Mahei Li
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Dr.
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Li
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Mahei
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mahei.li@unisg.ch

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Generative AI in Customer Support Services: A Framework for Augmenting the Routines of Frontline Service Employees

2024-01-06 , Philipp Reinhard , Mahei Li , Christoph Peters , Jan Marco Leimeister

Customer support service employees are facing an increased workload, while artificial intelligence (AI) appears to possess the potential to change the way we work. With the advent of modern types of generative AI, new opportunities to augment frontline service employees have emerged. However, little is known about how to integrate generative AI in customer support service organizations and purposefully change service employee work routines. Following multi-method qualitative research, we performed a literature review, conducted workshops, and interviewed IT support agents, managers, and AI experts. Thereby, we examine AI augmentation for frontline service employees in the context of IT support to carve out where and how GenAI can be leveraged to develop more efficient and higher-quality customer support. Our resulting framework reveals that especially adapting solutions and retaining knowledge is subject to a high degree of AI augmentation.

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Moving towards a Non-Dyadic View on Service Systems and its Operationalization – Applying the Hypergraph-based Service System Model

2020 , Li, Mahei , Peters, Christoph , Leimeister, Jan Marco

In today’s VUCA world, that is characterized by high volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, service provisioning is required to realize flexible and adaptable reconfiguration of service delivery systems and its stakeholders’ resources. However, services are often embedded in greater service systems and the context information of both customer and service provider form both its boundary conditions the suitable solution service. To capture the complexity and leverage the dynamic of service systems, we propose the formal service system model (SSM) method. Following general systems theory, we define boundaries for service delivery and show SSM’s applicability for ad-hoc service operations. We show its usefulness for structuring a service system for service operations, specifically scheduling, planning, and pricing of service provisioning. We contribute to service systems engineering by applying one generalizable mathematical model for both structuring and operationalizing service systems and provide insights in-to capturing the complex relationships of its components

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From Service Systems Engineering to Service Innovation - A Modeling Approach

2019-06-10 , Li, Mahei , Peters, Christoph

Due to the advent of digitization, service innovation has become even more important for both business and service research alike. Current service systems engineering approaches have employed a recombinant perspective that follows innovation mechanisms to leverage existing company resources for new service innovations. Employing these innovation mechanisms is still challenging, since there is little support on how to structure and identify these mechanisms. We propose a model-based service system engineering approach to structure existing resources into one formal model, enabling the formalization of service innovation mechanisms. The formalized service innovation mechanisms allow for a graphical illustration and enable future research to apply functions to analyze how innovation impacts entire or specific parts of service systems. Furthermore, the mathematical model enables an object-oriented value-driven perspective on service systems and is basis for graphical software tools. We contribute to literature by formalizing service innovations and its mechanisms in the context of service systems and by combining concepts of service innovation and service systems engineering. We do so by a) formalizing service innovation mechanisms and b) demonstrating the application of formal service innovations along one specific software implementation case. For practice, the service system model can with simulating the effects of service innovations.

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Publication

A Hypergraph-based Modeling Approach for Service Systems

2018 , Li, Mahei Manhai , Peters, Christoph , Leimeister, Jan Marco

Currently, research on service science has emerged as its own discipline, where service systems are its basic unit of analysis. However, without a clearly defined modeling approach for service systems, analyzing a service system is challenging. We therefore propose a conceptual hypergraph-based modeling approach, which can be used to model services for both traditional goods-dominant businesses, as well as service-businesses. We define key elements of a service system while drawing upon hypergraph theory and present three modeling properties which are required to model a service systems graph (SSG). The focus of SSGs is to describe the relationships between the various resources, actors and activities, thus configuring a service system. It provides the foundation for computer graphic simulations and database applications of service business structure for future research.

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Publication

Requirements for an IT Support System based on Hybrid Intelligence

2022 , Schmidt, Simon L. , Li, Mahei , Peters, Christoph

In our digital world, all companies need IT support. The IT support staff is under high pressure solving user-based issues and facing an increase of heterogeneous systems. Hybrid intelligence could solve many issues due to the combination of machine power and the individual strengths of humans. As a part of a bigger design science research project, this paper derives requirements for an IT support system based on hybrid intelligence (ISSHI). 17 requirements from the literature and 21 requirements from 24 indepth interviews with IT support managers and support-agents from three different companies have been derived. These were evaluated and refined with a second interview series of five IT support stakeholders that led to a total of 24 consolidated requirements. Finally, these requirements were used to inform a system architecture for an ISSHI. This architecture shall serve as a foundation for future research directions regarding hybrid intelligence in IT support.

