An Experience-Based Collaborative Service System Model

Our aim in this paper is to develop a specialized model of service engagement in the design of services. We build on some widely accepted constructions of service science that have appeared in the literature to produce a model that is relevant and useful in our context: technology-enabled services. We do this by conducting a field study in the telecommunications industry in a developing economy. We believe that this context is important to study due to the rapidly increasing rate of design and delivery of such services in emerging economies. By integrating existing frameworks and incorporating the results from our own findings, we present an experience-based service system model that explicitly includes consumer participation in the service design process. The main outcome of our data analysis is the characterization of the multidimensional nature of services based on three different ontological frameworks from the literature. Our model of service engagement does not devalue any of the earlier models; however, it provides a holistic understanding of services research especially around interactions and technology-enabled service design. Our model has the potential to advance service science research in an integrated and applied manner. Full paper available at https://doi.org/10.1287/serv.2016.0162