Exploring the implications of IT-enabled relational structures on service performance.

Overview: The design, management and delivery of complex service systems suggest that we must develop a scientific understanding regarding the configuration of resources to deliver service excellence. In order to ground an understanding on service delivery, there is a need to establish a theory on service formation within complex service systems to examine the value propositions which connects them. Within the service-dominant environment, organisations are faced with increasing challenges to develop their capabilities in complex service models. This is not just a phenomenon experienced within the private sector alone since the public sector continues to come under scrutiny with its level of expenditure (‘the public purse’) on implementing innovative applications of technology to improve service delivery. However, although the emerging paradigm of ‘service science’ calls for more theoretical focus on understanding complex service systems, few efforts have surfaced which apply a new theoretical lens on understanding the underlying trajectories of socio-technical dynamics within a service system. In addition, there is a lack of research on service science within the public sector, especially within an Irish context.