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The success of organizations, in the era of interconnected world, will depend upon their ability to create robust and efficient software realizations for open distributed systems. Such systems, due to their nature, will require combining distributed objects (or components) adhering to different models. In this article, we present an overview of a meta-model, which allows a seamless integration of heterogeneous software components.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how innovation is leveraged in a commoditized service industry. Focusing on the passenger airline industry, we describe the characteristics of commoditized industries and show how the airline industry fulfills these criteria. Based on a sample of 30 airlines, we detect patterns of innovations and explore how airlines utilize innovation in the various categories. We present two case studies to demonstrate different approaches to innovation. Based on these findings, we develop a framework that suggests innovation priorities for different business models. Finally, we propose four levers to expand the core service offering and to successfully position an airline in a commoditized market environment.

This paper addresses the issue of automatic service composition. We first develop a framework in which the exported behavior of a service is described in terms of a so-called execution tree, that is an abstraction for its possible executions. We then study the case in which such exported behavior (i.e. the execution tree of the service) can be represented by a finite state machine (i.e. finite state transition system). In this specific setting, we devise sound, complete and terminating techniques both to check for the existence of a composition, and to return a composition, if one exists. We also analyze the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms. Finally, we present an open source prototype tool, called (E-Service Composer), that implements our composition technique. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first attempt to provide a provably correct technique for the automatic synthesis of service composition, in a framework where the behavior of services is explicitly specified.

This paper examines diverse service innovations created with service robots in living labs that are an under researched and growing area of scholarly research. In particular, there is a need for research that connects robotics with welfare and health care living labs. This study focusses on the nexus between the different types of robots and services in living labs. It contributes to the literatures of open innovation and living labs by developing a conceptual framework for analysing service innovations enabled by robotics in eight living lab cases. The framework distinguishes four archetypes of service innovations in health and welfare living labs: (i) socialising, (ii) aiding, (iii) entertaining, and (iv) personal assisting. The paper concludes with implications to theory and practice, and suggests directions for future research.