The rise and fall of self-service in Amsterdam trams: user-technology relations in a case of service innovation

The stabilisation of innovative technology depends on reconciling technological requirements and user behaviour. This can be achieved by adjusting the technology to the users, by configuring the user, or by a combination thereof. This paper evaluates different strategies in a case of service innovation: the substitution of conductors with self-service machines in the Amsterdam tramways around 1970 and the various forms of fare-dodging that came along. To counteract fare-dodging, the transport company unsuccessfully relied on a strategy to configure users. Alternative strategies, notably configuring users through technological adjustment, are suggested to increase the chance of stabilisation. These observations and suggestions are related to the actual characteristics of services: given that transport services are immediately and collectively used, their misuse, if not corrected by fellow passengers, soon tends to threaten the aspect of stability. Emphasising service characteristics thus contributes to a better understanding of strategies to reconcile services and users. The rise and fall of self-service in Amsterdam trams: User technology relations in a case of service innovation R. Nahuis In recent years much attention has been paid to the role of users in technological innovation. Important insights about the co-construction of technology and its users, the mechanisms of stabilisation, and the opportunities for learning are gained from a large variety of case studies [1-3]. This paper explores the relevance of such insights for understanding stabilisation in service innovation. We assume that such stabilisation – the achievement of consensus about the functionality and meaning of the innovated service – requires mutual adjustments of innovation and users [4]. On the one hand, innovation requires that users learn about the opportunities of new technology and services. On the other hand, the choices of designers and innovators may have already been formed by ideas about and feedback from users, and this information is then used to align the service system with the wishes and capacities of its future users. To understand how fulfilling these requirements contributes to the stabilisation of systems we develop a conceptual framework and apply this to a case of service innovation. Although service innovation, especially in capital-intensive services, is often technology-based – either the introduction of new technology or a different use of existing technology [5-7] – there are several differences that have seldom been properly thought through in technology and innovation studies [8]. Service innovation differs from technological innovation in a number of important respects. First, services cannot be …