Showing papers on "Service system published in 2015"

Service Research Priorities in a Rapidly Changing Context

Abstract: The context in which service is delivered and experienced has, in many respects, fundamentally changed. For instance, advances in technology, especially information technology, are leading to a proliferation of revolutionary services and changing how customers serve themselves before, during, and after purchase. To understand this changing landscape, the authors engaged in an international and interdisciplinary research effort to identify research priorities that have the potential to advance the service field and benefit customers, organizations, and society. The priority-setting process was informed by roundtable discussions with researchers affiliated with service research centers and networks located around the world and resulted in the following 12 service research priorities: • stimulating service innovation, • facilitating servitization, service infusion, and solutions, • understanding organization and employee issues relevant to successful service, • developing service networks and systems, • leveraging service design, • using big data to advance service, • understanding value creation, • enhancing the service experience, • improving well-being through transformative service, • measuring and optimizing service performance and impact, • understanding service in a global context, and • leveraging technology to advance service. For each priority, the authors identified important specific service topics and related research questions. Then, through an online survey, service researchers assessed the subtopics’ perceived importance and the service field’s extant knowledge about them. Although all the priorities and related topics were deemed important, the results show that topics related to transformative service and measuring and optimizing service performance are particularly important for advancing the service field along with big data, which had the largest gap between importance and current knowledge of the field. The authors present key challenges that should be addressed to move the field forward and conclude with a discussion of the need for additional interdisciplinary research.

Distributed tuning of boundary resources: the case of Apple's iOS service system

Abstract: The digital age has seen the rise of service systems involving highly distributed, heterogeneous, and resource-integrating actors whose relationships are governed by shared institutional logics, standards, and digital technology The cocreation of service within these service systems takes place in the context of a paradoxical tension between the logic of generative and democratic innovations and the logic of infrastructural control Boundary resources play a critical role in managing the tension as a firm that owns the infrastructure can secure its control over the service system while independent firms can participate in the service system In this study, we explore the evolution of boundary resources Drawing on Pickering's (1993) and Barrett et al's (2012) conceptualizations of tuning, the paper seeks to forward our understanding of how heterogeneous actors engage in the tuning of boundary resources within Apple's iOS service system We conduct an embedded case study of Apple's iOS service system with an in-depth analysis of 4,664 blog articles concerned with 30 boundary resources covering 6 distinct themes Our analysis reveals that boundary resources of service systems enabled by digital technology are shaped and reshaped through distributed tuning, which involves cascading actions of accommodations and rejections of a network of heterogeneous actors and artifacts Our study also shows the dualistic role of power in the distributed tuning process

“Futurizing” smart service: implications for service researchers and managers

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to craft a future research agenda to advance smart service research and practice. Smart services are delivered to or via intelligent objects that feature awareness and connectivity. For service researchers and managers, one of the most fascinating aspects of smart service provision is that the connected object is able to sense its own condition and its surroundings and thus allows for real-time data collection, continuous communication and interactive feedback. Design/methodology/approach – This article is based on discussions in the workshop on “Fresh perspectives on technology in service” at the International Network of Service Researchers on September 26, 2014 at CTF, Karlstad, Sweden. The paper summarizes the discussion on smart services, adds an extensive literature review, provides examples from business practice and develops a structured approach to new research avenues. Findings – We propose that smart services vary on their individual level of autonomous dec...

Distributed tuning of boundary resources: the case of Apple's iOS service system

Abstract: The digital age has seen the rise of service systems involving highly distributed, heterogeneous, and resource-integrating actors whose relationships are governed by shared institutional logics, standards, and digital technology. The cocreation of service within these service systems takes place in the context of a paradoxical tension between the logic of generative and democratic innovations and the logic of infrastructural control. Boundary resources play a critical role in managing the tension as a firm that owns the infrastructure can secure its control over the service system while independent firms can participate in the service system. In this study, we explore the evolution of boundary resources. Drawing on Pickering’s (1993) and Barrett et al.’s (2012) conceptualizations of tuning, the paper seeks to forward our understanding of how heterogeneous actors engage in the tuning of boundary resources within Apple’s iOS service system. We conduct an embedded case study of Apple’s iOS service system with an in-depth analysis of 4,664 blog articles concerned with 30 boundary resources covering 6 distinct themes. Our analysis reveals that boundary resources of service systems enabled by digital technology are shaped and reshaped through distributed tuning, which involves cascading actions of accommodations and rejections of a network of heterogeneous actors and artifacts. Our study also shows the dualistic role of power in the distributed tuning process.

