Tiziana Russo-Spena, Cristina Mele, Valtteri Kaartemo, Francesco Caputo and Marialuisa Marzullo
The COVID-19 wave spread all over the global market, affecting all industries. This paper aims to develop the understanding of how service systems can enhance their viability when…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 wave spread all over the global market, affecting all industries. This paper aims to develop the understanding of how service systems can enhance their viability when facing rapid systemic changes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data from Reddit, and particularly the subreddit r/coronavirus, to identify posts that discuss the impact of coronavirus on business. The authors use an algorithm to scrape the data with business-related search terms and elaborate relevant posts.
Findings
The findings show key topics and related sentiments on the impact of COVID-19 on business. Service systems can enhance viability by identifying alternative paths for emerging opportunities (by being creative), seize opportunities offered by the changing environment (by being opportunistic), not compromise conditions for internal balance (by being resilient), focus attention on critical purposes (by being essential) and perform nonharmful actions (by being responsible).
Originality/value
This paper proposes a framework depicting five possible key enhancers of viability to face a systemic crisis. In brief, companies need to ensure that they are creative, opportunistic, resilient, essential and responsible.
Details
Keywords
Cristina Mele, Tiziana Russo-Spena, MariaLuisa Marzullo and Andrea Ruggiero
How to improve healthcare for the ageing population is attracting academia attention. Emerging technologies (i.e. robots and intelligent agents) look relevant. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
How to improve healthcare for the ageing population is attracting academia attention. Emerging technologies (i.e. robots and intelligent agents) look relevant. This paper aims to analyze the role of cognitive assistants as boundary objects in value co-creation practices. We include the perceptions of the main actors – patients, (in)formal caregivers, healthcare professionals – for a fuller network perspective to understand the potential overlap between boundary work and value co-creation practices.
Design/methodology/approach
We adopted a grounded approach to gain a contextual understanding design to effectively interpret context and meanings related to human–robot interactions. The study context concerns 21 health solutions that had embedded the Watson cognitive platform and its adoption by the youngest cohort (50–64-year-olds) of the ageing population.
Findings
The cognitive assistant acts as a boundary object by bridging actors, resources and activities. It enacts the boundary work of actors (both ageing and professional, caregivers, families) consisting of four main actions (automated dialoguing, augmented sharing, connected learning and multilayered trusting) that elicit two ageing value co-creation practices: empowering ageing actors in medical care and engaging ageing actors in a healthy lifestyle.
Originality/value
We frame the role of cognitive assistants as boundary objects enabling the boundary work of ageing actors for value co-creation. A cognitive assistant is an “object of activity” that mediates in actors' boundary work by offering novel resource interfaces and widening resource access and resourceness. The boundary work of ageing actors lies in a smarter resource integration that yields broader applications for augmented agency.
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Cristina Mele, Marialuisa Marzullo, Irene Di Bernardo, Tiziana Russo-Spena, Roberta Massi, Alessandra La Salandra and Stefania Cialabrini
Some population groups face precarious health, reflecting their vulnerability, in terms of lack of agency or control. Smart technologies promise to transform people's lives from…
Abstract
Purpose
Some population groups face precarious health, reflecting their vulnerability, in terms of lack of agency or control. Smart technologies promise to transform people's lives from the enhanced connectedness, greater computational processing and more complex decision-making they can achieve. This study aims to investigate how smart technology can mitigate vulnerability and improve well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
The research group, of three scholars and three managers, pursued an action research methodology with an iterative process of planning, action and learning. The authors conducted three related action studies: (1) adopting smart technologies, (2) fostering patient engagement and (3) assessing well-being.
Findings
The adoption of sensors and wearable devices had positive impacts for both patients and caregivers. Technologies highlighted their meaning as resources to support actors' (caregivers' and vulnerable patients') activities. Smart devices as resources get integrated, stimulate change and enable new practices. For caregivers, such innovative solutions help improve their knowledge of patients and their ability to act efficiently; for vulnerable patients, they fostered engagement in daily activities to improve well-being.
Originality/value
The paper delineates an overall model (SEVP) that describes how the integration of high-tech and high touch enables patient engagement to mitigate vulnerability and improve well-being.
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Arne De Keyser and Werner H. Kunz
Service robots are now an integral part of people's living and working environment, making service robots one of the hot topics for service researchers today. Against that…
Abstract
Purpose
Service robots are now an integral part of people's living and working environment, making service robots one of the hot topics for service researchers today. Against that background, the paper reviews the recent service robot literature following a Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) approach to capture the state of art of the field. In addition, building on qualitative input from researchers who are active in this field, the authors highlight where opportunities for further development and growth lie.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper identifies and analyzes 88 manuscripts (featuring 173 individual studies) published in academic journals featured on the SERVSIG literature alert. In addition, qualitative input gathered from 79 researchers who are active in the service field and doing research on service robots is infused throughout the manuscript.
Findings
The key research foci of the service robot literature to date include comparing service robots with humans, the role of service robots' look and feel, consumer attitudes toward service robots and the role of service robot conversational skills and behaviors. From a TCCM view, the authors discern dominant theories (anthropomorphism theory), contexts (retail/healthcare, USA samples, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) settings and customer focused), study characteristics (robot types: chatbots, not embodied and text/voice-based; outcome focus: customer intentions) and methodologies (experimental, picture-based scenarios).
Originality/value
The current paper is the first to analyze the service robot literature from a TCCM perspective. Doing so, the study gives (1) a comprehensive picture of the field to date and (2) highlights key pathways to inspire future work.