“The Pokémon that Got Away” : Employing Actor-Network Theory to Unmask the Technology Actor in Cybernized Services

Abstract

Digitalization and emerging technologies have given rise to cybernized services and a debate questioning the traditional Service-dominant logic (SDL) view of technology as a resource in service exchange. To date, little is known about the role of technology as a value co-creating (or co-destroying) actor in the context of services empowered by emerging technologies. Attaining an in-depth understanding of technology as an actor in cybernized service ecosystems is integral for practitioners and researchers alike to foster and investigate value co-creation in the sociotechnical interactions from the perspective of the involved human actors. To address this need, we unmask the technology actor by conducting a qualitative content analysis on in-depth laddering interviews with users of the Augmented Reality (AR) mobile game application Pokémon Go. Employing the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we depict three emerging technology actor roles in service exchange and discuss their value co-creative/destructive implications to research and practice.