Service Ecosystem Perspective Research Articles

The long and winding road of eHealth. The service ecosystem perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the eHealth ecosystem’s evolution during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its effects on the progression of care for patients with chronic cardiovascular disease.Design/methodology/approachTo attain the aim of the study, this study chose to adopt a qualitative method that matches the complexity of the issue. The study was conducted in a real context through 44 face-to-face semi-structured interviews of key informants at different levels of the Italian eHealth service ecosystem, via Microsoft Teams. The interviews were carried out from June 2020 to January 2021. In this research, we adopted an abductive approach that enabled a process where the theoretical framework and the data analysis evolved at the same time.FindingsThe study results were used to develop a conceptual framework that considers the key factors enabling and constraining the evolutionary process of the eHealth service ecosystem. In particular, the drivers that emerged from the study were actor role empowerment, actor–network engagement and resource reconfiguration while the inhibitors were inter- and intra-actor misalignment, resource myopia and the platformisation gap. The findings also revealed the pivotal role of the meso level in the development of the eHealth service ecosystem, boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueBy adopting a service ecosystem perspective, this paper contributes, at both a theoretical and a managerial level, to a better understanding of the dynamics related to the diffusion of eHealth. The study identifies the main issues that researchers, managers and policymakers should address to support the evolution of the eHealth service ecosystem, with particular regard to chronic cardiovascular disease.

How Has Digitalisation Influenced Value in the Music Market?

Abstract This paper focuses on how digitalisation has influenced actors’ value determination and value creation in the Swedish music market. It draws on the service-dominant logic (SDL) and the service ecosystem perspective to conceptualise value as co-created through the integration of resources by multiple actors in service exchange, enabled and constrained by institutions and institutional arrangements. Empirically, we draw on a qualitative study of the digitalisation of the Swedish music market that consists of fifty-two interviews with various actors. The findings suggest that digitalisation has influenced service engagement and consequently value creation and determination for various actors, and especially for consumers and producers. This paper contributes by integrating SDL and the service ecosystem perspective into music business research in a novel way to promote a deeper understanding of value, value determination, and value co-creation. This paper also contributes to SDL by suggesting that both value-in-exchange and value-in-use are important aspects of value determination and value co-creation.

‘La Città ideale’ as a Set of New Institutionalized Resources Integration Practices—Insights from a Pilot Project of the Sicily Region

This study aims to investigate whether and how institutions can contribute to generate value at a territorial level and in which way this value may fit with value-in-business. Starting from the conceptualization of value generation and its relationship with territorial development according to service ecosystem perspective, this study aims to present and discuss an experimental project carried out in a specific Italian area to better understand these main theoretical issues. Specifically, the Sicily region is significant for the genetic factors of the context, linked to a social and cultural structure which, despite the presence of numerous obstacles to socio-economic development, strengthen the path of ‘multi-actor and multi-level’ involvement, which implies the active participation of a plurality of local actors essential to generate value for the territory and for business.

Facilitating inter-professional integration in palliative care: A service ecosystem perspective

A paradigm shift toward healthcare inter-professional collaboration is leading to searches for ways to better facilitate integration. However, policy rhetoric often fails to acknowledge the complexity of healthcare service systems, and the difficulties involved in achieving successful collaborations. Consequently, more research is called for. We utilize the concept of a service ecosystem, a perspective currently prominent in service science, which is transforming the ways service systems are studied. This research aims to examine palliative care provision through a service ecosystem lens in order to uncover previously unidentified insights and opportunities for improvement. The palliative care ecosystem under study encompasses a defined geographical area of the UK. Data comprises pathographies (i.e., narratives of illness) with patients and their families (n = 31) and in-depth interviews with a variety of palliative care providers (n = 21), collected between 2017 and 2018. Capability issues comprising collaboration, coordination, and resource integration, together with communicating value all emerged as common themes impacting palliative care services. Taking a service ecosystem perspective, we also found shared intentionality for better integration and collaboration, with a desire among palliative care providers for the ecosystem's hospice organization to take the role of leader and facilitator. Acting on these findings, we demonstrate the ways new institutional arrangements provide a foundation for value cocreation. We make a contribution to the burgeoning service ecosystem literature which currently lacks empirical insights, particularly in health. We argue that in complex service systems such as healthcare, the focus must be on service design rather than organizational design, approached from the perspective of aggregation of service providers. We demonstrate empirically how reconfiguring resources and developing new institutional arrangements at the meso level can change micro-macro level interaction, enabling the emergence of new and enhanced value cocreation in palliative care.

