Customer engagement has been gaining increasing attention and has rapidly developed in service research (Clark, Lages, and Hollebeek 2020). This concept has evolved from a focus on a customer with a brand (Van Doorn et al. 2010) to a broader focus on actors and stakeholders with multiple engaged objects (Hollebeek, Kumar, and Srivastava 2020). Actor engagement is understood as "a dynamic and iterative process, reflecting actors' dispositions to invest resources in their interactions with other connected actors in a service system" (Brodie et al. 2019 p.183). Engaged actors are willing to invest a set of resources focusing on the object involved (Alexander, Jaakkola, and Hollebeek 2018). Customer engagement with sustainability has been recently considered a service research priority (Ostrom et al. 2021), along with the need to understand sustainable service ecosystems (Field et al. 2021). This has been aligned with research on sustainable transition that has emphasized the key role of citizen engagement (Ryghaug, Skjølsvold, and Heidenreich 2018) and the need to engage citizens to overcome their resistance to adopt new solutions and new sustainable behaviors (Martikka et al. 2018).
Citizen engagement is related to the participation in community associations and social movements (Gaventa and Barret 2010) or citizens' involvement in building relationships beyond information exchange (Chen et al. 2020). However, while literature in sustainable transition focuses on strategies and approaches to engage citizens, there is still a need to develop a holistic conceptualization of citizen engagement, considering different dimensions and tenets (Hollebeek 2011).
Against this backdrop, this paper integrates sustainability and service research to advance the understanding of citizen engagement with sustainable service ecosystem transition through a conceptual review, followed by a qualitative study. Starting with a systematic literature review, we have selected a database of 382 articles from Web of Science in service research and sustainability literature. All the abstracts were analyzed to identify the relevant articles and discard the others. In the end, a final sample of 87 articles was considered for in-depth qualitative analysis, supporting the development of an integrated conceptualization of citizen engagement with sustainable transitions.
This conceptual review was followed by a qualitative study with 24 citizens living in a city where a sustainable energy transition project is being undertaken. The results of data analysis show that citizens manifest multiple engagement behaviors that can be categorized in different engagement levels (non-active, active, and empowered) along the citizen journey towards sustainability. This work also reveals the interplay between the different roles citizens may have in the sustainable transition. Citizens, as a customer, can contribute when adopting an electric vehicle, using a smart meter, or acquiring a PV panel. At the same time, the same citizen may contribute to sustainable transition with non-purchase behaviors such as using more eco-friendly technology or when engaged in collaborative and sustainable models.

Phenomenon being studied
From a service-dominant (S-D) logic perspective, value creation has been argued to link actor engagement in service ecosystems (Storbacka, 2019). Hence, engaged actors’ value cocreation presumes shared institutional arrangements (Vargo & Lusch, 2016). In contrast to such systemic harmony, there is empirical evidence of actors partly or fully disengaging (Brodie et al. 2013) from the established institutional arrangements of the service ecosystem due to conflicting goals. At least partly breaking with established structures, actors instead make new rules and norms (Koskela-Huotari et al., 2016), and engage in niche but sometimes yet partly connected service ecosystems, envisioning different values. Actors’ engagement in such “sub systems” are often inspired by individual or collective strong voices, or “lead engagers” (cf. Von Hippel, 1986: “lead users”). This can be observed as a growing trend among conscious younger generations, anti-establishment politics and single-issue activism, often related to changing cultural values and norms (e.g., climate change, environment, immigration), shifting external power relationships (e.g., anti-establishment, anti-vax, pro-life), or promoting personal transformation (e.g., religion, veganism, health/fitness). Digitalization have helped foster collective behaviour (Blumer, 1995) and form collective engagement (Kleinaltenkamp et al., 2019; 2021) into strong social movements (Buechler, 1995), which may have the power of reshaping the established service ecosystem in a specific direction.

Our work aims at contributing to engagement research, through adopting new social movement theory to gain a better understanding on how induced collective engagement can shape and reform service ecosystems.

Theoretical Framework
In line with recent discussions on market shaping (Nenonen & Storbacka, 2021), we suggest utilizing new social movement (NSM) theory (Touraine, 1977) for increasing our understanding of (a) the dynamics and complexities of disengagement and disruption in service ecosystems, and (b) antecedents to collective engagement in and emergence of partly intertwined but parallel institutional arrangements. Social movements, defined as networks of informal interactions between individuals, groups and/or organizations founded in shared collective identities (Diani, 1992), are characterised by primarily three distinguishing traits; identity/common interests, opposition/discontent and a general will (Touraine, 1977).

Discussion & Conclusion
Building on NSM theory, we discuss lead engagers in social movements as disruptors of institutional arrangements in a service ecosystem. We argue that social movements and their lead engagers challenge established structures in two ways: by visualizing competing institutional arrangements; and by suggesting a design for alternative service ecosystems, including an adjusted sets of goals for resource integrating patterns, value creation and institutional arrangements (cf. Vink et al., 2021). When lead engagers fail to engage the established ecosystem to adapt and reshape institutional arrangements, they form alternative ecosystems with independent norms and rules, in turn fostering resource integration and value creation. Such niche service ecosystems, ranging from partly to majorly different in terms of sets of norms, can prosper in symbiosis with the established service ecosystem – albeit a shadow movement in opposition thereof. Managerial implications are in correspondence to an increased understanding of envisioned value creation influenced by social movements.



