Editorial Column—Smart Things as Service Providers: A Call for Convergence of Disciplines to Build a Research Agenda for the Service Systems of the Future

Abstract

We are approaching the tipping point in the development of technologies that promise to enable an era of smart everything (cities, cars, buildings, etc.). Concurrently, service systems continue to dominate industrialized economies. Naturally, the concepts of smartness and service are starting to fuse, particularly when there is growing interest in overcoming the issues surrounding the effective implementation of smart engineered systems by applying a “service” framework. In terms of adding value to human life, actions executed by smart objects, mediated by technology, can be interpreted as a service to people. Inevitably, a new theoretical framework is needed to describe the interactions of ubiquitous technologies (new smart objects or processes) with the human world. Fundamental scientific principles need to be well understood at the intersection of the sensing and actuating, cognitive/behavioral, communications, and computational fields. This call for a new research avenue is intended to challenge the service engineering research community to think more deeply in the context above and converge with behavioral, cognitive, and computer scientists to develop new or additional principles and theories that help us better predict the behavior of a service system as a function of its design (as a sociotechnical system), with the human at the center.

Data-Driven Understanding of Smart Service Systems Through Text Mining

“…These definitions and descriptions are consistent in that they specify the capabilities or requirements of such systems. We integrate existing perspectives on these systems to form the following definition: A smart service system is a service system capable of learning, dynamic adaptation, and decision making (Medina-Borja 2015) that requires an intelligent object (Allmendinger andLombreglia 2005, Wünderlich et al 2015) and involves intensive data and information interactions among people and organizations (Maglio andLim 2016, Lim et al 2018a). Smart service systems incorporate technologies for sensing, communication, and control, among others (NSF 2016), to effectively and efficiently consider the needs and context of stakeholders .…”

“…Smart service attributes include dynamic properties (without modelling of the changing environment; past-based modelling; stochastic modelling), intelligence (knowledge-based; data-based; content-based), Knowledge awareness (context-oriented; explicit knowledge; business intelligence), IT platform (mobile; SaaS; hybrid cloud; corporate servers), and elements (IT; people; hybrid). Medina-Borja (2015) A smart service system is a service system capable of learning, dynamic adaptation, and decision making based upon data received, transmitted, and/or processed to improve its response to a future situation. Ostrom et al (2015) In the new technology-enabled service context, customers increasingly create their own experiences in a more dynamic and autonomous way.…”

Rebuilding Evolution: A Service Science Perspective

“…According to National Science Foundation [36] Significant advances in, and adaptations of, sensing, actuating, and computational and communication technologies and their integration into smart service systems have the potential for abundant societal and economic benefits [37]. Human interaction with technologies and with physical and virtual realities can produce and deliver service(s) never before imagined [36].…”

Editorial Column—New Directions in Service Science: Value Cocreation in the Age of Autonomous Service Systems

“…After all, through the use of data analytics and deep learning, modern technologies are enabling ever more autonomous actions in real-world system settings: modern train systems may be autonomous, building control systems may be autonomous, financial investment systems may be autonomous, and automobile transportation systems may be autonomous, among many others. So I described how the sorts of service systems of primary interest are human-centered but in fact continually incorporating technology with ever more capabilities and functions, such as technologies capable of acting alone in specific settings without human intervention (Maglio 2015a; see also Larson 2016 andMedina-Borja 2015). Even though I answered the question at the time, the conversation got me thinking again about the nature of service phenomena, about the essence of service.…”