No abstract

Purpose: Big Data Analytics (BDA) helps service providers with customer insights and competitive information. It also empowers customers with insights about the relative merits of competing services. The paper addresses the research question, "How does big data analytics enable frontline employees (FLEs) in effective service delivery?" Design/methodology/approach: The research develops schemas to visualise service contexts that potentially benefit from BDA, based on the literature drawn from BDA and FLEs streams. Findings: The business drivers for BDA and its level of maturity vary across firms. The primary thrust for BDA is to gain customer insights, resource optimisation and efficient operations. Innovative FLEs operating in knowledge intensive and customisable settings may realise greater value co-creation. Practical implications: There exists a considerable knowledge gap in enabling the FLEs with BDA tools. Managers need to train, orient and empower FLEs to collaborate and create value with customer interactions. Service-Dominant Logic posits that skill asymmetry is the reason for service. So, providers need to enhance skill levels of FLEs continually. Providers also need to focus on market sensing and customer linking abilities of FLEs. Originality/value: Knitting the BDA and FLEs research streams, the paper analyses the impact of BDA on service. The research by contribution service typology portrays its interplay with the typologies of FLEs and BDA. The framework portrays the service contexts in which BD has major impact. Looking further into the future, the discussion raises prominent questions for the discipline.

No abstract

Mobile phones' exponential growth is fuelling the emergence of mobile health (mHealth), thus contributing to healthcare services' innovative transformation in developing countries. mHealth's ubiquitous personalised capabilities obviate the access barriers and dismal performance of conventional systems, therefore gaining popularity among patients. Researchers have focused on service quality-a vital element of service adoption-and sustainability. For mHealth to become a robust alternative, how patients perceive mHealth vis-à-vis conventional services must be understood. Comparative analysis studies between mHealth and conventional systems are scarce yet would contribute to theory and strengthen the antecedent phases to service quality, that is, design and operation. mHealth is a viable alternative for fulfiling the unmet goal of quality of life for all. Prompted by these insights, this study is the first attempt to discover the differentiating characteristics of mHealth. Patients' perceptions were analyzed by multiple discriminant analysis, a classification technique. The findings show that, in distinguishing between healthcare services, mHealth is a favourable alternative: service differentiation occurs along the dimensions of ubiquity, information-quality, and value. The findings' implications for theory and practice and future research guidelines are also discussed.

Co-creation of value (CCV) is an emerging research discipline. The extant literature primarily focused on tangible value in firm context, relegating value created in an individual's personal space. CCV extends beyond tangible outcomes. While service-dominant logic (SDL) created more interest in co-creation, much of the literature remained at a conceptual level. Empirical studies centred on the individual CCV are scarce. This article argues that individuals co-create value in their own space and there is a need to recognize and enhance our knowledge about it. The article proposes a conceptual model for individuals' CCV in mobile health (mHealth) service context, identifying knowledge, well-being and productivity as dimensions that define quality of life. The study yields insights on how individuals generate value through the use of technology. The study contributes new knowledge on factors that contribute to individuals' CCV. For value research and theory, the article positions individuals at the centre over firms. The research extends value envelope beyond firms and tangible outcomes to encompass individuals and experiential value. For Information Systems (IS), the model expands study horizon to complex social settings that yield valuable insights on how socio-technical interactions alter individual's CCV. The study may further motivate empirical work on individual's CCV.