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The service environment is becoming increasingly turbulent, leading to calls for a systemic understanding of it as a set of dynamic service ecosystems. This paper advances this understanding by developing a typology of service ecosystem dynamics that explains the varying interplay between change and stability within the service environment through distinct behavioral patterns exhibited by service ecosystems over time.

This study builds upon a systematic literature review of service ecosystems literature and uses system dynamics as a method theory to abductively analyze extant literature and develop a typology of service ecosystem dynamics.

The paper identifies three types of service ecosystem dynamics—behavioral patterns of service ecosystems—and explains how they unfold through self-adjustment processes and changes within different systemic leverage points. The typology of service ecosystem dynamics consists of (1) reproduction (i.e. stable behavioral pattern), (2) reconfiguration (i.e. unstable behavioral pattern) and (3) transition (i.e. disrupting, shifting behavioral pattern).

The typology enables practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of their service environment by discerning the behavioral patterns exhibited by the constituent service ecosystems. This, in turn, supports them in devising more effective strategies for navigating through it.

The paper provides a precise definition of service ecosystem dynamics and shows how the identified three types of dynamics can be used as a lens to empirically examine change and stability in the service environment. It also offers a set of research directions for tackling service research challenges.

This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of recombinant innovation from the perspective of ego–network dynamics, and further disentangle whether ego–network stability or ego–network expansion is more conducive to recombinant innovation under heterogeneous knowledge base.

This paper uses 1,801 patent data in China’s biotechnology field as a sample and adopts fixed effects regression model to examine the effects of ego–network dynamics on recombinant innovation and further uses the Wald tests to discern which ego–network dynamic is more conducive to recombinant innovation under heterogeneous knowledge base.

The empirical results indicate that ego–network dynamics have a positive impact on recombinant innovation. Specifically, for firms with high knowledge breadth and high knowledge depth as well as high knowledge breadth and low knowledge depth, ego–network stability is more conducive to recombinant innovation. By contrast, for firms with low knowledge breadth and high knowledge depth, recombinant innovation benefits more from ego–network expansion. As for firms with low knowledge breadth and low knowledge depth, both ego–network stability and ego–network expansion can promote recombinant innovation, while the effects are not significant.

This research may enlighten managers to choose suitable ego–network dynamics strategies for recombinant innovation based on their knowledge base.

This research not only contributes to the literature on recombinant innovation by revealing the impact of different ego–network dynamics on recombinant innovation but also contributes to network dynamics theory by exploring whether ego–network stability or ego–network expansion is more conducive to recombinant innovation under a heterogeneous knowledge base.

This paper revisits the foundational concepts of agency and action in routine dynamics to provide guidance for intentional and directional change in a world in flux from a routine dynamics perspective. First, the authors put forward a relational-temporal triad of agency as a ratio of the past, present, and future to outline what gives shape to individual action. Second, the authors combine with this a relational-temporal triad of routine as a ratio of patterning, performing, and projecting to outline what gives shape to social action. Based on this, the authors reconceptualize the dynamic of routines as an enfolding inside-out and outside-in process that expresses the relational constraints between the intentionality of individual action and the directionality of social action. In managing a world in flux toward desirable futures, routines – as temporal structures for carrying out organizational work – need to be able to carry some degree of continuity to bring about change in fulfilling a desired and identified direction. The authors identify in-tension-less, in-tension-al, and in-tension-ful as three different degrees of intentionality in individual action and continuing, renewing, and transforming as the spectrum of a continuum of directionality in social action for routine change. Using time to bring in a fully relational understanding of agency and action in routine dynamics, the authors render the complexities of structure-agency and continuity-change dualities clearer and reveal their otherwise latent properties. This more complete picture of routine dynamics would allow for more intentional organizational routine change forward when facing significant environmental and social challenges in a world of flux.

In this editorial, the authors present an overview of the papers featured in this volume, all centered around the theme of “Routine Dynamics: Organizing in a World in Flux.” Recognizing the omnipresence of flux in organizational life, the authors identify key themes that emerged across the papers. These encompass temporality, improvisation, process and multiplicity, power and political dynamics, and scale. The authors elucidate the significance of each theme in the context of routine dynamics, highlight the advancements made by the respective papers in this volume, and underscore questions that warrant further exploration.

This paper addresses the issue of granularity. The authors argue that in routine dynamics research granularity can be usefully defined by the number of actors, the variety of places/contexts, and the amount of time it takes to successfully accomplish an action. This is an important but often overlooked aspect of studying routines. It is important because different granularities imply different challenges and opportunities for performing and patterning. The authors propose a framework to distinguish between fine-, medium-, and coarse-grained actions, illustrate how different granularities have been used in existing routine dynamics studies, and discuss the implications for understanding routine dynamics. The authors conclude that granularity is a key construct that needs to be taken seriously and suggest a four-step procedure to help researchers establish and report on the granularity of actions in their research process.

Despite their pivotal role in classroom social dynamics, teachers are not always aware of, and/or do not know how to respond to, bottlenecks in these dynamics. This study investigated the effectiveness of the Social Classroom Dynamics Intervention with Lesson Study (SKILS, acronym of the Dutch program name) in supporting teachers with regards to improving their classrooms' social dynamics.

