ABSTRACT
Advances in ICT transformed interactions between service providers and their customers. In fact, ICT-enabled, customer-firm interfaces are increasingly the norm in service contexts like health care or consulting. Academic research, however, has not fully caught up with this new reality. Early studies predominantly focused on face-to-face service settings, but omitted ICT-enablement altogether. Other studies did expand into technology-enabled contexts, but focus on technology alone, thus omitting the human element that is known to be a key determinant of service experiences. Consequently, ICT-enabled service remains misunderstood. Here, I argue that this gap in knowledge is driven by a lack of suitable analytical lenses and constructs that provide a much-needed socio-technical perspective. Therefore, this chapter introduces and explores the “connectivity” construct as a socio-technical lens to advance our understanding of ICT-enabled service.
