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The purpose of this paper is to introduce ecotones to the service literature as a conceptual extension of the service ecosystem (SE) framework.

To synthesise the contribution, an illustrative empirical case study with research of nine organisations and their service systems is developed.

Boundaries connect systems with their environment. Ecotone, a concept from natural ecosystems, provides a useful concept representing the boundary zones between adjacent systems, supporting emergent phenomena. The authors find that a service ecotone emerges through the interactions occurring at the intersections of relational, technological and institutional boundaries of two unique SEs. The case demonstrates ecotone edge effects – the unique landscape and diversity of actors and their roles – which play a role in the co-evolution of the separate SEs.

The ecotone concept provides an understanding of SE boundaries, helping practitioners understand the complex environments they operate. Developing strategy in complex ecosystems requires a clear understanding of where the boundaries of dependence and interdependence lie. The ecotone concept helps practitioners to develop responsiveness and resilience to their environment and take advantage of resources that may be currently unrecognised.

The authors introduce the ecotone concept and integrate it with service theory. This paper develops service ecotones for understanding the relationship between different systems that influence their functioning and development. Thus, ecotones suggest new avenues for understanding the diversity and roles of actors, and how new structural properties, resources and practices come to be through the tensions and interactions created in these complex boundaries of SEs.

The purpose of this article was to provide an outline of the citation practices of “Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing” by Vargo and Lusch (2004) to identify and discuss the most prominent research topics in which citations were used and to suggest future research based on the results of the analysis.

The authors used a comprehensive framework of citation practices based on iterations of previous literature to analyze the relevant literature, which they identified by accessing, systematically and rigorously, every available contribution matching a set of criteria. The authors then categorized these contributions and highlighted the main topics of research interest in each category.

The findings identify some of the factors in the continuous development of SDL, the way this new marketing logic permeated the scientific debate, the infusion of Vargo and Lusch (2004) into several contributions framed in the new logic or justified through it, and a general perception of a default reference. Additionally, the findings highlight the main topics of research interest in each category.

The analysis enabled the detection of the original paper's influence through advances in service studies, pollination into other fields of research and continuous scientific debate. The authors have highlighted several avenues for research and proposed future research directions.

This research analyzed the effects of the spread of the SDL cornerstone article and emphasized the advantage of using an in-depth approach to the analysis of studies through a framework applied to more than 4,600 studies.

Several researchers struggle with designing, writing-up and reviewing case study research, but constructing a template for describing and justifying methodological choices is – in contrast with quantitative research – undesirable due to the creative nature of qualitative research. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the multitude of paths to rigorous case study research and promote rigorous case study research in the service community.

Based upon a review of seminal articles and textbooks, different paths to rigorous case study research are identified. Subsequently, these paths are compared with existing practices in case studies in service research published between March 2017 and April 2019.

Seminal articles and textbooks detail different paths to achieve rigor with regard to research purpose, design, data, analyses and write-up. Overall, the most popular paths in the service community are those proposed by Eisenhardt and Yin. Meanwhile, service researchers increasingly challenge the dichotomy between the inductive and deductive logic by choosing an abductive logic. Transparency and reflexivity are the main points of attention among service researchers doing case study research.

By providing insight into the multitude of paths to rigorous case study research along with their popularity in the service community, this paper helps service researchers to balance rigor and creativity when engaging in case study research. Additionally, this paper offers a framework for reviewing case study research in terms of rigor and creativity.

This paper aims to develop impact value (IV), both theoretically and practically, to better account for the processes of value creation within complex service ecosystems.

This conceptual paper connects the complex systems nature of service ecosystems and the complexity of issues of sustainability and well-being to the need for a conceptual and analytical extension of value within service ecosystems.

This paper defines IV as enhancement or diminishment of the potential of stakeholders (beyond the service beneficiary), to transfer or transform resources in the future, based on direct and indirect involvement in the processes of value-in-exchange and value-in-use creation.

This paper provides an initial exploration of the theoretical and practical extension of value through the IV concept.

Sustainable service ecosystems require actors to understand their role in the service process and account for the impact pathways of their value creation activities. This paper proposes a framework for developing sustainable strategies to account for IV.