A Profit Maximization Scheme with Guaranteed Quality of Service in Cloud Computing

Abstract: As an effective and efficient way to provide computing resources and services to customers on demand, cloud computing has become more and more popular. From cloud service providers’ perspective, profit is one of the most important considerations, and it is mainly determined by the configuration of a cloud service platform under given market demand. However, a single long-term renting scheme is usually adopted to configure a cloud platform, which cannot guarantee the service quality but leads to serious resource waste. In this paper, a double resource renting scheme is designed firstly in which short-term renting and long-term renting are combined aiming at the existing issues. This double renting scheme can effectively guarantee the quality of service of all requests and reduce the resource waste greatly. Secondly, a service system is considered as an M/M/m+D queuing model and the performance indicators that affect the profit of our double renting scheme are analyzed, e.g., the average charge, the ratio of requests that need temporary servers, and so forth. Thirdly, a profit maximization problem is formulated for the double renting scheme and the optimized configuration of a cloud platform is obtained by solving the profit maximization problem. Finally, a series of calculations are conducted to compare the profit of our proposed scheme with that of the single renting scheme. The results show that our scheme can not only guarantee the service quality of all requests, but also obtain more profit than the latter.

Transformative service networks: cocreated value as well-being

Abstract: Fundamental to emerging theories of value cocreation is a developing awareness that value emerges in networks. Service networks form to address issues for those in need, and value is conceived differently by the various constituents in the network. To represent this reality, a core service interaction, the reason for the construction of the network, is evaluated based upon a typology of value-creating interaction styles. Next, the potential impact on transformative value cocreation of various relationships in a service network is explored. To illustrate value cocreation from a network perspective, this paper develops research propositions assessing cocreated value in a health service network. Network factors regarding the structural and relationship properties of networks that advance the theory of value cocreation are proposed. Finally, suggestions for managers include ways to engage service network entities to enhance communication to foster a balanced, mutualistic relationship that optimizes cocreated ...

The role of service fairness in the service quality – relationship quality – customer loyalty chain

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the well-established nomological network of service quality-relationship quality-customer loyalty by introducing service fairness – a distinct service evaluation concept. Specifically, the study aims to investigate the impact of service fairness on relationship quality as a complementary to service quality driver, and the direct and indirect effect of service fairness on customer loyalty in the presence of service quality and relationship quality in a no failure/recovery effort service context. Design/methodology/approach – A telephone survey of a random sample of 408 customers of auto repair and maintenance services was implemented using a structured questionnaire with established scales. Data were analyzed with partial least squares path methodology, a structural equation modeling methodology. Findings – Interactional fairness is the most important formative determinant of customers’ overall fairness perception, followed by procedural and distributive fai...

SelCSP: A Framework to Facilitate Selection of Cloud Service Providers

Abstract: With rapid technological advancements, cloud marketplace witnessed frequent emergence of new service providers with similar offerings. However, service level agreements (SLAs) , which document guaranteed quality of service levels, have not been found to be consistent among providers, even though they offer services with similar functionality. In service outsourcing environments, like cloud, the quality of service levels are of prime importance to customers, as they use third-party cloud services to store and process their clients’ data. If loss of data occurs due to an outage, the customer’s business gets affected. Therefore, the major challenge for a customer is to select an appropriate service provider to ensure guaranteed service quality. To support customers in reliably identifying ideal service provider, this work proposes a framework, SelCSP , which combines trustworthiness and competence to estimate risk of interaction. Trustworthiness is computed from personal experiences gained through direct interactions or from feedbacks related to reputations of vendors. Competence is assessed based on transparency in provider’s SLA guarantees. A case study has been presented to demonstrate the application of our approach. Experimental results validate the practicability of the proposed estimating mechanisms.

