As we have moved into a post-pandemic phase, the hospitality and tourism industry faces a new era where conditions are reshaped through new realities like labor shortages, new work models (digital nomadism, work-from-home), inflation, political uncertainties, new leisure and travel patterns, and increasing tourismphobia among local residents. In addition, the growing awareness of sustainability and climate change are adding new demands and challenges. Thus, there is a need to develop practical and conceptual knowledge on the role of digital transformation in meeting these challenges and for developing an industry that is resilient, sustainable, and responsible in its technology use. © 2024 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The hospitality industry has undergone a remarkable digital transformation over the last decade, which has affected how the industry delivers its services, organizes and leads work processes. Also, a few large international actors, such as TripAdvisor, have become increasingly dominant in hotel bookings while platforms like Airbnb have created new business models, which have caused disruption in the industry. As a result, information systems, business models, and business processes are continually analyzed, rethought, and changed. Furthermore, the hospitality industry is one of the industries most affected by the COVID19 pandemic, with numerous restrictions on businesses resulting in far reaching impacts, such as temporarily closed hotels, mass unemployment, and fast-changing mandates from governments that need to be implemented and managed. Put together, digital transformation and the challenges of Covid19 are reshaping conditions for the hospitality and tourism industry. It is therefore essential for both researchers and practitioners to develop practical and conceptual knowledge in order to understand the digital transformation caused by digital disruptions in the hospitality and tourism industry.

There are vital challenges for organization undergoing digital transformation, especially those that rely more and more on the ever-evolving platform economy. The hotel industry faces key problems as they need to have the power to control and augment the value chain supported by an ongoing access to accurate data (such as online customer behavior). We discuss on a conceptual level how such disruptive economic changes appear in the analogue and physical practice, at place in hotel organisations. We explore the practice of analogue disruption as it emerges as struggles and discontinuities that may not bring the expected flow of value to the business. This paper aims to examine how analogue disruptions takes place due to the ongoing digitalization in the hotel sector through the platform economy. We here apply a qualitative analysis with interpretative methodologies, that will open for further knowledge and insights on the analogue disruption of digital transformation. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

The increasing use of automated systems for decision-making and decision support in public administration is forming new practices and challenging public values since public services must be impartially accessible and designed for everyone. New robotistic process automation (RPA) systems are generally designed based on back-office structures. This requires clients to submit relevant data correctly in order for these services to function. However, not all potential or intended users of these services have the competence and the capacity to submit accurate data in the correct way. Front-line case workers at public agencies play critical roles in supporting those who have problems using the services due to the a forementioned accessibility requirements and there by work in bridging digital divides. This article analyses strategies used by front-line case workers to complement RPA and improve the inclusion of all clients in the services. It builds on qualitative case studies at two Swedish authorities, including in-depth interviews and observations. The study shows that the discretion of the front-line case workers is limited by the RPA systems, and they also have limited discretion to support clients in their use of the digital services. Instead, they develop strategies in line with more service- and socially-oriented values; duty-oriented values are integrated into the RPA. The analysis shows the importance of forming new support structures for inclusion when public services are automated to maintain the core public values of inclusion and democratic legitimacy.

Digitalization of public services has been high up on the political agenda in Sweden, with considerable efforts that accompany other initiatives to reform and modernize production of welfare services and their administration. Digital solutions are usedto build both technical and organizational innovations in public services, as well asin bureaucratic decision-making. The "Digital first principle" is guiding the European policies in the field and is also central in the Swedish digitalization strategy for public administration. This means that the contact between the citizens,the companies or other society actors, and the public sector authorities shall initially and to largest possible extent occur digitally.

A digital innovation that is currently spreading among Swedish municipalities is automatizing social assistance services mainly addressing income support for vulnerable citizens. In a context of nationally highly regulated income support schemes, the municipalities manage the digitalization of services highly differently, coping with inherent tensions in relation to their local autonomy. We have conducted a long-term case study following such an implementation case in amedium size Swedish municipality. Based on interviews, observations and workshops we can conclude that the implementation is hampered since it is not focusing on the core to coach for self-support and that it even made the system less transparent. This indicates that the principle 'digital first' has to be embedded into the core focus of the service and not address shallow interfaces.