Decision Analytics and Service Science

The Decision Analytics and Service Science Track got started more than 20 years ago at the HICSS-31 in 1998 under the name Modelling Technologies and Intelligent Systems. The name and the focus shifted at HICSS-33 to Decision Technology in Management and the use of information systems in support of managerial planning, problem solving and decision making. The theme changed again to Decision Technology and Service Science for HICSS-43. The track was run with quite some success, with around 12 mini tracks that collected high-quality papers. We reacted to the rise of mobile technology early on and started a mini-track on mobile commerce and mobile services at HICSS-35 in 2002. Mobile technologies quickly got adopted by several other tracks and a first critical mass of papers to one track could be realized at HICSS-45. The track changed name to Decision Technology, Mobile Services and Service Science in 2012 when Dan Dolk asked Prof Christer Carlsson of the Abo Akademi University in Finland to join him as track co-chair.

As Dan Dolk stepped down after running the track very successfully for 14 years, Prof Haluk Demirkan, University of Washington, was elected to join Christer Carlsson as track co-chair. Discussions had been going on for some years to incorporate the new analytics movement, which is a major shift in producing critical data, information and knowledge for managerial planning, problem solving and decision making. Analytics relies on software to make use of analytical theory and advanced algorithms as part of corporate and enterprise information systems. The track changed name to Decision Analytics, Mobile Services and Service Science for HICSS- 46 in 2013.

One more change was made for HICSS-53, the name is now Decision Analytics and Service Science (DA/SS) as mobile services have merged with digital services, at least in the perceptions of the users. Digital technology is moving into the core of research in information systems and decision analytics into both business planning and the use of information systems.

There have been several memorable events organized by the track over the two decades of operation. Space does not permit to report them in any detail – we discussed some moments in one of the history sessions at HICSS-50 – but the fullday workshop Evolution of Mobile Ecosystems that Nokia and Microsoft organized at HICSS-46 is probably historic, some of the disruptions that changed the mobile technology industry forever took form in the workshop in which a group of invited professors challenged Nokia and Microsoft executives. Nokia later sold its mobile phones division to Microsoft and refocused on digital network technology and 5G networks. The DA/SS Track works out emerging managerial and organizational decision-making strategies, processes, tools, technologies, services and solutions in the Digital Age. This is done in 2 interrelated themes. The first theme, Decision Analytics, focuses on decision making processes, analytics tools and supporting technologies which has collected papers on big data and analytics, machine learning, business and service analytics, gamification, virtual and augmented reality, visual decision analytics, soft computing, logistics and supply chain management, explainable AI, etc., which now are core research themes in analytics. Challenges and issues of service industries, service science, digitalization of services, digital mobile services, smart service systems, smart mobility ecosystems, social robots, etc. form the Service Science.

For the 2023 HICSS-56, the DA/SS Track collected 25 minitracks:

1. Accountability, Evaluation, and Obscurity of AI Algorithms
2. Big Data and Analytics: Pathways to Maturity
3. Data, Text, and Web Mining for Business Analytics
4. Cyber Deception and Cyberpsychology for Defense
5. Data-driven Services in Manufacturing: Innovation, Engineering, Transformation, and Management
6. Digital Mobile Services for Everyday Life
7. Digital Service and Service Digitalization
8. Simulation Modeling and Digital Twins for Decision Making in the Age of Industry 4.0
9. Gamification
10. Analytics and Decision Support for Green IS and Sustainability Applications
11. Visualizing Grounded Theory in Information Systems Research
12. Innovative Applications of Technologies in University – Industry Collaboration to Prepare for the Future of Work
13. Learning Analytics
14. Practitioner Research Insights: Applications of Science and Technology to Real-World Innovations
15. Interpretable Machine Learning
16. Service Analytics
17. Service Science
18. Smart Mobility Ecosystems and Services
19. Soft Computing: Theory Innovations and Problem-Solving Benefits
20. Intelligent Decision Support for Logistics and Supply Chain Management
21. Technology and Analytics in Emerging Markets (TAEM)
22. Social Robots - Robotics and Toy Computing
23. Mixed, Augmented and Virtual Reality: Services and Applications
24. Interactive Visual Analytics for Knowledge Integration and Decision Intelligence
25. Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)

The minitrack chairs have written brief summaries of their mini-tracks and overviews of the papers in their sessions.

We wish to thank all the people who have worked effectively and diligently to develop the DA/SS Track. The authors who have contributed new research results, the MT chairs who have spent countless hours to get good quality papers (191 papers were submitted), to get reviewers to accept work for HICSS and then to evaluate and judge the review results. The high-quality collection of 94 accepted papers in the DA/SS Track (with an acceptance rate of 48.69 %) is a result of their efforts. The DA/SS Track worked online for HICSS-54 and HICSS-55 which had some effects on the number of papers submitted and the number of mini tracks planned and organized. The prospect of having a traditional conference on Maui for HICSS-56 greatly activated both mini-track organizers and authors, which we were very happy to see.

Christer Carlsson
IAMSR & Abo Akademi University
Christer.Carlsson@abo.fi

Haluk Demirkan
University of Washington - Tacoma
haluk@uw.edu