My presentation at the Naples Forum on Service, Ischia island, June 20, 2013, in the 'service system and systems thinking' session.

1. Value model ontology
for service systems
Geert Poels
Ghent University, Belgium
pag. 1NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels

2. Summary: definition/origin of concepts
• value model (Enterprise/IS Engineering)
• value model ontology (Applied Ontology)
• value model ontology for service systems
(Service Science / S-D Logic)
.. for modelling enterprises as service system
entities that purposefully interact in mutually
beneficial service exchanges
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 2

3. NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 3
Value models help in conceiving, designing, engineering and
managing business entities
Examples of potential applications of service system value models
and information systems based on these models:
1. Value/cost management (costing, pricing, valuing)
2. Resource/inventory management (inventory levels, sourcing)
3. Capacity management (usage/occupancy rates)
4. Performance management (service times, monitoring & control)
5. Quality management (service/waiting times, tracking & tracing,
accountability)
6. Strategy & business model / service innovation (designing service
offerings & value propositions, profitability analysis)

4. 1. Purpose
• Service Science: few research on service system
modelling
• Enterprise/IS Engineering: much research on
value modelling, but current approaches assume
a ‘goods-dominant’ worldview
• Purpose = design new value model ontology that
ontologically commits to S-D Logic
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 4

5. 2. Design/Methodology/Approach
• Design Science Research Methodology
(Design Science)
1. Problem identification and motivation
2. Define solution objectives
3. Design and development
4. Demonstration
5. Evaluation
6. Communication
• Theoretical basis: Resource-Event-Agent
ontology (Accounting)
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 5

6. 3. Findings
Design artefact: Resource-Service-System ontology
• S-D Logic interpretation of the REA ontology
• From
conceptual model of economic exchange
to
conceptual model of service exchange
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 6

7. UML class diagram of core REA elements
• Service as endurant (object) instead of perdurant (process)
• Value (embedded in economic resources) is produced/provided
(economic event) and consumed/received (economic event)
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 7

8. UML class diagram of core RSS elements
• REA economic event = RSS service
• REA economic agent = RSS service system entity
• REA economic resource = RSS / SDL resource
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 8

9. NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 9
Service process view based on ISPAR model

10. 4. Research limitations/implications
• Explicit specification of shared conceptualization
• Difficult to prove, although..
• ..concepts and relations were defined in accordance with
service system worldview and ISPAR model
(Spohrer, Maglio, Kwan, ..)
• Future research:
• From conceptual model to computational ontology
• Design modelling notation and method, and develop tool
support
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 10

11. 5. Practical implications
• Explore applications of service system value
models for SSMED
• Revealing, analysing, reasoning about
• Teleological/ontological nature of enterprise service
system entities (i.e., function and composition)
• Internal operations (i.e., resource allocation and
orchestration of service processes)
• Externalized behaviour (i.e., choreography of service
interactions)
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 11

12. 6. Originality/Value
• Contribution: ontology for the value modelling of
enterprises as service system entities
• Novelty: value model ontology that ontologically
commits to S-D Logic
NFoS 2013 Lacco Ameno, Ischia - Napoli, Italy -- 20/06/2013
Geert Poels
pag. 12