Luisa Gonçalves, Lia Patrício, Jorge Grenha Teixeira and Nancy V. Wünderlich
This article provides an in-depth understanding of customer experience with smart services, examines customer perceptual responses to smart and connected service environments and…
Abstract
Purpose
This article provides an in-depth understanding of customer experience with smart services, examines customer perceptual responses to smart and connected service environments and enriches this understanding by outlining how contextual factors (in terms of goals, activities, actors and artifacts) influence the customer experience.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a qualitative approach in order to understand customer experience in the smart energy service setting. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 31 participants forming three groups of energy service customers: advanced smart energy (ASE) customers, electric mobility (EM) customers and high-consumption (HC) customers.
Findings
The findings show that customer experience with smart services involves a multidimensional set of perceptual responses, comprising specific smart service dimensions (e.g. controllability, visibility, autonomy); relationship dimensions (relationships with the service provider and with the community); and traditional technology-enabled service dimensions (e.g. ease of use, accessibility). The analysis of contextual factors such as goals, activities, actors and artifacts shows that smart services enable a more autonomous experience, wherein customers can integrate a myriad of actors and artifacts and expect the main service provider to support them in taking the lead.
Originality/value
Smart technologies have profoundly changed the service environment, but research on customer experience with smart services is scarce. This study characterizes smart services, provides an in-depth understanding of customer experience in this new context, and discusses relevant implications for management and service research.
Details
Keywords
Anders Gustafsson, Lerzan Aksoy, Michael K. Brady, Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Nancy J. Sirianni, Lars Witell and Nancy V. Wuenderlich
The purpose of this paper is to encourage the reader to think differently about service-related issues and to strive to conduct service research that makes a transformational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to encourage the reader to think differently about service-related issues and to strive to conduct service research that makes a transformational impact on individuals, organizations and society. The authors suggest that service researchers are in an excellent position to develop research that matters by making stronger connections with theory and elevating purely applied research to research that is higher in both practical relevance and methodological rigor.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes a conceptual approach, connecting pertinent literature with new ideas highlighted in this special issue.
Findings
This paper proposes that service researchers look beyond traditional service applications, take a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving and make greater strides towards connecting theory and practice. The authors propose a Model of Rigorous and Relevant Research, and call for fresh thinking across a wide range of research areas, including enhancing the customer experience, crafting innovation, integrating technology and measuring service outcomes.
Originality/value
The originality of this essay lies in its focus on revitalizing the discussion on relevance and rigor as a path forward for service research. Additionally, this paper offers new insights on core management aspects of service provision that provide a solid platform for future work in service research.
Details
Keywords
Nancy V. Wuenderlich, Kristina Heinonen, Amy L. Ostrom, Lia Patricio, Rui Sousa, Chris Voss and Jos G.A.M. Lemmink
The purpose of this paper is to craft a future research agenda to advance smart service research and practice. Smart services are delivered to or via intelligent objects that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to craft a future research agenda to advance smart service research and practice. Smart services are delivered to or via intelligent objects that feature awareness and connectivity. For service researchers and managers, one of the most fascinating aspects of smart service provision is that the connected object is able to sense its own condition and its surroundings and thus allows for real-time data collection, continuous communication and interactive feedback.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is based on discussions in the workshop on “Fresh perspectives on technology in service” at the International Network of Service Researchers on September 26, 2014 at CTF, Karlstad, Sweden. The paper summarizes the discussion on smart services, adds an extensive literature review, provides examples from business practice and develops a structured approach to new research avenues.
Findings
We propose that smart services vary on their individual level of autonomous decision-making, visibility and embeddedness in objects and customer lives. Based on a discussion of these characteristics, we identify research avenues regarding the perception and nature of smart services, the adoption of smart services, the innovation through smart services as well as regarding the development of new business models.
Originality/value
Smart services is a new emerging topic in service marketing research, their implications on organizations, customers and the service landscape have not been fully explored. We provide a fresh perspective on service research by characterizing relevant aspects of smart service that will stimulate fruitful future research and advance the understanding and practice of smart services.
Details
Keywords
Andrei Bonamigo and Camila Guimarães Frech
This study aims to recognize industry 4.0 opportunities and challenges associated with the co-creation of value in industrial services and to propose a theoretical framework for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to recognize industry 4.0 opportunities and challenges associated with the co-creation of value in industrial services and to propose a theoretical framework for smart industrial services systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors carried out a systematic literature review based on the systematic search flow method; thereafter, the authors used the content analysis proposed by Bardin (2011) to analyze the resulting portfolio.
Findings
The authors identified a total of five industry 4.0 opportunities and five challenges for co-creating value in industrial services. Drawing upon these findings, this paper builds a theoretical framework for the smart industrial services system, in which the industry 4.0 opportunities arise from the digitally mediated inter-firm interactions and the challenges related to the resources of this system.
Research limitations/implications
This study may not have enabled a complete coverage of all existing peer-reviewed articles in the field of value co-creation in industrial services associated with the industry 4.0 technologies. Also, the framework is constrained by being theoretical rather than empirically grounded.
Practical implications
The findings give managers support to devise strategies for overcoming the barriers that impede them from taking advantage of the opportunities offered by industry 4.0 for co-creating value in industrial services.
Originality/value
This paper’s uniqueness is to identify the industry 4.0 opportunities and challenges for value co-creation in the context of industrial services and to propose a framework for the smart industrial services system.
Details
Keywords
Daniel Beverungen, Dennis Kundisch and Nancy Wünderlich
The purpose of this paper is to identify strategic options and challenges that arise when an industrial firm moves from providing smart service toward providing a platform.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify strategic options and challenges that arise when an industrial firm moves from providing smart service toward providing a platform.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual study takes on a multidisciplinary research perspective that integrates concepts, theories and insights from service management and marketing, information systems and platform economics.
Findings
The paper outlines three platform types – smart data platform, smart product platform and matching platform – as strategic options for firms that wish to evolve from smart service providers to platform providers.
Research limitations/implications
Investigating smart service platforms calls for launching interdisciplinary research initiatives. Promising research avenues are outlined to span boundaries that separate different research disciplines today.
Practical implications
Managing a successful transition from providing smart service toward providing a platform requires making significant investments in IT, platform-related capabilities and skills, as well as implement new approaches toward relationship management and brand-building.
Originality/value
The findings described in this paper are valuable to researchers in multiple disciplines seeking to develop and to justify theory related to platforms in industrial scenarios.