Service Through Communication: Conceptualizing Service Systems with Luhmann’s Systems Theory

Service research has evolved into an interdisciplinary research field that bridges diverse disciplines, including information systems (IS) and marketing. Nearly two decades ago, the service system concept was introduced as a foundational abstraction in service research, drawing on ideas from the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) of marketing. Despite its widespread adoption in servicebased IS research, the service system concept lacks a solid theoretical foundation, resulting in conceptual ambiguities and overlaps with related constructs, such as service ecosystems. Moreover, it has largely remained a static analytical lens, insufficiently addressing dynamic service phenomena, including value co-destruction. To address these limitations, we propose Luhmann’s systems theory (LST) as a robust explanatory framework for conceptualizing service systems as autopoietic (self-creating) systems in which communication serves as the fundamental mechanism that drives value co-creation. We derive five theoretical propositions from this re-conceptualization that clarify conceptual ambiguity and allow researchers to explore dynamic service phenomena in greater depth. Due to the general approach taken by LST, our conceptualization provides a theoretically grounded and interdisciplinary foundation for advancing service research.