Sustainable services in the era of Society 5.0: Revisiting weak and strong sustainability

Services durables à l'ère de la Société 5.0: un réexamen sous l'angle de la durabilité faible et forte

Julien Kervio (), Magali Dubosson and Christophe Schmitt ()
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Julien Kervio: CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine
Magali Dubosson: HES-SO - Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale
Christophe Schmitt: CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine

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Abstract: This paper proposes a renewed understanding of sustainability for services within the framework of Society 5.0. While sustainable services have long been defined by the Triple Bottom Line approach, i.e. simultaneously addressing economic, social, and environmental dimensions, this paradigm often neglects the transformative impact of digital technologies on service ecosystems. Building on an extensive literature review, we conceptualize sustainability as a dynamic, multi-dimensional construct shaped by emerging socio-technical systems. We integrate Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) and the IHIP characteristics of services to highlight how intangibility, co-creation, and relational dynamics uniquely position services to foster sustainable value. Our analysis distinguishes between weak sustainability, which relies on technological substitution to mitigate environmental degradation, and strong sustainability, which embeds ecological limits and human well-being at the core of service design. Within Society 5.0, advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, and cyber-physical systems offer opportunities to optimize resource use, enhance social inclusion, and regenerate ecosystems. However, true sustainability requires systemic changes in values and governance, challenging growth-oriented paradigms. We develop a conceptual framework that bridges ecological economics and service research, showing how services can evolve into human-centered, technologically enabled ecosystems that harmonize economic viability, social equity, and environmental resilience. This work contributes to advancing sustainable service theory by offering an integrative, future-oriented perspective that aligns digital transformation with strong sustainability principles.

Keywords: degrowth; sustainable services; services; society 5.0; strong sustainability; weak sustainability; Sustainability; services durables; Décroissance; société 5.0; Services; Durabilité faible; Durabilité forte; Durabilté (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-eur and nep-hme
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05346673v1
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Published in 35th International Conference of the European Association for REsearch on SERvices – RESER 2025 ROMA, To Vergata University Roma - Italy, Oct 2025, Rome, Italy

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