shopping and entertainment.

The integration of services from a variety of sources makes necessary the facilitation of the user in the access at and the integration of these services.

Research insights about this were described in chapter 5 regarding the prospects to analyze joint value activities between the customer and the provider not only for the development of the service offering, but for the facilitation of service usage as well. The scenario about the use of mobile services for the activities of a tourist in chapter 6 revealed the numerous apps and services than can be used by the tourist and indicated the expected difficulties in the interoperability of the different apps. This makes necessary the development of integrated or federated platforms that would support the user in the use of a variety of services from different sources seamlessly. The big online service providers and social media today, such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, support the access to a variety of services from different providers (e.g. the users use the only account they hold in these companies to gain access to the services of other service providers). But at the moment their support remains at the level of access to other services and the minor integration of services – usually for promotion purposes. In the future, the growth of the digital services will make necessary the integration of these services and their meaningful embedding in the life practices of the users.

The user’s perspective in service analysis and design and the potential development of platforms that support service integration from different sources provide insights for the role of the user as designer and modeler of services –not only as co-producer and consumer. In particular, users can have the opportunity to model the integration of services and design their expected future experiences. By analyzing the modeling decisions of the users and the outcomes of the service use, service providers will have the opportunity to understand how customers plan to use their services, in which activities, for which purpose, under which conditions, and in combination to which other services.

The outcomes of the thesis can find opportunities for potential uses most of all in situations that ICT-enabled services become embedded to the daily life practices of the people. ‘Smart Cities’ provide such a favorable environment, as these projects aim at providing services to the inhabitants or the visitors of a city that are commonly related to information about places (such as parks, monuments, shops, bus stops, etc.) or real-time information for various incidents and conditions in the city (e.g. traffic, weather, bus system transportation, parking places, etc.). In addition, users can receive targeted information when moving around the city based on their profile and preferences and they can receive context-sensitive, location-aware and integrated services. In many smart cities

projects the use of service can be monitored and the user’s behavior can be analyzed providing a valuable tool for the experimentation with new services.

Other opportunities for potential uses of the thesis outcomes are related to the development of ‘smart services’ and ‘smart environments’ in general, which take into account the personal traits and preferences of the user, the situation of the user and the context of service usage. In addition, projects about ‘independent living’ in healthcare that would aim at supporting the users (patients) in receiving the necessary services for their life practices, that is not only medical services, but also other services related to the personal and social needs of the patients.

Chapter 8. Conclusions 8.1 Research contribution

The thesis aims at theoretical contributions to service research in information systems by developing an interdisciplinary framework for the study of service systems that integrates the technological, the business and the user’s concerns.

Based on this framework, the thesis postulates the value perspective in the study of service systems that employs service value as the underlying concept that integrates the user’s requirements for the use of service and the technological and business requirements for the implementation and provision of service. In addition, it analyses the role of the user in joint value activities with the provider for the development of the business offering and develops the user’s perspective in the analysis and design of service systems, which emphasizes on the use of services in the daily activities of the user – rather than on the processes of the provider.

The thesis makes contribution in service research in information systems in three particular areas: a) the development of interdisciplinary research in service information systems, b) the investigation of the concept of service value and the development of the value perspective in the study of service systems, and c) the investigation of the role of the user and the development of the user’s perspective in the analysis and design of service systems.

The development of interdisciplinary research in service information systems

Service research in information systems has been developed as an interdisciplinary research domain. Nonetheless the development of interdisciplinary research approaches is still a key requirement and a major challenge for research advancement in this domain. The thesis suggests an interdisciplinary framework for research in service information systems that expands beyond the technological domain and includes the concerns of businesses and service user’s as well. The idea that service systems are technological infrastructures that provide computing functionality is rather restrictive for the interdisciplinary study of service systems, because it ignores significant aspects about the service offering and its use and value in the real world. Expanding the scope beyond the technological domain to include these additional aspects about the service offering and its use and value in the real world can provide several insights for innovative service research.

The proposed framework contributes to extend research in service systems engineering with additional aspects about the service offering in the real world, its use in the life practices of the user and the resulting service value. The framework integrates the technological, the business and the user domains and relates, hence, the computing/ digital world to the real world of services for the businesses and for the individuals. It provides a comprehensive and balanced approach for the study of service systems that can support the integration of the different concerns about the implementation of service systems, the development and provision of services and the usage of services.

