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The current research advances understanding of how consumers respond to embarrassing service encounters. Across a combination of field and online studies, the authors provide evidence that (1) consumers prefer self-service to human services when purchasing embarrassing products or services; (2) when self-service is not available, consumers respond more positively to a mechanistic service provider than to a personable service provider; and (3) if consumers must engage in embarrassing social interactions, they dehumanize service providers, perceiving them as more mechanistic and less capable of emotional reactions than when engaging in nonembarrassing service interactions. The authors also examine consumers' familiarity with the service provider as a boundary condition for the effect. Collectively, the results provide converging evidence for the proposed framework and have substantive implications for service management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-service and offering services in public administration is a new concept that should be the basis of its service in the future. Here, we present a concept that should enable not only more efficient service but also the satisfaction of service users. Especially because it would provide them with the option to choose. To implement this concept effectively, it is necessary to implement intelligent public administration that can provide it. For this, we need knowledge bases and intelligent software agents. We will list some of the tools for implementing knowledge bases, and in one tool, we will create an appropriate database. We will use it to present the process of offering services. Here, we will mention the process of forwarding the "Birth Certificate" - a birth certificate that is part of self-service. We will mention offering a "Criminal Record Certificate" and "Title deed" as an example of offering services. These are a unique public administration data warehouse and a necessary means for user identification. There are also necessary legal prerequisites for implementing and using self-service and offering services in intelligent public administration.

Im November 2022 ist die Zentralbibliothek im KAP1 mit einer eigenen App an den Start gegangen. Die „Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf App" bietet den Besucher*innen der Zentralbibliothek ein besonderes Erlebnis, indem sie den realen Ort Bibliothek mit Augmented-Reality-Technologie um virtuelle Elemente erweitert. Gut ein Jahr nach der Eröffnung der neuen Räume erhielten diese mit der App nun eine neue, virtuelle Nutzungsebene. Aufgrund der großzügigen Öffnungszeiten der neuen Zentralbibliothek, auch ohne dass das Bibliotheksteam zur Unterstützung vor Ort ist, war es von Anfang an geplant, umfangreiche digitale Self-Services anzubieten, um die Zentralbibliothek jederzeit eigenständig entdecken und sich zurechtfinden zu können. Mit dem Düsseldorfer Unternehmen und AR-Experten Exponential Dimensions hat das Team nun eine alles andere als typische Bibliotheks-App entwickelt. Der Schwerpunkt liegt, übereinstimmend mit der Leitlinie „Menschen, Bücher, Räume", ganz auf Ort und Besuchenden. Im Juni 2023 erhielt die „Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf App" international Anerkennung. Sie erhielt den renommierten Auggie Award in der Kategorie „Best Consumer App". Die jährlichen Auggie Awards sind seit 2010 die weltweit anerkanntesten Auszeichnungen der AR- und VR-Branche. In November 2022, the central library in KAP1 launched its own app. The "Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf App" offers visitors a special experience by adding virtual elements to the real place of the library using augmented reality technology. A year after the opening of the library, the app adds a new, virtual level of use. Due to the generous opening hours of the new central library, even without the library team being on site for support, it is designed to offer extensive digital self-services for users to discover the library independently at any time and to find their way around. With Düsseldorf-based AR experts Exponential Dimensions, a "anything but typical" library app has been developed. In keeping with the principle of "People, Books, Spaces", its focus is entirely on location and visitors. In June 2023, the "Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf App" got international recognition. It received the prestigious Auggie Award in the category "Best Consumer App". The annual Auggie Awards have been the world's most recognized awards in the AR and VR industry since 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial recognition payment technology (FR) has the potential to disrupt the offline retailing industry by automating the payment process. However, some firms that adopted FR payment technology have experienced only moderate success, and many customers have expressed frustration using FR payment technology. By utilizing data sets from three retail chains, we find that customers are less likely to use FR payment technology during self-checkouts when more customers are in line behind them, waiting and watching (the social presence effect), and when more preceding customers use the other payment technology (the herding effect). These findings imply that (1) the design of FR technology can be improved to alleviate the social