UCTM—An Ambidextrous Service Innovation Framework—A Bottom-Up Approach to Combine Human- and Technology-Centered Service Design

Abstract

Digital innovation is a key success factor for business enterprises and organizations concerned with public safety. Increasingly shorter technology cycles produce a stream of highly promising gadgets and smart devices and this innovative provision opens a gap between what is currently in use for the value-creation processes of an organization and what could potentially be used. The presented framework provides guidance on how to implement dynamic capabilities needed for business model and service innovation within a complex socio-technical system. A way to combine technology and use-case sensing with the ultimate aim of creating innovative artifacts for organizations is presented. While Business Model Innovation (BMI) literature mainly focuses on a strategic top-down process, we propose a bottom-up process-driven approach to complement business frameworks. Based on these insights, new service artifacts can be designed and analyzed in a systemic way. The applied research methodology is based on the design science research concept. A qualitative approach with focus groups was used to gather user requirements and facilitate participatory and user-centered design of information systems. In this paper, we provide a framework that supports business executives as well as IT experts on how to cope with and integrate new technologies into organizations, their processes, and their business models. In addition to a comprehensive theoretical overview of the proposed framework, we also provide practical results, since this framework was applied in the course of a service design and engineering research project. A use case of alpine rescue missions serves as an example to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed framework.

Keywords

• socio-technical systems
• information systems
• systems engineering
• digital innovation