The need for the alignment of technological and business architectures has been already stressed in the literature and there are several approaches that suggest including the business concerns (regarding structures, operations, strategies, etc.) in the analytical framework of technological architectures in order to support the development of business solutions. However, the inclusion of the user’s concerns about service usage and value has not been much studied before. As a result, the thesis suggests a potential extension of technological architectures (we refer in particular to the OASIS SOA Reference Architecture Framework) in order to include the concerns of the digital user, next to the technological and the business concerns. The proposed extension would enable the end-to-end analysis of service systems. The alignment of technological, business and service architectures would enable the combined analysis of service usage patterns with business modeling methods and software analysis and design methods for the implementation of information systems and would support the experimentation with alternative configurations and the development of innovations.

From a methodological point of view, the thesis contributes to the cross-fertilization of service research in information systems with the most recent research accomplishments from the field of service management. First of all, it introduces the Customer Dominant logic (Heinonen and Strandvik, 2015) in this research domain and suggests it can provide the right conceptual background for the development of user-centered and usage-oriented approaches in service analysis and design. It suggests also that research in service information systems would be benefited better and would be facilitated in producing practical outputs by approaches that emphasize on the interaction between the provider and the user at the managerial level (e.g. Gronroos and Voima, 2013) and adopt the customer logic (Heinonen and Strandvik, 2015). Service Dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2016), which is commonly referred in research in service science and service systems engineering, takes a high-level view and an abstract approach on service ecosystems, which does not provide direct implications and specific guidelines for the analysis and design of service information systems. In sum, the thesis suggests different theoretical approaches can be all useful for the profound understanding and the comprehensive study of service systems, as they can provide supplementary perspectives for the study of service systems at different levels (i.e.

ecosystemic, managerial and user-centered).

The development of the value perspective in the study of service systems In the literature of service information systems we notice the paradox service value to be recognized as a key concept, while at the same time it is commonly regarded as a business concern. This paradox demonstrates on the one hand the need for the development of interdisciplinary research approaches, while exposes on the other hand the lack of general knowledge for the analysis of the value aspects of service systems and explains the shortcomings, misunderstandings, misinterpretations and misuses of the concept of service value in service research in information systems.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis suggests service value is the core concept for service research in information systems because it has a

multifaceted and dynamic character, it can provide meaning to the activities of all the constituents in service systems and it is a common denominator of their efforts.

The thesis suggests a balanced and pragmatic approach on the understanding of service value that reconciles differing conceptualizations. Technologies and business operations do not create value, directly, but they offer value propositions and contribute to the creation of value, by supporting the development and provision of service and facilitating the access at and the use of service. Value is manifested and determined at the end of the process, when the service is used by the user. However, all the prior conditions for the use of service and the creation of value occur previously, first, in the technology domain, which enables the development and provision of service, and then in the business domain, which provides the business models for the provision and access to service and offers opportunities for customer interaction, co-creation and support. Hence, value is created in a progressive way along the phases of service development, provision and usage, through the direct or indirect interaction of technologies, service providers and users.

The thesis investigates the concept of service value in multiple ways. First of all, it formalizes service value with the development of two conceptual models that portray –for first time in the literature– the ecosystemic approach on service systems (according to Vargo and Lusch (2016) and the customer logic (Heinonen and Strandvik (2015)). With respect to the proposed by Brenner et al.

(2014) ‘user, usage and utility’ research agenda, the thesis corresponds value to utility and suggests value is the fundamental concept that provides meaning to the other two terms, the user and the service usage: value provides the basic motivation for the behavior of the user, either for the co-production or the consumption of service; the use of service aims at the delivery of value for the service user (‘value-in-use’). Hence, when value is defined as value-in-use, then the value perspective and the user’s perspective in the study of service systems are the two sides of the same coin. Specifically, the value perspective has a more global view that includes the provision and the use of service, while the user’s perspective focuses on the use of service in the life practices of the user.

(2014) ‘user, usage and utility’ research agenda, the thesis corresponds value to utility and suggests value is the fundamental concept that provides meaning to the other two terms, the user and the service usage: value provides the basic motivation for the behavior of the user, either for the co-production or the consumption of service; the use of service aims at the delivery of value for the service user (‘value-in-use’). Hence, when value is defined as value-in-use, then the value perspective and the user’s perspective in the study of service systems are the two sides of the same coin. Specifically, the value perspective has a more global view that includes the provision and the use of service, while the user’s perspective focuses on the use of service in the life practices of the user.