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Purpose – This chapter proposes three main objectives in relation to understanding customer involvement in business networks. First, to identify important aspects of the network structure and environment and how the actions of the customer and other network participants create and maintain these. Second, to identify and explore the mechanisms and processes of resource integration in the network. Third, to identify the capabilities and competencies that customers bring to the network, and to understand how these are enhanced and developed.

Methodology/approach – Conceptual.

Research implications – We recognize that aspects of the resources themselves are important and that the characteristics of the resource and the way in which partners align them were key components of resource analysis.

Practical implications – We note that the interaction of different operant and operand resource combinations opens new doors to customer knowledgeability and involvement, where power over either authoritative or allocative resources in itself will not guarantee value creation.

Social implications – We support the call for the development of more sociologically enriched and complex models of interagent resource exchange. In particular, we would advise the need for a better understanding of how different network structures and environments are created and maintained through domination, legitimation, and signification processes.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter addresses the gap in our understanding of how customer involvement in business-to-business networks may influence learning, value cocreation, and innovation. This chapter makes an important contribution to research in the field in that it investigates how the inclusion of the customer in business networks alters current assumptions and practices.

This article seeks to advance a novel service network perspective, based on the service‐dominant logic, designated as service‐dominant networks (SDN).

Service‐dominant logic components serve to build and describe SDN. Specifically, resources and actors are key components, combined with activities and the process by which they become resources. A case study details the features of SDNs.

Service‐dominant networks exhibit unique, previously unaddressed features. According to the service‐dominant logic, components only become resources when they are integrated; thus, they disappear as resources after their integration, which means SDNs are fugacious: they (be‐)come and go. In addition, SDNs comprise one or more main intended activities that explain their existence, though these intended activities do not necessarily initiate any particular SDN. Rather, other critical incidents can initiate SDNs.

The features of SDNs proposed in this article have not been a focus of prior research. In particular, the dynamics and fugaciousness of SDNs are challenges for research and management.

This article offers the first proposal of a novel, service‐dominant network perspective. In a very general and abstract form, it identifies the features of SDNs.

Recent literature on the implications of applying service-dominant (S-D) logic to conceptualise value-creation processes views territory only as an operand resource (a resource upon which an act is performed). This study aims to show that territory is both an operand and operant resource (a resource that acts on other resources) and to examine how this conceptualisation may extend knowledge about co-creation processes between a firm and its territory.

The study develops a conceptual contribution, drawing on previous research and combining managerial thinking with architectural–urban planning thinking, using illustrative examples.

This study shows that the territory actively participates in value co-creation through interactions with other actors (e.g. firms, inhabitants and tourists). The territory is not only an output of human actions but also a process through which its essence and traits emerge over time. It can infinitely inspire firms with ideas, provided they are able to listen to it and recognise its value co-creator nature.

Contrary to the traditional firm location theory, this study highlights that a territory’s attractiveness is related to its potential, active contribution to value co-creation. The study’s arguments provide a contribution to the current debate about territorial servitisation but should be refined through empirical analyses.

The paper provides suggestions on platform-designing methods – supported by technologies – to enable the territory to engage in value co-creation.

While some studies have applied the S-D logic to territories, this study is the first to recognise that the territory has an active role in value co-creation.

The purpose of this study is to understand the role of the migrant entrepreneur’s social capital and specifically their family social capital in the success of their crowdfunding ventures.

This paper develops an exploratory single case study of the Persu Bag started by a Chinese migrant entrepreneur in the USA, which was documented through in-depth interviews, email communication, social media interactions and secondary documents publicly available. This paper draws on crowdfunding and social capital literature to fulfil the purpose and adopt the perspective of the migrant entrepreneur in the study.

The study shows that the crowdfunding migrant entrepreneur’s family network contributes with their operand and operant resources from both the country of residence and country of origin. Besides having financial capacity, institutional knowledge and experience from both the host and home countries, the family network in both countries make the crowdfunding immigrant entrepreneur’s families more resourceful, providing additional benefits to the crowdfunding migrant entrepreneurs in the development of the campaign and crowdfunded venture.

This study broadens the understanding of the ways migrant entrepreneurs can rely on their family social capital for building financial capacity and starting a crowdfunded venture.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the humanitarian service management categories that influence long-term transformation within complex community-based service ecosystems.

This study utilizes mixed methods to present a dynamic model that provides insight into the complexities of supplying, distributing and transporting charitable resources to underserved communities. The interdisciplinary study draws on the theory of service-dominant logic and service science, presents critical elements of transformative service research and uses system dynamics approach to propose a visual causal loop model.

This study develops a dynamic model for studying humanitarian service and value propositions in underserved communities. This paper combines the extant literature to emphasize key humanitarian service categories that influence, and are influenced by, service exchanges within community-based contexts.

This paper is limited in providing quantitative methods in analyzing the case study data. However, the research is still helpful in providing acumen via the causal loop diagram to specifically look into each variable and see their cause and effect relationships in the community-based ecosystem. The research represents an opportunity to model the humanitarian aid and relief scenarios to help make more effective decision-making interventions.

The model serves as a managerial tool to determine critical services that optimize resource utilization within the community-based service ecosystems. Insights from this research are broadly applicable to the contexts of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management (HLSCM) solutions for community-based ventures.

