Integrating social features in service systems: the case of a library service

Socially-oriented technologies are growing in importance and are increasingly being used in organizations. There is an opportunity to enhance customer interactions in service offerings using social features, yet the incorporation of social features into information systems has been largely unexplored. In this paper, we propose a modeling extension that enhances existing information systems’ modeling techniques such that they can be used to identify opportunities to incorporate social features in service system exchanges. We define social features as online technologies that support the creation of: 1) user profiles; 2) articulated social connections and membership within groups or communities; and, 3) user-generated content. We demonstrate the use of our social features modeling extension in a library service offering.