How to model service productivity for data envelopment analysis? a meta-design approach

The rise of the service economy is increasingly reflected in the IS discipline. Since services depend on a co-creation of value between service providers and customers, productivity measurement needs to account for both points of view. Contrasting this evolution, current productivity management concepts often remain limited to the firm instead of focusing on dyadic relationships. Also, software tools frequently constitute expert systems that are focused on solving an optimization problem based on a linear program, but do not guide users in setting up a suitable productivity model in the first place. To account for this need, we conceptualize a software tool support for setting up productivity models for services. Our concept encompasses an extended Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach as its analytical core, but in addition features various tools that help users to collaboratively define a productivity measurement model. Since the suitability of such a model is contingent on the environment in which it is applied, the proposed concept constitutes a meta-design that is intended to be applicable to a class of productivity management problems. As an outlook we present ideas for further research focusing on the implementation and evaluation of IT artefacts compliant with the proposed meta-design.