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Disruptive shocks significantly compromise service contexts, challenging multidimensional value (co)creation. Recent focus has been on consumers experiencing vulnerability in service contexts. However, the susceptibility of service firms, employees and other actors to the impacts of disruptive shocks has received little attention. Since resource scarcity from disruptive shocks heightens tensions around balancing different needs in the service system, this paper aims to propose a framework of balanced centricity and service system resilience for service sustainability.

Adopting a conceptual model process, the paper integrates resilience and balanced centricity (method theories) with customer/consumer vulnerability (domain theory) resulting in a definition of multiactor vulnerability and related theoretical propositions.

Depleted, unavailable, or competed over resources among multiple actors constrain resource integration. Disruptive shocks nevertheless have upside potential. The interdependencies of actors in the service system call for deeper examination of multiple parties’ susceptibility to disruptive resource scarcity. The conceptual framework integrates multiactor vulnerability (when multiactor susceptibility to resource scarcity challenges value exchange) with processes of service system resilience, developing three research propositions. Emerging research questions and strategies for balanced centricity provide a research agenda.

A multiactor, balanced centricity perspective extends understanding of value cocreation, service resilience and service sustainability. Strategies for anticipating, coping with and adapting to disruptions in service systems are suggested by using the balanced centricity perspective, offering the potential to maintain (or enhance) the six types of value.

This research defines multiactor vulnerability, extending work on experienced vulnerabilities; describes the multilevel and multiactor perspective on experienced vulnerability in service relationships; and conceptualizes how balanced centricity can decrease multiactor vulnerability and increase service system resilience when mega disruptions occur.

This paper aims to explore how tensions and alignments between different actors’ needs in a transformative services network affect balanced centricity, which is an indicator of well-being. Balanced centricity describes a situation in which all network actors’ interests and needs are fulfilled simultaneously. In such cases, all actors are better off, which increases both individual actors’ and overall actor-network well-being.

The empirical study takes place in nursing homes in which in-bed baths represent co-created service encounters that affect the well-being of focal actors (i.e. patients), frontline service employees (i.e. nurses) and transformative service mediators (i.e. family members), who have potentially competing needs. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, the study inductively explores and deductively categorizes actors’ personal experiences to gain deep, holistic insights into the service network and its complex web of actor interdependencies.

The resulting conceptual model of balanced centricity identifies actors’ lower-order needs as different manifestations of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. If actors’ needs are aligned, their psychological needs can be satisfied, which facilitates balanced centricity. If actors exhibit competing needs though, balanced centricity is impeded.

This study establishes actors’ psychological needs as the origin of tensions/alignments in multi-actor networks that impede/contribute to balanced centricity. Transformative service providers should try to address all actors’ psychological needs when co-creating services to achieve network well-being.

This study adopts a novel, multi-actor perspective and thereby presents a conceptual model that contributes to the understanding of balanced centricity. Future research could test this model in other transformative service settings.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether triad structures, as the smallest unit of a network, can facilitate or inhibit the evolution into a service ecosystem. According to SD logic literature, the triad structure and the institutions that dominate the triads determine the evolution into ecosystem, remain as triad or die. “Balanced centricity” is considered a desirable institution that increases the possibility of transforming triads into ecosystems through marketing equilibrium.

The authors apply a conceptual approach to develop a framework for deepening understanding about triads’ structures from the institution’s perspective (balanced centricity). Qualitative case study research was conducted using different methods of data generation including personal interviews and netnography analysis in the arts sector. Three case studies were developed, one for each triad structure: Sothebýs, Patreon and Vibuk.

New business models start being a triad, and it is a strategic option to evolve into an ecosystem. In this sense, authors argue for considering balanced centricity as an institution that enables the ecosystems to arise. From this perspective, balanced centricity can be considered a strategy that helps to balance and reach positive relationships among actors, enabling the process to become a “balance triad structure”.

The paper is a conceptual work that combines with an empirical approach. The empirical approach considers three success cases on the arts context. Considering other contexts as different from arts industry would be useful to add new perspectives to the theory development.

