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Purpose – The purpose of this essay is to explore further the concept of value cocreation from a service-ecosystems view, by considering the importance of networks and the configuration of relationships and resources in markets.

Methodology/approach – We use a conceptual approach to extend a service-dominant (S-D) logic, ecosystems view of value cocreation by drawing on the literature regarding networks in marketing and related research.

Findings – A service-ecosystems approach to cocreating value-in-context is proposed, which points toward networks as mediating factors in value cocreation because they influence the ability to access, adapt, and integrate resources by establishing exchange relationships and shaping the social contexts through which value is experienced.

Research implications – This research suggests that value cocreation is a complex and multidimensional process that is best studied in the context of dynamic networks or ecosystems of service exchange.

Practical implications – This research suggests that networks mediate value cocreation, and thus, firms should consider the configurations of relationships and resources to develop more compelling value propositions.

Social implications – This research draws on the idea that exchange relationships are embedded within society and suggests that processes of value cocreation not only draw on but also contribute to the social contexts that frame market exchange.

Originality/value of essay – This research extends the value cocreation and S-D logic literature by exploring the role of networks in service ecosystems. In this framework, networks are mediators of value cocreation because they enable access to resources and help to (re)shape social contexts through which value is derived.

Ports and port cities play a pivotal role toward the sustainable development of coastal ecosystems. These ecosystems provide their natural capital by offering favorable locations for industry and accessibility to world markets. While port industrial activities have been reactive to pressure from stakeholders, in more recent years ports have adapted inclusive strategies and seek to align their strategic intentions with stakeholders. Around the world, port authorities are aligning their ambitions toward their contribution to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), such as the World Port Sustainability Program (WPSP) for port authorities and AIVP2030 for port cities. The aim of this chapter is to assess to what extent ports have contributed to the implementation of the SDGs. The analysis is based on a content analysis on a portfolio of 212 projects in which port authorities demonstrate leadership in sustainable development. The results indicate that the contributions of port and port city authorities are generally motivated to “do no harm.” Port authorities also have “do good” intentions for their ecosystems, which are mainly focused on reenforcing connections with communities and less to restore their impact on the biosphere. Furthermore, the findings show that linkages between WPSP projects with the SDGs are rather ambiguous. Directions are given toward a methodology for port authorities (PAs) to establish a stronger link between (monitoring) business strategies with the implementation of inclusive port development strategies to prevent using SDG reporting for greenwashing purposes.

Disruptive technologies are accelerating global growth. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the idea of delivering value to end users. On the other hand, the growth of Industry 5.0 has given rise to the concept of humanizing technology, and AI is a promising technology with the potential to contribute to business success. Nevertheless, the idea of value creation in the field of AI is novel, so it is necessary to define the meaning of value by understanding the context of AI applicability in different environments and industries. In this chapter, the author uses the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) procedure to conduct an SLR that provides interesting insights into the focus, industries, and methodologies and approaches used in existing research. Following the initial literature review on the state of the art of AI and value creation, the author also offers a reflection on the strategic implications of AI in the field of marketing, postulating a macrovalue creation framework that addresses the existence of implications on three different levels: emerging markets, Sustainable Development Goals, and adoption issues. Therefore, this chapter examines the value creation perspectives of AI to understand the current research focus and future directions.

Organizations are reaching beyond typical firm boundaries to achieve competitive advantage. Human resource (HR) systems must simultaneously support alignment across the business ecosystem while acknowledging the benefits of disruption. The authors provide a fresh perspective on strategic HR management (SHRM), expanding the view beyond organizations to look at the ecosystem as a whole. The authors address the need for HR systems to balance the dualistic tensions of alignment and disruption. While examining the environmental logic of the ecosystem, the authors provide examples of disruption through competition and alignment through cooperation. The authors then examine potential research implications that could assist managers as they govern in a constantly changing and complex ecosystem. This chapter presents the HR ecosystem framework which provides a clear discussion of how different governance mechanisms might be utilized to help firms achieve a competitive advantage through the balance between alignment and disruption.

