Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Role of Variety Engineering in the Co-creation of Value

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Data-Centric Business and Applications

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies ((LNDECT,volume 20))

  • 474 Accesses

Abstract

By integrating methods and models from systems science, the interdisciplinary field of service science has provided the basis for a possible radical shift in understanding the coordination mechanisms underlying global market dynamics. The Variety Engineering Model is found to support and extend the evolving framework of service-dominant logic by shedding light on the relational nature of interacting social agents, who co-create value by steering their behavior towards shared meanings through conversation. In our highly complex present-day world the main driver of balancing agents’ complexity asymmetries is self-organization. Without adequate management, this self-regulation seldom produces socially desirable outcomes. We conceive the proposed systemic methodology as an effective guideline for supporting managers to coordinate this process towards common policies, which may foster sustainable structures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    “Managerial, operational and environmental varieties, diffusing through an institutional system, tend to equate; they should be designed to do so with minimal damage to people and to cost” [24].

References

  1. World Economic Forum (WEF) (2016) The future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf. Accessed 16 June 2017

  2. Kurzweil R (2001) The law of acceleration returns. Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns. Accessed 16 Apr 2018

  3. Kurzweil R (2005) The singularity is near: when humans transcend biology. Viking, New York

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gillings MR, Hilbert M, Kemp DJ (2016) Information in the biosphere: biological and digital worlds. Trends Ecol Evol 31(3):180–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Stoshikj M, Kryvinska N, Strauss C (2016) Service systems and service innovation: two pillars of service science. Procedia Comput Sci 83(Ant):212–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kryvinska N, Strauss C, Zinterhof P (2011) Next generation service delivery network as enabler of applicable intelligence in decision and management support systems, Chapter 18. In: Besis N, Xhafa F (eds) Next generation data technologies for collective computational intelligence. Studies in computational intelligence. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 473–502

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Last C (2015) Information-energy metasystem model. Kybernetes 44(8/9):1298–1309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Heylighen F (2016) The offer network protocol: mathematical foundations and a roadmap for the development of a global brain. Eur Phys J Spec Top, 1–40

    Google Scholar 

  9. Last C (2017) Global commons in the global brain. Technol Forecast Soc Change 114:48–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Maglio PP, Spohrer J (2008) Fundamentals of service science. J Acad Mark Sci 36(1):18–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Stoshikj M, Kryvinska N, Strauss C, Greguš M (2015) Service science, service system and service innovation. In: Gummesson E, Mele C, Polese F (eds) The 2015 Naples forum on science: service dominant logic, network and systems theory and service science: integrating three perspectives for a new service agenda, SIMAS Lab di Salerno for Naples Forim on Service

    Google Scholar 

  12. Espejo R, Reyes A (2011) Organizational systems: managing complexity with the viable system model. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Teece DJ, Peteraf MA, Leih S (2016) Dynamic capabilities and organizational agility: risk, uncertainty and entrepreneurial management in the innovation economy. Calif Manag Rev 58(4):13–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Espejo R (2015) Good social cybernetics is a must in policy processes. Kybernetes 44(6/7):874–890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Golinelli GM, Barile S, Spohrer J, Bassano C (2010) The evolving dynamics of service co-creation in a viable systems perspective, pp 813–825

    Google Scholar 

  16. Barile S, Lusch RF, Reynoso J, Saviano M, Spohrer J (2016) Systems, networks, and ecosystems in service research. J Serv Manag 27(4):317–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Barile S, Polese F (2010) Linking the viable system and many-to-many network approaches to service-dominant logic and service science. Int J Qual Serv Sci 2(1):23–42

    Google Scholar 

  18. Schwaninger M (2000) Managing complexity: the path toward intelligent organizations. Syst Pract Action Res 13(2):207–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Beer S (1959) Cybernetics and management. English University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  20. Beer S (1962) Towards the cybernetic factory. In: Foerster H, von Zopf G (eds) Principles of self-organization. Oxford: Pergamon Press Limited. Reprinted in Harnden R, Leonnard A How many grapes went into the wine: Stattford Beer on the art and science of holistic management. Chichester: Wiley, pp 163–225

    Google Scholar 

  21. Beer S (1966) Decision and control: the meaning of operational research and management cybernetics. Wiley, London

    Google Scholar 

  22. Beer S (1968) Management science: the business use of operational research. Aldous Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  23. Beer S (1975) Platform for change: a message from Stafford Beer. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  24. Beer S (1979) The heart of enterprise. Wiley, London, New York

    Google Scholar 

  25. Beer S (1981) Brain of the firm. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  26. Beer S (1985) Diagnosing the system for organizations. Wiley, London, New York

