Iterative uncertainty reduction in multi-actor smart service innovation

Abstract

Smart service innovation is the process of reconfiguring resources, structures, and value co-creation processes in service systems that result in novel data-driven service offerings. The nature of such offerings requires the involvement of multiple actors, which has been investigated by a few studies only. In particular, little is known about the multiple actors’ efforts to manage uncertainty in the process of establishing smart service systems. Empirically grounded in data from 25 interviews with industry experts, we explore how organizations act and interact in smart service innovation processes. For our data analysis, we adopt a microfoundational view to derive a theoretical model that conceptualizes actor engagement as a microfoundation for iterative uncertainty reduction in the actor-to-actor network of the smart service system. Our study contributes to information systems research on service systems engineering and digital transformation by explaining smart service innovation from both a multi-actor and a multi-level perspective, drawing on service-dominant (S-D) logic and microfoundations as well-established theoretical lenses.

A systematic review for organizing servitization by multi-actor collaborations: lenses, factors and outcomes

“…For instance, as the negative effect of information exchange among actors, knowledge leakage may be incurred, leading to the loss of control over their partners (Lockett et al , 2011). Based on these recognitions, a recent study has proposed an iterative uncertainty reduction framework for smart service innovation (Poeppelbuss et al , 2021), where managing multi-actor complexity is one of the key activities.…”

“…The negative outcome also requires in-depth understanding which can help gain a comprehensive landscape of multi-actor collaborations for servitization. Although the identified possible forms of negative outcomes, the generation sources for these uncertainties have not been recognized explicitly (Poeppelbuss et al , 2021). Additional longitudinal research is encouraged to provide more servitization failure cases with multi-actor collaboration (Chen et al , 2021).…”

“…The first hugely concentrates on uncovering the importance of multi-actor collaboration by a network or ecosystem view (Ziaee Bigdeli et al , 2018; Pereira et al , 2019). Their empirical evidences for supporting multi-actor collaborations have yielded from distinct servitization situations, such as sustainable solutions development (Abreu et al , 2020), smart service innovations (Poeppelbuss et al , 2021) as well as general product-service system (Resta et al , 2017). The differentiations and overlaps in various servitization lenses lead to a vague awareness for the role boundary of multi-actor perspective.…”

Pathways to Service System Smartness for Firms

“…Meanwhile, research has indicated that firms incorporate these smartness characteristics in different ways (Anke, Poeppelbuss, and Alt 2020;Fischer et al 2020;Henkens, Verleye, and Larivière 2021;Poeppelbuss, Ebel, and Anke, 2021;Raff, Wentzel, and Obwegeser 2020). Henkens, Verleye, and Larivière (2021) suggest that the extent to which a smartness characteristic is present may vary from low to high; a smart watch manufacturer, for instance, may decide to integrate one or more sensors into the device (low versus high awareness) to allow it to link with one or more smart products (low versus high connectivity) in order to send one or multiple types of notifications (low versus high actuation) and to allow for the use of one or multiple indicators to learn about behavioral patterns (low versus high dynamism).…”

Proposal of a Conceptual Model on the Relation Between Digital Transformation and Service Innovation

“…Azkan et al (2022) acreditam que a incorporação de dados habilita a otimização interna e abre oportunidade de novos negócios baseados em modelos de negócios dirigidos por dados. Poeppelbuss et al (2022) adicionam que as tecnologias digitais habilitam o desenvolvimento de "sistemas de serviços inteligentes" que conectam pessoas e coisas, coletam e processam informação e são capazes de aprender, se adaptar e tomar decisões. Estes sistemas são a base das "inovações de serviços inteligentes" que proporcionam a oferta de novos serviços dirigidos por dados.…”