For new services to be successful, users (customers, patients, citizens, etc.) must embrace and sometimes engage in behaviors that are both new and difficult for them. As research has put more and more emphasis on the importance of being user-centric, it is hard to understand why the behavior change that many times are required for the user has not been problematized more. In this chapter we present five evidence-based ways that describe and explain how behavior change can enable important services such as sustainability, education, and health—services make the world a better place. 

This study focuses on how fitness technology services can be designed in order to support the co-creation of motivation to sustain a healthy behavior. The study used an exploratory qualitative design in which we interviewed eight seasoned runners about their running routines and their use of fitness trackers. The result shows that the fitness routines require careful planning and deliberation, and that the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle relies more on what happens between the activities than during said activity. Thus, fitness trackers should focus on feedback that allows users to co-create motivation during intermissions between health promoting behaviors. 

Purpose and motivation: Research has repeatedly shown that physical activity contributes to physical and mental wellbeing. Nevertheless, the gap between intentions and behavior results in sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy habits, and lower wellbeing persists. This Transformative Service Research (TSR) project focuses on creating novel services that enhance the wellbeing of individuals, regardless of resources.

Myriad digital services have been designed to support behavioral changes with the goal of stimulating health, such as starting to exercise, losing weight, or sleeping better. These technological innovations help users integrate resources and manage their value-creation process toward health.

One important strategy for supporting behavior change is to provide feedback that helps users regulate their own behavior. Behavior change requires that digital solutions be designed for motivation and not just loaded with technical features. However, few digital solutions are equipped with functions, such as coaching, that can be adapted to fit the individuals’ value-creation process towards a better health and wellbeing. Therefore, the aims of this study were to explore whether an individually tailored digital service solution could support individual behavior changes, and to examine how the coaches experienced their situation. 

Methodology: We tested how people in need of behavior changes experienced individually tailored digital support. This was done by implementing a protocol for motivational communication via short text messaging (SMS). The participants in this study were clients and wellness consultants at a non-profit organization that helps individuals who need lifestyle changes regarding, for example, unhealthy dietary habits or sedentary lifestyles. The majority of the clients have been prescribed physical activity by a physician. Data consisted of both interviews with the wellness consultants and the clients, and their SMS conversations. The interviews and SMS conversations were analyzed with the aim of identifying themes in the data. The study was approved by an ethical advisor at Karlstad University.

Findings: The preliminary results show that both the wellness consultants and the clients found that the digital solution supported the clients’ motivation for behavior change, and hence goal achievements. The results further indicate that the SMS coaching enhanced the clients’ motivation and maintained an easy rapport between the face-to-face meetings. The added value provided by the SMS coaching to the existing service provision for both wellness consultant and client has led the non-profit organization to permanently offer this service to its clients.  

Originality/value: This study contributes to the growing body of TSR by showing how the application of digital solutions and service research perspectives can support individuals’ behavior change processes and wellness promotion.

COVID-19 primarily spreads through close contact between humans and has affected retailing industries extremely hard. To manage the situation retailers have turned to service innovation to change their operations to make consumers feel safe while shopping. This research focuses on the role of service innovativeness in retailing firms during the COVID-19 pandemic through an empirical study of almost 6000 consumers of 28 retailing firms. The results suggested that retailers with high service innovativeness performed COVID-19 imposed innovations better to improve their relative attractiveness. For retailers with physical stores, changes to the servicescape and the offering were found to be the key antecedents of service innovativeness. The findings on COVID-19 imposed service innovations demonstrate the importance of service innovativeness in successfully changing retailing services to adjust to the restrictions from governments and safety needs of customers.

Across a series of lab and field studies, with a total sample of over 1200 participants, we investigate how the physical proximity between salespeople and customers can impact store loyalty, purchase intentions, and actual spending. An initial survey among a representative sample of retail salespeople reveals that they associate close physical proximity between employees and customers with positive consumer outcomes, an intuition that dovetails with prior research documenting the positive influence of such proximity on purchase intentions, particularly in nonexpressive consumption contexts. Contrary to this work, we demonstrate, across four studies in which proximity was both measured and manipulated, that store loyalty, purchase intentions, and actual spending behavior are negatively impacted when consumers encounter a salesperson who is standing close by (vs. farther away), particularly in expressive consumption contexts. Psychological discomfort mediates this effect, such that consumers experience greater discomfort when a salesperson is standing close by, which in turn decreases spending. Importantly, this phenomenon is moderated by identity relevance, such that the negative influence of salesperson-customer proximity specifically emerges when consumers think about products in terms of their ability to express their identities. These findings carry important implications for retailers operating in expressive consumption contexts.

This article conceptualizes the diffusion of user innovations from a service ecosystem perspective. With the focus on sustainable innovations, the service ecosystem is evaluated, along with other systemic innovation concepts, as a possible theoretical basis for explaining the first adoption and diffusion of user innovations. It is proposed that an ecosystem perspective contributes three assumptions that help to better understand the (non)diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations: (1) innovation diffusion is a multi-level and -actor phenomenon; (2) an actor-to-actor orientation integrates user innovators into the ecosystem; (3) the service perspective defines innovation diffusion as an evolving co-created process. The assumptions are translated into policy implications and future research requirements for moving towards an innovation infrastructure that considers the role and contribution of users in sustainable innovation.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the expectations and experiences regarding a robotic shower, from a dual user perspective. Design/methodology/approach This was an explorative qualitative study in which elderly and personnel were interviewed before the robotic shower was installed and again after four or five months of usage. Findings The elderly participants found the robotic shower empowering. The personnel's experiences encompassed their own work conditions, as well as the user value for the elderly. A shared experience for both user groups was a more independent shower situation for the elderly. Originality/value This study presents a dual user experience of a DAT in an intimate care situation and shows the importance of including both elderly and personnel to fully understand the value of DATs.