The increased recognition of the benefits of Service-Dominant (S-D Logic) has encouraged IT organizations to adopt an S-D Logic perspective. In order to streamline the service transformation process, a majority of them are using the best practice ITIL. However, the development of several ITIL books lacks a solid theoretical grounding based on  S-D Logic. This is problematic because it hinders IT-organizations to efficiently adopt a service perspective. The purpose of this paper is to present knowledge concerning how ITIL complies with the service perspective of S-D logic. The findings consist of knowledge about areas in ITIL which comply with S-D logic and areas where there is room for improvement. To increase compliance with a service-oriented perspective, ITIL needs to adopt contemporary definitions of service and value, including a stronger emphasis on value co-creation and abandoning a language that corresponds to traditional goods-dominant logic. The findings contribute to an improved understanding of shortcomings of ITIL regarding service-orientation. Based on the findings, this paper suggests some actions that can be applied as a remedy in cases where ITIL has low compliance with S-D logic. Moreover, the knowledge presented is essential for organizations that are using ITIL to transform their service processes to digital formats. 

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the key elements of professional identity in service work in order to provide more in-depth theoretical explanations as to why service workers do as they do while co-creating service. Design/methodology/approach: This study takes a multi-perspective on professional identity, i.e. using both an employee and a customer perspective, arguing that the phenomenon mainly consists of what these interactants jointly do during the service interaction and of the meanings that are attributed to it. The authors draw on a detailed empirical study of professionals working at a customer centre. Methodologically, the study is based on practice theory, which helps us to illuminate and analyse both the micro practices and the meaning attributed to the professional identity of service workers. Findings: The key elements of professional identity in service work are outlined within a framework that describes and explains three different facets of the service workers’ professional identity, i.e. as a core (i.e. individual resources, cognitive understanding, interaction), as conditions (i.e. service prerequisites), and as contour (i.e. demeanour and functions). Research limitations/implications: The findings are based on an empirical data set from a public transport customer centre. As the results are limited to one context, they do not provide statistical generalizability. Although limited to one service industry, the findings may still be of high relevance to a wide range of service organisations. Practical implications: The study shows the significance of managers not just talking about the importance of being service-minded; more exactly, a wide range of service prerequisites, beyond cognitive understanding, needs to be in place. It is crucial that service workers are given the time to develop their contextual knowledge of their customers, and of other parts of the service organisation. Originality/value: This study offers original empirical contributions concerning the key elements of professional identity. An alternative conceptualization of professional identity is provided, through which the paper adds to service research, explaining more specifically what kinds of knowledge and skills are in use during the co-creation of services.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to further develop the construct of service platform and to clarify the definition of service platform in an industrial context. To do so, an understanding of the foundations for service platforms, based on a service perspective, is created. Design/methodology/approach The study has adopted a qualitative case study approach and builds on in-depth interviews with remote service teams in two multinational firms: one in the food processing and packaging industry and the other in the pulp and paper industry. Findings The foundations for successful service platforms consist of modularising resources, integrations and service processes to create value propositions. The value propositions could result in variations of a service or in variations of different services. When defining the concept service platform, the perspective of service needs to be made evident; therefore, the authors define service platform as: value proposition(s) consisting of a modular structure that invites to and facilitates value co-creation between resources, through integration opportunities in a continuous service process. Research limitations/implications The results are based on the perspective of two suppliers in similar industries; only remote services were studied. Firms from different types of industries and other types of services could add to the research on service modularity according to a service perspective. Moreover, information about customers and other actors' involvement on the platform was gathered from the firms studied, no customers or other actors were interviewed. Practical implications This study shows the importance of a firm involving itself in the value creation of the customer, that is, focusing on value co-creation. This implies a close cooperation between the manufacturer and its customer - not only at a given point in time but also over a longer period of cooperation. Through the different types of modules building up the service platform, value co-creation can take place in various ways. Originality/value This study offers original empirical contributions on platforms from a service perspective. The study contributes to servitisation, service modularity and service (dominant) logic research by developing an understanding of the foundations for service platforms based on a service perspective. It also contributes to platform research more specifically by developing a definition of service platform in an industrial context.

