With the advent of digitalization, e-services are now enabled by embedded digital technologies in physical products such as vehicles, elevators, construction equipment. In spite of numerous instances of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products, little research has been carried out to investigate the characteristics of co-creation of such e-services. This paper attempts to fill the gap by reporting from a three-year long research project with a vehicle manufacturing company. Using the translation phases from the Actor-Network theory (ANT) as a theoretical lens, this paper presents three propositions that characterize the co-creation of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products. The propositions highlight the role of physical products, establishment of trust and setting priorities about digitalization.
Different platforms for e-services are continuously being developed in this digital era. Researchers in the field of information systems have focused on mobile platforms, such as Android and iPhone platforms (
User or customer involvement has been discussed in case of software and organizational information systems development (see e.g.,
To seek answer to the question, this research presents findings from a three-year long research project concerning co-creation of e-services associated with digitalized vehicles. The project was carried out in collaboration with a vehicle manufacturing company. The company focused on the co-creation of e-services in relation to digitalized vehicles and digital innovation of vehicle maintenance services. Instead of using the regular manual maintenance services which are time consuming and less effective, the technology developers of the vehicle manufacturing company came up with the idea of remote monitoring and diagnostics of vehicles with the help of embedded digital technology in the vehicles. Introduction of this technology opened the door for creating e-services related to better vehicle maintenance. The technology developers of the vehicle manufacturing company decided to involve potential customers of the e-services to understand their needs and facilitate the co-creation. These e-services will be associated with the vehicles and have B2B setting. Looking at the involvement of different stakeholders and lack of understanding of co-creation of these special kinds of e-services in the literature, we have decided to investigate into the co-creation of such e-services. We have used the concept of ‘Translation’ from ‘Actor Network Theory (ANT)’ (
The following section of the paper presents a review of literature on co-creation of services and products. Later, the theoretical lens for this research which is the translation processes of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is described. Later, the methodology will be followed by the empirical findings on co-creation of e-services. The paper concludes with a discussion of findings that include propositions on the characteristics of e-service co-creation.
Co-creation is referred to as the collaborative processes with customers for innovation and value creation. Co-creation is one of the foundational premises of the service-dominant logic (
In the B2C (Business to Consumer) context, consumer co-creation is vital in new product development (
There are several reasons for involving users in service development in B2B context: a) developing differentiated and superior services, b) reducing cycle time, c) training the users, d) rapidly diffusing innovation, e) improving public relations, and f) setting long-term relationships (
Co-creation with customers is also investigated for mobile phone services where seven key strategies are presented (
The previous studies presented co-creation basically from three perspectives: manufactured goods, conventional services, and or consumer digital product (mobile phone). This paper focuses on e-services enabled from product-service combination with digital technology embedded in physical products. Although businesses are transforming due to this class of services, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding them.
Digital innovation refers to the new combinations of digital and physical components to produce novel offerings (
The first characteristic of digital innovation is re-programmability. Based on the von Neumann Architecture, the digital technologies can be flexibly reprogrammable (
The second characteristic of digital innovation is homogenization of data. In case of analog technology, there is tight coupling between specific information types and the associated transmission technologies, storage formats and processing technologies (
The third and final characteristic self-referential nature of digital technology means that digital innovation requires the use of digital technology (
The discussion on digital innovation helps us to understand the uniqueness of digitally innovative e-services. Based on the discussion on re-programmability, we can say that there is always possibility for the users to create e-services according to their own needs. It can be expected that the co-creation activities during digital innovation will delineate some challenges and opportunities which will help us to develop new knowledge regarding digital innovation.
