Algorithmic Reconfiguring of Service Ecosystems Through New Forms of Multilateral Surveillance

Research has explored how algorithmic processes reshape individual tasks in organizations. But less work has explored their implications on the wider service ecosystem. Using data about the “DAS” algorithms in the Swedish rheumatology setting between 1995 and 2019, we examine how the use of algorithms can reconfigure service delivery across the service ecosystem. We identify two algorithmic translation processes that enabled the incorporation of consumer self-evaluations in the multiple service nodes of the studied ecosystem. These processes implied new forms of multilateral surveillance, which had implications on the service delivery and the values that were generated by the ecosystem. By showing how concealed algorithms can make consumers’ voice watch-able and action-able across multiple nodes in the ecosystem, our work challenges traditional conceptualizations of algorithmic black-boxing as reducing human agency. We further theorize algorithmically mediated multi-actor surveillance, in which service nodes are both being watched and watching others, thus also challenging the view of surveillance as involving one “invisible” controlling many visible actors. These results open up new avenues of inquiry about the role of algorithmic processes in enabling new forms of multilateral surveillance that in turn condition value creation in service ecosystems.