TECHNOLOGICAL ENABLERS FOR PREVENTING SERVICE FAILURE WITH E-COMMERCE WEBSITES

Problems with digital services still occur at times, even for the most reliable services. Considering the consequences of these failures and their effects on the customer’s overall service quality perception and satisfaction, preventing these failures, and delivering reliable digital services, is a critical business competency. In addition, the fact that digital services are often co-produced by both service providers and their customers, shows the increasing role of both service providers and customers in preventing digital service failures (or service problems). In this study, we view the concept of digital service failure from the perspective of expectation-conformation theory, develop an Archimate architecture model and use it to design a typology of technological enablers (technologies and technological approaches) that can be used by businesses and their customers to prevent service failures at different stages of online purchase via e-commerce websites. The typology is relevant and useful for management information systems (MIS) academics and practitioners, particularly for information technology and digital service management researchers and the practitioner community

Developing a Methodology for Online Service Failure Prevention: Reporting on an Action Design Research Project-in-Progress

The increasing use of online channels for service delivery raises new challenges in service failure prevention. This work-in-progress paper reports on the first phase of an action-design research project to develop a service failure prevention methodology. In this paper we review the literature on online services, failure prevention and failure recovery and develop a theoretical framework for online service failure prevention. This provides the theoretical grounding for the artefact (the methodology) to be developed. We use this framework to develop an initial draft of our methodology. We then outline the remaining phases of the research, and offer some initial conclusions gained from the project to date

Service Failure Recovery in the Sharing Economy: A Case Study of Airbnb

Sharing platforms are becoming increasingly common, revolutionizing how peers interact and share resources across an array of online applications. While the sharing economy itself is established, less is known about service failures and corresponding recovery strategies that are relevant to it. This research investigates the myriad effects of service failures (and their associated recovery strategies) on customer experience in the digital sharing economy. Findings suggest that different service failure strategies exert differing effects on customer experience, which subsequently affects the behavior towards the service being provided and the service provider. The suggestions given here respond to important implications for research and practitioners by offering new ways to explore and detect service failures and possible recovery strategies

An Assessment of DevOps Maturity in a Software Project

DevOps is a software development method, which aims at decreasing conflict between software developers and system operators. Conflicts can occur because the developers’ goal is to release the new features of the software to production, whereas the operators’ goal is to keep the software as stable and available as possible. In traditional software development models, the typical amount of time between deployments can be long and the changes in software can become rather complex and big in size. The DevOps approach seeks to solve this contradiction by bringing software developers and system operators together from the very beginning of a development project. In the DevOps model, changes deployed to production are small and frequent. Automated deployments decrease human errors that sometimes occur in manual deployments. Testing is at least partly automated and tests are run after each individual software change. However, technical means are only one part of the DevOps approach. The model also emphasizes changes in organizational culture, which are ideally based on openness, continuous learning, and experimentation. Employees possess the freedom of decision-making while carrying the responsibility that follows. In addition to individual or team-based goals, each employee is encouraged to pursue the common goals. The aim of this thesis is two-fold. Firstly, the goal is to understand and define the DevOps model through a literature review. Secondly, the thesis analyzes the factors that contribute to the successful adoption of DevOps in an organization, including those with the possibility of slowing down or hindering the process. A qualitative case study was carried out on a system development project in a large Finnish technology company. The data consists of semi-structured open-ended interviews with key personnel, and the findings are analyzed and compared to factors introduced in previous DevOps literature, including the DevOps maturity model. The case project is also assessed in terms of its DevOps maturity. Finally, impediments and problems regarding DevOps adoption are discussed. Based on the case study, major challenges in the project include the large size and complexity of the project, problems in project management, occasional communication problems between the vendor and the client, poor overall quality of the software, and defects in the software development process of the vendor. Despite the challenges, the company demonstrated progress in some aspects, such as partly automating the deployment process, creating basic monitoring for the software, and negotiating development and testing guidelines with the vendor

Lessons Learned on Resilience

This paper sets out a number of lessons to be learned about the policy challenges associated with the resilience concept. In fact, these are more accurately described as lessons observed because they are not lessons learned until they are implemented. Consequently, this paper identifies a number of challenges for policy makers and it does so by setting those issues within the conceptual framework of a resilience continuum whereby individual nation states and civil-societies can be at different stages of resilience at any given time. Resilience is part of a complex integrated dynamic system influenced by a range of different actors and variables at any given time. The first challenge for policy makers is to understand the way policy issues are framed and, correspondingly, the way resilience is framed as part of any response mechanism to address a given policy problem. A critical lesson is the importance of determining whom or what needs to be made resilient against what threat or risk as part of a resilience continuum. This presents a number of significant and complex decisions regarding the allocation of finite resources. Associated with this issue is the recognition that some parts of the system of a nation state or its civil society may fail or, indeed, be allowed to fail. This holds a number of ethical challenges for policy-makers. A key lesson to be learned is that by ascribing resilience as a desirable goal, there need to be clear milestones to indicate stages of achievement. Currently this is a significant omission in policy papers and implementation strategies. This paper also highlights that by adopting the resilience concept, a greater number of actors will be involved and co-opted as part of a wider shared responsibility for its implementation. Particular attention is given to the roles of organisations, as part of the critical infrastructure sector, as potential enablers or inhibitors of resilience. This is an area that requires further research

Nature-Based Solutions as Building Blocks for the Transition towards Sustainable Climate-Resilient Food Systems

This paper is the output of a project of the Knowledge-based Programme of the Wageningen University called ‘Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilient and Circular Food Systems’. The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the Wageningen University & Research ‘Food Secu- rity and Valuing Water programme’ (KB-35-007-002) and Circular and Climate Neutral’ programme’ (KB-34-007-010), which is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Security.Food systems—encompassing food production, transportation, processing and consump- tion, including food losses and waste—are currently not delivering what is expected or needed to ensure their full contribution to societal well-being and ecological sustainability. In this paper, we hypothesize that nature-based solutions (NBS; solutions that are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature) can overcome system challenges related to the functioning of the biosphere, society, or economy (including governance arrangements), and support a transition to sustainable climate-resilient food systems. We develop a conceptual framework to assess NBS contributions to such transitions. Three types of NBS are evaluated: intrinsic NBS which make use of existing ecosystems; hybrid NBS which manage and adapt ecosystems; and inspired NBS which consist of newly constructed ecosystems. We show that inspired NBS in particular will increase opportunities to achieve sustainable development in food systems. NBS can facilitate the much-needed transi- tion to a different way of using our natural resources to reach the SDGs by 2030. We identify the knowledge gaps that impede the development of NBS to support a transition towards sustainable, climate-resilient food systems.Wageningen University & Research 'Food Security and Valuing Water programme' KB-35-007-002Wageningen University & Research Circular and Climate Neutral' programme' - Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Security KB-34-007-01