This conceptual chapter aims to understand the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in value co-creation phenomena in a healthcare service ecosystem, through a literature review and the definition of a conceptual framework. AI, as an operant resource, can stimulate a completely patient-centered, adaptive and resilient healthcare system, and governance models in healthcare based on data-driven decision-making (DDDM), ensuring faster choices, more timely diagnosis and more personalized treatment paths. However, the full implementation of AI in healthcare is inhibited by some frictions, mainly related to the risk that the AI black box may generate an inadequate automatic decision, also due to the quality of data used, often partial and unstructured given the reluctance to share them by patients concerned by privacy threats. The co-design (multi-part and multi-level) of a predictive decision model based on the functional transparency of the AI algorithm would allow for augmented decision as result of an effective human–machine interaction. Healthcare actors could thus make decisions using the information detected by the software (based on clear cause-and-effect correlations and modifiable variables in case of mistakes), integrated with their professional knowledge. This would also help to strengthen the patient’s perception of the decision’s reliability and accuracy and the safety of the tool (factors that can affect his/her trust). AI may be considered as a driver for value co-creation in healthcare, thanks to transparency. It would allow the promotion of collaborative behaviors involving actors by generating new institutions and new resource integration practices among them.

This chapter reviews the literature on servitization to understand whether and how mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been dealt with and what the portrayed consequences are of servitization through M&As. Servitization refers to how manufacturing firms extend and remodel their offerings to focus on value in use rather than product transfer. The rationale of the chapter follows from how business model innovation or business modeling has been predicted as the next M&A wave, while the focus on servitization has been pronounced in research and practice as a means for manufacturing firms to refocus operations during the past decade. The chapter concludes that while the servitization literature is vibrant, the mode of reaching service competence and renewing business is not well explored in the literature. In line with the predicted next M&A wave, servitization through M&As would thereby create an interesting path for future research.

This chapter highlights how implementing circular economy principles can help companies working with sustainability to move from a reductionist and waste management approach to marketing competitive circular value propositions that intentionally design out waste (e.g. emissions and pollution) by rethinking, reinventing and redesigning the value chain. Schijvens, a Dutch family-owned corporate fashion textile company, acts as a case for exemplifying successful implementation of circular economy principles as a marketing strategy in a sector that struggles with finding solutions to the ethical challenges of producing and marketing textile fashion. The textile industry has, for many years, been accused of production that is based on environmentally harmful processes and conditions that are not socially fair. Circular economy principles provide a range of suggestions to address the ethical challenges occurring from covering the human needs of having clothes to wear. Yet, implementing circular economy principles is not a panacea. It is not only a question of delivering a technological quick fix but also a question of managing the new processes and human mindset guiding the actions in the value chain. This chapter, therefore, outlines reasons for a different perspective on the traditional linear value chain and related implications managers face when undertaking a journey from sustainability based on a reductionist approach to a closed-loop approach. It is argued that implementing circular economy principles by pro-actively managing the value chain processes based on eco-centric dynamic capabilities can provide even more radical changes than the incremental reductionist approach often associated with being a green sustainable company.

The chapter aims to investigate the role and the impact of social media in influencing and shaping (new) tourism experiences.

A service dominant logic and co-creation approach and concepts was adopted for examining how the social media can influence interactions and participation that represent two major sources of tourism experiences.

The chapter provides several arguments showing how social media-enabled interactions and participation can facilitate, foster, and expand the experience co-creation process by altering: when, how, why, what, by whom, and how tourism experiences are co-created.

The chapter develops and argues a theoretical framework that needs to be further validated, refined, and expanded in various contexts.

The chapter provides several examples showing the practical implications on how tourists and tourism firms use the social media for enriching their interactions and participation in the co-creation of tourism experiences.

The chapter also illustrates how the social interactions supported and fostered by the social media can be used for influencing, shaping and promoting specific tourism experiences (i.e., sustainable tourism behavior, socially responsible tourism development).

Past research on technology enhanced tourism experiences has adopted a phenomenological approach to explaining experience creation. The chapter expands this literature by advocating the individualized and the socially co-constructed nature of tourism experiences as well as by adopting an intersubjective approach for explaining how the social media enable an iterative process among the tourists’ and their social context that in turn is responsible for the continuous formation of tourism experiences.