Bridging the material, social, and psychological world along the smart wearable journey in high-touch services

Service organizations increasingly embrace smart products – i.e. physical products enhanced by digital components – in high-touch services because of their potential to improve service delivery processes in which human actors are involved (e.g. Mele et al., 2022; Sharp et al., 2021). Recent research highlights the rise of smart wearables (e.g. smart trackers and smart glasses in healthcare) as specific type of smart products that users wear. Despite smart products’ ability to connect different actors in service systems (Henkens et al., 2021), smart wearables may also distract human actors and hence hinder social interactions that are key in high-touch services (e.g. Schein & Rauschnabel, 2021; Wünderlich et al., 2013). As such, smart wearables may alter routine patterns of interaction between human actors through which they connect, which are referred to as social practices. The notion that human actors’ social practices (in the social world) are influenced by smart wearables (in the material world) points to the need for a socio-material perspective that emphasize the inseparability of the material and the social (Orlikowski & Scott, 2008). Nevertheless, research remains silent on the dynamic interplay between socio-material practices to smart wearables (material world), to human actors (social world), and engagement with the smart wearable (psychological world) in high-touch services. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the interplay between the material, social, and psychological world and its evolution over time. This aim is addressed by engaging in a longitudinal ethnographic study regarding the implementation of smart glasses in a home care context. Plotting employees’ engagement over time – in line with process theory approach (Langley et al., 1999) – revealed a smart wearable engagement journey with different phases. Over time, human actors’ engagement with the smart wearable is shaped by and shapes human actors’ perceived fit with socio-material practices to the smart wearable as well as to human actors. Notably, the perceived socio-material fit is not only experienced with regard to the self but also to others like the organization, other employees and patients (e.g. perceived fit with organizational practice, professional practices of other employees, and interactional practices of patients). These insights contribute to a better understanding of smart products as boundary objects in healthcare service systems over time (e.g. Sharp et a