Data-Based Value Co-Creation in Smart Service Systems: A Reinterpretation of Customer Journey

Industry 4.0 is characterized by the key role of new technologies in the development of relationships between companies and their stakeholders. Thus, the most recent theories on service redefine organizations as complex service systems that create and co-create value thanks to the interactions between actors, enhanced by smart technologies and ICTs. In particular, the concept of service systems- introduced in Service Science- seems to be suitable for the exploration of how service design, and the processes of innovation sharing and emergence, can be strengthened thanks to the application of smart technologies. Despite the adoption of a system logic, service systems, and their conceptualization, need to be reinterpreted according to a perspective that applies a total and all-encompassing view to the processes of value generation and to the interpretation of the information and data exchanged (data-driven decision-making). Therefore, the study proposes a conceptual model that integrates the key enabling factors of value co-creation in service systems with the main strategic drivers introduced in data-driven approach to redefine the entire service experience as a service journey. In this continuous information flow, providers, customers and users share and combine data streams, to be turned into relevant information and value, through an integrated and interacting set of touch points that connect the different stages of service creation, delivery and co-creation.