Understanding the psychology of knowledge sharing and experience in digital service ecosystems.

We co-create values for brands on social media: The roles of social endorsements.

Drawing on social contagion theory, this study conceptualizes value co-creation in group tours as a situational and episodic contagion process, operating in socially intensive yet temporally bounded contexts with limited normative stabilization. Across four complementary studies, including a field experiment and three scenario-based experiments, results show that tour guides’ value co-creation behaviors significantly enhance tourists’ value co-creation behavioral intentions. This effect is mediated by tourists’ perceptions of a value co-creation climate, defined as a transient, interaction-based construct reflecting rapidly formed shared perceptions within a specific tour experience rather than a stable organizational climate. The perceived climate significantly strengthens tourists’ participation behavioral intentions but does not significantly affect their citizenship behavioral intentions. In addition, trait cynicism negatively moderates the effects of tour guides’ value co-creation behaviors on both perceived climate and tourists’ value co-creation behavioral intentions. By demonstrating how contagion operates differently in short-term, experience-based tourism contexts, this study refines social contagion theory in guided tourism. Importantly, the findings suggest that tour guides function as critical leverage points for stimulating tourists’ value co-creation behavioral intentions and perceptions of a value co-creation climate, offering actionable implications for guide training and destination management aimed at fostering sustainable tourism outcomes.

Purpose This study analyzes how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-driven coordination systems enhance value co-creation (VCC) among diverse stakeholders in the logistics and transport corridor of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) amid geopolitical volatility. It addresses the research gap in understanding organizational coordination challenges beyond physical infrastructure vulnerabilities in strategically significant logistics and transport corridors, with broader implications for similar contexts worldwide. Design/methodology/approach The research employs a qualitative methodology drawing upon VCC theory. Primary data collection involves semi-structured interviews with 35 stakeholders involved in CPEC operations. Secondary data encompass reports and scholarly research articles. This was followed by a supplemental survey designed as a structured member reflection to quantify the prevalence of themes and perceptions of value analysis. Findings The findings suggest that language and cultural misalignment, information hoarding and fragmented bureaucratic decision-making are all intensified by geopolitical instability and security risks hindering stakeholder collaboration in the CPEC corridor. To overcome these challenges, GenAI-driven coordination systems enable real-time data sharing and predictive risk management, thereby enhancing VCC among stakeholders, leading to resilience of supply chains. A follow-up quantitative supplemental survey of CPEC stakeholders triangulates that collaboration, knowledge sharing and GenAI tools are perceived as strengthening adaptive capacity and resilience, while geopolitical volatility and inadequate governmental responses remain critical barriers to sustained VCC. Originality/value This study advances VCC research by providing a novel analytical framework for evaluating GenAI-driven stakeholder collaboration in high-risk, cross-border logistics and transport corridors. It offers practical insights for designing governance policies that overcome geopolitical barriers, enabling logistics and transport corridors to withstand disruptions through enhanced collaborative value creation.

ABSTRACT Advancing healthcare innovation involves deep uncertainty for the engaged stakeholders. We present an inductive study on business venture sensemaking and its role in the shaping of an early-stage healthcare innovation. We address the understudied phenomenon through the context of personalised medicine. We analyse qualitative data that comprises 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with key organisational stakeholders in Finland involved in personalised medicine including business ventures, the public sector and academia. Our results show that stakeholders involved in personalised medicine engage in multistakeholder dialogue through prospective sensemaking. This sensemaking includes three antenarratives: 1) the anticipation of value prospects, 2) the integration for value co-creation, and 3) institutionalisation of value expectations. We find that venture participation in the early stages of innovation is constrained by the academic and public sector stakeholders’ sensemaking, especially during the construction of frameworks and associated understandings. We illuminate the dynamics of prospective sensemaking and multistakeholder interests and provide insights into the required collaborative efforts to navigate ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty. This study contributes to healthcare innovation literature through the provision of an increased understanding about future value creation during early-stage healthcare innovation, viewed as an incremental process towards the future through collaborative multistakeholder dialogue. We provide a framework for complex multistakeholder dynamics in early-stage healthcare innovation.

ABSTRACT Traditional restaurants, as Tradition-Based Firms, preserve cultural and historical heritage through time-honored recipes, symbols, and practices. To maintain authenticity, managers must balance innovation implementation with tradition preservation. This study examines how customer value co-creation and customer engagement contribute to sustainable competitive advantage in these businesses. Based on a qualitative exploratory study of long-established restaurants, the findings identify three mechanisms linking these constructs: increased innovation capacity, strengthened organizational image, and the development of customers’ affective memories. We propose guidelines and a design framework for strategy formulation, showing how customer involvement can support innovation while preserving authenticity and heritage.

The role of digital service innovation for value proposition co-creation in emerging sustainable platform ecosystems.

