Introduction to the Smart Service Systems: Analytics, Cognition, and Innovation Minitrack

Smart service systems can be characterized by: (1) the types of offerings to their customers and/or citizens, (2) the types of jobs or roles for people within them, and (3) the types of returns they offer investors interested in growth and development, through improved use of technology, talent, or organizational and governance forms, which create (dis) incentives that (re) shape behaviors. There is a need to apply robust research findings in the appropriate management and organizational contexts related to innovation of smart service systems, service innovation, quality, architecture, design and delivery, and the resulting customer satisfaction and business value. In part, because of analytics and cognitive systems, smart service systems adapt to a constantly changing environment to benefit customers and providers. Using big data analytics, service providers try to compete for customers by (1) improving existing offerings to customers, (2) innovating new types of offerings, (3) evolving their portfolio of offerings and making better recommendations to customers, (4) changing their relationships to suppliers and others in the ecosystem in ways their customers perceive as more sustainable, fair, or responsible. The goal of this track is to explore the challenges, issues and opportunities related to innovation of smart service systems that enable value co-creation with analytics, cognitive and human systems.