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Digital twins (DTs) and other data-based solutions are gaining an increasing foothold in manufacturing business, whereas a mere physical product is often insufficient to satisfy all customers’ expectations. As a result, companies are seeking novel ways of value creation, and one exciting opportunity is the use of DTs in new business creation, where they can offer diverse possibilities for innovative businesses. This paper aims to examine the impacts and challenges of DTs on new business creation in the manufacturing industry.

This study used a qualitative research approach, which combined semistructured interviews and an iterative Delphi study as research methods. The participants for the interviews and Delphi study were from different sectors and roles in the manufacturing industry. Altogether, 10 interviewees from eight companies took part in the interviews, and the expert panel of the Delphi method contained 12 professionals.

The results of the study indicated that DT can significantly impact the business models of manufacturing companies. DT can enhance operations, offer cost savings and business growth and allow stakeholders to focus on core competencies while developing their businesses. Several challenges for leveraging DT were identified, such as data ownership, resource allocation, internal bureaucracy and the difficulty of demonstrating the actual value of data-based services to potential customers.

This paper provides a structured expert-led assessment of the potential impacts of DT utilization in the creation of new business opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how digital transformation changes highly traditional business processes and how it impacts value co-creation and co-destruction. More specifically, the aim is to examine, using the resource interaction approach, how the friction between non-digital and digital resources affects the co-creation and co-destruction of value in a network during digital transformation. Based on this, the authors provide managerial implications on how to handle simultaneous digital and traditional business processes to co-create value during digital transformation.

A case study is conducted of a digital platform provider and of three traditional confectioneries. In this analysis, the authors looked at the business processes of highly traditional confectioneries that have introduced online services through a digital platform and are undergoing digital transformation.

In some industries, it is neither possible nor advisable to fully digitalise all business processes, and companies have to partially retain their traditional, analogue character to create value. The process of value co-creation during digital transformation is affected by friction between the digital and non-digital resources and is mitigated by specific lubricants (e.g. mutual reliance, smooth personal communication, willingness to help, attitude towards change). This results in the improvement of processes and capabilities in terms of digital development and traditional production. Friction may also lead to value co-destruction, for example, as the result of transformation from face-to-face to digital interactions.

The authors contribute to research on the digital transformation of highly traditional companies that need to introduce new, digital technologies and resources while continuing their traditional processes. The authors develop the concept of lubricants that mitigate the friction between resources and, therefore, facilitate value co-creation in a business network. Additionally, the authors provide managerial implications for how to handle simultaneous digital and traditional business processes during digital transformation.

This study aims to examine the impact of Covid19 on service ecosystem self-adjustment (SES_SA) and additionally to explore the mediating role of SES_SA on the relationship between the Covid19 pandemic and the development of digital service capability (DD_SC).

Data were drawn from 384 business people with the help of a survey questionnaire. The interrelation of the model was examined with the help of structural equation modeling (SEM) using bootstrapping measures in Smart-partial least square (PLS). Three constructs (Covid19, DD_SC and SES_SA) were found with the help of exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Convergent and discriminant validity were obtained through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using statistical package for the social sciences-analysis of a moment structures (SPSS-AMOS)-V.23.

There is a substantial impact of Covid19 on SES_SA and DD_SC. The investigation also discovered that SES_SA significantly impact DD_SC, whereas, Covid19 impact DD_SC indirectly through SES_SA. Age has a significant favorable influence on fear of Covid19.

There is scant literature linking SES_SA and the DD_SC.

The study promotes understanding of the contribution of Covid19 and SES_SA in the DD_SC among business people to enhance value co-creation. Capitalizing on DD_SC will enhance customer experience, assist customers in decision-making, and foster digital economic growth.

It enlightens on the digital capabilities needed for creating and co-creating value. Most studies in this area are qualitative/conceptually based and have not studied this kind of interrelation. Hence, it’s the only quantitative study that has examined the inter-relations among Covid19, SES_SA and DD_SC using SEM. This study also offers comprehension of all theories used in this context by relating Covid19 effects to DD_SC.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the strategic management of a technology-enabled shift from a product-centric to a service-centric logic and to identify the sociotechnical dynamics underlying this transition. The study focuses on how manufacturers manage to create value in industrial markets through digital servitization.

An abductive research approach is used to investigate two manufacturing firms, and an interpretive framework is used as an analytical template. A cross-case analysis is conducted.

The case companies strategically managed sociotechnical processes of digitization to co-create value. Their service orientation delineates dissimilarity in terms of digital servitization. It reflects a viable ecosystem that moves toward datatization through adaptation in one case and a viable ecosystem that moves toward digitization through reconfiguration in the other case.

A theoretically grounded, empirically informed framework is proposed to detect transformational mechanisms to manage value co-creation in digitally servitized contexts, thus contributing to ecosystem viability.

This is the first study to adopt a system perspective such as the viable system approach combined with service-dominant logic to reconceptualize the overall sociotechnical processes and the underlying mechanisms leading to digitized value creation. In line with a systems view and a systematic process based on a transformative attitude toward digital servitization, the empirically informed framework identifies specific co-creation activities and recursive feedback loops.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the different human factor characteristics that are emphasized when co-creating value through digital service capabilities.

Empirical data are gathered from two small companies that deliver digital services and products in business-to-business markets.

The study highlights the role and importance of human factors as reflected in employees’ customer orientation while delivering digital service capabilities. The role of human factors also changes during the digital service production process.

Developing digital service capability is positively associated with value co-creation, but it requires new skills: firms need to evaluate their mechanisms for supporting continuous learning about the properties of digital technologies. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on the role of human factors in in developing digital service capabilities.