presence effect (such as adding a privacy screen filter or beautify the appearance of the consumer's image), and (2) monetary incentives may be used to attract more users by leveraging the herding effect. Although facial recognition (FR) payment technology can be more convenient for customers, it is still not consistently used by many customers in retail. Using transaction data from three retail chains, we develop econometric models and an estimation strategy for examining the social presence and herding effects that affect FR payment technology use. Our key findings are as follows: (1) Customers are less likely to use FR payment technology when more customers are in line behind them, waiting and potentially watching—the social presence effect. (2) Customers are more likely to use FR payment technology when more preceding customers use FR payment technology—the herding effect. (3) Customers with more experience using FR payment technology are subject to a weaker social presence effect. The marginal social presence effect can result in a 4.75% reduction in the probability of the focal customer using FR payment technology, and the potential social presence effect can be as high as 48.42%. When the focal customer has one additional experience in using FR payment technology, the social presence effect is reduced by 7.79%. The herding effect can result in a 20.90% increase in the probability of the focal customer using FR payment technology. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. History: Rajiv Kohli served as the senior editor for this article. Funding: Y. Rong's work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72025201 and 72221001]. X. Tian's work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72172145 and 71932002], the Beijing Natural Science Foundation [Grant 9212020], and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. J. Gao's work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72232001]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.1205. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Erickson applies an ethnographic technique she has developed to undertake two case studies of common devices that promise to replace some aspects of human interaction. Peering into self-checkout machines and Paro, a robot seal deployed in elder homes, Erickson raises questions about disenchantment and deskilling and demonstrates how human automation is achieved in drip-by-drip ways, with more human-machine interaction seeping into everyday life. Using the examples of self-service and unidirectional carebots, she examines what these increasingly automate interactions reflect about human generosity and frustration, anthropomorphism, and the underlying corporate drive to replace human interaction with machine mechanization. As the capacity of both robots and artificial intelligence improves and congeals in artificially intelligent retail venues and creatures, what does a close study of two already-here devices reveal about human desires, failures, and longings?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitization of public administration is a choice that has no alternative. The analysis of public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina was research through the trends of changes in public administration and refers to: working conditions, access to work execution, developments with IT personnel, business conditions, investments, needs for new technologies, equipment and security. The key factor in every public administration is personnel. In the paper, we have presented an analysis of the employment of IT personnel at the level of B&H and the facts that emerged from the conducted analyses. Management of IT personnel, their need, recruitment and stimulation in public administration is a big challenge. An analysis of the current situation, trends and solutions is given through the available data. In order to digitize public administration, investments are also needed, of course these investments should be well thought out and guided by examples of good practice. Based on available data, analyses of investments in ICT in public administration at the level of trict were carried out. An example of good practice was presented and solutions were given

Data catalogs represent a promising solution for semantically classifying and organizing data sources and enriching raw data with metadata. However, recent research has shown that data catalogs are difficult to implement due to the complexity of the data landscape or issues with data governance. Moreover, data catalogs struggle to enable business analysts to find the data they need for their use cases. Against this backdrop, we develop a self-service system that automatically extracts metadata from a data lake and enables business analysts to explore the metadata through an easy-to-use interface. Specifically, instead of implementing the data catalog top-down, our system derives metadata from user queries bottom-up. Hereby, we conduct 15 interviews with business analysts to derive the underlying requirements of the system and evaluate its features with a focus group. Our findings illustrate that participants especially value the possibility to reuse queries from other users and appreciated the support in query validation as data preparation is a complex and time-consuming endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban mobility has evolved