Emergence and phase transitions in service ecosystems

Francesco Polese, Adrian Payne, Pennie Frow, Debora Sarno and Suvi Nenonen

Journal of Business Research, 2021, vol. 127, issue C, 25-34

Abstract: Service ecosystems provide a valuable perspective for exploring value co-creation, as they offer a relevant context to study dynamic resource integration processes. Although recent literature considers service ecosystem dynamics, little research concurrently addresses two key drivers of it: emergence and phase transitions. These two phenomena are often confused and frequently co-exist, with phase transitions necessarily involving emergence. Drawing on meta-theoretical foundations of service-dominant logic and systems theory, this conceptual paper synthesizes and extends knowledge of emergence and phase transitions in service ecosystems, including proposed new definitions. To achieve these aims, first the conditions where phase transitions and emergence exist or co-exist are identified, and second, key features, triggers, processes and outcomes are compared and contrasted. A conceptual framework illustrates how emergence and phase transition, together and separately, impact service ecosystem dynamics. In addition to the theoretical contribution, our work can assist managers discern, navigate and harness these phenomena by adopting non-predictive approaches such as effectuation and environmental scanning. Promising future research topics are also proposed.

Keywords: Service ecosystems; Emergence; Phase transitions; Service-dominant logic; Systems theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320308274
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:127:y:2021:i:c:p:25-34

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.067

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().