Ng, Irene C. L. (2010) Value and systems perspectives in combining human and automated services: commentary on "seven challenges to combining human and automated service". Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, Vol.27 (No.1). pp. 81-84. doi:10.1002/cjas.141

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Abstract

The article “Seven Challenges to Combining Human
and Automated Service” (Messinger, Li, Stroulia, Galletta, Ge, & Choi, 2009) in the last issue of CJAS is an
admirable effort to build on the knowledge required for
service organizations in the modern economy. Taking a
value and systems perspective, my purpose for the
current commentary is to offer some refl ections on each
of the seven challenges, to acknowledge strengths in
organization and content of this article, and also to
suggest additional related issues to help service organizations better meet the seven challenges noted in this article.

To put things in context, it is useful to begin by
considering the defi nition of “value.” The traditional
understanding of value is that of exchange value that
underpins the traditional customer-producer relationships, where each party exchanges one kind of value for another (Bagozzi, 1975). Today, the discussion of value has veered away from this understanding to the concept of value-in-use (Schneider & Bowen, 1995; Vargo & Lusch, 2004, 2008), evaluated by the customer rather
than the currency for the transfer of ownership of a particular good. As Marx described it, value refers to “value only in use, and is realized only in the process of consumption” (Marx, 2001, p. 88). Based on such an understanding, all value is therefore co-created (Vargo &
Lusch, 2004, 2008) and co-creation is the realization of
the firm’s value proposition, be that a good (e.g., a car)
or an activity (e.g., repair). This realization of value by
the customer means that the value derived by the customer is the combinational outcome of the firm’s proposition (car, repair, etc.) and the customer’s realization of it (consumption) with both parties expending their own resources to achieve the outcomes at a time and place (context) appropriate from the customer’s point of view (Ballantyne & Varey, 2006). Hence, a firm’s product offerings, be they goods or activities, are merely value unrealized, that is, a “store of potential value” (Ballantyne & Varey, p. 344), until the customer realizes it through co-creation and gains the benefit. This can be thought of as customer experience (Payne, Storbacka, & Pennie Frow, 2008) but it must be understood that co-creation is situated at the point of consumption and customer experience is an emergent outcome of it. This is in contrast to co-production, where the customers assist the firm in achieving a better value proposition (e.g., users helping Toyota or Apple design a better car or computer).

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > WMG (Formerly the Warwick Manufacturing Group)
Journal or Publication Title:	Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration
Publisher:	John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN:	0825-0383
Official Date:	2010
Dates:	Date Event 2010 Published
Volume:	Vol.27
Number:	No.1
Number of Pages:	4
Page Range:	pp. 81-84
DOI:	10.1002/cjas.141
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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