Customer Value of Smart Grid Application: Implications for E-Service Design in Smart Cities

Introduction

In this paper, we investigate the customer value of smart grid application in smart city. Our paper combines two important topical themes: digitization of our basic infrastructure and e-service design from the perspective of the customer value. We approach the topic from design thinking perspective. Customers' are now using smart grid application to monitor their electricity, water and central heating consumption, thus information of the customer value of the application is needed to develop e-service design and to understand the role of customer value in smart cities. The basic premises of both the customer value literature and the service design thinking are quite similar in ways they highlight the value of the product or service for the customer, but differences exist in how they conceptualize customer value.

This paper is structured as follows: We first examine the paradigms of customer value with different basic categories and metrics to analyze customer value. After this we look smart grids of the smart cities as a context. After this literature review, we explain our empirical material and methods based on which we describe the perceived customer value of the smart grid application. In the end we discuss how customer value research should be further developed to take the smart grid context into account and what are the practical implications for e-service design in smart cities.