2013 Naples Forum on Service

In the last decade service research has been revitalized through main inputs coming from Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic, Service Science and Network and Systems Theory. S-D logic has contributed with a tentative higher level service theory of the best contributions of the past, and pointing directions for the future. Through the deployment of its premises and axioms, S-D logic renewed the service field and focused on resource integration, value-co-creation, actor-to-actor interaction (A2A), service ecosystems and institutions as key ideas in the theory of marketing. The foundational idea of 'service for service exchange' offers a unified understanding of the purpose and nature of organizations, markets and society. Service Science is a long term global research program run by IBM together with universities, businesses and governments. It is an interdisciplinary umbrella that enables scholars from different cultures and specialties to cooperate in addressing the shift toward service-based economies. Network Theory and Systems Theory have been deployed to address complexity with applications like Many-to-Many Marketing and the Viable Systems Approach (VSA). Systems thinking and a holistic view have been applied to marketing to offer a different way of looking at market phenomenon and service exchange.The multiple insights from S-D logic, service science and network and systems theory have formed the 3 Pillars of the Naples Forum on Service since it was first held in 2009. The Forum is indeed an effort to stimulate what we call Paradigm 3 research, communicate it and speed up its progress across disciplines and cultures. With Paradigm 3 (2000s-) the focus of service research moved from differences of goods and services to commonalities and interdependencies. It also moved from the supplier value chain to the value network of all stakeholders (&quote;balanced centricity&quote;), and service (in the singular) became the output irrespective of input. The roles of suppliers and customers have also changed through the recognition of co-creation of value with resource integration embracing all actors, A2A, and not limited to the supplier-customer dyad. In the core of Paradigm 3 is the recognition of complexity. Service systems are enormously complex - it is not sufficient to study the relationship between just a few variables. The new millennium brought with it openings to address complexity and take a more systemic view. At the third Naples Forum held on the Island of Ischia in 2013, we witnessed the development of a wide international service research network engaged in developing Paradigm 3. This ebook offers five cutting-edge articles which constitute a small sample of the presentations. Each of them tries to bridge important service research gaps. Topics include: the introduction of a network perspective on consumption and idea for a new category, collective consumption network; reflections on strategic marketing in emerging economies in a study focusing on understanding what new business models are enabled by the VSA (Viable Systems Approach) and SDL (Service-Dominant Logic) perspectives; an assessment of the role and implications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in service; a fresh framing of innovation as service innovation/value innovation; and a summary of the extant research in order to better understand the state of the theory of value co-creation. Six common themes are identified co-creating value through customer experience and competence, service-dominant logic, service innovation, the development of service science, online and digital customer involvement, as well as individual consumers and communities collaborating with companies.