Health Information Exchange as a Multisided Platform: Adoption, Usage, and Practice Involvement in Service Co-Production

Abstract: Health Information Exchanges HIE are becoming integral parts of the national healthcare reform efforts, chiefly because of their potential impact on cost reduction and quality enhancement in healthcare services. However, the potential of an HIE platform can only be realized when its multiple constituent users actively participate in using its variety of services. In this research, we model HIE systems as multisided platforms that incorporate self-service technologies whose value to the users depends on both user-specific and network-specific factors. We develop a model of adoption, use, and involvement of clinical practices in the coproduction of the HIE services. This model is grounded in social network theory, service operations theory, and institutional isomorphism theory. A longitudinal study of actual adoption and use behaviors of 2,054 physicians within 430 community medical practices in Western New York over a three-year period has been carried out to evaluate the proposed model. This study has been supported by HEALTHeLINK, the Regional Health Information Organization of Western New York, which has an extensive database comprising over half a million transactions on patient records by the HIE users. We extracted panel data on adoption, use, and service coproduction behaviors from this database and carried out a detailed analysis using metrics derived from the foundational theories. Positioning practices within two distinct but interrelated networks of patients and practitioners, we show that adoption, use, and service coproduction behaviors are influenced by the topographies of the two networks, isomorphic effects of large practices on the smaller ones, and practice labor inputs in HIE use. Our findings provide a comprehensive view of the drivers of HIE adoption and use at the level of medical practices. These results have implications for marketing and revenue management of HIE platforms, as well as public health and national/regional healthcare policy making.

Constructing a Global Social Service Network for Better Quality of Web Service Discovery

Abstract: Web services have had a tremendous impact on the Web for supporting a distributed service-based economy on a global scale. However, despite the outstanding progress, their uptake on a Web scale has been significantly less than initially anticipated. The isolation of services and the lack of social relationships among related services have been identified as reasons for the poor uptake. In this paper, we propose connecting the isolated service islands into a global social service network to enhance the services' sociability on a global scale. First, we propose linked social service-specific principles based on linked data principles for publishing services on the open Web as linked social services. Then, we suggest a new framework for constructing the global social service network following linked social service-specific principles based on complex network theories. Next, an approach is proposed to enable the exploitation of the global social service network, providing Linked Social Services as a Service. Finally, experimental results show that our approach can solve the quality of service discovery problem, improving both the service discovering time and the success rate by exploring service-to-service based on the global social service network.

Commentary—Toward a Research Agenda for Human-Centered Service System Innovation

Abstract: Solving service problems has enormous practical consequences for the economy and society because (a) more than 80% of jobs in the United States are in the service sector, with most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates working in the service sector; (b) many complex service problems resist traditional optimization solutions; (c) private investments in platform technologies that underlie business and societal service innovations (smart service systems) are on the rise; and (d) the United States lags in public investment in service research behind countries such as Japan, China, Finland, and Germany. The search for service innovation requires new theories and new methods to address problems unique to services, and what little students are being taught about the service sector has not kept up with the rapid growth of STEM jobs in service or with modern entrepreneurial opportunities. We think that effective understanding of complex human-centered service systems requires a new app...

Cocreating the Arab Spring Understanding Transformation of Service Systems in Contention

Abstract: This article examines the transformation of service systems through actors' resource integration and value cocreation in contention. It is based on a netnographic study focusing on the use of infor ...

Valuing weather and climate : economic assessment of meteorological and hydrological services

Abstract: For more than a century, nations have equipped themselves to provide weather, climate and hydrological information, forecasts and, more recently, remotely sensed data and early warnings to the public and private sectors. These services, collectively referred to throughout this publication as met/hydro services, have increased the safety and efficiency of land, sea and air transport, helped communities prepare for and respond to extreme weather events, and facilitated improved decision-making in weather-sensitive economic sectors. Increasingly, it has become easier for people and businesses to access met/hydro information and products due to advances in the Internet and telecommunications. Met/hydro services do not generate economic and social value unless user’s benefit from decisions as a result of the information provided, even if the services are of the highest quality. In addition, met/hydro services of similar quality provided in two countries can vary significantly in terms of their benefits depending on the relative nature of weather- and climate-related risks, the number and types of users and their capacity to take actions to avoid harm or increase economic output. The generation of met/hydro services benefits can be depicted in a ‘value chain’ linking the production and delivery of services to user decisions and the outcomes and values resulting from those decisions are discussed in chapter two. Chapter three, provides the valuation study can be designed for the purpose of validating the current provision of individual or all met and hydro services, justifying new investments in those services, or demonstrating the value of met/hydro services in key sectors such as agriculture, aviation or energy. Chapter four provides a discussion of the process for planning, commissioning and conducting SEB studies. Chapters five to eight provide the reader with the essential economics material covering steps three to nine in the diagram. For readers not conversant with economics, chapter five provides an introduction to definitions and concepts needed to understand the discussions of benefits, costs and benefit, cost analysis (BCA) presented in chapters six, seven and eight. Chapter six provides an overview of the extensive variety of methods that have been used to assess the benefits of met and hydro services. The methods can be tailored to different users and benefit streams (avoided costs or damages, higher profits or increased social welfare). Some methods, particularly where more precise results are required, will involve extensive data collection, surveys of user preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for services, or economic modelling, while other methods such as benchmarking and benefit transfer are reasonably inexpensive to apply. In collaboration with their SEB study implementers, NMHSs will need to select the benefits estimation method(s) most suitable to the services and types of users to be assessed, while accounting for resource and time constraints.

