Innovation and Big Data in Smart Service Systems

Abstract

As traditionally measured, services, which include everything from transportation to retail to healthcare to entertainment to hospitality and more, account for most economic activity. Taking a more modern view, we define service as value creation that occurs within systems of interacting economic actors. Service systems have been getting smarter over time, as big data analytics have been used to generate information and automate operations that create ever more value for people in the service systems. In this short letter, we describe some of our perspective on the use of big data analytics in smart service systems, suggesting one framework for thinking about big data in this context and outlining a set of research issues.

Configuration in smart service systems: A practice‐based inquiry

“…Following Bakken and Hernes (), we theorize configuring as well as configuration to develop novel insights about configuration in smart service systems. These terms appear in the literature but without elaboration of what they mean (Beverungen et al, ; Maglio & Lim, ; Medina‐Borja, ). Similarly, the term “element” is not well specified or is limited to technology features (Badinelli et al, ; Barile & Polese, ; Calza et al, ).…”

“…The “smart technologies” underlying these advances (eg, artificial intelligence, deep learning algorithms, and Internet of things [IoT] sensing devices) are expected to become ubiquitous, beneficial elements of human practices (Maglio, ; Medina‐Borja, ). Smart technologies can sense, collect, and process data in order to learn, adapt to environmental circumstances, and make partially independent decisions (Allmendinger & Lombreglia, ; Maglio & Lim, ; Wünderlich, Wangenheim, & Bitner, ). These properties then enable them to configure and reconfigure services over time (Beverungen, Matzner, & Janiesch, ; Lim Kim, Kim, Heo, et al, ; Lim, Kim, Kim, Kim, & Maglio, ) so that services become more person centred and individualized (Medina‐Borja, ; National Science Foundation, ).…”

“…A corpus of research addressing smart service systems is developing across disciplines such as information systems (Beverungen, Matzner, & Janiesch, ; Beverungen, Müller, Matzner, Mendling, & vom Brocke, ; Geirbo, ), service science (Barile & Polese, ; Maglio & Lim, ; Wuenderlich et al, ), and engineering (Gretzel, Werthner, Koo, & Lamsfus, ; Massink, Harrison, & Latella, ). Researchers have advanced this topic by articulating what types of smart services can be offered on the basis of smart technologies (Gavrilova & Kokoulina, ), by advising how to innovate in smart services (Geum, Jeon, & Lee, ; Lim, Kim, Kim, Kim, & Maglio, ; Lim, Maglio, Kim, Kim, & Kim, ), and by applying a smart service systems lens to particular domains (Carrubbo, Bruni, Cavacece, & Moretta Tartaglione, ; Gretzel et al, ).…”

“…However, a common critique is that this research pays scant attention to how humans and smart technologies will actually interact and with what consequences for humans and for smart service systems (Breidbach, Antons, & Salge, ; Maglio, ; Maglio, Kwan, & Spohrer, ). In contrast to the close attention paid to smart technologies, references to “people” (Lim et al, ; Maglio & Lim, ), “value co‐creation” (Lim & Maglio, ), or “human‐centeredness” (Maglio et al, ) maintain analytical distance from day‐to‐day human activities. Smart technologies and services are forecast to enter in human experiences in highly personal, even intimate ways, so that theoretical and empirical insights from a human‐centred perspective are needed to guide innovation towards anticipated improvements in individual well‐being (see also Breidbach et al, ; Maglio et al, ).…”

A Situational Approach to Data-Driven Service Innovation

“…Maglio and Lim [21] present four archetypes for the design of smart service systems. They define a smart service system as a "configuration of people, information, organizations, and technologies that operate together for mutual benefit and is capable of learning, dynamic adaptation, and decision-making based upon data received, transmitted, and/or processed to improve its response to a future situation" [21] [22].…”