Abstract

The technological advancements connecting service providers with consumers have facilitated the digitization of several markets. In this research, I study how the interactions between service providers and clients are shaped by the digitization of a dyadic service experience traditionally delivered and consumed in person. Consumer research has studied online consumer interactions as technological advancements have shifted our consumption activities toward the digital realm. Specific to technologically reassembled collective practices, consumer research has focused on interactions between consumers with established personal relationships. However, the extant literature does not explain the dynamics of technologically mediated interactions between interpersonal service providers and clients. I ask: how does digitization impact the dynamics of interaction between service provider and client throughout the interpersonal service experience? My data consists of 26 in-depth interviews with therapists and therapy clients and 63 podcast episodes with psychotherapists discussing the impacts of digitization on therapy. Through interpretive analysis of this data, I theorize how to conduct dyadic transformative services by realizing affordances within a hybrid service landscape consisting of the spatial and digital arrangements of service provider and client. I also showcase how connective labor is performed in digitized services where the reduced visibility of body language cues hinders its delivery. I adopt microsociology and interaction ritual theory as theoretical lenses to understand how technological mediation reshapes the interaction dynamics between interpersonal service providers and clients. To account for the digital landscape through which the online dyadic service occurs, I apply affordance theory as an enabling lens to analyze my findings. My findings extend interaction ritual theory by theorizing how both service providers and clients are responsibilized within the hybrid service landscape to reach a successful interaction ritual. My research contributes theoretically by (1) developing a framework showcasing how digitized transformative services are performed via connective labor and maintained by responsibilizing both consumer and service provider, and (2) conceptualizing the connective space as the outcome of successful digitized interactions. My findings are also relevant to practitioners and managers who offer digitized dyadic services or develop the platforms through which commercial or personal interactions are mediated, respectively.