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 that Dan Dolk of the Naval Postgraduate School introduced. The name and the focus shifted at HICSS-33 to Decision Technology in Management with a focus on the use of information systems in support of managerial planning, problem solving and decision making. The theme changed to Decision Technology and Service Science for HICSS- 43. The track was run with quite some success, as the track most of the time had around 12 minitracks that kept collecting good contributions in the form of highquality papers.

The track 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 concentration of a critical mass of papers to one track could be realized only 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 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 digital 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 them in one of the history sessions at HICSS-50 – but the full-day 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 emerged in the workshop. Nokia later sold its mobile phones division to Microsoft and refocused on digital network technology and became a forerunner in 5G networks. Microsoft decided to not pursue a third ecosystem in mobile technology and software but has recently introduced a new, fully integrated line of support tools.

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 cities and communities, smart mobility services, social robots, etc. form the Service Science.

In the 2021 HICSS, the DA/SS Track has grown to 29 minitracks:

1. Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics in Accounting, Finance, and Management
2. Accountability, Evaluation, and Obscurity of AI Algorithms
3. Big Data and Analytics: Pathways to Maturity
4. Data, Text and Web Mining for Business Analytics
5. Decision Analytics, Machine Learning, and Field Experimentation for Defense and Emergency Response
6. Digital Mobile Services for Everyday Life
7. Digital and Cybernized Services
8. Smart Building, Smart Community, and Smart City Digital Twins
9. Gamification
10. Analytics and Decision Support for Green IS and Sustainability Applications
11. Case Studies of Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Analytics Technologies for Industry Platforms
12. Internet of Everything and the Power of Where
13. Learning Analytics
14. Practitioner Research Insights: Applications of Science and Technology in Work
15. Modeling and Decision Making in Manufacturing and Logistics in the Age of Industry 4.0
16. Personal Data: Analytics and Management
17. Education, Research and Application of Quantum Computing
18. Service Analytics
19. Service Science
20. Decision Support for Smart City
21. Smart Mobility Ecosystems and Services
22. Smart Service Systems with Analytics and Open Tech Artificial Intelligence
23. Soft Computing: Theory Innovations and Problem Solving Benefits
24. Intelligent Decision Support for Logistics and Supply Chain Management
25. Technology and Analytics in Emerging Markets (TAEM)
26. Social Robots - Robotics and Toy Computing
27. Mixed, Augmented and Virtual Reality: Services and Applications
28. Interactive Visual Analytics and Visualization for Decision Making
29. Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)

The minitrack chairs have written brief summaries of their minitracks 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 Track. The authors who have contributed new research results, the MT chairs who have spent countless hours to get good quality papers, to get reviewers to accept work for HICSS and then to evaluate and judge the review results. The high-quality collection of 111 accepted papers in the DA Track (with an acceptance rate of about 46 %) is a result of their efforts.

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

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