Purpose: The philosophical foundations determine how an academic discipline identifies, understands and analyzes phenomena. The choice of philosophical perspective is vital for both marketing and service research. This paper aims to propose a social and systemic perspective that addresses current challenges in service and marketing research by revisiting the philosophy of science debate. Design/methodology/approach: The paper revisits the philosophy of science debate to address the implications of an emergent, complex and adaptive view of marketing and service research. It draws on critical realism by combining structuration and systemic perspectives. Findings: A recursive perspective, drawing on structures and action, is suggested as it includes multiple actors’ intentions and captures underlying drivers of market exchange as a basis for developing marketing and service strategies in practice. This is aligned with other scholars arguing for a more systemic, adaptive and complex view of markets in light of emerging streams in academic marketing and service research, ranging from value cocreation, effectuation, emergence and open source to empirical phenomena such as digitalization, robotization and the growth of international networks. Research limitations/implications: The reciprocal dynamic between individuals and the overarching system provides a reflexivity approach intrinsic to the service ecosystem. This creates new avenues for research on marketing and service phenomena. Originality/value: This paper discusses critics, conflicts and conceptualization in service research. It suggests a possible approach for service research and marketing scholars capable of responding to current complexities and turbulence in economic and societal contexts. 

There are many approaches to understanding value cocreation embedded in a service ecosystem. Usually, the value cocreation has portrayed “ecosystem as a structure.” In this chapter, the authors emphasize the ecosystem “as an agency,” focusing on the actor’s essential role. The ecosystem lens has developed with the key concepts of actors’ resources and institutional arrangements, shaping value cocreation. Some authors have defined “service ecosystems” as relatively self-contained, self-adjusting systems of resource-integrating actors connected by shared institutional arrangements and mutual value creation through service exchange. Accordingly, value cocreation in service ecosystems is “coordinated through actor-generated institutions and institutional arrangements.” However, the authors argue that the key role of actors, their collaboration, and the orchestration of research in value cocreation processes is still underdeveloped and needs more attention. Agency-structure theories should then discuss the actor’s key role for value cocreation by looking at both societal- and individual-focused realms, thus including social aspects of service ecosystems. Next, the chapter offers a brief review of the service ecosystem literature and discusses the key role of collaborating actors in service ecosystems; finally, it provides suggestions for future service research grounded in a service ecosystem view on value cocreation.

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.

Purpose: Service managers increasingly strive to achieve sustainability through strategies centered on circularity. With a focus on saving, extending and (re)generating resources and their enclosing service systems, circularity can contribute to environmental, social and financial gains. Yet, the notion of circularity is surprisingly understudied in service research. This article seeks to provide an initial conceptual understanding of circular service management, introducing illustrative strategies and research priorities for circular service management. This paper provides a roadmap for scholars, practitioners and policymakers to develop a deeper understanding of the opportunities from adopting circular services. Design/methodology/approach: The authors explore the concept of circular service management by drawing upon existing literature on sustainability, circularity and service research. Strategies of circular service management and research priorities emerge on the basis of industry best practice examples and research on sustainability challenges and opportunities. Findings: Service researchers have largely ignored the concept and role of circularity for service businesses. Extant research on the topic nearly exclusively features in non-service journals and/or does not seek to advance service theory through circularity. This article argues that circular service management enables the implementation of service thinking in the pursuit of sustainability and outlines four types of circular service management strategies. Originality/value: The authors introduce the concept of circular service management and highlight the role of service research for designing and managing circular systems and operations. This article also offers a research agenda connecting managerial challenges and opportunities with key service research priorities for circular service management. This provides a roadmap for scholars, practitioners and policymakers to develop a deeper understanding of pursuing circular services, thereby contributing to a more sustainable future. 