This study explores how a healthcare organization can strategically orchestrate a digital platform-based business ecosystem (BE) to drive service innovation, improve care quality, and enhance patient-centered outcomes. Using SH Medicine Corporation in Taiwan as a case study, this research provides new insights into how service-dominant logic (SDL) and digital transformation reshape organizational practices and interorganizational coordination in healthcare. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, this study analyzed SH's ecosystem development through semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and on-site observations. The case illustrates how SH, as a focal actor, integrates hospitals, pharmacies, biotech firms, and digital service platforms into a decentralized yet coordinated system. The analysis draws on the theoretical lenses of SDL, resource orchestration, and business ecosystem theory. The findings reveal that SH leverages modular platform design, AI-enabled services, and real-time data orchestration to enhance procedural efficiency, service accessibility, and care personalization. By actively engaging with patients and community members as value co-creators, SH redefined the boundaries of traditional healthcare delivery. This study also highlights how SH aligns innovation with national health insurance policies to overcome resource constraints and sustain operational performance. This study contributes to the healthcare management literature by demonstrating how platform-based ecosystems and digital transformation can be operationalized to achieve both innovation and equity in healthcare services. It extends the SDL theory to health system design and identifies ecosystem-level resource orchestration as a critical capability for advancing resilient, intelligent, and inclusive healthcare organizations.

From information to experience: Using design thinking to support pharmacy students preparing for multiple mini interviews.

ABSTRACT As conversational AI agents (CAIAs) become embedded in customer – firm interactions, the theoretical models employed to account for their acceptance increasingly appear inappropriate. This systematic literature review synthesizes 58 empirical studies (2018–2025) and exposes a core tension: established frameworks such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) rest on assumptions of instrumentally rational users evaluating stable system attributes, yet CAIAs are adaptive, probabilistic, and socially responsive in ways that render those assumptions problematic. The resulting mismatch, we argue, is responsible for contradictory empirical findings, particularly at the intersection of trust, anthropomorphism, and perceived risk. Where rationalist models fall short, the Computers as Social Actors (CASA) paradigm proves more apt at capturing relational dynamics, though it too offers only a partial account. By distinguishing between utilitarian and relational agent types and between high-stakes and low-stakes decision contexts, the review uncovers boundary conditions that earlier syntheses have left unexamined. Drawing on consumer decision-making, value co-creation, and relationship management scholarship, we develop a marketing-centred research agenda comprising five theoretically grounded directions. Managerial guidance is offered for CAIA design attuned to distinct phases of the customer journey.

How destination social responsibility shapes residents' value co-creation: The role of empowerment and trait cynicism

Linking digital platform transparency with circular consumption: The interplay of awareness, perception, and value co-creation

Value co-creation in food tourism: How prior knowledge, involvement, and food quality shape satisfaction and destination identity

Farmers’ perceptions and government-farmer value co-creation: The roles of artificial intelligence adoption and government support

Organizations adopting generative AI (GenAI) face complex strategic tensions among management, departments, and employees that fundamentally determine adoption outcomes. This study develops a multi-level Bayesian game-theoretic framework modeling these multi-stakeholder interactions, identifying four distinct adoption patterns through formal equilibrium analysis. Our theoretical derivations establish that successful GenAI implementation requires three analytically-derived conditions: (1) strong strategic complementarity across departments, (2) efficient investment allocation, and (3) effective employee displacement mitigation. The formal model specifies explicit utility functions for three stakeholder groups — senior management, departmental units, and individual employees — and characterizes Bayesian Nash equilibria under incomplete information. Companies must simultaneously invest in cross-functional coordination mechanisms, establish shared governance structures, and implement workforce development programs that position GenAI as a capability enhancement rather than a job replacement. Our computational analysis, based on 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations with explicit parameter specifications and convergence criteria, demonstrates that coordination-focused strategies significantly outperform technology-focused approaches in organizational welfare, providing actionable guidance for AI transformation leadership. • Multi-level Bayesian game models GenAI adoption inside organizations. • Strategic complementarity drives coordinated GenAI value creation. • Employee displacement risks critically shape adoption equilibria. • Coordination strategies outperform technology-first GenAI adoption. • Formal thresholds distinguish value co-creation from co-destruction.

Purpose We propose contradiction as a theoretical lens for explaining the micro-level dynamics of value co-creation (VCC) and value co-destruction (VCD). Although these phenomena are often treated as interconnected, their exact relationship – how they dynamically interact, emerge and evolve in specific service contexts – remains insufficiently theorized and empirically examined. Design/methodology/approach We draw on data from online discussion forums and in-depth interviews with geocachers. Through interpretive content analysis, we identify disturbances such as problems, errors and conflicts. These disturbances are categorized as VCC or VCD tensions from which underlying contradictions are derived. Findings Our study shows how to uncover the dynamics of VCC and VCD in a service system. We identify eight distinct VCC and VCD practices and illustrate the associated contradictory poles embedded in the geocaching context. Research limitations/implications We offer a micro-level analytical approach to studying VCC and VCD within service systems. By integrating the dialectical concept of contradiction, we are the first to explicitly conceptualize and justify its embedded connections with VCC and VCD. Practical implications The findings provide actionable insights for the management of service systems, such as geocaching and related services. By identifying specific contradictions, managers can target interventions that enhance VCC while reducing VCD. Originality/value This research bridges service-dominant logic and dialectical theory to empirically examine the duality of VCC and VCD within a service system. Thus, the study advances the understanding of the dynamics between these two phenomena.

