The document proposes developing an ontology and modeling approach for service science. It motivates the need for shared conceptualization and models in service science. The research aims to clarify theoretical concepts, develop a conceptual model, transform it into a domain ontology, and define a modeling language. Initial results include clarifying foundational concepts and identifying relationships in a conceptual model. This helps structure the service system domain and develop formal modeling tools. Future work includes comparing models, evaluating clarity and completeness, and developing the ontology and modeling framework.

1. FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Towards an Ontology and
Modeling Approach for Service
Science
Geert Poels
Griet Van Der Vurst
Elisah Lemey
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 7 February, 2013

2. Motivation (1/2)
 Service Science
 The ‘service system’ is the main abstraction of the service
economy studied in SSMED
• Focal concept = value co-creation
 Interdisciplinary field searching for shared conceptualization
• Theoretical framework = service-dominant logic + systems theories
• Call for shared vocabularies and models (+ modeling means)
(= scientific contribution intended by our research)
• How can models help SSMED?
(= practical relevance of our research)
– Power of visualization
– Power of analysis
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 2

3. Motivation (2/2)
 Systems modeling is research topic in IS
 Large class of service systems are enterprises. Enterprises
are systems.
 Capitalize on enterprise modeling knowledge in IS
• Business models – Conceptual Modeling, Requirements Engineering
– E.g., business model canvas, goal models, value models, capability
models
• Enterprise (architectural) models – Enterprise
Architecture/Engineering, Business Process/Workflow Modeling,
Data/Database Modeling, Software Engineering/Model-driven
Engineering, …
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 3

4. Purpose (1/4)
 Starting point: Service System Worldview (Spohrer)
Informed by SDL and systems
theories
• Entity • Value proposition based interaction
• Resource • Governance mechanism based interaction
• Access Right • Outcome
• Ecology • Measure
• Interaction • Stakeholder
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 4

5. Purpose (2/4)
 Problem statement
 How to go from an initial vocabulary to talk about service
systems to a useful modeling instrument for describing and
designing service systems?
• theoretical basis unclear (definitions?, internal
consistency?, sharedness?, ..)
• merely a list of concepts – what about relationships and
rules/axioms that hold for these relationships? (domain
structure?)
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 5

6. Purpose (3/4)
Current
research
 Research objectives
 Clarify theoretical basis of concepts
 Represent concepts in a conceptual model that also
identifies the domain structure
 Transform conceptual model, which is basically a graphical
model, into a domain ontology for service systems (with
formal, precise semantics and ability to use ontological
tools)
 Define a meta-model of a service system modeling
language based on the ontology
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 6

7. Purpose (4/4)
 Select/develop a concrete syntax (notation) for the meta-
model
 Develop a method (and possibly tool support) for applying
the modeling language to real service system modeling
situations
 Explore applications for service system design,
engineering, and management
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 7

8. Method
Current
research
 Research activities/steps
 Literature review of conceptual frameworks and theories
in service-related disciplines (and beyond)
 Conceptual design
 Conceptual modeling
 Ontology engineering
 Meta-modeling and language development
 Method engineering
 Tool development
 Application and evaluation
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 8

9. Theoretical analysis
Service DEFINITION
Dominant OF
Logic CONCEPTS?
System Service
Theoretic Quality
Model Gap
Model RELEVANCE
Service OF
Systems CONCEPTS?
Worldview
Service
Ontology Unified
based on Service
DOLCE Theory
COMPLETENESS
Work
System OF CONCEPTS?
Method
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 9

10. Results (1/4)
 Clarification of theoretical grounding of service
system worldview
 w.r.t. relevancy
• Three common foundational concepts:
– service system entity
– interaction
– stakeholder perspectives provider and consumer
• Other foundational concepts all supported by at least one
theory
• No foundational concepts rejected by any of the theories
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 10