Digitalization accelerates the need of tourism and hospitality ecosystems to reframe business models in line with a data-driven orientation that can foster value creation and innovation. Since the question of data-driven business models (DDBMs) in hospitality remains underexplored, this paper aims at (1) revealing the key dimensions of the data-driven redefinition of business models in smart hospitality ecosystems and (2) conceptualizing the key drivers underlying the emergence of innovation in these ecosystems.

The empirical research is based on semi-structured interviews collected from a sample of hospitality managers, employed in three different accommodation services, i.e. hotels, bed and breakfast (B&Bs) and guesthouses, to explore data-driven strategies and practices employed on site.

The findings allow to devise a conceptual framework that classifies the enabling dimensions of DDBMs in smart hospitality ecosystems. Here, the centrality of strategy conducive to the development of data-driven innovation is stressed.

The study thus developed a conceptual framework that will serve as a tool to examine the impact of digitalization in other service industries. This study will also be useful for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) managers, who seek to understand the possibilities data-driven management strategies offer in view of stimulating innovation in the managers' companies.

The paper reinterprets value creation practices in business models through the lens of data-driven approaches. In this way, this paper offers a new (conceptual and empirical) perspective to investigate how the hospitality sector at large can use the massive amounts of data available to foster innovation in the sector.

This study aimed to examine the digital transformation of business-to-business (B2B) sales and its effects on the management of value-based selling.

The study adopted a qualitative interview research design. A total of two participant groups—one consisting of sales management professionals and the other consisting of buyers—were created to conduct abductive data analysis to gain a new understanding of B2B sales management.

As a result of the digital transformation of sales, companies are shifting B2B sales towards value-based selling using a more proactive, continuous process wherein digital value co-creation activities play a big role. Similarly, their buyers now expect more proactive communication about new value propositions, but social media channels are of little importance to most B2B buyers. The management of digital value co-creation activities should be addressed from the sales ecosystem perspective, where non-sellers tend to have a strong role in communicating new value propositions.

There needs to be further research on digital value co-creation activities in the sales ecosystem, as value-based selling requires that selling organizations focus more on educational digital content marketing and engagement with non-sellers via both marketing and sales activities.

Companies rarely exploit experts and project personnel when implementing digital sales strategies; however, they often meet with customers personally and network with them. This requires a broader perspective on sales management.

This is one of the first studies to explore the management of value-based selling from both seller and buyer perspectives.

This paper aims to propose an interpretive framework to understand how machine learning (ML) affects the way companies interact with their ecosystem and how the introduction of digital technologies affects the value co-creation (VCC) process.

This study bases on configuration theory, which entails two main methodological phases. In the first phase the authors define the theoretically-derived interpretive framework through a literature review. In the second phase the authors adopt a case study methodology to inductively analyze the theoretically-derived domains and their relationships within a configuration.

ML enables multi-directional knowledge flows among value co-creators and expands the scope of VCC beyond the boundaries of the firm-client relationship. However, it determines a substantive imbalance in knowledge management power among the actors involved in VCC. ML positively impacts value co-creators’ performance but also requires significant organizational changes. To benefit from VCC via ML, value co-creators must be aligned in terms of digital maturity.

The paper answers the call for more theoretical and empirical research on the impact of the introduction of Industry 4.0 technology in companies and their ecosystem. It intends to improve the understanding of how ML technology affects the determinants and the process of VCC by providing both a static and dynamic analysis of the topic.

The paper faces artificial intelligence issues in the venture creation process, exploring how artificial intelligence solutions intervene and forge the venture creation process. Drawing on the most recent literature on artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship, the authors propose a set of theoretical propositions.

The authors adopt a multiple case approach to assess propositions and analyse 4 case studies from which the authors provide (1) more detailed observation about entrepreneurial process phases influenced by artificial intelligence solutions and (2) more details about mechanics enabled by artificial intelligence.

The analysis demonstrates artificial intelligence contributes alongside the entrepreneurial process, enabling mechanisms that reduce costs or resources, generate new organizational processes but simultaneously expand the network needed for venture creation.

The paper adopts a deductive approach analyzing the contribution of AI-based startup offerings in changing the entrepreneurial process. Thus, the paper provides a practical view of the potentiality of artificial intelligence in enabling entrepreneurial processes through the analysis of compelling propositions and the technological ability of artificial intelligence solutions.

Organisational learning drives tourism organisations towards more sustainable tourism. Digital transformation also provides opportunities for sustainable tourism development. This study aims to combine these perspectives and explore how digital transformation enables organisational learning to contribute to sustainable tourism, following organisational learning theory (OLT).

Based on a critical realist paradigm, this study focuses on developing an in-depth understanding of organisational learning in tourism organisations. Thirty qualitative interviews with tourism organisations participating in an executive development programme (EDP) show how tourism organisations create, retain and transfer knowledge.

This study demonstrates that the EDP initiates knowledge creation through content transmission and exchange, triggers knowledge retention through utilisation of digital technologies and reinforces digitalisation through data value creation. Furthermore, this study enables knowledge transformation as implementation, which contributes to the three pillars of sustainable tourism and facilitates the development of networks encouraging sustainable tourism.

This study identifies approaches that enable economic, social and environmentally sustainable tourism development by facilitating collaborations via digital transformation, digital technologies that guide guest streams, online mobility offers and online environmental awareness campaigns that reduce environmental impacts. Thus, this study strengthens OLT and has implications for organisational learning and tourism policymakers.