Service theory design principles and applications

Service Theory design is not a basic foothold that can be explained in only a few sentences. There is a lot of thought, experimentation, research, and trial and error that goes into the creation of a sound theory. First, it is important to acknowledge all of the things that can play a role in the design of a theory itself. Researchers have reported that community and culture significantly influence value orientation (Goel, 2010), perceived needs, and motivation as well as provide the ground for creating shared understanding. All disciplines have their own cultures, and all cultures evolve through cross-cultural exchanges. It all starts with a series of questions and ideas that the researcher would like to find out background information on, and possible determine information that may not have been evident upon first glance.

The questions that would need further clarity are: (1) what model best fits the current prospective theory design? (2) What information is necessary and available to support the current theory, (3) Is this new information and/or research, or has this been covered before? (4) What is the best method to go about researching and supporting the prospective theory? In marketing there are so many different models out there that people have tweaked to make work for their specific point-of-view or product that they work with. The focus of the current research is to be able to answer the above questions clearly and concisely, as well as to offer insight into the process of theory creation and the process that others have used, utilizing self-directed learning.

The Model(s)

In the development of this theory it has been determined that the best fit would be a cross between interactive & an instructional model. In addition, it is evident that interactive influence diagrams could also prove effective in data collecting and deciphering certain sets of information pertinent to the theory and its development. Zeng & Doshi (2010) explained that Interactive in-uence diagrams (I-IDs) offer a transparent and intuitive representation for the decision-making problem in multi-agent settings. They ascribe procedural models such as in-uence diagrams and I-IDs to model the behavior of other agents. Procedural models offer the bene-t of understanding how others arrive at their behaviors. Accurate behavioral models of others facilitate optimal decision-making in multiagent settings.

Tracey (2009, p. 553) researched the premise that design and development research is the systematic study of design, development and evaluation processes with the aim of establishing an empirical basis for the creation of instructional and non-instructional products and tools and new or enhanced models that govern their development. It is a practical form of research that attempts to test theory and validate practice. Numerous models exist in the field of instructional design that assists designers working in a variety of settings. Historically many of these models have not undergone rigorous or systematic review. In recent years, there has been an increased focus on systematically studying the processes involved in the construction, validation, and implementation of instructional design models.

Background & Supporting Research

(Freeman & Ambady, 2011 p. 247) In perceiving the world, we are continually extracting sensory information to guide our attempts in discerning what it is that lies before us. Even with the most mundane kinds of construal, such as perceiving objects or environments, we bring a great deal of knowledge to the perceptual process. This is only truer in the case of perceiving other people. Our rich set of prior experiences with another person or the regularities in our experience with whole groups of people (e.g., sex, race, age) undoubtedly provide a lens through which we construe others. Beyond the prior knowledge that might contextualize perception, our everyday encounters with others are also replete with complex affective and motivational states. Though there is much prior knowledge about the objects or environments we might encounter, this only pales in comparison with what is brought to the table when perceiving other people. We may have stereotypic beliefs about people of a certain sex, we may feel disdain for someone who has made us cry, or we may be motivated to make a good impression to land the job. In short, there is an enormity of prior knowledge and high-level states that may be brought to bear on the perception of our social world. Although traditionally it was long assumed that perception is primarily a bottom-up phenomenon and insulated from any top-down influence of higher-order processes, it is becoming increasingly clear that perception arises instead from both bottom-up and top-down influences. We argue, therefore, that our prior knowledge and expectations about people, our stereotypes, and our affective and motivational states may all dynamically interact with incoming sensory information in the perceptual process to shape person construal .

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) (Rodrigues, de Lima Bicho, Paravisi, et. al., 2010) are virtual characters that try to mimic several characteristics of real humans, such as interaction with other agents and the environment, and that present some level of autonomy. Within the context of IVAs, the development of easy and interactive manners to control the motion of virtual objects is an important open problem that presents application in different areas, such as computer graphics and robotics. In particular, steering behaviors of groups of characters is important in games, movie productions, and simulation tools, among others. Indeed, this technology can be applied in any situation in which mobile entities can be simulated. Research akin to the above mentioned could prove to be useful in determining group behaviors and outcomes; in marketing one of the most important things that need to be done, is to be able to see a product or idea through the eyes of the consumer; this allows for the production and marketing of a product that will be what the consumer wants and what will sell. It has also been explained that in the past many models have been proposed aiming to provide different ways to steer behaviors of groups.

Tracey (2009) further explained in her research that Instructional design (ID) is de-ned as an arrangement of resources and procedures used to promote learning. ID models are visual representations of the ID process and are used to guide design in many settings and for many purposes. They are typically a result of the combination of abstract principles of General Systems Theory and analyses of practitioner experience. Instructional design is the process used to create the type and delivery of instruction. She concluded that there are some who see design as problem solving; others view it as a process of re-ection-in-action, where designers take on the task of turning indeterminate situations into determinate ones.