Coronavirus crisis and health care: learning from a service ecosystem perspective

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis for healthcare systems worldwide. There have been significant challenges to managing public and private health care and related services systems’ capacity to cope with testing, treatment and containment of the virus. Drawing on the foundational research by Frow et al. (2019), the paper explores how adopting a service ecosystem perspective provides insight into the complexity of healthcare systems during times of extreme stress and uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachA healthcare framework based on a review of the service ecosystem literature is developed, and the COVID-19 crisis in Australia provides an illustrative case.FindingsThe study demonstrates how the service ecosystem perspective provides new insight into the dynamics and multilayered nature of a healthcare system during a pandemic. Three propositions are developed that offer directions for future research and managerial applications.Practical implicationsThe research provides an understanding of the relevance of managerial flexibility, innovation, learning and knowledge sharing, which offers opportunities leading to greater resilience in the healthcare system. In particular, the research addresses how service providers in the service ecosystem learn from this pandemic to inform future practices.Originality/valueThe service ecosystem perspective for health care offers fresh thinking and an understanding of how a shared worldview, institutional practices and supportive and disruptive factors influence the systems’ overall well-being during a crisis such as COVID-19.

Introducing relational dialectics on actor engagement in the social media ecosystem

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth understanding of actor engagement (AE) on social media by proposing a holistic and integrative conceptual framework.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of 118 articles, the paper draws on the service-dominant logic (SDL)-based service ecosystem perspective combined with the tenets of relational dialectics as theoretical lenses to inform AE research in social media.FindingsThe paper proposes a framework of AE in social media called the TASC model, an acronym of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis-Conflict. TASC introduces the dialectical nature of AE and discusses the contexts and levels of AE in the social media ecosystem and their evolving processes.Practical implicationsFirms can apply the knowledge provided by TASC to gather marketing intelligence and develop marketing strategies to anticipate tensions, motivate the desired AE intensity and valence and reinforce value co-creation in the social media ecosystem.Originality/valueTASC is a comprehensive framework that, for the first time, explains engagement at all levels of the social media ecosystem by combining the SDL-based service ecosystem view with the relational dialectics perspective.

Customer participation and well-being: the roles of service experience, customer empowerment and social support

PurposeThis research aims to contribute to the transformative service research (TSR) literature by examining how customer participation in the service process influences their service experience and eudaimonic well-being, as moderated by customer empowerment and social support.Design/methodology/approachIn the contexts of wedding (n = 623) and tourism services (n = 520), two surveys were conducted to test the hypotheses using mediation and moderation analyses.FindingsCustomer participation had a positive effect on their well-being, as mediated by service experience. These effects were moderated by customer empowerment and social support. Specifically, customer empowerment negatively moderated the relationship between customer participation and their service experience for both services. In addition, the moderating effect of social support on the relationship between customer participation and service experience was positive for the wedding service but negative for the tourism service.Practical implicationsThe findings imply that firms should encourage customer participation to enhance their service experience and well-being. In addition, the firm could judiciously empower customers by adapting to the level of customer participation. Furthermore, depending on the complexity of the service required to produce the expected service outcomes, the firm may encourage the customers to engage their social network for support.Originality/valueThis research uses the service ecosystem perspective to examine the roles of the customer, the firm and the customer's social network in shaping their service experience and well-being for two common and important mental stimulus services, enriching the authors’ understanding on the role mental stimulus services play in enhancing consumers' eudaimonic well-being.

Destination branding and co-creation: a service ecosystem perspective

PurposeDrawing on the service-dominant logic and the institutional theory, this paper aims to explore the value-creating mechanisms of branding in the destination context and the brand co-creation process at and between different levels of a service ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory research design was used to generate qualitative data from 18 in-depth interviews with important stakeholders and investigate how and why brand co-creation is fostered in the service ecosystem.FindingsThe study proposes a stepwise process of strategic imperatives for brand co-creation in the destination context. It presents the multi-directional flows of the brand meaning across levels of the tourism ecosystem and thereby interprets stakeholders’ efforts to co-create sustainable brands that gain prominence in the global tourism arena.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research might validate the framework in a quantitative research setting. The extended analysis of the value-creating ecosystem could investigate the role of institutions and brand value propositions across levels.Practical implicationsAcknowledging their limited control over the brand co-creation process, tourism practitioners are offered step-by-step guidance to help shape a destination brand that may retain relevance in the tourists’ minds. Critical insights are provided into resource sharing between actors and subsequent responsibilities for a sustainable destination branding strategy.Originality/valueThe paper considers the significance of the various levels in the ecosystem and the underlying mechanisms of brand co-creation in a somewhat neglected branding domain.