The performance impact of industrial services and service orientation on manufacturing companies

Abstract: Purpose – Product-manufacturing firms are increasingly positioning themselves as providers of industrial services and solutions. Despite the increasing conceptual interest in industrial services, empirical evidence about the factors that mediate the relationships between industrial services and firm performance remains limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between industrial service offerings, service orientation and firm sales and profit performance. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses data from 115 manufacturing firms and adopts a structural equation modeling technique to test a set of hypotheses on service offerings, service orientation and company sales and profit performance. Findings – The results underline the importance of implementing service orientation in employees’ behavior, recruitment, training, and assessment. Service orientation is demonstrated as an essential mediator for the relationship between service offerings, revenues, and profits. The result...

Product service systems, after-sales service and new product development

Abstract: After-sales service is a critical element in the successful marketing of many products. Capital goods, for example, manufacturing equipment, require after-sales service such as maintenance and repair in order for customers to get the full value from them. Some manufacturers have started to offer customers an integrated product and service, termed a product-service system in the academic literature. However, in order to deliver such integrated offerings, a different approach to new product development (NPD) is required. This is because the product design influences after-sales service requirements, and so this needs to be considered during NPD. However, researchers have largely ignored the relationship between NPD and service. To address this gap, six in-depth case studies were conducted at leading companies that offer a combined product-service offering, to identify how service requirements are typically evaluated at the design stage. The results show that at companies where after-sales is an important el...

Resource Pooling and Cost Allocation Among Independent Service Providers

Abstract: We study a situation where several independent service providers collaborate by complete pooling of their resources and customer streams into a joint service system. These service providers may represent such diverse organizations as hospitals that pool beds or maintenance firms that pool repairmen. We model the service systems as Erlang delay systems M/M/s queues that face a fixed cost rate per server and homogeneous delay costs for waiting customers. We examine rules to fairly allocate the collective costs of the pooled system amongst the participants by applying concepts from cooperative game theory. We consider both the case where players' numbers of servers are exogenously given and the scenario where any coalition picks an optimal number of servers. By exploiting new analytical properties of the continuous extension of the classic Erlang delay function, we provide sufficient conditions for the games under consideration to possess a core allocation i.e., an allocation that gives no group of players an incentive to split off and form a separate pool and to admit a population monotonic allocation scheme whereby adding extra players does not make anyone worse off. This is not guaranteed in general, as illustrated via examples.

Autonomous drone service system

Abstract: An autonomous drone service system controls at least one drone vehicle configured to autonomously navigate along a flight path to provide one or more services requested by a user. The system includes an electronic service provider device to receive at least one service request signal generated by a user device. The request signal indicates at least one requested service provided by the drone service system and location or locations associated with the requested services. The electronic service provider device that automatically maps the at least one requested service to the at least one drone vehicle, and commands the at least one drone vehicle to perform the service request at the one or more locations.

Achieving service quality through service innovation exploration – exploitation: the critical role of employee empowerment and slack resources

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the effects of service innovation exploration – exploitation on financial performance through the delivery of quality services Additional emphasis is also given to examining the extent to which employee empowerment and slack resources enhance or suppress the performance benefits of service firms engaging in service innovation exploration versus exploitation Design/methodology/approach – Data were drawn from a multi-informant survey of service firms using a drop-and-collect approach The survey gathered data from managers, customer service employees and customers to test the hypotheses Findings – The results show that excelling at both exploitative and exploratory innovation helps enhance the quality of services, which, in turn, yield superior financial performance Further, empowering employees enhances the relationship between exploratory and exploitative service innovation and service quality We also show that the extent managers’ perceived their market to be

