Purpose:The aim of this paper is to assess and analyze how sustainable public transit services contribute to building a values based service eco-system for living cities and city regions value network and resource integration/value co-creation, which is embedded on societal and environmental perspectives. The objective is to look deeper on how the two cities in Europe Stockholm and Paris are put together the values based service eco system for escalating cities for people by focusing on societal and environmental issues, which bio-sphere is integrated in the eco-system in the way value is co-created within the service system. The main theoretical and empirical challenges are how to understand public transport as dynamic and transformative values based service eco-system for living city regions, to develop and implement a feasible and proactive tool for changing the mind-set. Service ecosystems need shared institutions (rules) to function effectively and coordinate activities among actors (Lusch and Vargo, 2014). These institutions have to cooperate in service ecosystems based on shared values and shared meanings (Edvardsson and Enquist, 2009). Public Transport as a dynamic and transformative values based service eco-system is about the role of governmental agencies and other stakeholders in the network (Enquist and Johnson, 2013). It also is part of moving towards transformational action from incremental progress for shaping sustainable business in an inclusive way (Williams, 2014).

Theoretical Frame work:Cities are holistic services (Spohrer 2010) that provide all of the essentials for a modern quality of life (Shirahada and Fisk, 2012). The challenges cities are facing is related to transformation that embedded on mobility, social and environmental perspectives. It is part of the overall Bio-sphere (Rockström and Klum, 2015) of transforming our world in the new sustainability agenda - a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity is the UN Sustainable Development Goals645(SDGs) (UN general assembly, September, 2015). It seeks for the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. The agenda calls for all countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan (Ibid). Public Transport as a dynamic and transformative (Anderson, 2013) values based service eco-system (Enquist and sebhatu, forthcoming) is fundamentally embed on the role of governmental agencies and other stakeholders in the network (Enquist and Johnson, 2013). Public Transport, today, is built upon transforming proactive city regions by developing sustainable and living cities (Kallidaikurichi and Yuen, 2010), especially in the emerging economies. The transformation has demands an incremental progress towards transformational action (Ostrom, 2014) for shaping an inclusive and sustainable business (Williams, 2014) for living cities. These cities are in transition for a transformative change (Grin et. al. 2010), which is built upon dynamic city networks and open to learn and innovate (Campell, 2012) a resilient infrastructure (Newman, 2010). Living cities have to be resilient to last and respond on crisis for change and build upon consensus around cooperation and partnership (Newman et. al., 2009). The opposite is cities build upon fear which make decisions based on short-term responses and the only driving force is competition (ibid.) However, the main challenge is lies on breaking the norm of using cars in the city (Hajer et al, 2012; Gärling et al, 2013) and to find an alternative discourse for a sustainable living city. However, the challenge is to breaking the norm of using cars in city regions (Hajer et al, 2012; Gärling et al, 2013) and to find an alternative discourse for a sustainable and living city. The main theoretical and empirical challenges are how to understand public transport as dynamic and transformative values based service eco-system for living city regions to develop and implement a feasible and proactive tool for changing the mindset.

Design/methodology/approach:The paper will be of an explorative nature. It is built around three concepts - (i) Values (ii), service eco systems and (iii) transformative service embedded on Societal and environmental perspectives. The paper will illustrates these concepts with two different city region cases from Stockholm - Sweden, and Paris – France. This focuses on describing the values based service eco-system and the challenges of transforming cities and city regions by understanding the role of public transport services from the cities perspective in an international context by embedding social and environmental perspectives. This paper is of an explorative comparative study based on the public transport value networks of these city regions. In this study, we see public transit as646a service eco-system (Lusch and Vargo, 2014) used as a tool for proactive developing of city regions for living cities (Kallidaikurichi and Yuen, 2010). These cities are in transition for a transformative change (Grin et. al. 2010): dynamic city networks, which learn and innovate (Campell, 2012). But, these city regions, today, have big challenges to meet.

Findings:The study will reveal the challenges of transforming urbanized cities, and understanding the role of public transport services and service eco-systems from the cities perspective in an international context by embedding social and environmental perspectives. The challenges of transforming today’s cities, which has created many new opportunities for prosperity through new ways of living and working in urban areas (Florida, 2010). This aims on developing service eco-systems by assessing the micro, meso and macro levels by describing the challenges of transforming cities, and understanding the role of public transport services from the cities perspective in an international context by embedding social and environmental perspectives.

Research limitations/implications:Future research in this area should focus on generalizing the present findings by studying the development and integration of values based service eco system thinking in other empirical settings and conceptualization, for instance resilient cities.

Originality/value:The paper makes an original contribution to the ongoing discussions on service research towards sustainability in services and transformative service in relation to the study of public transit services by explicitly linking the adoption of values based service eco system based on sustainability, and resource integration/value co-creation.Article

Type:Research paper

Key Words:Values- based; service Eco-system; City region; public transit; transformative; sustainability in services; value co-creation