Service Ecosystem Design: Propositions, Process Model, and Future Research Agenda

While service design has been highlighted as a promising approach for driving innovation, there are often struggles in realizing lasting change in practice. The issues with long-term implementation reveal a reductionist view of service design that ignores the institutional arrangements and other interdependencies that influence design efforts within multi-actor service systems. The purpose of this article is to build a systemic understanding of service design to inform actors’ efforts aimed at intentional, long-term change in service systems. To achieve this aim, we inform the conceptual building blocks of service design by applying service-dominant logic’s service ecosystems perspective. Through this process, we develop four core propositions and a multilevel process model of service ecosystem design. The conceptualization of service ecosystem design advances service design theory by illuminating previously taken for granted aspects; explaining how intentional, long-term change emerges; and expanding the scope of service design beyond projects. Furthermore, this research offers a foundation for future research on service design that involves extending the systemic conceptualization of service design, conducting more holistic empirical investigations, and developing practical methods and approaches for the embedded, collective processes of designing.

Toward a new perspective on salesperson success and motivation: a trifocal framework

Recent developments in sales theory and practice have shed light on the increasing complexity of the sales domain, which inspires a reassessment of understanding salespeople’s success and underlying motivational needs. This research adopts a service ecosystem perspective to recognize the complexity faced by salespeople due to their relationships with multiple stakeholders/actors. The study draws on a qualitative research methodology, namely, focus groups, to explore research questions with sales professionals. Findings reveal that, when defining success, salespeople tend to consider three key stakeholders in the selling process: the customer, the firm, and the seller. Thus, the work of salespeople is framed through the lens of an advisor, an entrepreneur, and a personalizer, respectively, and posit that these lenses are linked to distinct motivational needs for identification, territorialization, efficiency, and customization, with each need associated with a set of key enablers. Collectively, these lenses, needs, and enablers comprise a trifocal perspective on salesperson success and motivation that parsimoniously captures the complexity of professional selling while allowing variations due to institutional and personal factors. The study concludes by discussing the theoretical and managerial contributions of this framework, along with outlining some avenues for future research.

A transformative supply chain response to COVID-19

PurposeThis research employs a transformative service lens to examine the role of the supply chain ecosystem in ensuring the health and safety of employees and customers as a well-being outcome during the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper examining the response of the supply chain to the current food crisis caused by the pandemic.FindingsBased on the service-dominant logic (SDL) paradigm, the COVID-19 examination of the supply chain ecosystem provides a foundation for further research employing a transformative lens.Research limitations/implicationsThe COVID-19 situation is primarily explored from a Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) societies’ context. Future research should explore the applicability of the transformative service lens to other societies.Practical implicationsThe conceptual discussion and research agenda provide direction for researchers, practitioners and policymakers towards a transformative supply chain ecosystem.Originality/valueThis research includes the well-being of employees and customers in the service supply chain outcome measures, draws supply chain management into the TSR domain, while also solidifies a service ecosystem perspective of supply chain management.

Adopting a value co-creation perspective to understand High Street regeneration

ABSTRACT The ‘High Street’ has traditionally played a key role in the health of towns worldwide. It is instrumental as a community hub, supporting local independent retail businesses and incubating entrepreneurship and innovation. Since 2009, thousands of stores have closed with record levels of shop vacancies. Reasons for the decline include a failure to respond to multi-channel retailing, wider demographic and economic changes and problems coordinating the network of actors who hold competing ideas about High Street regeneration. This paper evaluates the contribution of a value co-creation perspective in exploring strategy making in a complex retail high street ecosystem. It draws on Service-Dominant Logic and its service ecosystems perspective, institutional theory and data from a depth case study of strategy development in a UK High Street. The study illustrates how the value co-creation perspective, underpinned by institutional theory offers a rich appreciation of how actors in the ecosystem participate in shaping strategy. It identifies seven norms shared by the multiple actors, which serve as a point of reference for more sustainable strategy development. The normative analysis highlights the potential of operant resources amongst actors to shape strategy implementation. The study provides empirical evidence to support the role of institutions and institutional arrangements in effective value co-creation.

