Digital service: Technological agency in service systems

Abstract

This paper defines digital service in the context of technologically enhanced value co-creation between service system entities. Progress in digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasing the relative share of technologically enhanced value co-creation between service system entities (e.g., people, companies, nations). Highly automated technical systems increasingly act as autonomous agents, on behalf of service providers, in value co-creation interactions with the system users. Sufficient conceptualization, abstractions and modeling paradigms for research and development of this type of value co-creation are absent from the literature and introduced in this paper. The main contribution of the paper is introduction and definition of digital service and digital service membrane as fundamental concepts in service science and service systems, with directions for future research on the topic.