The present paper defines a new form of triad “balanced triad structure” (BTS) and identifies categories depending on the way balanced centricity institution is adopted, facilitating or inhibiting the future evolution into an ecosystem. Hitherto, previous papers have not put together these concepts that build on the triads and ecosystems theory to better understand triads management and facilitate the evolution of three-actor networks into ecosystems.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the structures of the relationships between actors in the creative industries sector using crowd-funding, and how co-creation is the basis for reaching balanced centricity in the creative industries.

The Many-to-Many Marketing Theory, Service-Dominant Logic and Service Logic are the theoretical bases for explaining how the changing roles of the actors in the creative industries sector have given the crowd a great capacity for deciding in the value-creation process. A qualitative, case-based approach is used, given the complexity of the phenomenon to be analysed.

The findings of the empirical approach have important theoretical and practical implications. On the theoretical side, it analyses the importance of balanced centricity instead of customer centricity as the basis for system stability. Findings also have implications for service managers, as this can be considered an alternative for certain business projects, especially in the creative industries sector, where a growing demand is identified, not only as a method of financing, but also as a strategy for strengthening the bond with customers.

The study has implications for practitioners and scholars. With respect to managers, the “balanced centricity in cultural crowd-funding” model constitutes a significant contribution, because it replaces the prominent position which until now has been enjoyed by the consumer, with the overall balance of the system, in other words, with aiming to benefit all agents. This translates into a change in how strategies are understood and applied in organisations, as in every decision organisations will have to keep in mind the implications that their decisions and actions have on the rest of the agents, with the objective of managing to exploit their “strategic potential”. Strategic planning actions are identified.

This paper is the first to analyse balanced centricity as the basis for system stability in the creative industries. The new tasks of the customer as a selector and financer of projects increase the roles assigned to the co-creation concept and improve the knowledge of Network Theory for the creative industries.

With Sweden and Europe and the present and the future as vantage points, the purpose of this paper is to challenge the viability of customer centricity (or customer orientation) and its axiom, the marketing concept, as the basis for marketing and profitability.

The paper is part of a project in Sweden to stimulate a dialogue on the importance and role of marketing. As such the paper draws on the author's experience as professor, practicing marketer, consumer and citizen and expresses a personal and unorthodox synthesis of ongoing developments in marketing.

Although customer orientation has been on the agenda for at least half a century it is not whole‐heartedly implemented. The reason may be that it is unrealistic as a general guideline for marketing. First, a single stakeholder can only in special instances be treated as the nucleus of marketing and business; a tradeoff between several stakeholders – “balanced centricity” – stands out as more realistic. Second, the gullibility of human nature and the customer's limited knowledge and time open up for the deployment of diverse tricks in marketing practice. The current evolution of marketing theory and the advent of better methodology to handle complexity could be a step forward once the marketing discipline embraces it fully. Gaps between what marketing textbooks prescribe and the real world confronting marketers need to be narrowed.

Just focusing on the customer and customer satisfaction is not possible in practice; businesses have to balance the interests of many stakeholders, thus balanced centricity.

Customer centricity is hardly ever challenged in the research literature and textbooks and its strategic value is often not understood and accepted in practice.

Service networks are inherently complex as they comprise of many interrelated actors, often driven by divergent interests. This can result in imbalance, which refers to a situation where the interests of at least one actor in a network are not secured. Drawing on the “balanced centricity” perspective, the purpose of this paper is to explore the causes of imbalance in complex service networks.

Adopting a qualitative case-based approach, this paper examines a public health service network that experienced imbalance that was detrimental to the lives of its users: the Mid-Staffordshire National Health Service (NHS) Trust, UK. Drawing on service-dominant logic and stakeholder theory, case evidence provides insight into the origin and drivers of imbalance in complex public service networks.

The origin of imbalance stems from competing institutional logics of various actors (patients/public, employees, managers, regulatory bodies, etc.), but the degree to which these competing institutional logics lead to imbalance is moderated by accountability, communication, engagement, and responsiveness within the service network.

By uncovering causes of imbalance in complex public service networks, this paper pinpoints important research avenues for developing the balanced centricity perspective.

The inherent existence of multiple parallel institutional arrangements makes networks imbalanced, but value creation can be achieved when the appropriate mechanisms are fostered to manage balance between divergent logics.

By examining imbalance as the underlying cause of network dysfunction, this research contributes to understanding of the dynamics in, and performance of, complex public service networks.

This paper aims to examine the change of institutional logics in actors’ practices within crowdfunding platforms, seen as open collaborative ecosystems.