rapidly in recent years with the diversification of mobility innovations. Our analysis focuses on the reception, expressed through early media coverage, of shared and self-service mobility services in Montreal. Using seven case studies (Communauto, Bixi, Auto-mobile, Car2Go, electric Bixi and bicycles ( Jump) and self-service scooters without anchoring (Lime and Bird)), we seek to understand how the press depicts these innovations. For each case, a three-year time window starting one year before its introduction is identified. Three major daily newspapers in Montreal are used to form our corpus of articles (n=179), published between 1997 and 2021. This analysis also informs the dynamics of integration of an innovation in the sociotechnical sector of daily mobility. Three periods emerge from the coverage. 1) An initial and largely descriptive treatment of innovations on a case-bycase basis, precedes 2) a comparative treatment of cases, which echoes a political vision in favor of the complementarity of transport modes, despite integration complexities. The positive perceptions of the new modes give way to 3) a more critical approach to emerging dockless systems that, while being part of the same movement, produce a variety of distinct issues. The local origin of an innovation and the motorized nature of the innovation seem to positively influence its reception and its integration into the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the research is the analysis of services that should be offered by public administration toward legal entities and natural persons. We will suggest that it uses real-time intelligent IT systems based on data storage based on the data warehouse. Our opinion is that such systems implemented in the public administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina could offer an appropriate service to each user at a time when they need the service in a form that suits them, on the spot where he is in the moment of delivery and in the quantity that he needs. In order for a public administration to be able to offer an appropriate service, it must know its users much better and know which service they need at what time. In this paper, we analyze self-service as well as the necessary activities for all that. These are all activities that should be carried out in the future, and this work could contribute to the implementation of these processes

Self-service business intelligence and analytics (SSBIA) empowers non-IT users to create reports and analyses independently. SSBIA methods and processes are discussed in the context of an increasing number of application scenarios. However, previous research on SSBIA has made distinctions among these scenarios only to a limited extent. These scenarios include a wide variety of activities ranging from simple data retrieval to the application of complex algorithms and methods of analysis. The question of which dimensions are suitable for differentiating SSBIA application scenarios remains unanswered. In this article, we develop a taxonomy to distinguish among SSBIA applications more effectively by analyzing the relevant scientific literature and current SSBIA tools as well as by conducting a case study in a company. Both researchers and practitioners can use this taxonomy to describe and analyze SSBIA scenarios in further detail. In this way, the opportunities and challenges associated with SSBIA application can be identified more clearly. In addition, we conduct a cluster analysis based on the SSBIA tools thus analyzed. We identify three archetypes that describe typical SSBIA tools. These archetypes identify the application scenarios that are addressed most frequently by SSBIA tool providers. We conclude by highlighting the limitations of this research and suggesting an agenda for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Technological advances have prompted many businesses to introduce self-service technology (SST) to improve customer waiting times and reduce operational costs. This study aims to determine the factors linked to the acceptance of self-service technology by customers at fast-service restaurants. Research Design & Methods: This research uses a quantitative method by surveying 172 customers who had visited self-service restaurants within the preceding six months. The Unified Theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was used to determine the factors linked to the acceptance of self-service technology at quick-service restaurants. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for analysis. Findings: It was found that age and gender moderate the relationship between the construct: performance expectancy ratio and SST usage intention, effort expectancy and SST usage intention, social influence and usage intention and lastly, age moderates the relationship between facilitating conditions and SST usage behaviour. Contribution & Value Added: The design of future self-service technology at restaurants should be constructed in a manner that would appeal to customers of all ages and gender. An education drive should be prioritised to educate customers about the benefits of self-service while ensuring that they also understand that technology does not reduce employment but may be used to create employment in other forms. Future studies should also investigate whether technology education might have a moderating effect on technology.