In principle, organizations know how to do servitization, but in practice, many struggle to change their business models to include service offerings. To understand this struggle, this paper examines servitization in a large multinational manufacturer within the pulp and paper industry. Utilizing practice theory, the study explicates the servitization process as a contestation of a company's parallel business models — one existing and dominant; one emerging. As business models materialize in organizational practices, and therefore have the potential to frame and organize servitization efforts, the models give rise to contestations in the practices performed by actors in the organization and the ecosystem. The elements of such contestations provide a better understanding of the ways in which practices may be disrupted to support servitization. Contestations can thus be creative instead of problematic. As a result, this paper extends the conceptualization of servitization as a bottom-up, emergent and iterative process of business model contestation.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of ordinary employees in service innovation. Departing from the service-dominant (S-D) logic, service innovation is conceptualized as a resource integration process leading to the creation of value propositions.

Methodology

The paper reports on a case study of service development at three different organizations. Twenty ordinary employees were interviewed. Ordinary employees are defined as those lacking a formal innovation obligation, e.g. frontline employees. These normally have knowledge of both the customers’ needs and the firm’s ability to realize these.

Findings

The findings suggest that ordinary employees contribute to service innovation by test-driving resource integrations and potential value propositions. Specifically, the findings suggest that ordinary employees use three different ways of test-driving resources: Cognitive test-driving; Test-driving in practice, and Discursive test-driving. Although the findings suggest that these ways of test-driving resources are intertwined, they also suggest that parts of the innovation process are dominated by one of these.

Research limitations/implications

This article is based on a case study of three organizations, thus limiting the possibility of statistical generalization.

Originality/value

The study is novel in several respects: (i) it introduces the notion of resource test-driving; (ii) it provides a systematic empirical analysis of how ordinary employees contribute to service innovation through test-driving resource integrations and new value propositions; (iii) it offers an S-D logic informed service innovation model; (iv) it contributes to the S-D logic by detailing how resource integration takes place in practice.

The contribution of the present thesis is describing and explaining how value is co-created by addressing customer-employee role constellations during service encounters. There is a specific focus on customers’ and employees’ resource integration when co-creating value.

The thesis consists of five separate papers, one of which is a literature review and four are empirical papers. The empirical papers are based on data from the public employment service and the customs service inSweden.

The thesis offers two main contributions; the first of which is to service research by expanding knowledge of resource integration and value co-creation using e-government as the empirical context for outlining customers’ and employees’ value co-creation. The second contribution concerns which roles customers and employees enact during resource integration when value is being co-created. It was found that the roles of the employees were; interactor; customer oriented party, co-creator, and empowered party, while a customer can have the role of information integrator, accessibility needer, dialogue keeper, and/or knowledge transferee. Based on these two contributions, the thesis outlines understandings regarding role constellations in value co-creation. The role constellations suggest that customers and employees enact roles that impact how their resources are integrated. 

Finally, the thesis contributes towards building a theory of value co-creation by proposing that the ten foundational premises of S-D logic, together with the four theoretical propositions and the role constellations presented in this thesis, should be seen as an approach to building a theory of value co-creation. Together, these three building blocks offer the following explanation as to what occurs when a customer and an employee co-create value: (1) The ten foundational premises focus on resource integration and value co-creation. (2) The four theoretical propositions offer the explanation that resource integration occurs in the context of roles since a role decides how to use the knowledge and skills. (3) The role constellations give concrete examples of how customers and employees integrate their resources to co-create value.

Purpose: This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework of archetypical customer roles in a self-service-based system by applying role theory to understand customers’ resource integration and value co-creation efforts in practice. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a three-phase explorative case study of customers’ experiences of using self-service technologies at a furniture retailer. A total of 90 interviews were conducted. Findings: Four archetypical enacted customer roles during value co-creation in a self-service-based system are identified: passive non-bothered, passive hesitant, active realist and active independent. Furthermore, it is shown that these roles shape how resources become. Research limitations/implications: The challenges facing our retail practice bear similarities with those in other contexts, e.g. financial and travel industries, government or public sector service settings, in which self-service technologies are becoming more common. Therefore, this study setting enables some tentative generalizations. The case study approach, however, limits the statistical generalizability of the findings. Practical implications: The importance of understanding is that not all customers are well-equipped for co-creating value through self-service. By engaging customers and offering them guidance when they encounter difficulties in managing the value co-creation process, as well as viewing them as resource integrators and value co-creators, firms can help them enact more active roles. Originality/value: The archetypical customer roles contribute theoretically to detailing how resource integration and value co-creation can be shaped by enacted roles, an influence that has not been explicitly proposed in empirical service research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the effects of e-government on service design as perceived by employees.