The ‘Translation’ concept from the ‘Actor Network theory (ANT)’ (
The process of translation in ANT is defined as the method by which a main actor enrolls other actors to form an actor-network (
Interessement is the phase when other actors get interested in the solution proposed by the main actor and start changing their affiliations to form a group in favor of the main actor (
Enrolment phase includes multilateral negotiations, where actors try the strengths from the interessement phase to enable them achieving success (
Mobilization phase deals with finding the proper representatives as the spokespersons for the whole actor-network (
We have followed case study methodology for this research. Case studies can be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory (
This paper presents findings from a research project called “RDS (Remote Diagnostics System)”. The project was initiated by a global vehicle manufacturing company IntelligentBus (a pseudonym). During the project the company was focusing on the digitalization of vehicles and creating e-services for better vehicle maintenance. IntelligentBus sells vehicles (buses) to variety of customers all around the globe including public transport operators. The company also provides maintenance services to the vehicles once they are sold. Prior to the initiation of the RDS project, maintenance services for the vehicles of IntelligentBus were mostly done manually by following a preventive way of maintenance. In this particular way of maintenance, a customer used to sign a service contract with the company and the vehicles were brought to the maintenance facilities on a scheduled basis, for example, once in every three months. This implies that the customers were required to bring the vehicles for maintenance even if there is nothing wrong with the vehicles. This often resulted in additional labor cost, unnecessary replacement of parts and redundant maintenance activities that added to overall cost. In spite of the routine maintenance, the unexpected breakdowns could not be reduced significantly. To solve the problem, the technology development department of IntelligentBus decided to initiate the RDS project for developing e-services enabled by the ‘Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics Technology’. The aim of the technology was to remotely monitor the vehicles to facilitate diagnosing and predicting faults in advance before any breakdown occurs. This would allow the customers not to bring the vehicles for maintenance service on a scheduled basis, rather bring the vehicles when maintenance is required. The technology aimed at significantly reducing the possibility of sudden breakdown of a vehicle while on the road. This could be done as the anomalies were predicted in advance using remote monitoring and diagnosis. This technology enabled service such as diagnosing faults in engines, as well as it facilitated the design of numerous e-services associated with vehicle maintenance. The company decided to involve customers to co-create e-services to solve customers’ needs with the technology. Therefore, the company decided to carry out the project in two parts: technology development part and service development part. The technology and possibilities to create e-services pave the way to build intelligent vehicles.
The author of this paper was fully involved in the service development part of the RDS project for three years. The RDS case is suitable for this research because it has created the opportunity for exploring co-creation of e-services and digital innovation. For successful co-creation, in-depth knowledge was required about the current problems in vehicle operations and maintenance. The technology developers of IntelligentBus did not have thorough understanding about customers’ experience with their vehicles. The developers did not have enough idea about the operations of the customers and how the vehicles were maintained. The exploration with customers also created opportunity to know about the customers’ views about the ‘Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics Technology’ and their expectations from the technology.
Several activities have been performed to collect data while involving different stakeholders. The data collection activities included service design meetings, monthly project meetings, interviews, service design workshops, e-mail correspondences. Following sub-sections describe the activities.
The first step of this exploratory study was service design meetings that initially aimed at planning, finding, and creating a project aim. Later, the service design meetings aimed at designing services, preparing for meetings and interviews, analyzing interviews, and developing business models. Twenty six service design meetings were held. Each of the meetings lasted between 1-2 hours. Meeting notes and summary documents provided the participants’ expectations.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the purpose to get rich information. The interviews were framed following the guidance of
Besides service design meetings and interviews, monthly project meetings (every meeting was 3-hour long) were also arranged. In the monthly meetings, the project members discussed various issues in the project related to the technology development part and the service design part. Inter-disciplinary inputs about technological and business opportunities and challenges were gathered using notes and meeting minutes.
Four service design workshops have been conducted as half-day activities. The workshops consist of discussions and scenario buildings with the representatives from IntelliegentBus and public transport operating companies. The aim of the scenario building activity was to provide the participants an opportunity to express their expectations regarding e-services and co-create the e-services. During the discussions with the business area representatives of IntelligenetBus, they drew the business networks of the company to find out current status and potential business opportunities of remote diagnostics systems. Previous service design meetings, monthly meetings and available project documents formed the basis of the workshops. The project documents include meeting notes, internal company documents, and weekly project reports prepared by the project manager, meeting notes, and company documents. The multiple sources of data were useful for data validation (
Data Source
Description
Project meetings
Service design meetings
26 meetings. A meeting normally had a duration of 2-3 hours
Monthly meetings
8 meetings. A meeting normally had a duration of 2-3 hours
Interviews
9 interviews. Interviewees include business area representatives of IntelligentBus, representatives of a public transport operating company (PTOC), computer science researchers and engineers, and service developers of IntelligentBus
Workshops
4 workshops with the representatives from the vehicle industry
Documents
Project proposal
A project proposal written by a group of employees of IntelligentBus
Technical reports
6 reports regarding the projects written by the engineers and computer science researchers of the project
Short reports on project updates
53 reports sent by the project manager regarding the updates on the project.
Final project report
A report written by all project members
Market analysis report
A report prepared by service developers to compare existing vehicular diagnostics technologies
Emails
113 e-mail correspondences between project members
The interviews and conversation during the workshops were transcribed. Meeting notes were taken during the monthly and service development meetings. To analyze the data we have followed qualitative content analysis approach (
To give an illustration of how the process will be used, we would like to describe the data analysis process. As described earlier, the concept ‘translation’ from “Actor Network Theory” has been applied as theoretical lens. Translation has four phases: problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization. The transcribed material was read carefully, highlighting all texts that appeared to describe above mentioned four translation phases. All highlighted texts were grouped and coded for each of the predetermined categories (problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization).
