How a Socio-technical Systems Theory Perspective can help Conceptualize Value Co-Creation in Service Design : A case study on interdisciplinary methods for interpreting value in service systems

Abstract: Background: Industrial actors see an increased relevance in adopting and promoting services within their business model in order to differentiate themselves on the market and drive growth. Service design is suggested to aid companies in this endeavor by supporting value co-creation between service provider and customer, however, new interdisciplinary methods are warranted in order to better represent and understand value co-creation in complex organizational systems.  Method: The case study adopted a mixed methods approach which incorporated tools from service design, interaction design and socio-technical systems theory (STS), used together with stakeholders at a business-to-business company. Qualitative and quantitative data was gathered and analyzed in order to assess the usability and managerial implications of implementing a STS framework in a co-creative service design process.  Results: The design process produced five themes representing prerequisites for value co-creation at the company. One of these themes was further assessed in the STS framework, resulting in a design proposition that depicted systemic interrelations between social and technological aspects.  Implications/Conclusion: The STS framework used in the current study enabled investigation of the systemic interrelations of value co-creation. It is proposed that the framework could be used as an explorative measure for developing and understanding service systems. It is not recommended as a prototyping tool for collaboration with stakeholders, as the data suggest that the framework might have a learning curve which is not convergent with the comprehensibility of service design tools. More research is warranted in order to generalize these findings.