Background: Mental health is a global issue requiring global attention. Depression and anxiety are two of the most common mental disorders (CMDs) and are characterized by high incidence and high comorbidity. In recent years, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated social instability have posed significant challenges to the mental resilience and mental health outcomes of the global population. Now more than ever, with an increase in mental health needs, it has become even more crucial to find an effective solution to provide universal mental healthcare. Psychotherapy is of vital importance for those coping with symptoms of depression and anxiety and is used to enhance mental resilience. However, such therapy can be difficult to access in reality. In this context, the Micro-Video Psychological Training Camp (MVPTC) platform will be developed. Objectives: As an online self-help platform for psychological intervention, the MVPTC platform was developed for those who suffer from mild to moderate symptoms of depression and/or anxiety and is tasked with the goal of reducing depressive and anxious symptoms while improving mental resilience. Thus, this study will be carried out to verify its efficacy and applicability. Methods: In this parallel-group, randomized controlled trial, a total of 200 mild to moderately depressed and/or anxious adults seeking self-help will be randomly recruited and assigned to either the micro-video psychological intervention group or the wait list control group. Online measurements by self-assessment will be taken at baseline, post-intervention, 1-month, and 3-month follow-up. Results: The primary results will involve symptoms of depression and anxiety. The secondary results will involve mental resilience. An analysis will be conducted based on the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: This trial will examine whether the MVPTC platform for the relief of symptoms and the enhancement of resilience in a population screened for depression and anxiety symptoms proves effective and applicable. Largescale resilience enhancement may benefit public mental health in terms of preventive interventions, managing depressive and anxiety symptoms, and promoting mental health. With the MVPTC-based method being applied, a brief, efficient, and structured intervention model can potentially be established, having the potential to provide necessary and accessible mental support for an extensive target group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we deal with new technological solutions that can provide public administration to offer self-service or offer certain services to service users. Here we will also provide basic information about software agents that can offer a specific service to a specific user from a unique public administration data warehouse when he needs it. In order to provide self-service and offer services, the public administration must implement a single data warehouse of governments, administrations, administrative organizations, and local self-government units (municipalities and cities) in one place. Part of what is still necessary for the public administration to provide self-service or offer services, and what the service user will be given in this work. The paper will also present part of the results of research carried out in some countries on the readiness of service users for the selfservice process and on the acceptance of the offered services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the pricing behavior of sellers in a market undergoing a significant restructuring, using data from the ongoing introduction of self-service technology in the Korean gasoline market in the 2000s. I provide evidence that full-service premium increased during the market transition. I further show that a monopolistic competition model is not enough to explain the increasing premium. The pricing behavior of sellers differs by product position: self-service sellers compete for price-sensitive consumers, whereas full-service sellers differentiate their product by offering a variety of bundled products and services, such as coffee, carwash or even nail salons, to compete for less-price-sensitive consumers. Taken together, the strategic choices of sellers evolve in different ways when the market structure changes, with each type of seller using its unique position, resulting in an increase in full-service premium during the market transition from full-service to self-service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Non-prescription vending machines are automated self-service systems that are increasingly used to dispense these medicines. Whilst regulatory health academics have devoted considerable attention to non-pharmacy medication outlets in Gulf Cooperation Council countries and others, the public health literature on these vending machines remains lacking. Whilst non-prescription vending machines undoubtedly provide a number of benefits, they are not without their risks, which include polypharmacy and medication interactions. Methods The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for further investigation of the function, advantages, and practical constraints of non-prescription vending machines. Key findings Overall, more research is required to determine the optimal balance between achieving the benefits of non-prescription vending machines whilst avoiding unnecessary constraints on regulatory bodies and vending machine providers but minimizing patient harm. Conclusions Further studies are also required to assess the consequences of these policy experiments. Specifically, there is a need to better understand the extent to which vending machines can provide beneficial and reasonable access to non-prescription medicines to enhance the quality of life of the population especially during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the main ways of developing self-service skills of older preschool children through play activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of studies on internal brand equity examine its various dimensions and relationships between them. While prior research specifies organizational practices relevant for successful internal branding, the insights about the impact of essential organizational factors on internal brand equity are still limited. This study focuses on organizational resilience that is vital for the existence of organizations not only during a crisis, but also during everyday operations. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of organizational resilience on internal brand equity considering the effects triggered by self-service technology (SST) in retailing. Since retailing had been significantly transformed by technological innovations over the past decade, we explore the effects of employees' perceptions about performance of SST. The results of a survey conducted among retail employees in Sweden demonstrate that organizational resilience and employees' perceptions about technological innovations are critical for enhancing internal brand equity, which includes brand orientation, internal brand knowledge, internal brand involvement, and internal brand commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With self-driving cars, virtual assistants and smart carts helping consumers buy products, to fully automated hotels having few or no staff present in them, the world is spurting up with the Internet of things (IOT) technology in full swing. This paper attempted to detect the factors influencing the use of IOT in consumers buying grocery in Pune. The study was conducted as compared to five factors influencing the usage of IOT while shopping that is engagement, availability of variety, self-service, real time data availability and product quality information. Data was collected from 260 respondents residing in Pune by means of an online survey. The research shows that amongst the five factors “engagement” was the highest valued factor with a variance of 19.176%, followed by product quality information, self-service, real time data availability and availability of variety all in decreasing order of variance. The findings of this study aim to contribute the vital stats to the companies who are working on researching, designing and preparing product which are a constituent of IOT and retailers who are planning to enhance their customer and market reach strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pedigree data (family history) are indispensable for genetics studies and the assessment of individuals' disease susceptibility. With the popularity of genetics testing, the collection of pedigree data is becoming more common. However, it can be time-consuming, laborious, and tedious for clinicians to investigate all pedigree data for each patient. A self-service robot could inquire about patients' family history in place of professional clinicians or genetic counselors. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a mobile-based and self-service tool to collect and visualize pedigree data, not only for professionals but also for those who know little about genetics. Methods: There are 4 main aspects in the iPed construction, including interface building, data processing, data storage, and data visualization. The user interface was built using HTML, JavaScript libraries, and Cascading Style Sheets (version 3; Daniel Eden). Processing of the submitted data is carried out by PHP programming language. MySQL is used to document and manage the pedigree data. PHP calls the R script to accomplish the visualization. Results: iPed is freely available to all users through the iPed website. No software is required to be installed, no pedigree files need to be prepared, and no knowledge of genetics or programs is required. The users can easily complete their pedigree data collection and visualization on their own and through a dialogue with iPed. Meanwhile, iPed provides a database that stores all users' information. Therefore, when the users need to construct new pedigree trees for other genetic traits or modify the pedigree trees that have already been created, unnecessary duplication of operations can be avoided. Conclusions: iPed is a mobile-based and self-service tool that could be used by both professionals and nonprofessionals at any time and from any place. It reduces the amount of time required to collect, manage, and visualize pedigree data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some customers, the corona pandemic has turned e-shopping into a fine alternative to shopping in brick-and-mortar shops. For other customers in quarantine e-shopping is the only alternative. The long-lasting pandemic, however, has reminded us of the importance of social contacts and interactions – even if it's just to go the supermarket to 'mingle'. This paper investigates what 'mingle' means when shopping in physical self-service shops amongst unacquainted others in Denmark. It describes customers' practice of doing self-service by organizing interaction to minimize social involvement. It shows how they, as a matter of fact, co-ordinate their conduct in ways that hampers possibilities for engaging in even small 'ritual' exchanges of talk. The paper draws upon a corpus of video recordings of customers' self-service practices in shops in Denmark. In addition, the customers' gaze was recorded with the mobile Tobii Pro X3 eye tracker. The study falls within the realm of ethnomethodological and conversation analytic studies of multimodal interaction. It concludes that self-service is achieved through co-present customers' tacit coordination of multimodal actions in social interaction and that their practices work to achieve 'effortlessly' and 'spontaneously' being, getting, and staying out of the way, which seems to be an ideal for self-service shopping. Talk and moreover having a conversation seems to be an impediment to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews developments in digital self‐servicing in Australian employment services. The article draws on program implementation documentation to describe recent digital self‐service initiatives known as the Targeted Compliance Framework and the Online/New Employment Services Trials. The term "digital dole parole" is used to signify the transfer of employment services supervision onto the new digital dashboard through which job seekers have become responsible for reporting attendances at activities and job search and to monitor their own "compliance". These initiatives are the technologies that will underpin the shift to digital employment services in the New Employment Service model. This shift will radically change the employment services quasi‐market, and the street‐level delivery of labour market programmes. As these are significant shifts in the location of administrative power and street‐level discretion, the article identifies opportunities for future scholarship in this new age of "digital dole parole". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars at the ten campuses of the University of California system, like their academic peers elsewhere, increasingly are being asked to ensure that data resulting from their research and teaching activities are subject to effective long-term management, public discovery, and retrieval. The new academic imperative for research data management (RDM) stems from mandates from public and private funding agencies, pre-publication requirements, institutional policies, and evolving norms of scholarly discourse. In order to meet these new obligations, scholars need access to appropriate disciplinary and institutional tools, services, and guidance. When providing help in these areas, it is important that service providers recognize the disparity in scholarly familiarity with data curation concepts and practices. While the UC Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library supports a growing roster of innovative curation services for University use, most were intended originally to meet the needs of institutional information professionals, such as librarians, archivists, and curators. In order to address the new curation concerns of individual scholars, UC3 realized that it needed to deploy new systems and services optimized for stakeholders with widely divergent experiences, expertise, and expectations. This led to the development of Dash, an online data publication service making campus data sharing easy. While Dash gives the appearance of being a full-fledged repository, in actuality it is only a lightweight overlay layer that sits on top of standards-compliant repositories, such as UC3’s existing Merritt curation repository. The Dash service offers intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces for dataset submission, description, publication, and discovery. By imposing minimal prescriptive eligibility and submission requirements; automating and hiding the mechanical details of DOI assignment, data packaging, and repository deposit; and featuring a streamlined, self-service user experience that can be integrated easily into scholarly workflows, Dash is an important new service offering with which UC scholars can meet their RDM obligations.