This paper conceptualizes how the management of service-for-service exchanges, logistics services and charitable donation management provides transformational humanitarian services and value propositions within underserved communities. This study further provides fundamental contributions by addressing research gaps in the HLSCM domain by supporting service research and the community-based context.

This study aims to explore the factors affecting the adoption of mGov apps using the theoretical foundations of service-dominant (SD) logic. The authors specifically explore the impact of resource distribution (infrastructure and knowledge) and environmental variables (health infrastructure) among the Indian states on the adoption of Aarogya Setu (the COVID-19 tracking app) by their citizens.

For the meso-level study, the states of India are the unit of analysis. The authors have used secondary data published by the government and other reliable organizations. The study is based on 29 states of India and Delhi, a union territory and the capital of India. The authors conducted a regression and moderation analysis using SPSS and PROCESS macros on the collected secondary data.

The findings reveal that operand resources (state domestic productivity per capita and internet penetration rate) positively impact the adoption of the mGov app. The operant resource (literacy) and the environmental variable (health index) are, however, negatively affecting the adoption of the mGov app. On the other hand, another operant resource, digital literacy, was found to have no significant effect on the adoption of the mGov app. Further, the moderating variable, health index, is found to be moderating all the relationships except internet penetration and adoption of the mGov app.

The study is novel in two aspects. First, in using the theoretical foundation of SD logic to examine the factors impacting the adoption of mGov app. Second, it is a meso-level study, which is not a widely explored avenue in mGov research.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptually examine how value is created in (social) practices in which consumers use offerings as operand resources.

Drawing on service‐dominant logic, practice and consumer culture theories, this paper conceptualizes the operational logic of value creation in practices and draws implications to marketing theory and practice. The approach to markets is “markets as practices” in value networks.

Value is tied to practices, not to offerings. Therefore, a key research unit for examining value creation is a practice. Value creation is socially constructed because a practice‐specific meaning structure, influenced by the context and consumer resources, configures consumers' activities. Guided by it, consumers do what makes best sense to do in the practice in the specific moment. As the context and consumer resources are unfixed, fragmented consumers emerge. Therefore, segmentation of value‐creating practices offers a valid description of value creation.

The paper extends the examination of value creation from use to practices. Drawing on marketing and other social sciences, it conceptualizes the operational logic of value creation in a practice: it defines practice elements, their roles and interdependencies in the value‐creation process. The operational logic introduces meaning structures as value‐creation mediators: influenced by the context and consumer resources, they steer consumer participation in the practice (including the use of offerings) and experienced value. Understanding meaning structures helps firms to identify value improvement opportunities which can be transferred to improved or new value propositions. Finally, the paper proposes segmentation of practices in the presence of fragmented consumers.

Employees have traditionally played a major role in the customer ' s service experience. Yet self-service technology (SST) replaces the customer-service employee experience with a customer-technology experience. This paper seeks to use a service-dominant logic lens to gain fresh insight into the consumer experience of SST. In particular, it aims to consider the resources that are integrated when consumers use SSTs, their co-production role and what might constitute value.

The paper presents findings from 24 semi-structured interviews that focus on the everyday experiences of consumers in using SST. Both genders and all socio-economic categories within all adult age groups from 18 to 65+ were included.

There is a danger that organizations embrace SST as an economic and efficient mechanism to “co-create” value with consumers when they are merely shifting responsibility for service production. The paper identifies risks when customers become partial employees and concludes that customers should perceive the value they gain from using SST to be at least commensurate with their co-production role.

The qualitative study was confined to the consumer perspective. Future research within organizations and among employees who support consumers using SST would extend understanding, as would research within the business-to-business (B2B) context. Quantitative studies could measure the frequency and extent of the phenomena the authors report and assist with market segmentation strategies.

The application of service-dominant logic highlights potential risks and managerial challenges as self-service, and consequent value co-creation, relies on the operant resources of customers, who lack the tacit knowledge of employees and are less easy to manage. There is also the need to manage a new employee role: “self-service education, support and recovery”.

The paper draws attention to managerial challenges for organizations to ensure that SST adoption enhances and does not destroy value. Additionally, it highlights the importance of distinguishing between co-production and co-creation.

The service‐dominant logic (SDL) concept is reshaping the view of business‐to‐business research and practice. Thus, understanding the role of knowledge‐based operant resources, a key component of the SDL paradigm, in the ability of supply chains to shape competitive advantage and performance outcomes is vital. Further, operant resources have a hierarchical structure, with differing effects in building value for a supply chain. This research seeks to explore the effects of different levels of hierarchical operant resources in a retail supply chain setting.

A survey was collected from 300 retailing informants who deal with both key suppliers and customers. The data were examined using hierarchical regression to explore the influence of internal and external operant resources on market performance, subject to the moderating effects of top management support and relationship quality.

There is a positive relationship between internal and external operant resources with market performance outcomes, but those relationships are subject to support from top management toward retailing supply chain relational initiatives. Thus, intangible, dynamic, customer‐oriented resources play an important role in developing retail supply chains’ ability to achieve a market advantage.

This research addresses a need to explore the implications of SDL in a supply chain context by examining the implications of influences of retailer operant resources on the supplier. Further, this research explores the question of operant resources by analysing those resources at various levels within supply chain relationships.