Smart sensing technology and self-adjustment in service systems through value co-creation routine dynamics

Abstract

Self-adjustment processes are crucial for ensuring service system viability in the light of emerging adoption of digital technologies that shape value co-creation. This article offers a novel conceptualization of self-adjustment to explain the process that a service system performs to adapt to changing conditions to remain viable or improve the system’s viability. In doing this, we draw on service-dominant logic and routine dynamics theory and zoom in on how self-adjustment emerges in value co-creation routines. We show the usefulness of our conceptualization in a case of an elderly care home that introduced smart sensing technology, which triggered self-adjustments in that service system through value co-creation routines. The case study explicates the deployment of self-adjustment when sensing solutions become integrated with other resources and applied by engaged actors as resources-in-use, creating novel value co-creation outcomes. It is argued that routine dynamics contribute to self-adjustment by initiating processes whereby the involved actors’ schemas, resources, and value co-creation performances become integrated and aligned after the technological change.