A service innovation model for synergistic community transformation: integrated application of systems theory and product-service systems

Abstract Product-Service System (PSS) approaches and resulting benefits have been viewed mainly from a business world standpoint and in terms of economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. This paper seeks to extend the application of PSS for community social-economic transformation and links it with Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), especially the Customer-Actor-Transformation-Worldview-Owner-Environment (CATWOE) method, to propose a model for synergistically sustainable community development. This approach recognises the diverse views and transformation goals of multiple stakeholders, fosters value co-creation in achieving desirable outcomes and uncovers synergies between system entities and various PSS elements. By analysing two examples of disadvantaged regional communities, the paper indicates how systems thinking and PSS can facilitate service innovation and opportunities for synergistic sustainability by transforming the local economy and improving services and social livelihoods.

[1]  Mica Comstock,et al.  Modeling design objects in CAD system for Service/Product Engineering , 2009, Comput. Aided Des..

[2]  Ricardo Ramirez,et al.  A model for rural and remote information and communication technologies: a Canadian exploration , 2001 .

[3]  Werner Hediger,et al.  Reconciling “weak” and “strong” sustainability , 1999 .

[4]  Oksana Mont,et al.  An analysis of a product service system in Bolivia: coffee in Yungas , 2008 .

[5]  Stephen Evans,et al.  Industrialization as a key element of sustainable product-service solutions , 2007 .

[6]  M. Jackson.  Creative holism: a critical systems approach to complex problem situations , 2006 .

[7]  G. Lay,et al.  Service-based business concepts: A typology for business-to-business markets , 2009 .

[8]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  On value and value co-creation: A service systems and service logic perspective , 2008 .

[9]  Johann C.K.H. Riedel,et al.  The PSO triangle: designing product, service and organisation to create value , 2009 .

[10]  Leenard Baas.  The Challenge of Industrial Ecology for a Sustainable Economy in China , 2011 .

[11]  Lia Krucken,et al.  Building stakeholder networks to develop and deliver product-service-systems: practical experiences on elaborating pro-active materials for communication ☆ , 2006 .

[12]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[13]  A. Tukker.  Eight types of product–service system: eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet , 2004 .

[14]  M. Lewis,et al.  Towards a model of governance in complex (product–service) inter‐organizational systems , 2010 .

[15]  R. Ayres,et al.  Viewpoint: Weak versus Strong Sustainability , 1998 .

[16]  R. Ramírez.  Value co-production: intellectual origins and implications for practice and research , 1999 .

[17]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  Solution oriented partnership. How to design industrialised sustainable solutions , 2004 .

[18]  Steve Evans,et al.  Building more sustainable solutions in production-consumption systems: the case of food for people with reduced access , 2007 .

[19]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology , 2020, Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide.

[20]  E. Leigh,et al.  Genes, bees and ecosystems: The evolution of a common interest among individuals. , 1991, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[21]  Jan C. Aurich,et al.  Life cycle oriented design of technical Product-Service Systems , 2006 .

[22]  Christopher Alexander.  Notes on the Synthesis of Form , 1964 .

[23]  Nicola Morelli,et al.  Developing new product service systems (PSS): methodologies and operational tools , 2006 .

[24]  Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn,et al.  Basic Principles of SSM Modeling: An Examination of CATWOE from a Soft Perspective , 2004 .

[25]  Mike Metcalfe,et al.  Problem Conceptualisation Using Idea Networks , 2007 .

[26]  B. Head.  Wicked Problems in Public Policy , 2008 .

[27]  J. Dewey,et al.  How We Think , 2009 .

[28]  L. Buss,et al.  The evolution of individuality , 1987 .

[29]  Ashutosh Tiwari,et al.  Informatics-Based Product-Service Systems for Point-of-Care Devices , 2010 .

[30]  Oksana Mont.  Product-Service Systems: Panacea or Myth? , 2008 .

[31]  Mike Metcalfe,et al.  Project conceptualization using pragmatic methods , 2009 .

[32]  Carsten Nico Hjortsø,et al.  Enhancing the Design and Management of a Local Organic Food Supply Chain with Soft Systems Methodology , 2012 .

[33]  Nu. Escap,et al.  Are we building competitive and liveable cities?: Guidelines for developing eco-efficient and socially inclusive infrastructure , 2011 .

[34]  A. Tukker,et al.  Product-services as a research field: past, present and future. Reflections from a decade of research , 2006 .

[35]  J. Mingers,et al.  Rational analysis for a problematic world revisited : problem structuring methods for complexity, uncertainty and conflict , 1989 .

[36]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  Product-service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for Sustainable Solutions , 2002 .

[37]  Peggy Zwolinski,et al.  Product-service system design methodology: from the PSS architecture design to the products specifications , 2009 .

[38]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  A strategic design approach to develop sustainable product service systems: examples taken from the ‘environmentally friendly innovation’ Italian prize , 2003 .