Key words
Collective engagement; Lead engager; Social movement; Service ecosystem


Paper type
Conceptual paper

What motivates consumers to engage in sustainable consumption? While there is broad consensus that consumer consumption is a key driver of climate change, it is less clear how to motivate consumers to limit their consumption. The circular economy has emerged as an alternative for a more sustainable consumption (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017). In late 2021, Cop26 assembled world leaders to tackle the growing climate crisis, with many actors highlighting the circular economy as a crucial part of the fight against climate change, representing 45% of the needed cuts in emissions according to the World Economic Forum. The need for a circular economy has received widespread recognition, and many governments, international organizations and NGOs now all emphasize its importance (Korhonen et al. 2018).

However, while the nature and the benefits of the circular economy have been studied, there is little research on how to engage consumers in the circular economy for a more sustainable consumption. This is the topic that this paper addresses: through two studies, we take both a consumer perspective and service provider perspective to understand why consumer engage in the circular economy and how service providers can foster this more sustainable form of consumption.

We study consumer engagement in the circular economy by looking at second-hand consumption. We focus on luxury fashion brands as these offer additional advantages for the circular economy for two main reasons. First, luxury fashion tends to last much longer and overwhelming uses more sustainable production methods and sustainable materials compared to fast-fashion clothing, hence already the production process is more sustainable (Joy et al. 2012). Second, the brand appeal and longer life-span makes luxury items more desirable for second-hand purchases (Kessous & Vallette-Florence 2019).

Our literature review defines and develops the concept of the circular economy and further reviews consumer motivations and consumer engagement. Study 1 focuses on consumer to explore multiple motivations underlining consumer engagement in the circular economy, while Study 2 takes a managerial perspective to study how consumer engagement in sustainable consumption can be enhanced. The findings offer two main contributions: First, we identify divergent consumer motivations to engage in the circular economy. Importantly, we find that intersecting motivations appear to drive broader engagement than individual motivations. Second, we detail how service providers can strengthen consumer engagement in the circular economy. Crucially, we show how to reach beyond those already concerned about sustainability to engage broader customer segments in sustainable consumption.

References
Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N.M., & Hultink, E.J. (2017). The Circular Economy–A new sustainability paradigm?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 757-768
Joy, A., Sherry Jr, J.F., Venkatesh, A., Wang, J. and Chan, R. (2012). Fast fashion, sustainability, and the ethical appeal of luxury brands. Fashion Theory 16(3), 273- 295.
Kessous, A., & Valette-Florence, P. (2019). “From Prada to Nada”: Consumers and their luxury products: A contrast between second-hand and first-hand luxury products. Journal of Business Research, 102, 313-327.
Korhonen, J., Honkasalo, A., & Seppälä, J. (2018). Circular economy: the concept and its limitations. Ecological economics, 143, 37-46

The role of consumer in sustainability efforts has been highlighted as a service research priority, being fundamental for the design of sustainable service ecosystems (Ostrom et al., 2021). This has raised questions regarding the value that consumers give to sustainability over satisfying their other needs and how can citizens be engaged in addressing sustainability challenges. Recent studies in the context of smart city initiatives emphasized the need for a better understanding on how citizens’ involvement in sustainability initiatives can contribute socially and not only to their own utility (Hasija et al., 2020).

To address these gaps, this study aims to explore how utilitarian, social, and environmental value influence different citizen engagement behaviours within the context of sustainable energy solutions.

We consider sustainable energy solutions as a combination of products and services, playing the role of the engagement object. Drawing from recent works on Customer Engagement (van Doorn et al., 2010), (Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014), (Brodie et al., 2013) and Customer Value Co-creation Behaviour (Yi, 2013), we propose a conceptual model of engagement behaviors that citizens manifest in relation to the engagement object, going beyond purchase and consumption per se (Information Seeking, Using & Managing, Sharing feedback, Helping, Advocating).

Building upon previous conceptual and operational models, we propose utilitarian, social and environmental value as drivers of engagement behaviours. We also consider Awareness of Consequences and Community Identity as possible moderators of the relationship between the types of perceived value and the different engagement behaviours. For this purpose, we rely on theoretical foundations such as Uses and Gratification Theory (Katz et al., 1974), Value-Norm-Belief Theory (Stern, 2000) and Attitude-Behaviour-Context model (Guagnano et al., 1995).

The contributions of this study are twofold. Firstly, this study offers a nuanced understanding of citizen engagement behaviours and their drivers. This conceptual framework complements former conceptualization of customer engagement, and therefore, supports further research in the field of citizen engagement. Secondly, this study emphasizes the role of citizen engagement to foster sustainability. The conceptual model can provide insights to both service managers and policy makers for designing better customized engagement strategies and better sustainable solutions.

Further work will focus on operationalizing the conceptual model and testing it empirically through a questionnaire that will be applied in the context of POCITYF EU smart city project in 8 European cities.