The research follows an abductive approach, wherein data collection and analysis, and the search for complementary theories, constitute parallel iterative processes. A main case study was carried out, complemented by an expert panel.

Balanced centricity (BC) as the main institutional logic in crowdfunding platforms delineates actors’ practices (aims, resources and behaviors) into four issues: the development of an open and collaborative community; the overcoming of resource limitations; the changing roles of actors; and the co-creation of mutual (societal) value.

This study context limits the results. The COVID-19 crisis put all actors in the medical field into an extreme situation in which they had to maximize their potential to achieve a common aim. Once the crisis has passed, further research should address whether BC is maintained as actors’ institutional logic.

This paper offers a unique perspective on BC as an institutional logic that impacts actors in collaborative open ecosystems.

Service design is a multidisciplinary approach that is key to service innovation, as it brings new service ideas to life. In this context, the development of new service design methods and models for creating new service futures is an important stream of service design research. Such developments can benefit from a systematized research methodology that builds on existing knowledge and robustly evaluates the suitability of research contributions. To address this challenge, the purpose of this paper is to present design science research (DSR), an established methodology from the information systems field, and examine how it can be useful for service design research by supporting the development of new artifacts, such as service design constructs, methods and models.

This paper presents DSR and related literature and shows how DSR can support service design research through a step-by-step approach. A methodology to develop prescriptive-driven solutions for classes of problems, DSR can support service design research in developing rigorous and relevant research. One illustrative example of a service design research effort using the DSR approach is presented.

Building on DSR’s robust methodological background, this paper discusses how DSR can support service design research, namely, through the development of new methods and models, and how DSR can be adapted to leverage service design research participatory, iterative, human-centric and creative approach.

This paper provides an overview of DSR and proposes it as a methodology to conduct service design research, offering step-by-step guidance on the application of DSR in service design research and discussing how it can be adapted according to the specific characteristics of service design research and drive future research.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the content of a firm's culture, carefully developed by top managers, can create effective employee experiences and how this exemplary case of strategic culture shaping relate to various academic insights on intangible social or collaborative capital.

Inductive case study (of a large American convention hotel), highlighting the strategic crafting of a service‐firm culture, both descriptively (in terms of what took place) and analytically (in terms of various OB‐literatures).

Describes how organizational culture can be part of strategizing in terms of aligning cultural expressions regarding various employees' practices, including continuous organizational improvement. Analyzes and integrates various extant culture insights on service cultures and culture strength.

Insights are applicable to a wide variety of work settings beyond the hospitality and service sectors; it expands the view of organizational culture to the broader and more complex, strategic issue of how organizations can craft or amend cultures that fit their missions.

One may learn from this case (including the authors' reflections), how to put a well‐articulated service mission into operational practice: through taking a particular, desired culture quite seriously when creating employee experiences, so that they are effectively focused on that mission.

The paper illustrates specific tactics for implementing culture plus the value of developing a strategic approach to creating a particular culture. It offers a template of crafting a culture, based on the strategic pairing of managerial mission with action (or employee and client experiences). Strategizing with culture, also referred to as firm‐cultural content shaping, is meant for researchers and practitioners seeking to help develop a mission‐focused organizational culture.

This chapter describes tenets of complexity theory including the precept that within the same set of data X relates to Y positively, negatively, and not at all. A consequence to this first precept is that reporting how X relates positively to Y with and without additional terms in multiple regression models ignores important information available in a data set. Performing contrarian case analysis indicates that cases having low X with high Y and high X with low Y occur even when the relationship between X and Y is positive and the effect size of the relationship is large. Findings from contrarian case analysis support the necessity of modeling multiple realities using complex antecedent configurations. Complex antecedent configurations (i.e., 2–7 features per recipe) can show that high X is an indicator of high Y when high X combines with certain additional antecedent conditions (e.g., high A, high B, and low C) – and low X is an indicator of high Y as well when low X combines in other recipes (e.g., high A, low R, and high S), where A, B, C, R, and S are additional antecedent conditions. Thus, modeling multiple realities – configural analysis – is necessary, to learn the configurations of multiple indicators for high Y outcomes and the negation of high Y. For a number of X antecedent conditions, a high X may be necessary for high Y to occur but high X alone is almost never sufficient for a high Y outcome.