Our empirical findings from the data analysis show four phases of translation. The following description from the RDS project of IntelligentBus will delineate how translation phases help us to understand the activities carried out by different actors in the vehicle industry while co-creating e- services enabled by the digitalization of vehicles.
The problematization phase of translation process constitutes the identification of problems, solutions and key roles (
Therefore, the technology development department of IntelligentBus started looking for solutions to the problem. They came up with the idea of remote monitoring and diagnostics technology and services for vehicles. For the sharing of technical knowledge and the implementation of remote monitoring and diagnostics technology, the technology development department first invited technical researchers (computer scientists) from the academia. The researchers started working directly in the technology development part of the RDS project. Later, two employees of IntelligentBus started working as service developers in the service design part of the project. They worked on customer requirement analysis, market research, business modeling, etc. Service developers invited informatics researchers (the author was one of them) to collaborate in the service design part. In this way, the service development group was formed and the people working in the group was called the service developers. The aim of this collaboration was to co-create e-services and share experience and knowledge on digital innovation. Different business area representatives were contacted by service developers to know more about existing customers and maintenance services of vehicles. Public transport authorities of neighboring cities were also contacted and they agreed to cooperate in the project. One particular public transport operating company allowed using their buses as prototypes for the project. They acted as the target customer for the e-services enabled by the remote monitoring and diagnostics technology. The service developers also interviewed maintenance service technicians, traffic managers, and drivers from the public transport operating company who agreed about sudden breakdowns. A traffic manager confirmed this by stating:
The technology developers started developing a system that will remotely monitor the vehicles with the help of embedded devices. The use of the devices, wireless transmission and a sophisticated algorithm are used for diagnosing and predicting faults in advance. As one technology developer clarified during a meeting:
Another technology developer said,
The employees of the public transport operating company were positive about the remote diagnostics technology and services. As one of them stated:
The
Actors
Actors’ Definition and Interest
Technology developers
Main actor. This department consisted of basically two groups of people: technology developers and computer scientists from the academia. Their interest was to develop the remote diagnostics technology.
Maintenance Service providers
They worked with maintenance of the vehicles. The group consisted of maintenance managers and other service technicians. Their task was to provide information to main actor about the faults that take place in vehicles and maintenance activities. This information might be useful is solving the problems regarding vehicle maintenance.
Public transport operating company
The company operated buses in a city. The participating members were traffic managers, mechanics, and drivers. They provided information to main actor from daily experience on public bus operation and maintenance to assist the technology developers in developing maintenance services that could reduce breakdowns and maintenance cost
Service developers
This group consisted of employees from IntelligentBus and the informatics researchers from the academia. Their interest was in sharing and gaining knowledge on customer requirements, designing digital services and business models.
Local transport authority
They provided knowledge about transport operation in the region for better operation.
Remote diagnostics Technology
This non-human actor was the technology that enabled remote monitoring and diagnosing of problems in the buses so that breakdowns can be avoided.
Buses
These were another non-human actors that carried passengers and should be well-maintained so that minimum breakdowns took place.
With the definition of problems, potential solution and identification of other actors in the network, the technology development department set itself as the obligatory passage point.
Interessement phase focuses to make other actors interested in the solution proposed by the main actor (
The other actors communicated their opinions about the remote diagnostics technology. For example, a participant stated about his expectations from remote diagnostics in a workshop:
A maintenance manager was a bit skeptical about the technology,
A few other participants in the project activities expressed their opinions during the interviews, workshops and meetings. A business area representative of IntelligentBus had a suggestion for the initial phase of implementation of the technology:
The reason for introducing remote diagnostics technology and the possible use of the information retrieved from the technology became clearer from the following statement of a business representative in a meeting:
Saving time for maintenance is a strong point for the remote diagnostics of vehicles. A technology that can save some time in maintenance activities will be considered a big asset. Remote diagnostics provides a great opportunity for saving time. As one business area manager stated:
In this way, different actors got interested in remote diagnostics technology and services and started collaborating in the RDS project. The technology developers paid special attention to the views of the actors who showed skepticism regarding the technology. They agreed to develop the technology in a way to minimize the possibility of existing problems with the current technological systems in the upcoming remote diagnostics technology. Because of the verbal agreement, the skeptical participants showed interests in collaborating in the actor-network.
