Affordances And Constraints Of Seaport Smart Service Systems In A Developing Country: A Case Study From Ghana

ABSTRACT This study seeks to understand affordances and constraints of seaport smart service systems in a developing country context. Smart service systems refer to configurations of smart technologies, people and processes to co-create value for stakeholders. Examples of smart service systems discussed in information systems literature are smart homes, smart cities, smart health, and smart energy. While traditional service systems relied on people and physical processes, smart service systems rely on sensing and autonomous machine capabilities. Thus, based on their awareness and monitoring capabilities, smart service systems sense and respond to dynamic environmental conditions to co-create value for people, other systems, and themselves. Information Systems (IS) studies on smart service systems are limited in three main ways. First, existing IS research lack theoretical foundation. The focus has rather been on conceptualisations and literature reviews. There is, therefore, the need for in-depth and theorydriven studies to investigate smart service systems' use and effects in an organizational context. Second, extant IS literature on smart service systems has focused more on application areas such as smart health, smart building, smart government, smart grid, smart transportation, smart environment, smart home, and smart lifestyles. The area of seaport smart service system is yet to receive attention in IS research. Third, existing theoretical perspectives in affordance conception conceptualise affordances as action possibilities that emerge from interactions between technologies and goal-oriented actor(s) or user(s) while constraints are hindrances that prevent actors from using the technology to achieve intended goals. However, extant IS studies have concentrated on only the affordance-actualization process. Little or no research focuses on the constraint process of technology affordances theory.