Purpose: Sustainability transitions (STs) refer to large-scale step changes in complex systems required to face sustainability issues. We aim to delineate how they can unfold in service ecosystems, especially when inspired by regenerative thinking. Design/methodology/approach: We develop a conceptual framework based on a processual view of STs and provide a propositional inventory based on literature leveraging deductive reasoning. Moreover, we contextualize our conceptualizations by showing illustrative examples of cities coping with STs. Findings: We connect the perception of unsustainability with the shift toward service-dominant (S-D) logic and identify them as triggers of an ST; we focus on the role of nested service ecosystems and the adoption of regenerative thinking in STs; finally, we highlight the domino effect that can drive continuous change towards sustainability in service ecosystems. Future research could be focused on (loss of) sensemaking for driving STs, practical approaches to deal with institutional tensions in nested service ecosystems and the possible fractality of ST processes in service ecosystems. Originality/value: This study supports the understanding of STs in cities and other systems such as industries, markets and organizations. It contributes to ST literature by suggesting the adoption of S-D logic and system lenses to identify, drive and cope with system changes toward sustainability, showing implications for policymakers and practitioners. Furthermore, it contributes to S-D logic by unfolding the self-adjustment of service ecosystems and the focus of sustainability initiatives on nested service ecosystems to sustain the broader systems. Finally, it contributes to transformative service research by identifying how the procedural and inspirational principles characterizing regenerative thinking can support design for STs. © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The emergence of digital service platforms enabled numerous interaction effects that remain largely unexplored, especially when it comes to the intended or unintended impacts on non-customers. This article conceptualises service ethics for modern interactions enabled by digital service platforms. The conceptual framework is illustrated through two narratives of non-customers intentionally and unintentionally exploited by customer interactions enabled by digital service platforms. By integrating theoretical insights with illustrative narratives, this article demonstrates the potential impact of digital service platforms on non-customer well-being, highlighting instances of exploitation and unintended consequences. This study advances service research by focusing on non-customers who might experience intentional or unintentional exploitation. Furthermore, this article outlines a future research agenda for exploring and advancing the understanding of service ethics along with implications for fostering ethical business practices and shaping ethical societal norms.

A transformation that takes place in complex environments demands the engagement of different types of stakeholders from different organizations and domains, which impact the whole service management that integrates both the organization and the customer. Service management is not only for micro and meso processes. It need also to meet global challenges of complexity and wicked problems. In this chapter, we go back to the roots of service management with a societal aspect; to serve someone with the insight that business and ethics are intertwined and cannot be separated. The main focus is to highlight on using service management for going from firm-centric to a broader sustainable stakeholder view, and societal perspective for business societal transformation. 

The objective of this article is to create an understanding of how the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) can be used to steer stakeholder engagement for transformative change, meeting global challenges, and navigate a new business-societal practice driven by a values-based business model. The article is a conceptual study with case studies of the role that the SDGs play in multi-stakeholder dialog via the kind of sustainable business-societal practice that takes corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the next level, where it is embedded in a values-based business model, creating a new meaning to effect real business-societal transformation. Multi-stakeholder dialog implies interactive and communicative engagement with the full range of stakeholders in order to create value for all, employing a societal perspective and using the value network as a basis for effective decision-making. We explain our methodological approach by presenting multi-stakeholder dialog in practice, in the form of multiple case studies. These empirical settings consisted of two values-driven privately owned companies with a strong reporting mechanism and a clear transformation agenda based on the SDG challenges: IKEA and Lofbergs. The empirical study provides the basis for our proposed model. This article makes an original contribution to the study of the use of SDGs in management and service research. It investigates steering and navigating processes in specific contexts in order to determine what should be subject to legal enforcement and what comprises moral and/or ethical value, particularly at the societal level.

Interconnecting the concepts of sustainability, innovation and transformation, this book explains how organizations have successfully transformed themselves and wider society to foster a more sustainable future, and identifies the difficulties and challenges along the way. Part of the Principle of Responsible Management Education (PRME) series, the book promotes a strong voice for meeting sustainability challenges for transformative change in a globalized world through business education and practice.