Online Grocery Shopping by NYC Public Housing Residents Using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits: A Service Ecosystems Perspective

This paper examines adoption of online grocery shopping, and potential cost and time savings compared to brick and mortar food retailers, by New York City public housing residents using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. A mixed methods action research project involving the co-creation of an online shopping club, the Farragut Food Club (FFC), recruited 300 members who registered to shop online using SNAP, and received waivers on delivery minimums and provided technical assistance and centralized food delivery. We conducted a survey (n = 206) and focus groups to understand shopping practices; FFC members collected receipts of groceries over two weeks before and after the pilot to measure foods purchased, stores patronized, and prices. We interviewed FFC members to elicit experiences with the pilot, and estimated cost differences between products purchased in brick and mortar stores and equivalent products online, and transportation time and cost differences. Online shopping represented a small (2.4%) percentage of grocery spending. Unit prices for products purchased on Amazon ($0.28) were significantly higher than for equivalent products purchased in brick and mortar stores ($0.23) (p < 0.001.) Compatibility with existing routines, low relative advantage, and cost of online products limited the adoption of online shopping among SNAP users.

Charting service ecosystems flexibility: A museum setting

The service ecosystems perspective has rarely been applied in literature tackling the nonprofit and voluntary sectors. Service ecosystems are defined as self‐adjusting systems of resource‐integrating actors connected by shared institutional arrangements and mutual value creation. By addressing service ecosystems flexibility (i.e., the ability of service ecosystems to adjust to changes), this article seeks to provide a framework that charts service ecosystems flexibility and explains its pillars, as well as the ways in which new technologies affect visitors and arts. The study focuses on service ecosystems changes initiated by technology, visitors, and organizers, aimed at increasing the level of museum visitors' experience. The study is performed in a service ecosystem comprising a sculpture arts exhibition and its online extensions in the form of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Collected data consist of interviews with the exhibition visitors and organizers, participative observations performed in the exhibition context, and online posts and media coverage related to the exhibition. The research process is iterative and abductive, continuously combining insights that emerge from the literature and the analyzed data through triangulation. The main findings emphasize organizers' pivotal role as the actor that orchestrates value cocreation in the service ecosystem by steering this process based on emerging changes. Additionally, the findings flesh out the role of technology in a service ecosystem and offer a more comprehensive view of service ecosystems flexibility.

Institutional change and routine dynamics in service ecosystems

PurposeThis study aims to understand and explain how institutional change occurs at the level of value co-creation practices in service ecosystems. Despite the centrality of collective practices to the service ecosystems perspective, theoretically grounded explanations of how practices change and become institutionalized remain underdeveloped. Applying the theory of routine dynamics, this paper addresses two questions as follows: what does the institutional change mean at the level of value co-creation practices and what processes underlie these changes?Design/methodology/approachThe study develops a conceptual framework that characterizes value co-creation practices as routines involving three aspects, namely, ostensive, performative and artifactual. As a key element in institutional change, the interplay between these informs an account of institutional change processes in service ecosystems.FindingsThe proposed conceptual framework specifies the conditions for institutional change in terms of value co-creation routines. First, any such change is seen to be grounded in alignment between changing institutional rules and the ostensive, performative and artifactual aspects of routines. Second, this alignment is seen to emerge through a dialectics of planned and practice-based activities during institutional change. An empirical research agenda is proposed for the analysis of institutional change processes in different service ecosystems.Originality/valueThis conceptual framework extends existing accounts of how service ecosystems change through the contributions of multiple actors at the level of value co-creation practices.

Reducing referral leakage: an analysis of health-care referrals in a service ecosystem

