The Role of Socio-technical Devices in Framing the Current Strategic Issues and Future States of the Service Market

The aim of this paper is to inquire into the role of socio-technical devices like value metrics and accounting in organizing the service market. The authors provide a case on how such devices participates in framing the market for transportation during the introduction of large-scale bridges. In addition to the traditional role of accounting as a representation device, the authors also show how these devices participate in performing the service economy - undermining and redrawing organizational boundaries in unexpected ways. The presence of multiple connections with socio-technical devices are then brought into an explanation of the overflowing and reconfiguration of the transportation market.