While mobile payment systems show mixed acceptance and adoption rates in the rich world, they thrive in emerging economies. Mobile payment systems like Wechat, Alipay and Mercadolibre enjoy exponential growth and have become hotbeds of service innovation.

In this paper we propose that mobile payment technologies play a particular role in economic development by facilitating the emergence of a core market-institution: money. Mobile payment technologies offer an alternative to rich-world monetary institutions, thus offering a pathway to “bank the unbanked”.

The paper elucidates the institutional dimension of mobile payment technology with theory and evidence. Building on Searle’s institutional theory (Searle, 1995, 2006), we propose that money is a constitutive rule where human actors associate collective intentions with a particular physical artefact in specific social contexts. In the case of the constitutive rule of “money”, market participants associate exchange value for products or services as a collective intention with various physical symbols or artefacts, such as barter goods, coins, notes or digital signals, in the context of market transactions.

We apply Searle’s institutional concept of constitutive rules to the study of a leading mobile payment platform in an emerging economy: Paga, the leading mobile payment platform in Nigeria. We find that constitutive rules reflect the key challenge in the pioneering stages of Paga: establishing the use case for mobile communication systems. Paga succeeded by convincing mobile phone and cable tv companies to use Paga as a payment service. A continuous challenge in subsequent growth stages was to attract new commercial partners to adopt the “constitutive rule” of mobile payments. On a macro-economic level, federal banks, finance ministries and tax agencies play active roles in the emergence of the constitutive rule of mobile money.

Our study has the following major implication: (1) It identifies the potential of service technologies in the institutionalization of emerging market economies and subsequent economic development, a challenge identified by marketing scholars studying emerging economies (Sheth, 2011; Pels et al., 2014) (2) It offers a framework for the role of institutions in value cocreation (Chandler et al., 2019; Vargo and Lusch, 2018), highlighting the transforming role of collective intentions, technological service environments and social dimensions of ecosystem formation, (3) It offers a lens for the study of the orchestration of human actors and technologies in service systems (Maglio and Spohrer, 2007).
We conclude that constitutive rules offer a promising path for conceptualising and researching the institutionalisation of service systems. Our findings also call for a closer look at ecosystems and economic policy in sustaining the potential contribution of service systems for economic development in lesser developed states.

Keywords: Service ecosystems, emergence, Institutionalisation, mobile payment systems, Complex dynamic systems, viable systems, emerging market.

The current ways of producing and consuming food represent a significant problem to the future survival of humanity, due to their significant impact on the planet. Despite what is at stake, a third of all food produced is never eaten (FAO, 2011). As a result, food waste represents 8-10% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, making it one of the main contributors to climate change (FAO et al. 2014). Although the majority of food waste is created at a consumer level, focusing on consumers alone is not enough to solve this complex and systemic problem. In this paper, we study food waste from the perspective of food retailers due to their key role in influencing consumer practices through sales, packaging, and display techniques (Williams et al. 2020).

To advance the understanding of food waste as a systemic phenomenon and uncover the drivers that lead to it, food waste in this paper is studied by using a service ecosystem lens (Lusch & Vargo, 2014). The importance of studying social problems using the service ecosystem lens is increasingly recognized within service research since it allows for a systemic understanding of value creation grounded in a socio-economic context (Field et al. 2021). In this particular case, the service ecosystem lens enables us to attend to food waste as a phenomenon that results from the value cocreation practices of numerous, interconnected, and institutionally guided resource-integrating actors. To shed further light on food waste as a systemic outcome, our abductive study combines both theoretical and empirical sources of input in the theorizing process. Our theoretical input stems from two main sources; 1) the S-D logic grounded literature on service ecosystems (e.g., Vargo & Lusch, 2016), and 2) systems thinking, in particular, the system dynamics school of thought (e.g., Meadows, 2008). Our empirical input consists of 15 semi-structured interviews with middle managers of a major food retailer in Sweden, aimed at uncovering the underlying systemic mechanisms at play.

Our study makes two theoretical contributions to service research and the research priority of designing sustainable service ecosystems (Field et al. 2021). First, we conceptualize food waste as an unwanted service ecosystem outcome. In other words, our findings show how food waste results from the value cocreation practices of numerous resource-integrating actors within a service ecosystem without any of these actors specifically aiming for such an outcome to occur. This conceptualization gives light to new questions around the causes of unsustainability within service ecosystems. Second, we identify systemic drivers that lead to food waste as such an outcome and show the collective and embedded nature of these drivers within service ecosystems. For policymakers and food retailers working towards reaching the Agenda 2030 goals, our findings provide a better understanding of how these actors can fully recognize their role in the creation of food waste and transform their practices in ways that allow for the emergence of more sustainable systemic outcomes.