This research expands service research’s core concept of value by integrating the complex systems nature of service ecosystems, sustainability and well-being. IV provides a means to address the systemic impact pathways of service and value creation processes and bridge idiosyncratic value-in-use and broader system viability concepts.

Service ecosystems are becoming an important domain of joint value creation and resource integration, and the literature in the field is burgeoning. The recent growth in the literature warrants consolidating the findings of the existing literature, summarizing the recent development and identifying avenues for more impactful future research on the topic. This study aims to map the service ecosystems research domain and synthesize insights by integrating qualitative content analysis with quantitative data analysis.

This paper uses algorithmic bibliometric review (quantitative) with VOSviewer and R-package and content analysis (qualitative) on 119 service ecosystems papers published between 2003 and 2020.

The bibliometric analysis uncovers the critical research domains, knowledge trajectories, influential authors and journals and author networks in the field. The content analysis identifies the four most important research themes (value creation, change triggers, strategic and entrepreneurial action and institutional embeddedness and agency) and provides an integrative view of the dynamics among these themes. The authors also find the need for more empirical and theory grounded research around these four themes. Furthermore, based on the review, the authors discuss the disciplinary identity of the service ecosystems field and suggest interesting future research opportunities, along with ideas for useful empirical approaches and theoretical extensions.

This study’s comprehensive analysis offers an overview of the evolution and identity of the service ecosystems research and identifies several promising opportunities for future research on service ecosystems.

Systems theory and open systems principles trace their origins to the life sciences. Our observations of living systems also inform the design and management of sustainable communities and organizations. Grounded in the patterns of living systems and social ecologies, the stewardship design principles (SDP) – balance, interdependence, regeneration, diversity, and succession (BIRDS) – can increase the agility of sustainable design practitioners in ramping up from small-scale experiments to large-scale systems change. The urgency of addressing global challenges such as climate change calls upon social change practitioners – be they business leaders, social entrepreneurs, or both – to create and/or adapt tools to increase the velocity and range of positive social change. Case vignettes in the design of small-scale experiments illustrate how the application of stewardship design principles can help expedite larger systemic change at the regional, statewide, and national levels.

OWNERSHIP, LEADERSHIP AND TRANSFORMATION CAN WE DO BETTER FOR CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT?

CHALLENGE OF SLUMS: GLOBAL REPORT ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS 2003

SMALL CHANGE ABOUT THE ART OF PRACTICE AND THE LIMITS OF PLANNING IN CITIES

THE PHILOSOPHYOF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

THE URBAN HOUSING MANUAL: MAKING REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS WORK FOR THE POOR

This study describes and elucidates higher education internationalisation with an in-depth case study of China and its Tsinghua University using international entrepreneurship concepts. The study examines internationalisation as a dynamic reciprocal interplay between opening-up policy and higher education policy, especially world-class university policy.

This is a qualitative mixed-method single case study. In desktop research, the study reviewed China's national policy documents on educational opening-up, Tsinghua's institutional strategy papers and research literature concerning internationalisation, entrepreneurship, Chinese higher education and Tsinghua University. In fieldwork research, the present researcher engaged in action, participatory and collaborative research about university internationalisation in her capacity as both a faculty and an international office administrator at Tsinghua.

Entrepreneurial internationalisation in Chinese higher education has served multiple purposes simultaneously: (1) a pillar to support domestic confidence in educational opening-up for modernisation while also contributing to global development; (2) a cost-effective way to cultivate Chinese talent by accessing the international education market; (3) a quality imperative to stimulate domestic reform and innovation through Sino-foreign exchange and collaboration; (4) a public diplomacy measure building a global network of educational engagement; and (5) a differentiation strategy to stretch the capacity of the nation's top universities by benchmarking their global competitiveness.

Conceptualising opening-up as entrepreneurial internationalisation is key to understand China's higher education development. This study expounds this special term by connecting it with basic concepts in international entrepreneurship research. The analyses at system and institutional levels reinforce one another to forge a synthetic view by integrating policy and practice.