A sample of Dutch secondary school classrooms was divided into five SKILS classrooms (n = 86; 53.5% boys; M_age-T0 = 13.62 years and SD = 1.02 years) and nine control classrooms (n = 156; 50.6% boys; M_age-T0 = 13.55 years and SD = 0.89 years). Involvement in bullying and social cohesion was assessed pre- and post-intervention using student peer reports. Teachers of SKILS classrooms formed SKILS teams of five teachers (N = 25; 60% male; M_age-T0 = 42.45 years and SD = 12.81 years; teacher's experience: M_T0 = 11.35 years and SD = 8.36 years). Teachers were interviewed post-intervention.

While SKILS had little effect on classroom bullying dynamics, it had a positive effect on student social cohesion. Teachers indicated a learning effect with regard to identifying bottlenecks within classroom dynamics and felt more competent to intervene in response to bottlenecks due to SKILS.

The findings suggest that teachers can successfully impact classroom social cohesion by increasing their knowledge of classroom dynamics and working in Lesson Study (LS) teams with colleagues to develop tailored interventions for these dynamics.

This study, anchored in Self-Determination Theory, explores the paradoxical effects of gamification on digital health promotion, focusing on user engagement, physical activity adherence, stress levels and social dynamics.

In a preregistered experimental design, participants interacted with one of three fitness apps: a non-gamified control app, a competition-based gamified app (GameFit) or a self-exploration-based gamified app (ExploreFit). Quantitative data were collected through scales measuring key variables, and qualitative insights were gathered from structured diaries.

Gamification significantly enhanced user engagement and physical activity adherence. However, competition-based gamification also increased stress and negative social dynamics, with gender-specific effects: females experienced higher stress and males encountered more negative social dynamics. These adverse effects were mitigated in the ExploreFit group, suggesting that self-exploration elements in gamification can reduce negative outcomes.

This research offers a comprehensive analysis of the complex interplay between gamification, competition, self-exploration and health outcomes. It provides valuable insights for the design of persuasive technologies, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to gamification that considers both its benefits and potential pitfalls.

The link between theory and practice in innovation studies still has some gaps, despite scholars’ efforts to illustrate and identify them in real-world situations. To fully understand the dynamics of the innovation ecosystem, it is crucial to consider key actors and their roles and recognize their impact on ecosystem outcomes. Therefore, this paper seeks to discuss how analytical structures of innovation ecosystems address the dynamics of actors and their contribution to the ecosystem outcomes.

A research protocol was developed to query the Web of Science database to identify analytical structures of innovation ecosystems based on pre-established criteria.

The dynamics of actors interfere with their contribution to value creation. That is, the actor changes his contribution. Therefore, depending on the ecosystem's value proposition, the activities and dynamics of the actors change over time.

It contributes to advancing the discussion of innovation ecosystems, addressing insights into the dynamics of actors in different analytical structures. The essay proposal considers innovation ecosystems' evolutionary aspects, value propositions and exchange. In addition, the importance of orchestration in the various stages of the ecosystem is highlighted.

The increasing presence of traditional or new forms of robots at work demonstrates how the copresence of workers and robots might reframe work and workplaces and consequently arouse new human resource management (HRM) questions regarding how to manage the spatiotemporal change of work in organizations. Based on a spatiotemporal perspective, this conceptual article examines the implication of new spatiotemporal dynamics of work, which are generated by the interaction between workers and traditional or new forms of robots that are driven by advanced digital technologies, for HRM.

The article begins by carrying out a selective review focusing on the studies that enhanced the comprehension of the digital-driven spatiotemporal dynamics of work. It then presents a spatiotemporal framework from which it examines the implications of digital-driven spatiotemporal work boundaries for HRM. The article ends by underscoring the theoretical and empirical importance of taking more interest in new spatiotemporal forms of work for developing the HRM of the future.

By developing the notion of workuniverses, which denotes the spatiotemporal boundaries generated by the act of working through the interaction between workers and different forms of robots, this research first develops a theoretical framework that discerns three forms of spatiotemporal dynamics forming workuniverses at different levels and two spatiotemporal arrays for managing the spatiotemporal change of work in organizations. The HRM questions and ethical concerns generated by the formation of workuniverses are then revealed through four focuses: the management ethics in workuniverses, individuals' spatiotemporal well-being, collective spatiotemporal coordination and spatiotemporal change management in workuniverses.

This research provides an original perspective, which is the spatiotemporal perspective, to examine the new spatiotemporal dynamics that form workuniverses and the HRM questions and concerns generated by the increasing interaction between workers and different forms of digital-driven robots.

Gamification has been constantly demonstrated as an effective mechanism for employee engagement. However, little is known about how gamification reduces cyberloafing and the mechanism by which it affects cyberloafing in the workplace. This study draws inspiration from self-determination and social bonding theories to explain how game dynamics, namely, personalised challenges, social interactivity and progression status, enhance tacit knowledge sharing behaviour, which, in turn, reduces cyberloafing. In addition, the study also examines the negative moderating effect of fear of failure on the positive relationship between game dynamics and tacit knowledge sharing.

Using a sample of 250 employees from information technology organisations, the study employed a 3-wave study to examine the conditional indirect effects.

The results ascertain that tacit knowledge sharing plays a central role in the relationship between gamification and cyberloafing. Further, game dynamics positively influenced tacit knowledge sharing, which in turn reduced cyberloafing. Especially, social interactivity and progression status greatly reduced cyberloafing behaviour when the fear of failure was low.

This study is one of the initial studies that suggest gamification as a progressive tool to reduce workplace cyberloafing behaviours. It utilises a problematisation approach to analyse and criticise the in-house assumptions regarding cyberloafing prevention measures. Further, the study proposes a conceptual model explaining the link between gamification and cyberloafing through alternate assumptions.