Graph-Based Approach to Measuring Efficiency of Urban Taxi Service System

Abstract: The taxi service systems in big cities are immensely complex due to the interaction and self-organization between taxi drivers and passengers. An inefficient taxi service system leads to more empty trips for drivers and longer waiting time for passengers, and introduces unnecessary congestion on the road network. In this paper, the authors investigate the efficiency level of the taxi service system using real world large-scale taxi trip data. By assuming a hypothetical system-wide recommendation system, two approaches are proposed to find the theoretical optimal strategy that minimizes the cost of vacant trips, and results in minimum number of taxis required to satisfy all observed trips. The optimization problems are transformed into equivalent graph problems and solved using polynomial time algorithms. The taxi trip data in New York City are used to quantitatively examine the gap between the current system performance and the theoretically optimal system. The numerical results indicate that if a centralized system-wide recommendation scheme were applied, it is possible to reduce 20% to 90% of the total vacant trip cost depending on different objectives, and one third of all taxis are required to serve all observed trips. The huge performance gap suggests an urgent need for the system reconsideration in taxi recommendation system design.

Managing self-service technology service quality to enhance e-satisfaction

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address, by integrating the self-service technology (SST) adoption and technology acceptance models, the service quality of self-service technologies (SQ-SSTs) by empirically testing a comprehensive model that capture the antecedents and consequences of SQ-SSTs to predict e-satisfaction in the context of digital banking in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was constructed and responses were obtained from 222 respondents who have a complete digital banking experience (both online and mobile banking). Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling, following a mediating analysis process. Findings – Results show that technology readiness (TR) as the antecedent has an influence on SQ-SSTs, which in turn improve e-satisfaction. The paper also found that even though SQ-SSTs can positively influence e-satisfaction, perceived value partial mediates the link between SQ-SSTs and e-satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – Further re...

A Service Science Perspective on the Role of ICT in Service Innovation

Abstract: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is often considered the main enabler of service innovation. The unique role of ICT in service innovation, however, is not fully understood and advancing knowledge in this area emerged as the top research priority in the fields of service science and information systems research. To date, substantial insights regarding the role of ICT in service innovation are not available, and new theoretical lenses and perspectives are needed to develop these. In this conceptual paper, we define service innovation as service system reconfiguration, which allows us to classify the role of ICT in this process more succinctly and ultimately overcome the shortcomings in the existing body of literature. Specifically, we deconstruct and extend previous views of ICT as a “black box” in service innovation research, and focus on the actual innovation process and its mechanisms. We define and delineate these as resource shifting and resource access, explain the role of ICTs in each, and outline further research opportunities that result from these new insights.

Service Systems with Experience‐Based Anecdotal Reasoning Customers

Abstract: The existing queueing literature typically assumes that customers either perfectly know the expected waiting time or are able to form rational expectations about it. In contrast, in this article, we study canonical service models where customers do not have such full information or capability. We assume that customers lack full capability or ample opportunities to perfectly infer the service rate or estimate the expected waiting time, and thus can only rely on past experiences and anecdotal reasoning to make their joining decisions. We fully characterize the steady-state equilibrium in this service system. Compared with the fully rational benchmark, we find that customers with anecdotal reasoning are less price-sensitive. Consequently, with a higher market potential (higher arrival rate), a revenue-maximizing firm may increase the price if the service rate is exogenous, and it may decrease the price if the service rate is at the firm's discretion. Both results go against the commonly accepted pricing recommendations in the fully rational benchmark. We also show that revenue maximization and welfare maximization lead to fundamentally different pricing strategies with anecdotal reasoning, whereas they are equivalent in the fully rational benchmark.

Global delivery models: The role of talent, speed and time zones in the global outsourcing industry

Abstract: Global delivery models (GDMs) are transforming the global IT and business process outsourcing industry. GDMs are a new form of client-specific investment promoting service integration with clients by combining client proximity with time-zone spread for 24/7 service operations. We investigate antecedents and contingencies of setting up GDM structures. Based on comprehensive data we show that providers are likely to establish GDM location configurations when clients value access to globally distributed talent and speed of service delivery, in particular when services are highly commoditized. Findings imply that coordination across time zones increasingly affects international operations in business-to-business and born-global industries.

The complex role of complexity: How service providers can mitigate negative effects of perceived service complexity when selling professional services

Abstract: During professional service encounters, integrating customers into the process of service provision is both important and challenging, as the complexity of professional services can impair value cr