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Linking Strategy and Operations using a Service Business Model – a hypergraph theory-based approach

2019-06-10 , Li, Mahei Manhai , Peters, Christoph , Leimeister, Jan Marco

Business models (BM) have become increasingly important and versatile abstract tools to describe businesses on both, a strategic, as well as operational level (Wirtz et al. 2015). These BMs are used to understand what a business does to remain competitive, strategically (Johnson et al. 2008). Existing research (Johnson et al. 2008; Wirtz et al. 2015) identified the importance of BMs for the success of businesses. Also, practice revealed that financially successful companies ascertain twice the level of importance than less successful companies (IBM, 2007). A BM is a conceptual and structural implementation of a business strategy and the foundation of business processes (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2002). BMs include a strategy, input factors, processes, with an underlying financial model to ensure the profitability. In recent years BMs have become synonymous with entire companies. Literature shows a heterogeneous abstraction of BMs, sometimes referring to BMs as business unit or products (Wirtz et al. 2015). Service systems literature shows similar structures, with service systems referring to exchanges on an individual level, among business units or entire ecosystems (Chandler and Lusch 2015). We propose that a service systems perspective can systematically model businesses and capture its inherent complexities (Peters et al. 2015). The service business model (SBM) includes (1) the value proposition, which is the firm’s offering to the customer; (2) the value creation and delivery mechanisms, reflecting the value chain; (3) value capture and analysis of the BM and its constituent elements to understand how the firm generates profit. Our model, thus, captures the holistic characteristic of BM, while retaining the detailed information on how the business is constructed. Businesses are confronted with a complex, digitalized world, in which important service innovations are continuously emerging, which need to be designed and linked to the BM of a company, thus addressing the strategy to execution gap (Kaplan and Norton 2009). Typical BM tools, such as the business model canvas (Osterwalder et al. 2005), only provide a descriptive framework for structuring businesses, missing the interrelations of its BM elements. This is important for operational decision makers, who implement new service innovations. In sum, without a SBM that relates the high level strategic information to the detailed operations perspective, BMs only reflect half the picture. Hence, we develop a hypergraph theory-based underlying model for businesses to understand how the business works both from a strategic perspective, as well as from a detailed operational perspective. Our SBM makes value creation visible, relying on a systems perspective linking multi-dimensional input factors with set of activities and actors and thus capturing value proposition, value creation and delivery and value capture mechanisms (Li & Peters 2018). Attached table shows an overview of our SBM, which relies on a formally model (Li et al. 2018). It represents a base structure of businesses and can be used for operational purposes too (e.g.: scheduling, planning and cost analyses) and thus enables a high level strategic perspective to be integrated into the operational perspective, bridging the gap between strategy and execution for successful businesses.

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Publication

Developing a Production Structure Model using Service-Dominant Logic – A hypergraph-based Modeling Approach

2019-07-26 , Li, Mahei , Peters, Christoph , Leimeister, Jan Marco

To make a fundamental shift towards value orientation, manufacturing companies strategically move to integrate services into their portfolio. While manufacturing firms rely on production information systems as the backbone of their operations, these systems are based on product structure models (e.g., bill of materials). This poses a problem because services do not adhere to the goods-dominant perspective of product structures. To solve this divide, this paper proposes an integrative mathematical model for both production systems and service systems. This model draws upon concepts of service-dominant logic and is based on hypergraph theory. To illustrate that the production structure model includes both product structures and process structures, we further demonstrate that the production structure model can be transformed into either. Therefore, our theoretical contribution lies in introducing a structural model for production systems that is compatible with structures of a service system model. For practice, this model enables the development of production information systems that can plan and control products, services and hybrids.

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Publication

Knowledge is Power: Provide your IT-Support with Domain-Specific High-Quality Solution Material

2021 , Schmidt, Simon L. , Li, Mahei , Weigel, Sascha , Peters, Christoph

As more and more business processes are based on IT services the high availability of these processes is dependent on the IT-Support. Thus, making the IT-Support a critical success factor of companies. This paper presents how this department can be supported by providing the staff with domain-specific and high-quality solution material to help employees faster when errors occur. The solution material is based on previously solved tickets because these contain precise domain-specific solutions narrowed down to e.g., specific versions and configurations of hard-/software used in the company. To retrieve the solution material ontologies are used that contain the domain-specific vocabulary needed. Because not all previously solved tickets contain high-quality solution material that helps the staff to fix issues the designed IT-Support system separates lowfrom high-quality solution material. This paper presents (a) theory- and practicalmotivated design requirements that describe the need for automatically retrieved solution material, (b) develops two major design principles to retrieve domainspecific and high-quality solution material, and (c) evaluates the instantiations of them as a prototype with organic real-world data. The results show that previously solved tickets of a company can be pre-processed and retrieved to ITSupport staff based on their current queries.

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Publication

Take the Wheel - Technology-driven Change in the Energy Sector

2019 , Li, Mahei , Müller, Jennifer , Ernst, Sissy-Josefina , Peters, Christoph

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Publication

Reconceptualizing Service Systems – Introducing Service System Graphs

2018 , Li, Mahei Manhai , Peters, Christoph

Currently, research on service science has emerged as its own discipline, where service systems are its basic unit of analysis. However, without a clearly defined modeling approach for service systems, analyzing a service system is challenging. We therefore propose a conceptual hypergraph-based modeling approach, which can be used to model services for both traditional goods-dominant businesses, as well as service-businesses. We define key elements of a service system while drawing upon hypergraph theory and present three modeling properties which are required to model a service systems graph (SSG). The focus of SSGs is to describe the relationships between the various resources, actors and activities, thus configuring a service system. It provides the foundation for computer graphic simulations and database applications of service business structure for future research.

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