The objective of this paper is to review recent developments in service theory and systems theory with a view to identifying common features between the two. In particular, the study explores the issue of whether so-called `smart service systems' can be understood in terms of the `viable systems...

Service science is an emerging discipline concerned with the evolution, interaction, and reciprocal cocreation of value among service systems (Maglio and Spohrer [Maglio, P. P., J. Spohrer. 2008. Fundamentals of Service Science. <i>Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science</i> <b>36</b>(1) 18-20.]; Spohrer...

Service systems engineering (SSE) focuses on the systematic design and development of service systems. Guided by a value proposition, service systems enable value co-creation through a configuration of actors and resources (often including a service architecture, technology, information, and...

There is an urgent interest in marketing to move away from neo-classical value definitions suggesting that value creation is a process of exchanging goods for money.<p> In the present paper, value creation is conceptualized as an integration of two distinct, yet closely coupled processes. First,...</p>