The upsurge of manpower crunch issues has tightened up the service capacity of many full-service restaurants. The introduction of manual self-ordering system (as opposed to electronic menu and computerized ordering system) was the outcome of the manpower shortage among many financially restricted small- to mid-scale restaurant operators in Malaysia. Past studies pertaining to self-service restaurants mainly focused on multinational fast-food chain's counter service, e-menu, electronic ordering system, and online food ordering system. The purpose of this research is to identify factors affecting Malaysian consumers' acceptance toward the use of order chit as a form of self-ordering system within the casual dining establishments. Specifically, the study focused on the context of mid-scale casual dining restaurants. Based on the literature review, a hypothetical construct of factors determining the adoption of order chit system was proposed. The model was then tested using data collected from a sample of casual dining restaurant patrons residing in the Klang Valley of Malaysia. Results of a structural equation analysis suggest that ease of use, information clarity, perceived service, and ordering technique fit, and freedom of choice are found to be significant in increasing the acceptance of order chit system. However, peer pressure was found to not significantly affect the acceptance of such practices. The academic and managerial implications of these findings are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the service field, there is an increasing trend for service firms to replace service activities previously performed by humans with technologies. Balancing human flexibility with the reliability of technology is an important issue in service design. We conducted three empirical studies on how human touch and technology-based service experiences affect customer evaluation of service quality. Results revealed that availability of human touch moderates the effect of customer expectations on the evaluation of service quality, whereas availability of technology-based service moderates the effect of customer service on the evaluation of service quality. We also found that the effects vary depending on the degree of customer experience. These findings obtained from our studies have some practical implications for business. Finally, some issues for future research of service customization are presented.

The current generation of connected devices and the Internet of Things augment people’s capabilities through ambient intelligence. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) support systems contain applications consuming available services in the environment to serve users. A well-known design of these applications follows a service architecture style and implement artificial intelligence mechanisms to maintain an awareness of the context: The service architecture style enables the distribution of capabilities and facilitates interoperability. Intelligence and context-awareness provide an adaptation of the environment to improve the interaction. Smart objects in distributed deployments and the increasing machine awareness of devices and people context also lead us to architectures, including self-governed policies providing self-service. We have systematically reviewed and analyzed ambient system governance considering service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a reference model. We applied a systematic mapping process obtaining 198 papers for screening (out of 712 obtained after conducting searches in research databases). We then reviewed and categorized 68 papers related to 48 research projects selected by fulfilling ambient intelligence and SOA principles and concepts. This paper presents the result of our analysis, including the existing governance designs, the distribution of adopted characteristics, and the trend to incorporate service in the context-aware process. We also discuss the identified challenges and analyze research directions.

