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Service innovation is intertwined with service design, and knowledge from both fields should be integrated to advance theoretical and normative insights. However, studies bridging service innovation and service design are in their infancy. This is because the body of service innovation and service design research is large and heterogeneous, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for any human to read and understand its entire content and to delineate appropriate guidelines on how to broaden the scope of either field. Our work addresses this challenge by presenting the first application of topic modeling, a type of machine learning, to review and analyze currently available service innovation and service design research ( n = 641 articles with 10,543 pages of written text or 4,119,747 words). We provide an empirical contribution to service research by identifying and analyzing 69 distinct research topics in the published text corpus, a theoretical contribution by delineating an extensive research agenda consisting of four research directions and 12 operationalizable guidelines to facilitate cross-fertilization between the two fields, and a methodological contribution by introducing and demonstrating the applicability of topic modeling and machine learning as a novel type of big data analytics to our discipline.

How can value cocreation in complex human-centered service systems (HCSSs) like health care be facilitated? We address this question by introducing the novel role of service orchestrators as dedicated actors who facilitate and orchestrate resource integration, and thereby value cocreation, between other interdependent actors in HCSSs. Specifically, we draw on findings from four complementary studies that investigate the role and impact of case managers, an ideal-typical service orchestrator in health care, through the perspectives of HCSS actors (i.e., patients in Study 1 and clinical staff in Study 2) and structures (i.e., clinical departments in Studies 3 and 4). Our findings indicate that orchestrating value cocreation through case managers enhances patient satisfaction as well as the financial and operational performance of clinical departments. Service orchestration also increases the perception of clinical staff that patients are actively involved in the cocreation of their own health service but surprisingly not that of patients themselves. As such, introducing service orchestrators might contribute to reconciling the growing tension between the quality and cost of health care. We conclude by outlining how our work serves as a possible starting point for a novel research stream on effective coordination mechanisms for value cocreation in complex HCSSs.

Does technology-enablement impact the ability of a service system to co-create value? In this study, we assess and compare the relative importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and human relationships in service systems, by drawing on findings from a multiple case study in the consulting industry and subsequent analysis through a sociotechnical connectivity lens. We present a theoretical model and propositions which indicate that successful technology-enabled value co-creation is contingent upon the quantity and quality of interpersonal relationships, or social connectivity, between humans that interact and exchange resources by means of ICT. Our findings indicate that technology-enablement in service systems does not, in and of itself, influence human behavior, goals, or motivation regarding the value co-creation process, and argue that the ability of these service systems to co-create value is contingent on the levels of social connectivity between its human entities, more so than ICTs that enable the process. The ability to manage social connectivity therefore represents a prerequisite for the successful co-creation of value in technology-enabled environments, and we provide guidelines that help managing social connectivity on requisite levels.

Resource integration, as it relates to value creation, has recently been a key aspect of the discussions about service-dominant (S-D) logic. However, the majority of research pays relatively little explicit attention to the process of theorizing and the epistomological and ontological assumptions upon which the theorizing process is based. This article addresses these issues. The processes that relate to theorizing and developing strong theory are discussed. We then examine how to conceptualize 'resources' and 'resource integration' following differing ontological and epistemological assumptions that guide the theorizing process. Research recommendations to help navigate through the finer details underlying the theorizing process and to advance a general theory of resource integration are developed.