Purpose In the current digital landscape, optimizing and streamlining value chains is imperative for organizations to maintain competitiveness and meet evolving customer demands. This study aims to investigate the impact of value co-creation between supply chain engagement and digital transformation on the organization’s resource commitment, focusing on how enterprises adjust their resource commitment and influence on operational strategy. Specifically, the research explores the relationship of supply chain engagement, digital transformation, functional resources and organizational strategy. Design/methodology/approach Survey data consisting of 252 manufacturing firms is used to study the supply chain engagement and digital transformation value co-creation. Findings The findings indicate that digital transformation between supply chain engagement and the functional resource commitment mediates the relationship between supply chain engagement, resource commitment and operational strategy, which supports the idea of a value co-creation relationship. When firms and supply chain engagement to target efforts on functional resource commitment, digital transformation can be directed toward the development of an operational strategy. Originality/value This study contributes to understanding the mechanisms of value co-creation in supply chains by examining the relationships between supply chain engagement, functional resources, operational strategy and the mediating role of digital transformation. The findings not only extend theoretical frameworks by integrating the resource-based view and value co-creation theory but also offer practical guidance for firms seeking to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced business environment.

ABSTRACT Incumbent firms in traditional industries are increasingly launching digital platforms to leverage opportunities offered by digital technologies and facilitate the delivery of new services. To succeed in inter-platform competition, incumbents must develop a new platform ecosystem deployment (PED) capability, which will enable them to manage the dynamism of platform ecosystems while sustaining their legacy businesses. Despite several prominent cases of platform failure, the development of capabilities among incumbents for deploying platform ecosystems remains largely underexplored. Adopting a microfoundations lens, this study analyses three cases of incumbents in the enterprise Internet of Things domain. We find that two key mechanisms—routines and heuristics—constitute the core of the PED capability across its dimensions of platformisation, ecosystem cohesion, and value co-creation. Our findings reveal that, rather than replacing routines, heuristics moderate routines within the identified dimensions by accelerating, decelerating, or bypassing specific organisational actions. Acceleration enables firms to respond to platform dynamism and limited information, whereas deceleration enhances quality and ecosystem experiences. We theorise that incumbents adaptively combine routines and heuristics to configure and enact a PED capability, which enables them not only to catch up, but also to stay ahead of the curve in inter-platform competition.

This paper proposes using the term "Bioethics-in-Science" (BiS) to denote and delineate a set of emerging methodological approaches entangling bioethical inquiry directly within scientific practice. Drawing inspiration from Van Rensselaer Potter's original vision of bioethics as a collaborative bridge between biology and ethics, BiS represents a community of practice aiming to contribute to bioethical inquiry in three key ways. First, it reframes the relationship between ethics and science by treating scientific practice as inherently value-laden and recognizing scientists' relevant ethical expertise. Second, it develops methods-including ethics notebooks, collaborative workshops, and conceptual mapping-which facilitate a shift from mere external evaluation towards continuous ethical deliberation within research environments. Third, it demonstrates how bioethical inquiry can actively contribute to improving scientific practice through the co-creation of knowledge and values. Through case studies from synthetic biology, neurodiversity research, and proteomics, we illustrate how BiS arose from and operates in practice, and examine the challenges of crossing disciplinary boundaries. As such, we position BiS as offering a pathway for bioethical inquiry to move beyond its peripheral position vis-à-vis the sciences and engage meaningfully with the normative dimensions of scientific knowledge production instead, ultimately contributing to both better ethics and science.

Destination social responsibility (DSR) significantly shapes residents' behaviors. Nonetheless, the effects of DSR domains (must-be vs. attractive) on resident–tourist value co-creation intention (RVCI) remain unexplored. Grounded in Cognitive–Affective System Theory, this study conducted four scenario experiments to examine the differential effects of DSR domains on RVCI and to test the mediating roles of tolerance and gratitude, as well as the moderating roles of place attachment style (secure vs. insecure) and social norm intensity (high vs. low). The results show that attractive DSR has a stronger effect on RVCI than must-be DSR. Tolerance and gratitude significantly mediated the relationships between DSR domains and RVCI. Moreover, both place attachment style and social norm intensity moderated the relationships between DSR domains and RVCI, as well as the mediating roles of tolerance and gratitude. This study reveals the underlying processes through which DSR domains influence RVCI and provides theoretical insights and practical implications for destination management and sustainable tourism development.