Background: In emergency departments (EDs), triage nurses are under tremendous daily pressure to rapidly assess the acuity level of patients and log the collected information into computers. With self-service technologies, patients could complete data entry on their own, allowing nurses to focus on higher-order tasks. Kiosks are a popular working example of such self-service technologies; however, placing a sufficient number of unwieldy and fixed machines demands a spatial change in the greeting area and affects pretriage flow. Mobile technologies could offer a solution to these issues., Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the use of mobile technologies to improve pretriage flow in EDs., Methods: The proposed stack of mobile technologies includes patient-carried smartphones and QR technology. The web address of the self-registration app is encoded into a QR code, which was posted directly outside the walk-in entrance to be seen by every ambulatory arrival. Registration is initiated immediately after patients or their proxies scan the code using their smartphones. Patients could complete data entry at any site on the way to the triage area. Upon completion, the result is saved locally on smartphones. At the triage area, the result is automatically decoded by a portable code reader and then loaded into the triage computer. This system was implemented in three busy metropolitan EDs in Shanghai, China. Both kiosks and smartphones were evaluated randomly while being used to direct pretriage patient flow. Data were collected during a 20-day period in each center. Timeliness and usability of medical students simulating ED arrivals were assessed with the After-Scenario Questionnaire. Usability was assessed by triage nurses with the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Observations made during system implementation were subject to qualitative thematic analysis., Results: Overall, 5928 of 8575 patients performed self-registration on kiosks, and 7330 of 8532 patients checked in on their smartphones. Referring effort was significantly reduced (43.7% vs 8.8%; P<.001) and mean pretriage waiting times were significantly reduced (4.4, SD 1.7 vs 2.9, SD 1.0 minutes; P<.001) with the use of smartphones compared to kiosks. There was a significant difference in mean usability scores for "ease of task completion" (4.4, SD 1.5 vs 6.7, SD 0.7; P<.001), "satisfaction with completion time" (4.5, SD 1.4 vs 6.8, SD 0.6; P<.001), and "satisfaction with support" (4.9, SD 1.9 vs 6.6, SD 1.2; P<.001). Triage nurses provided a higher NPS after implementation of mobile self-registration compared to the use of kiosks (13.3% vs 93.3%; P<.001). A modified queueing model was identified and qualitative findings were grouped by sequential steps., Conclusions: This study suggests patient-carried smartphones as a useful tool for ED self-registration. With increased usability and a tailored queueing model, the proposed system is expected to minimize pretriage waiting for patients in the ED., (©Panzhang Wang, Lei Yu, Tao Li, Liang Zhou, Xin Ma. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (https://mhealth.jmir.org), 07.06.2024.)

The intent of this research study is to analyze and evaluate the transition to a self-service customer service model with the Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL). The study uses customer satisfaction surveys with questions specifically aimed at the various self-service service points BCPL offers to its customers. The methodology also includes several interviews with managers and directors to gain more in-depth information about how the transition affected the whole library system, its policies and procedures, and staffing. The results of this study are intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of using a self-service model in a public library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning style affects the performance of the ‘working’ customer in one self-service context – retail Self Check-Out Tills (SCOT). For the purposes of this paper, we have adopted the UK term Self Check-Out Tills (SCOT), also known as ‘self-service registers’ in other countries, to describe this form of self-service in retail stores). The study uses qualitative and quantitative data collected from users of retail SCOT. Initial exploratory factor analysis of 232 SCOT users revealed significant differences in learning styles. Three categories emerged: ‘regular reassurance’, ‘motivated practice’ and ‘cautious discovery’. Customers adopting different learning styles varied in their perceptions of ability and enjoyment with SCOT, and in their capability of helping other customers with SCOT. The demographic make-up of customers adopting the different learning styles was also shown to vary. Previously, little has been done to identify the specific training needs of working customers. This research begins to address this knowledge gap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nowadays, IT operations devolve many tasks in IT services to internal customers (i.e., IT self-service). The rationale for this service task devolvement is often to reduce the IT personnel's workload. However, prior research has shown that IT operations often fail to achieve this goal. Existing methods for modeling and analyzing services fall short of supporting service providers in identifying and specifying service tasks suitable to be devolved to (internal) customers. This paper presents, therefore, the first method for devolving service tasks in IT services (DESERV IT). DESERV IT is a compound of four method components encompassing a joint meta-model, a visual notation for modeling IT services, and procedural recommendations. The DESERV IT meta-model extends the meta-model of service blueprinting by means of concepts required to analyze service task devolvement. DESERV IT is evaluated in four evaluation episodes. The results of the evaluation episodes show that DESERV IT is perceived as effective, useful, complete, and generalizable by experts in the IT service management and enterprise architecture discipline. This paper contributes to enterprise modeling by demonstrating the feasibility of DESERV IT in an example case and describing DESERV IT's evolution during the evaluation episodes. DESERV IT supports practitioners (e.g., request fulfillment managers) in modeling and analyzing IT services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]