11. Results (2/4)
 w.r.t. completeness
• Service system worldview allows different interpretations to
co-exist
– Service as co-production versus service as co-creation
=> implications for the nature of involvement of customer
resources, the definition of focal resource and access rights
– Service within the service system or between service systems
=> implications for the definition of entity and ecology
– Service as a process, as an outcome (or even the only
outcome), as a commitment
=> indicates the need to explicitly define service
– Mutuality within the service or in the economic exchange of
services
=> indicates the need for a service exchange model
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 11

12. Results (3/4)
 w.r.t. definitions
• As Service Science studies value co-creation phenomena, our
conceptual design introduced service as an eleventh foundational
concept
– Service is the favourable, intended outcome of interactions between
service system entities. This favourable, intended outcome is mutual
value co-creation.
– Mutual value co-creation results from a (successful) service process,
in which at least two service system entities (in the roles of consumer
and provider) participate.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 12

13. Results (4/4)
 Conceptual model
 Theoretical analysis/conceptual design identified
• Relationships between foundational concepts
– E.g., focal resource is a physical or non-physical resource with rights
(i.e., operant resource in SDL)
• Axioms/rules that apply to these relationships
– E.g., at least two service system entities participate in a service
(i.e., resources of both consumer and provider are involved).
 Graphical representation using UML (class diagram)
• Shows the structure of the service system domain
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 13

14. believe that the graphical model system conceptual model the service
Service already helps in better understanding
system worldview as it shows how different concepts (should) relate to each other.
Therefore, we will explain the service system conceptualization on which the
ontology is based via the graphical conceptual model that we developed.
Fig. 2. Service system conceptual model
The diagram is overlaid with four coloured areas that further categorize the service
system of Economics and mainly in function of their relationship with the service process, as
Faculty concepts, Business Administration
modelled inManagement Information and Operations Management model [reference hidden for reviewers
Department of
our ISPAR-based service process 14
- will be added in case of paper acceptance]. Core concepts are those that play a role

15. Discussion
 Contribution so far
 Graphical conceptual model of service system worldview
• Clarification of foundational concepts
• Identification of domain structure
 Implications
 Helps development of formal service system ontology and
service system modelling language
 Helps understanding service system worldview by adding
structure to the set of foundational concepts
 Limitation
 Remaining definitional issues need to be clarified
 Evaluation
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 15

16. FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Auxiliary slides
(from IESS 1.2 paper)
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 7 February, 2013

17. Service Design Theory
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 17

18. Results (6/6) Towards a Process Model for Service Systems 11
 Relationship ISPAR SHORT PAPER 7
and service system service
believe that the graphical model already helps in better understanding the service
process
worldview
system worldview as it shows how different concepts (should) relate to each other.
Therefore, we will explain the service system conceptualization on which the
ontology is based via the graphical conceptual model that we developed.
service
Fig. 2. Service system conceptual model
The diagram is overlaid with four coloured areas that further categorize the service
system concepts, mainly in function of their relationship with the service process, as
modelled in our ISPAR-based service process model [reference hidden for reviewers Fig. 5. EPC representation of service process model
- will be added in case of paper acceptance]. Core concepts are those that play a role case of dispute between two entities, the interaction will probably be regulated
In
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
throughout the entire service process. At least two service system entities participategoverning body like a mediation service or a court case. If the service system
by a
Department of Management Information and Operations is service, which we define do not succeed in resolvingdispute provides outcome is still ‘service not
in interactions that create outcomes. The desired outcome Management
entities
successfully ended’. Resolving the
the dispute, the
18
a return path to the ‘realize
as mutual value co-creation. Co-creation means that resources from all participating

19. Future research
 Compare with other process models, e.g., DEMO
basic transaction pattern, Open-edi Business
Transaction phase specification, ..
 Evaluate w.r.t. problems addressed by research
objectives 1 – 2
 Clarity, faithfulness, completeness, ..
 Research objectives 3 – 7
 Ontology
 Modeling framework
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 19

20. EPC representation of service process
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 20

21. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 21

22. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 22

23. Demonstration: business lunch
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 23

24. Demonstration: money investment
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 24

25. Demonstration: on-line newspaper
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Department of Management Information and Operations Management 25