Design/methodology/approach – The study uses semi-structured interviews with middle managers and front-line employees, complemented by documentary analysis, to investigate how the introduction of e-government has affected service design in two Swedish public-sector organisations.

Findings – The analysis reveals five dimensions of change in the design of services as a result of the introduction of e-government: service encounter and service process; customers as co-creators and sole producers of services; efficiency; increased complexity; and integration. The study discusses the significance of these findings with particular examples from transcriptions of the interviews.

Research limitations/implications – This study is rather limited and exploratory in nature; however, it does provide useful information on the categories of change in the redesign of services for e-government and it does point the way to important avenues of future research in this field.

Practical implications – Four practical implications flow from the present research: managers should involve both employees and customers in projects and processes during the introduction of e-government services; the services must be redesigned to ensure that the benefits of the information and communication technologies systems are fully realised; the introduction of e-government might require more time being made available to assist certain customers who are in need of extra time and support from employees; and the time that is saved as a result of the introduction of e-government must be profitably utilized by careful advance planning.

Originality/value – The study makes an original contribution by identifying five categories of change in the design of services in the context of the introduction of e-government.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding of how a service-dominant (S-D) professional identity can be established among the employees of an organisation that wishes to inculcate the tenets of S-D logic.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports a case study of a large Swedish public sector organisation in which the transition to e-government provided an opportunity to inculcate a new service-based professional identity among employees. The main data collection method is interviewing.

Findings – The study identifies four characteristics of a S-D professional identity: interaction; customer orientation; co-creation; and empowerment. The study finds that such an identity can be established through five socialisation processes: collective socialisation; random socialisation; serial socialisation; investiture socialisation; and divestiture socialisation.

Research limitations/implications – As with all case study research, the paper draws analytical generalisations but is unable to provide any statistical generalisations; further quantitative research is needed in this area. Moreover, the paper takes a intra-firm perspective; future studies could approach the topic from a consumer perspective.

Practical implications – Managers who wish to inculcate S-D logic in their organisations should focus on developing the interactive and co-creation skills of their employees, as well as empowering them and providing them with an enhanced understanding of customer orientation.

Originality/value – The study is novel in several respects: it provides a systematic empirical analysis of how S-D logic can be established in an organisation; the notion of a S-D professional identity is introduced; and the theory of organisational socialisation is applied to S-D logic research for the first time.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review selected literature on e-government service orientation and highlight differences between academic theory and empirical findings. To date, there has been little support for predictions made in the e-government conceptual literature.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a conceptual framework for a literature review of e-government and service orientation is presented. A systematic database search is then undertaken to identify the literature related to e-government and service orientation. Suitable papers are selected, carefully read, and systematically analysed according to the conceptual framework. A discussion and relevant conclusions are then presented.

Findings – The paper finds that a gap appears to exist between conceptual literature and empirical findings. For example, conceptual research claims that e-government will result in a reduction of staff, yet no empirical findings have proven this. The present study applies institutional theory for understanding the fundamental reasons to this gap.

Research limitations/implications – The paper is based on a literature review of 27 articles, three monographs and one edited volume focusing on service orientation and e-government. It does not attempt to examine the full range of the literature available within the field of e-government.

Originality/value – This review paper uniquely considers the gaps between the theory and practice of e-government service orientation, and identifies where they exist. Some possible explanations for the gaps are explored which can be of interest to both academics and practitioners working in the field.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of frontline employees in service innovation from a service-dominant logic (SDL) perspective. Frontline employees lack a formal innovation obligation. Service innovation is a resource integration process resulting in the creation of new value propositions.

Design/methodology/approach – A case study of service innovation projects that includes three different businesses in the IT sector and personal interviews with 25 frontline employees.

Findings – The findings suggest that frontline employees contribute to service innovation by test-driving potential value propositions. Three types of value proposition test-driving have been identified: cognitive, practical, and discursive. The findings suggest interdependencies between the different modes of value proposition test-driving, as well as specific phases of the service innovation process dominated by one form or another.

Research limitations/implications – Value proposition test-driving offers a fruitful context for managers to involve frontline employees and use their creativity and expertise. The case study approach, however, limits the statistical generalizability of the findings.

Originality/value – The study is novel in that it introduces the notion of value proposition test-drivingfor service innovation; provides a systematic empirical analysis of how frontline employees contribute toservice innovation by test-driving value propositions; offers a service innovation model informed by the SDL; and contributes to the SDL by detailing how service innovation occurs in practice.