As one of the retailer’s most potent recovery tactics to offset disgruntled customers, firms invest heavily in compensation to increase customer satisfaction and improve loyalty. However, the effectiveness of this tactic remains unclear. This study examines whether firm-offered compensation affects customers’ emotional responses and bad-mouthing behavior (i.e., telling others about a particular problem). Importantly, the study investigates whether the level of collaboration during the recovery encounter moderates the link between compensation and customers’ emotional responses, and whether collaborative efforts influence the effectiveness of compensation. The findings indicate that collaboration during the recovery encounter is necessary if compensation is to mitigate negative emotional responses, with downstream effects on bad-mouthing behavior. In confirming the importance of collaboration during recovery encounters, the findings have critical managerial and financial implications.

The Encyclopedia of Services is a ground-breaking resource that offers a unique overview of what constitutes the main source of wealth and employment in our contemporary economies, namely services. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

Purpose The paper aims to conceptualize how behavioral shifts in times of crisis drive the transformation of value co-creation. Design/methodology/approach Referencing two empirical contexts, the paper explores how digital service platforms facilitate changes in actors' mental models and institutional arrangements (legal, social, technological) that drive transformation of value co-creation in service ecosystems. Findings The proposed conceptual framework contributes to existing research by identifying micro-level changes in actors' mental models and macro-level changes in institutional arrangements enabled by digital service platforms in service ecosystems. In particular, the framework identifies motivation, agility and resistance as moderators of behavioral shifts in times of crisis. This account offers a finer-grained theorization of the moderating factors and underlying mechanisms of service ecosystem transformation but does not extend to the ensuing "new normal." Practical implications The proposed framework indicates how digital platforms support shifts in actors' behavior and contribute to the transformation of value co-creation. While the enablers are situation-specific and may therefore vary according to the prevailing conditions, the actor-related concepts advanced here seem likely to remain relevant when analyzing the transformation of value co-creation in other crisis situations. Originality/value The new conceptual framework advanced here clarifies how behavioral shifts during a crisis drive the transformation of value co-creation and suggests directions for future research.

Service management is an academic discipline, a concept, and a practice, making it critical to define and illustrate. The core of service management is to carry out meaningful and vital tasks, solving problems, and realizing outcomes of value for customers, firms, and other engaged actors. Service management is focused on actor-driven processes and outcomes, organized in service ecosystems and shaped by available resources, norms, rules, and habits and defined as: “a set of competencies available for actors in the ecosystem, enabling and realizing value creation through service.” This emphasizes the crucial role of actors and their competencies for service provision, including creating value for themselves and others. Nevertheless, service management is about “getting things done”: realizing value outcomes by managing the necessary supporting prerequisites, structures, competencies, and resources.

In complex service ecosystems, service recovery becomes vital for the competitiveness and survival of both firms and their network partners. Current service recovery literature highlights three types of recovery outcomes: customer, procedural, and employee. This chapter expands the scope to argue for a fourth recovery component, the network recovery. The introduction of network recovery moves service recovery beyond its traditional customer context to include business-to-business settings. Network recovery is portrayed according to network characteristics, network structure, network relationships, and network dynamics. The proposed description of varied service recovery outcomes thus emphasizes both network recovery and a service recovery strategy.

Purpose Although service research typically asserts that institutions coordinate actors' value creation processes, institutions and resources are not necessarily transparent, aligned, or pre-existing. This paper aims to develop a more granular perspective on how actors coordinate for value. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the established concepts of signaling and screening theory, this paper adopts a service marketing perspective to explore how independent heterogeneous actors coordinate for value creation at the individual level. Illustrative cases of corporate startup collaborations are presented in support of the proposed conceptual framework. Findings Actors share and acquire information through signaling and screening activities in a coordinative dialogue with other actors. These resource integration activities (for resource creation and matching) affect actors' valuations and future actions. Originality/value The one-sided explanations of coordination in the existing literature reflect the dominance of the institutional theory. By contrast, the proposed agency-oriented perspective based on the integration of signaling and screening functions offers a more granular conceptualization of the resource integration process. As well as capturing how actors use coordinating dialogue to match resources and institutions, this account also shows that matching is a core element of resource integration rather than an antecedent. The findings indicate paths for future research that focus on the actor.