A transition to a more sustainable way of doing business can only be attained by combining technology with profound system innovations and lifestyle changes. The chapters in the book, each written by a strong and well-recognized team of researchers in the field, open up the discussion about a new partnership between sustainability, innovation, and transformation that includes the global society (big world), the biosphere (small planet), and also requires a deep mind shift. The book presents cases from business (including Ikea and Eataly) and other service networks including the Base of the Pyramid (BoP), and illustrates how these organizations have transformed themselves for a sustainable future. The research perspectives are macro (policies and legislation), meso (institutional practices) and micro (business practices and individual behavior). This book is where research meets real-world business and societal practice. The chapters are grounded in business research, specifically the interdependencies between sustainability, innovation, and transformation, which makes for a robust basis for describing, explaining, and understanding the complex challenges faced by business and society in the 21st century.

The book is intended for graduate- and postgraduate-level students and executive education with implications for practitioners. Furthermore, it contributes to multidisciplinary research in the field of interaction between business and society with a view to extending the firm-centric view to encompass a broader, systemic, and dynamic understanding of business and societal transformation.

To tackle global challenges, we need to be aware of the complexity of “wicked” problems when contemplating large-scale change. These challenges must be tackled holistically because their various components are interconnected. By drawing on the concepts of sustainability, innovation, and transformation, this conceptual paper explains how organizations have successfully transformed themselves and wider society to foster a more sustainable future, and identifies the difficulties and challenges along the way. The study promotes a strong voice for meeting sustainability challenges for transformative change in a globalized world through business education and practice.

A transition to a more sustainable way of doing business can only be attained by combining technology with profound system innovations and lifestyle changes. The edited book, business transformation for sustainable future ( Sebhatu, Enquist, and Edvardsson, 2021), open up the discussion about a new partnership between sustainability, innovation, and transformation that includes the global society (big world), the biosphere (small planet), and the requirement for a deep mind shift. The book (Ibid) presents cases from business and other service networks including the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) and illustrates how these organizations have transformed themselves for a sustainable future. The research perspectives are macro (policies and legislation), meso (institutional practices), and micro (business practices and individual behavior). This is where research meets real-world business and societal practice. Therefore, this paper is grounded in business research, specifically the interdependencies between sustainability, innovation, and transformation, which makes for a robust basis for describing, explaining, and understanding the complex challenges faced by business and society in the 21st century. 

The paper demonstrates the need for assessing and understanding “how sustainable societal practices can contribute to a broader view of business transformation and vice versa?” in the interrelationship with different theories and different contexts. The concepts and their interdependencies of each contribute to a concluding model. The paper used narratives in a real context of challenge-driven business and societal practices, for instance, in IKEA and EATALY. The paper concludes with implications and future research recommendations of the transformation from “business as usual” to more inclusive and sustainable businesses and the society at large.

The aim of this conceptual article is to explain how sustainable business practices enable transformation from a circular economy to a circular society. A sustainability business practice, which has a broader mission than just being firm-centric, implies a regenerative, but also a more societal meaning in interaction with transformation and innovation. The article uses multidisciplinary theory to suggest a conceptual model. The explanatory power is shown in an empirical investigation, through a qualitative approach, of three values-based enterprises: IKEA, Löfbergs, and Eataly. These three enterprises use circular thinking and innovation as proactive tools for identifying challenges and developing a transformation agenda in implementing the SDGs.  This article contributes to the ongoing discussions on sustainability and service research by focusing on sustainability, innovation, and transformation by explicitly linking the adoption of sustainability to a circular economy using sustainable business-societal practices transformation to give an impact to the society to become more circular.  As a conceptual study, the article has also identified previously unexplored connections between sustainability and service research and introduced new constructs on linking the adoption of sustainability to a circular economy.

Keywords: circular economy; circular society; sustainability; transformation; service.