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Kenya basks of a vibrant digital financial sector from her mobile and digital financial services that have led to financial inclusions. On the flip side of it, the Kenyan digital loans sector is facing ethical scrutiny from all and sundry. Issues that are arising include a customer base being trapped in the debt trap, inflated pricing model, high interest rates, and short-term loan tenures. The sector is shrouded in poor transparency and many consumer rights infringement. Undeniably, providers inadvertently breach consumers' right to privacy and tend to promote ‘push loans’ with unsolicited messages to the vulnerable. Additionally, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in determining the suitability of loan applicants via algorithms is seen to be intrusive. With consumer data being mined from the mobile phone, data utilisation, mobile payment usage, airtime usage without users' express consent, it renders the sector an unethical jungle for hunting consumers. Furthermore, consumers who by default end up receiving aggressive uncouth and unprofessional treatment in a bid to recover the unpaid loans. New Product Development (NPD) should, therefore, listen to the consumer's voice for ethical concerns to be reflected in the final product. Thus, marketers should endeavour to give ethical dimensions in NPD a measurable attribute by constantly reviewing it. This chapter examines the ethical implications of developing digital loans in Kenya.

The topics of this chapter are quite fundamental for the book. The chapter deals with value in B2B; what is value, what creates value, how could value be identified, estimated, and exploited. For these reasons, the chapter presents a value calculation model and carries out a critical discussion of the meaningfulness of doing such calculations.

A second theme is a discussion about solution sales relative to product sales and also systems selling. We also provide a comparison between business ventures focusing on selling goods, a goods-dominant logic, relative to services, a service-dominant logic. This comparison is made with reference to the two underlying themes of the book, the solution-oriented business and the continuously ongoing organizing activities.

Purpose – Service-dominant logic (S-D logic) has conceptualized value as value-in-context where context is defined as a “set of unique actors with unique reciprocal links among them” (Chandler & Vargo, 2011, p. 40). The chapter proposes a means of measuring value-in-context as experienced by an actor while integrating resources, called the ValConRIA model (value-in-context of resource integrating activities).Design/methodology/approach – Value emerges from experiencing interactions in a service-for-service exchange. The actor perceives value as emerging with his activities and hence experiences the emerging value as connected to either his activities or the items supporting his activities or the people he is interacting with. We call these realms of experience the I (–Me) realm, the I–It and It–I realm, and the I–You and You–I realm, composing five dimensions. An exploratory principal component analysis supports this structure. The measurement process has been tested for reliability and validity and applied to different activities: using a laptop, using cigarettes (=smoking), using a smartphone, and using Facebook.Findings – According to where the actor mostly experiences the value emergence, five dimensions of value-in-context have been identified using principal component analysis. The measurement scale shows high construct reliability and discriminant validity.Implications – Being able to measure value-in-context as proposed by S-D logic brings S-D logic into practice. Practitioners can use the measurement process to identify value their customers co-create. The proposed means of measuring value-in-context does not measure the value of things but instead values as it emerges from an actor’s activities, exchanging service for service.Value/originality – To our knowledge this chapter is the first to propose a means of measuring value-in-context, which is based on S-D logic.

In this introduction we clarify the nature and scope of value in service-dominant (S-D) logic, as well as briefly discuss how the essays in this volume relate to this framework. We also share some thoughts on the need for, and S-D logic's role in, the further theory development about value and value cocreation, in general, and marketing, in particular.

The point of departure for this chapter is a notion that firms at times find it difficult to develop their solution-oriented businesses and to have a broader understanding in their organizations of what this changed orientation really means.

The author looks into prevailing perspectives on marketing as such and creates a “map” that organizes marketing logics into a dynamic whole for value creation and change based on theoretical points of departure. Supported by this map, she tailors out a missing perspective based on a sense-making view that could be fruitful for companies to apply. It is basically to create a stronger awareness of and influence from a branding perspective (also in B2B). Based on an empirical example she points at barriers and enablers in implementing such a change of marketing perspective. She also addresses the implications of such a change on organizing and not least the connections between sales and marketing.

This chapter points forward as a way to release energy and to find direction for the development toward a solution-oriented business.

This study sheds light on the uncharted phenomenon of regional management in coordinating services across borders. Based on a multiple case study of four German industrial manufacturing firms with servitization strategies we seek to better understand what kind of organizational challenges servitization poses for the MNC and whether these challenges can be met through regional management models. This chapter initiates a conversation on the available design options for running service operations regionally.

Purpose – The aim is to introduce a sociological perspective on resource integration and value co-creation into service research using a service systems approach.

Methodology/approach – Conceptual and a case study of the service system a Telecom Equipment and Service Provider is embedded in is reported.

Findings – The service practice of the service system is framed by social structures of signification, legitimation, and domination. However, the practice is also independent of the structures since it is embedded in and shapes the structural realm.

Research implications and limitations – Drawing on structuration and practice theory, the chapter offers a new framework describing how social and service structures and practices can inform and reveal mechanisms of service system dynamics. Based on the framework, three propositions are developed focusing on the mechanisms of resource integration and value co-creation. The implications need to be generalized in future research by studying other empirical contexts.

Practical implications – The chapter provides some tentative guidelines on how organizations can design service systems that enable and support customers and other actors in their resource integration and value co-creation processes by paying attention to social structures and forces and not only resources as such.

Originality – The chapter explicates how social structures have implications for value co-creation and resource integration in service system. It makes systematic use of structuration and practice theory to understand the social dimensions of service systems. A distinction between intended and realized resource integration is made.

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to investigate how a focal market actor may design or redesign business models for improved value co-creation.

Findings – We posit that value is co-created in use as actors integrate resources in practices, which makes practices a fundamental unit of value creation. Greater density of resources, relevant to a specific practice and to the goals or mission of the actor, corresponds to greater value. The role of a provider is to support other actors in their value-creation processes by providing resources that ‘fit’ into their practices.

We identify 12 categories of business model design elements that need to be defined and developed in parallel. We conclude that a focal actor needs to strive for both intra-actor and inter-actor (meso-level) configurational fit of business model elements in order to enable purposeful co-creation in specific practices.

Finally, we propose that meso-level configurations develop in a three-phase process of origination, mobilization and stabilization. A focal actor wishing to improve co-creation in a network needs to develop value propositions not only for customers but also for other actor domains. Overall, the performative power of a market actor is dependent on its network position, the relative strength of its business model and the actor's ability to author compelling meanings.

Originality – The research contributes to the discussion on value co-creation by identifying three shifts in the unit of analysis: (1) we argue that use-value is co-created as actors integrate resources in practices, rendering practices a fundamental unit of analysis, (2) as practices are outcomes of business models, we identified business model design as a key unit of analysis for the improvement of value co-creation and (3) our view on business models is network-centric and we focus on how to introduce new business model elements in a specific actor network.

Practical implications – The realization of the fact that value creation occurs in networks of interdependent actors pinpoints the need for increased transparency both between functional silos and between actors. The business model framework identifies 12 design elements, which can act as a ‘checklist’ for managers wanting to engage in co-creative business models.