Rethinking Service Design: A Socio-Technical Approach to the Development of Business Models

This chapter introduces socio-technical systems thinking as a tool for the concurrent development of organizational business models and associated service offerings that deliver value to customers and suppliers. As organizations offer integrated products and services, interactions and relationships between customer and supplier have assumed greater importance. Traditionally, importance was placed on the customer need and requirements for a physical product. Socio-technical systems thinking advocates a holistic perspective of complex work systems, ensuring the consideration of both technical and social aspects of a system. As illustrated through the three case studies in this chapter, product-service systems are becoming increasingly common within organizations. The first discusses the growing trend for manufacturing organizations to move from traditional transactional business models, with a focus on the delivery of physical products, to the inclusion of service delivery. The second case study provides details of manufacturing supply networks and the associated changing business models needed to support the development of supplier capability. Finally, the third case study considers changing business models and service delivery in the emerging context of technology-intensive healthcare services in the UK. To conclude, a socio-technical framework is proposed as a tool to aid in the development of business models and service delivery using these case studies as examples.

[1]  Donald T. Rowland,et al.  Population Aging: The Transformation of Societies , 2012 .

[2]  Yang Cheng.  The Ninth International Symposium on Global Manufacturing and China , 2013 .

[3]  P. Matthyssens,et al.  The development of purchasing maturity and its impact on internal service quality and supplier satisfaction , 2012 .

[4]  Graham Thompson,et al.  The design of functional (total care) products , 2004 .

[5]  R. C. Michelini,et al.  Product-service for environmental safeguard: a metrics to sustainability , 2004 .

[6]  V. Gilsing,et al.  A system failure framework for innovation policy design , 2005 .

[7]  Charles H. Fine.  Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control In The Age Of Temporary Advantage , 1998 .

[8]  Oksana Mont,et al.  Clarifying the Concept of Product-Service System , 2002 .

[9]  Wolfgang Beitz,et al.  Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach , 1984 .

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

[11]  Graham Thompson,et al.  A rapid design process for Total Care Product creation , 2006 .

[12]  Katja Laurischkat,et al.  Computer-Aided Service Design for the Development of Product-Service Systems – Motivation and Benefits , 2013 .

[13]  Albert B. Cherns,et al.  The Principles of Sociotechnical Design , 1976 .

[14]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Evaluating service encounters: The effects of physical surroundings and employee responses. , 1990 .

[15]  Jochen Wirtz,et al.  Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy , 2000 .

[16]  Chris W. Clegg,et al.  The "Charge of the Byte Brigade" and a socio-technical response , 2000, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[17]  Karl T. Ulrich,et al.  50th Anniversary Article: Technological Innovation, Product Development, and Entrepreneurship in Management Science , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[18]  Horst Meier,et al.  Product-Service Integration for Sustainable Solutions , 2013 .

[19]  A. While,et al.  Chronic heart failure: promoting quality of life. , 2009, British journal of community nursing.

[20]  J. Fries,et al.  Aging, natural death, and the compression of morbidity. 1980. , 2002, Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

[21]  Ezio Manzini,et al.  Product-service systems: using an existing concept as a new approach to sustainability , 2001 .

[22]  Jonathan Cagan,et al.  A survey of computational approaches to three-dimensional layout problems , 2002, Comput. Aided Des..

[23]  Chris W. Clegg,et al.  Advancing socio-technical systems thinking: a call for bravery. , 2014, Applied ergonomics.

[24]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Timing and Targeting of PSS Methods and Tools: An Empirical Study amongst Academic Contributors , 2013 .

[25]  D. Kruger,et al.  Business processes capability and performance: A South African perspective , 2012, 2012 Proceedings of PICMET '12: Technology Management for Emerging Technologies.

[26]  Alison McKay,et al.  Advanced product planning: a comprehensive process for systemic definition of new product requirements , 2008, Requirements Engineering.

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

[28]  Mike P. Papazoglou,et al.  Integrated value chains and their implications from a business and technology standpoint , 2000, Decis. Support Syst..

[29]  Björn Kijl,et al.  Deployment of e-health services – a business model engineering strategy , 2010, Journal of telemedicine and telecare.

[30]  John A White.  The Factory of the Future , 1982 .

[31]  J. Hendy,et al.  Effect of telehealth on use of secondary care and mortality: findings from the Whole System Demonstrator cluster randomised trial , 2012, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[32]  Chris W. Clegg,et al.  ‘The biggest computer programme in the world…ever!’: time for a change in mindset? , 2007, J. Inf. Technol..

[33]  B. Dinesen,et al.  Development of a program for tele-rehabilitation of COPD patients across sectors: co-innovation in a network , 2011, International journal of integrated care.

[34]  Albert Cherns,et al.  Principles of Sociotechnical Design Revisted , 1987 .

[35]  Fumiya Akasaka,et al.  Knowledge-Based Design Support System for Conceptual Design of Product-Service Systems , 2013 .

[36]  H. Bouwman,et al.  Mobile Service Innovation and Business Models , 2010 .

[37]  E. Trist,et al.  Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting , 1951 .

[38]  I. Aas,et al.  A qualitative study of the organizational consequences of telemedicine , 2001, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare.

[39]  C W Clegg,et al.  Sociotechnical principles for system design. , 2000, Applied ergonomics.

[40]  Daniel E. Whitney,et al.  PRIORITIZING THE MANY MEASURES OF SUCCESS IN OUTSOURCED DESIGN , 2013 .

[41]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  Delivering quality service : balancing customer perceptions and expectations , 1990 .

[42]  William Tyler,et al.  Discourse, transgression and difference: Rethinking criminology , 2000 .

[43]  B. Swaine,et al.  Assessment of organizational readiness for e-health in a rehabilitation centre , 2012, Disability and rehabilitation.

[44]  Tobias Larsson,et al.  Development of product-service systems: challenges and opportunities for the manufacturing firm , 2009 .

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

[46]  K. Storbacka.  A solution business model: Capabilities and management practices for integrated solutions , 2011 .

[47]  Services Marketing Management: A Strategic Perspective , 2006 .

[48]  Leonard L. Berry,et al.  Five imperatives for improving service quality , 1991 .

[49]  Alison McKay,et al.  Realising design engineering capability across distributed enterprise networks , 2013 .

[50]  T S Baines,et al.  State-of-the-art in product-service systems , 2007 .

[51]  J. Eckhardt.  Opportunities in business model research , 2013 .

[52]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Reinventing Your Business Model , 2008 .

[53]  Nick Goodwin,et al.  The State of Telehealth and Telecare in the UK: Prospects for Integrated Care , 2010 .

[54]  Tom H. F. Broens,et al.  Determinants of successful telemedicine implementations: a literature study , 2007, Journal of telemedicine and telecare.

[55]  Paul P. Maglio,et al.  A service science perspective on business model innovation , 2013 .

[56]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm , 1996 .

[57]  Andy Williams,et al.  Product service systems in the automobile industry: contribution to system innovation? , 2007 .