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address a critical problem for health-care organizations: patient referral leakage. This paper explores the nature of patient referrals by examining how health-care providers’ breadth and depth of connectivity within a hospital network and identification with each other influence the likelihood of future patient referrals.Design/methodology/approachThe data was collected by using a multi-sourced data set from the health-care industry. The proposed model was tested by using logistic regression to determine the likelihood of a primary care physician’s (PCP) referral to a specialist within a hospital network.FindingsA model linking provider connectivity to examine co-creation practices in the form of patient referrals is tested. Results indicate that patient referrals are multidimensional. A PCP’s likelihood to refer to a specialist within the hospital network is influenced by the breadth and depth of connectivity of each provider.Research limitations/implicationsThis investigation extends service ecosystems to patients, health-care providers and hospital organizations, making it the first to explore how different degrees of connectivity (breadth of referral partners and depth of exchange) between and among health-care providers influence the likelihood of future patient referrals. Findings complement extant literature on service ecosystems by empirically showing that provider relationships are interdependent and rely on the mutual coordination of benefits within the entire health-care organization and network.Practical implicationsManagers and health-care professionals can use the framework to build and strengthen relational ties/alliances within a service organization. An ecosystems perspective reduces patient referral leakage through enhanced organizational performance, competitive advantage and continuity of care.Originality/valueThe authors offer a novel view of referral relationships using hard-to-access proprietary data. Moreover, this study responds to the need for transformative service research by offering service researchers and policymakers a means to enhance consumer well-being. The main contribution of this study is a framework to gain a better understanding of patient referral relationships between employees (i.e., health-care providers) in an organization, thereby affording an opportunity to bolster operational efficiencies, improve clinical outcomes and strengthen referral pathways. By viewing health-care networks through a service ecosystems perspective, contextual boundaries and the relative power of relationships are also identified. The novel use of rarely available hospital data in this setting helps explain how patient leakage compromises the health of the ecosystem and its members.

Actor-to-actor tensions influencing waste management in building refurbishment projects: a service ecosystem perspective

Waste management in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has been a major research topic owing to the AEC industry being one of the top contributors of waste generation. However, research has primarily focused on new build and has neglected refurbishment projects which become relevant due to an aging building stock in Sweden and Europe. Various actors are involved in refurbishment projects which makes it important to study each actor as well as tensions between them. By using a service ecosystem perspective and relying on 38 interviews, this paper aims to investigate tensions and barriers between actors within the service ecosystem of CDW for refurbishment projects in Sweden. Based on the results, spatial barriers are the most mentioned barrier which also create the highest number of tensions between project and contractor mother firm, subcontractors, waste recycling firms and society/citizens. The majority of the tensions are found between projects and the contractor mother firms, followed by tensions between projects and clients and projects and subcontractors. Unlike previous studies investigating only one of the actor’s waste management practices, this paper contributes by investigating the interactions between seven different actors which is important for improving waste management practices in refurbishment projects.

Shaping Sustainable Service Ecosystems: An Analysis of Some Possible Enhancing Factors

Over the last years, sustainability and sustainable development have gained momentum also in-service research. Thus, this works is aimed at investigating the evolutionary path that links the Viable Systems Approach (VSA), service systems and service ecosystems perspectives to the most recent challenges of sustainability. Therefore, the analysis has been focused on start-ups’ ability to survive contributing to the shaping of a service ecosystem, which long-term viability can be ensured merging efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability targets. In this direction, the way networked interactions, occurring between a number of different actors (e.g., start-ups, customers, incubators, venture capitalists, other corporations, banks, education and financial institutions, governments) and facilitated by the most recent technologies, can shape a sustainable service ecosystem able to ensure viability to the actors who populate it has been investigated. To this end, an empirical analysis has been conducted to better define the main processes that can shape a start-ups’ sustainable service ecosystem. This work represents one of the first attempts to investigate start-ups’ surviving according to a service ecosystem perspective. An agenda for further research has been defined in order to further advance the analysis.

Continuing the development of the public service logic: a study of value co-destruction in public services

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a study of value co-destruction in public services, i.e. diminishment of value by interaction between providers, users, and other actors. The goal is to contribute to the public service logic (PSL) that suggest a shift from linear co-production to dynamic value co-creation. However, PSL has devoted scant attention to value co-destruction. The paper contributes by identifying four dimensions representing causes of value co-destruction in public services. The paper also shows how value may be co-destroyed in the interaction between several types of actors, thus advancing a service ecosystems perspective for understanding value co-destruction.

A service ecosystem perspective on the diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations

This article conceptualizes the diffusion of user innovations from a service ecosystem perspective. With the focus on sustainable innovations, the service ecosystem is evaluated, along with other systemic innovation concepts, as a possible theoretical basis for explaining the first adoption and diffusion of user innovations. It is proposed that an ecosystem perspective contributes three assumptions that help to better understand the (non)diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations: (1) innovation diffusion is a multi-level and -actor phenomenon; (2) an actor-to-actor orientation integrates user innovators into the ecosystem; (3) the service perspective defines innovation diffusion as an evolving co-created process. The assumptions are translated into policy implications and future research requirements for moving towards an innovation infrastructure that considers the role and contribution of users in sustainable innovation.