Introduction and Relevance of the Phenomenon

Healthcare value co-creation has gained immense attention in the light of Service dominant logic and the changing nature of health consumers. Although, consumers are not always comfortable integrating (instead may mis-integrate) the resources and experience resource depletion. To overcome this, they access the resources (physical, social, cultural) from alternative sources like online access and peer interaction. However, 'patient's companion' (family & other close members), which is an important source of supportive resources, is largely ignored in earlier value co-creation studies. Thus, this study mainly focuses on exploring the resource integration dynamics between companion and consumer. It specifically aims to explore how/what resources are integrated within the consumer-companion connection and how it influences consumers' co-creation efforts in triadic service relationships. Here, 'Triad' represents, the companion, consumer (patient), and the service provider (doctor). Overall, the three specific questions considered for the study are as follows: (1) Within consumer-companion resource integration, what/how resources are integrated? (2) What is the influence of consumer-companion resource integration on consumer-provider resource integration? (3) How consumer and companion jointly integrate the resources with service provider?

Contribution of Study

This study contributes to academic knowledge in three important ways: First, it adds knowledge to the consumer side ecosystem of healthcare VCC; second, it reinforces the idea of 'resource integration as micro foundation' of VCC; and third, it assumes companion as surrogate consumer thereby contributing towards C2C (customer to customer) VCC. In a way, it reinforces the importance of broadened service system and the broader actor category by exploring the stakeholder (i.e. companion) beyond customer-provider dyad.

Key theoretical foundations

The study is built upon the following theoretical foundations i.e., the refined knowledge of resources/resource integration; understanding of triadic service encounters and the customer ecosystem.

Methodology

Adopting a qualitative approach (with triangulation), the study uses covert observation (100 hrs) and semi-structured interviews (65 interviews comprised of 20 patient's, 25 companions including friends, relatives, family, and 20 service providers). It uses osteoporosis (metabolic bone disease) and a rehabilitation bone care center as research settings. Data is iteratively coded, analyzed, and interpreted with the help of Nvivo.

Findings

Talking about 'What' aspect of first research question, study identifies that companion-consumer co-creation provide access to 10 unique resources (to cite few of them, Functional/Technical skills, Emotional support, Instrumental assistance, Resilience, Spirituality, Access to self care technology). The study also found a few negative resources (example, 'Mistrust' i.e., companion's negative expectation about consumer role). Further, exploring the 'How' part, the study found that consumers integrate the resources using different processes (to cite a few of them, resource mirroring, resource reconfiguration, and resource de-bottlenecking). The second and third research question (see introduction) is yet to be analyzed and is expected to be shared in the conference.

Conclusion

The study demonstrates the importance of companions in consumers' co-creative efforts within chronic healthcare services. Future work is suggested as to how the companion integrate resources with the service provider in isolation.

Keywords: Companion, Health Consumer, Resource Integration, Value Co-creation, Customer Ecosystem

A complex array of underlying business trends such as digitalization, platforms, and automation challenges the current understanding of solutions. Customized solutions grounded in the exchange of value embedded in offerings (goods and services) are under pressure. The traditional understanding of customized solutions is not enough to support customers’ business and their responses to specific challenges to secure value-in-use. Value-in-use (VIU), defined as “all customer-perceived consequences arising from a solution that facilitate or hinder the achievement of the customer’s goals” (Macdonald et al. 2016, p. 97), is more important. This opens up a broader understanding of solutions where VIU is a process outcome and not a property of the offering and solution itself (Vargo and Lusch 2016). Understanding customers’ goals, not just at the moment of exchange but the lifetime value, is more critical today than at any time in the past. Today, value-creating solutions are created and assessed jointly in collaborative processes that often transcend traditional dyadic customer–firm relations to become more complex and engage multiple actors.
This has led to an interest in conceptualizing and defining solutions as a value creation phenomenon. An essential enabler in this shift is digitalization that extends the opportunity for solutions supporting the end customer’s businesses and thus facilitates strategic benefit and further growth. Creating solutions grounded in digital offerings with use-value for all engaged actors is a trending topic in research and management practice. However, the conceptual foundation needs further development to break free from a narrow and structural understanding of offerings.
Against this backdrop, this paper elaborates on the relational view on customized solutions to extend the view on use value for all engaged actors. A multi-actor and collaborative understanding of resource integration for value co-creation are emphasized. The service ecosystem lens from service-dominant logic is chosen to theorize about solutions in the B2B literature beyond the firm-customer dyad. Since actors have different goals and value outcomes, solutions are created and assessed differently by and for engaged actors. The outcome, use value, can be referred to as solutions that are co-created or emerging over time beyond the firm-customer dyad. The service ecosystem lens includes multiple collaborating actors, their access to, integration, and use of resources framed by the institutional arrangements - the rule of the business game.
The article aims to build a systemic understanding of solving the end customer’s business challenges and problems - an ecosystem solution. In theorizing, the paper suggests that multiple collaborating actors bring complementary sets of value propositions and resources into the ecosystem solution processes embedded in the specific context. The paper contributes with: (1) a conceptualization and definition of ecosystem solution as a complex array of value propositions, aligned to solve the end customer’s business challenges where value is used and realized for all engaged actors in the ecosystem and (2) suggestions for further research on ecosystem solutions.