Making service provisioning significantly more sustainable is crucial if humankind wants to make a serious effort to operate withinthe boundaries of what the planet can support. The purpose of this paper is to develop a systemic understanding of sustainability inservice provision and shed light on the mechanisms that drive unsustainability and hinder service providers in their efforts to bemore sustainable. To contextualize our study, we focus on a significant sustainability problem: food waste stemming from foodretail at the retailer-consumer interface. We make two theoretical contributions to the service research on sustainability. First, weoffer a systemic conceptualization of sustainability in service as a dynamic ability of a focal system (e.g., a servicefirm) to sustain thesystem(s) that contains it. Second, we explicate the mechanisms—stocks andflows, feedback and mindsets—that contribute to(un)sustainable service provision as a systemic behavior, and which can thus be used as intervention points when designingsustainability initiatives. Our work also has significant practical implications for food retailers and policymakers working towardsreaching UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, as we specify the feedback loops that drive food waste and hinder efforts toreduce it at the retailer-consumer interface.

Despite the importance of public services, a sound conceptualization of what they are is lacking. Following an analysis of research on public service logic, public value and practices, this paper proposes a public services as practices framework. This framework defines public services as bundles of shared public value co-creation practices that consists of templates and performances. While templates are designed to co-create public and private value, these types of value can be both co-created and co-destroyed during performances. The framework contributes by conceptualizing what public services are and how public and private value are co-created and co-destroyed through public services.

This paper argues that the theoretical foundation for studying the ecosystemic nature of value creation is lacking within the public service logic (PSL). To address this limitation, the paper uses a theory synthesis to clarify service-related key concepts and develop four premises that position PSL as an ecosystemic framework. These premises 1) position PSL as a mid-range theoretical framework, 2) propose the service ecosystem as an analytical framework, 3) define service (not services) as the basis for PSL, and 4) acknowledge the mediating role of the public service organization in value co-creation. Research directions guide the future development of PSL.

This article argues that citizens play a key role in sustainability transitions: Citizens have unique knowledge on why social problems occur and experiment with possible solutions to these problems. Yet transformative innovation policy - a policy frame that promotes socio-technical systems change - is guided by a producer-centric innovation paradigm, which focuses on technological breakthroughs rather than social changes driven by citizens. By drawing on multiple research fields, and by using the example of household food waste, this article challenges this paradigm and asserts that addressing sustainability challenges requires a policy frame that defines citizens as an innovation source.

This article contributes a novel approach to public service design in the age of digitalization. Termed 'design for experience', this approach builds on developments in the fields of digitalization, user experience, and service design, as well as the integration of the service ecosystem concept. 'Design for experience' aims to facilitate value propositions that support public service users to co-create value in their lifeworlds. Achieving this requires a multi-level approach because a user's value creation process is embedded in a multi-actor configuration and governed by institutions. A conceptual framework is offered, alongside guidance in applying the 'design for experience' approach.

How might service design realize change in legacy organizations? This chapter discusses this question by linking service design research with literature on legacy organizations, which are characterized by highly regulated and well-established constellations of actors, resources and structures. Illustrative examples of service design approaches from healthcare and legal services show that tapping into agency at the individual level is important to enable and drive collective change. In this context, the role of service design is to establish an open and safe environment for actors to unpack underlying assumptions and experiment with new ways of working that can catalyze larger-scale change.

Purpose This paper aims to develop and apply a service design method that allows for stronger recognition and integration of human activities into the front-end stages of the service design process. Design/methodology/approach Following a discussion of different service design perspectives and activity theory, the paper develops a method called activity-set mapping (ActS). ActS is applied to an exploratory service design project to demonstrate its use. Findings Three broad perspectives on service design are suggested: (1) the dyadic interaction, (2) the systemic interaction and (3) the customer activity perspectives. The ActS method draws on the latter perspective and focuses on the study of human activity sets. The application of ActS shows that the method can help identify and visualize sets of activities. Research limitations/implications The ActS method opens new avenues for service design by zooming in on the micro level and capturing the set of activities linked to a desired goal achievement. However, the method is limited to activities reported by research participants and may exclude unconscious activities. Further research is needed to validate and refine the method. Practical implications The ActS method will help service designers explore activities in which humans engage to achieve a desired goal/end state. Originality/value The concept of "human activity set" is new to service research and opens analytical opportunities for service design. The ActS method contributes a visualization tool for identifying activity sets and uncovering the benefits, sacrifices and frequency of activities.

This article analyses whether involving public service users in the recruitment of frontline employees (FLEs) helps to identify candidates who have the skills needed to co-produce with citizens. It investigates user involvement in FLE recruitment in three public service organisations in Sweden - from the perspectives of service managers, service developers, Human Resource Managers, union representatives and frontline employees. It finds that involving users was perceived to be beneficial for attracting and identifying applicants with a user-centred mindset. User involvement was also seen useful for establishing realistic expectations of what public services can deliver. However, a perceived challenge was to ensure equality and equity of user contributions. This included finding users who were sufficiently informed but without resorting to 'expert users'. Many users required preparation, which added to the complexity and cost of recruitment, and it was important to overcome internal resistance by involving staff in designing and trialling the process.

The chapter seeks to provide a contemporaneous view of the e-commerce market in China. Through a review of extant literature, the authors aim to both reinforce previous evidence and research into this important area of commerce, whilst also providing future recommendations for firms seeking to gain a greater foothold in the e-commerce sector in China. A series of strategies are therefore posited to provide new entrants with a framework from which future market share growth in the Chinese e-commerce environment might be derived.

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.