Enrolment phase focuses on how different actors negotiate their roles in the actor-network during its formation (
At the same time, technology developers kept communicating with the traffic managers and drivers of the public transport operating company to know about their day-to-day experience regarding bus operation. The service developers had conversations with a maintenance manager and a traffic manager of the public transport operating company to explain the opportunities of remote diagnostics technology. As one service developer explained:
Remote diagnostics system (RDS) can be compared to electricity which was initially used only for lighting bulbs. If we look at what happened later we could see the development of numerous electricity-driven home appliances. Probably new types of electrical devices are being developed at this very moment. We also now have electric cars. Similarly, RDS is simply not about monitoring the engine of a vehicle; different other services can be designed based on the RDS. Several services can be included with the existing services. It is difficult right now to identify all possible services. For example, I can see driver behavior can also be monitored with this technology to check how much steadily or roughly a driver drives a bus.
The service developers invited the traffic manager in a service design workshop to co-operate in developing e-services that will be helpful for them in future. Together with a few drivers and service technicians, the traffic manager assisted in visualizing the future services that could be developed around remote diagnostics. The plan was to draw various futuristic e-services related to maintenance together with him, a few drivers and service technicians.
The technology developers were continuously negotiating with the public transport operating company to get more information about the company’s day-to-day operation. The developers involved the drivers of the company in the discussion regarding the bus operation. The drivers pointed at a problem with the buses that the developers initially did not anticipate at all. A major concern for the bus drivers is the doors. As a driver said:
Doors are supposed to be closed when the connected button is pressed from the driver’s panel. Sometimes doors simply do not get closed following the process and then it can be a headache. We are not allowed to drive the bus without closing the doors because it is not safe. Something needs to be done with this problem.
The technology developers initially did not focus on the doors. They first wanted to make sure that the remote diagnostics technology works perfectly for engine, brakes etc. However, according to the drivers the doors should be emphasized. Later, service developers started more discussion with the drivers and traffic managers and they also pointed to the problem with the doors. During a monthly project meeting the service developers summarized the findings from the discussion with the bus drivers and traffic managers. Then the technology developers finally realized that they should take the door issue seriously otherwise it would be problematic to involve the public transport operating company in further activities.
Mobilization is the phase when the actor-network becomes stabilized (
The other participants were also emphasizing on the fact that they would like to have e-services that will release pressure from their professional lives that they now face when they deal with the non-digital products and service.
Taking the inputs from the actors regarding the expected services, the technology developers continued to implement the services. Thus all the phases of translation were completed.
This section discusses the findings regarding translation processes. Following translation processes (
During the enrolment phase, the technology developers have persuaded the public transport operating company to utilize their buses to install the device so that they can check whether the technology works or not. In that way, the public transport operating company was successfully enrolled in the translation process.
Enrolment is an important phase as it enables the success of the interessement phase. Enrolling the non-human actors is always challenging as they cannot represent themselves (
Proposition 1: Successful co-creation of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products depends on enrolling the digitalized physical products in an actual use scenario.
Although the main actor was successful in creating interest among other actors regarding their proposed solution to the problem, there was doubt among other actors regarding the outcome of the technology.
Proposition 2: Successful co-creation of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products depends on establishing trust among the users regarding the improvement of the business through the digitalization of physical products.
From the findings we can see that during co-creation, a conflict arises regarding a particular issue at the interessement phase. The main actor has initially did not focus on a problem which was important for other actors. Later, when main actor realized that the problem is indeed needed to be prioritized due to emphasis from other actors, the main actor then put it in their priority list. Therefore, it can be argued that prioritization can be an issue in co-creation of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products. The main actor may have some pre-understanding about the problems and emphasized to solve those problems while digitalizing physical products. However, other actors show importance to other problems based on their operational experience involving physical products. The conflict of prioritization can be problematic in co-creation activities and digital innovation. Negligence by main actor regarding the views of other actors can result in the failure of the interessement phase. This leads us to the following proposition:
Proposition 3: Successful co-creation of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products depends on successful negotiation among actors on setting priorities about the digitalization of physical products.
The research contributes to the existing knowledge on co-creation of e-services and digital innovation by using ANT’s translation processes as analytical lens. Moreover, we showed in our discussion that if translation is applied in digital innovation context, at the interessement phase of translation, it is required to establish trust among actors regarding the outcome of digital innovation. It is also important to establish common priority among actors at the interessement phase in the case of digital innovation. The research contributes to the literature of digital innovation by delineating what are the influences of different actors when they come together to co-create the e-services that are results of digital innovation of existing non-digital product or service. Specifically, this research shows the importance of using non-human actors (physical products) as experimental objects to enroll human actors in the co-creation activities. The research makes practical contribution by showing how different stakeholders create a network for developing e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products.