    Google Scholar 

  27. Beer S (1994) Beyond dispute: the invention of team syntegrity. Wiley, London, New York

    Google Scholar 

  28. Espejo R (2015) Performance for viability: complexity and variety management. Kybernetes 44(6/7):1020–1029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Rosenkranz C, Holten R (2011) The variety engineering method: analyzing and designing information flows in organizations. IseB 9(1):11–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2016) Institutions and axioms: an extension and update of service-dominant logic. J Acad Mark Sci 44(1):5–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Dominici G, Yolles M, Caputo F (2017) Decoding the dynamics of value co-creation in consumer tribes: an agency theory approach. Cybern Syst 48(2):1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Ostrom AL, Parasuraman A, Bowen DE, Patricio L, Voss CA (2015) Service research priorities in a rapidly changing context. J Serv Res 18(2):127–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Espejo R, Dominici G (2016) Cybernetics of value co-creation for product development. Syst Res Behav Sci 34(1):24–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Greer CR, Lusch RF, Vargo SL (2016) A service perspective: key managerial insights from service-dominant (S-D) logic. Org Dyn 45(1):28–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Dominici G, Basile G, Palumbo F (2013) Viable systems approach and consumer culture theory: a conceptual framework. J Organ Transform Soc Change 10(3):262–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2004) Evolving to a new dominant logic. J Mark 68:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2008) Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. J Acad Mark Sci 36(1):1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Kryvinska N, Kaczor S, Strauss C, Greguš M (2014) Servitization—its raise through information and communication technologies. In: Snene M, Leonard M (eds) Exploring service science, lecture notes in business information processing. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 72–81

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kryvinska N, Auer L, Strauss C (2009) The place and value of SOA in building 2.0-generation enterprise unified vs. ubiquitous communication and collaboration platform. In: 2009 third international conference on mobile ubiquitous computing, systems, services, and technologies (UBICOMM), IEEE, pp 305–310

    Google Scholar 

  40. Kryvinska N, Olexova R, Dohmen P, Strauss C (2013) The S-D logic phenomenon—conceptualization and systematization by reviewing the literature of a decade (2004–2013). The society of service science. J Serv Sci Res, Springer, Col. 5(1):35–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Lusch RF, Vargo SL (2006) Service-dominant logic: reactions, reflections and refinements. Mark Theor 6(3):281–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Wiener N (1948) Cybernetics: or the control and communication in the animal and the machine. MIT Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  43. Heylighen F, Joslyn C (2001) The law of requisite variety. In: Heylighen F, Joslyn C, Turchin V (eds) Principia Cybernetica Web, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  44. Foerster H (1979) Cybernetics of cybernetics. In: Communication and control, K. Krippendorff, Gordon and Breach, New York, pp 5–8

    Google Scholar 

  45. Umpleby SA (2016) Second-order cybernetics as a fundamental revolution in science. Constructivist Found 11(3):455–465

    Google Scholar 

  46. Beer S (1973) Fanfare for effective freedom: cybernetic Praxis in government. Retrieved from http://www.kybernetik.ch/dwn/Fanfare_for_Freedom.pdf. Accessed 16 June 2017

  47. Ashby WR (1960) Design for a brain: the origin of adaptive behaviour, 2nd edn. Chapman and Hall, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  48. Ashby WR (1956) An introduction to cybernetics. Chapman and Hall, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  49. Spencer-Brown G (1969) Laws of form. Allen & Unwin, Australia

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  50. Ulrich W (2000) Reflective practice in the civil society: the contribution of critical systems thinking. Reflective Pract 1(2):247–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Conant RC, Ashby RW (1970) Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system. Int J Syst Sci 1(2):89–97

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  52. Pérez-Ríos JM, Velasco Jiménez I (2015) The application of organizational cybernetics and ICT to collective discussion of complex issues. Kybernetes 44(6/7):1146–1166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Maturana HR, Varela FJ (1992) The tree of knowledge: a new look at the biological roots of human understanding. Shambhala/New Science Library, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  54. Toffler A (1980) The third wave. Bantam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  55. Brodie RJ, Hollebeek LD, Jurić B, Ilić A (2011) Customer engagement: conceptual domain, fundamental propositions, and implications for research. J Serv Res 14(3)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Saarijärvi H (2012) The mechanisms of value co-creation. J Strateg Mark 20(5):381–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Spohrer J, Maglio PP (2008) The emergence of service science: toward systematic service innovations to accelerate co-creation of value. Prod Oper Manag 17(3):238–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Maturana HR (2002) Autopoiesis, structural coupling and cognition: a history of these and other notions in the biology of cognition. Cybern Hum Knowing 9(3–4):5–34

    Google Scholar 

  59. Glasersfeld E (2001) The radical constructivist view of science. In: Riegler A (ed) Special issue “The impact of radical constructivism on science”, Foundations of science, vol 6(1–3), pp 31–43

    Google Scholar 

  60. Foerster H (1976) Objects: tokens for (Eigen-)behaviors. University of Geneva. Reprinted in Foerster H Understanding Understanding: essays on cybernetics and cognition. Springer, New York, pp 261–271

    Google Scholar 

  61. Maturana HR (1988) Reality: the search for objectivity or the quest for a compelling argument. Ir J Psychol 9(1):25–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Dominici G, Yolles M (2016) Decoding the XXI century’s marketing shift: an agency theory framework systems, vol 4(4)

    Google Scholar 

  63. Shannon C, Weaver W (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. The University of Illionois Press, Urbana IL

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vienna, Oskar Morgenstern Platz 1, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Raoul Gorka, Christine Strauss & Claus Ebster

Authors
  1. Raoul Gorka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christine Strauss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Claus Ebster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christine Strauss .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of e-Business, Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Natalia Kryvinska

  2. Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Management, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Michal Greguš

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gorka, R., Strauss, C., Ebster, C. (2019). The Role of Variety Engineering in the Co-creation of Value. In: Kryvinska, N., Greguš, M. (eds) Data-Centric Business and Applications. Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94117-2_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation