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Sustainability transitions (STs) refer to large-scale step changes in complex systems required to face sustainability issues. We aim to delineate how they can unfold in service ecosystems, especially when inspired by regenerative thinking.

We develop a conceptual framework based on a processual view of STs and provide a propositional inventory based on literature leveraging deductive reasoning. Moreover, we contextualize our conceptualizations by showing illustrative examples of cities coping with STs.

We connect the perception of unsustainability with the shift toward service-dominant (S-D) logic and identify them as triggers of an ST; we focus on the role of nested service ecosystems and the adoption of regenerative thinking in STs; finally, we highlight the domino effect that can drive continuous change towards sustainability in service ecosystems. Future research could be focused on (loss of) sensemaking for driving STs, practical approaches to deal with institutional tensions in nested service ecosystems and the possible fractality of ST processes in service ecosystems.

This study supports the understanding of STs in cities and other systems such as industries, markets and organizations. It contributes to ST literature by suggesting the adoption of S-D logic and system lenses to identify, drive and cope with system changes toward sustainability, showing implications for policymakers and practitioners. Furthermore, it contributes to S-D logic by unfolding the self-adjustment of service ecosystems and the focus of sustainability initiatives on nested service ecosystems to sustain the broader systems. Finally, it contributes to transformative service research by identifying how the procedural and inspirational principles characterizing regenerative thinking can support design for STs.

The paper investigates how the engagement of a group of actors (the volunteers), previously unexplored in service ecosystems literature, contributes to generating new co-creation activities and well-being outcomes in the healthcare service ecosystem (HSE). Moreover, the study analyses how the provision and integration of volunteers’ resources help to explain the HSE self-adjustment favouring the re-humanisation of service.

The article zooms in on the volunteers’ activities in an HSE. A qualitative approach is adopted, and an empirical investigation is grounded in data gathered from Kids Kicking Cancer (KKC) Italia, a volunteer association operating in the paediatric oncology ward of Italian hospitals. Data are collected and triangulated through in-depth interviews, volunteers’ diaries and observations. The analysis is conducted by adopting an interpretative thematic analysis technique.

The study provides a conceptual framework explaining how volunteers’ value co-creation activities influence the HSE’s self-adjustment by leading to a re-humanisation of services. The paper also contributes to the state of knowledge by identifying seven categories of volunteers’ value co-creation activities, two of which are completely new in the literature (co-responsibility and empowerment).

The paper contributes to the service research literature by identifying empirically grounded value co-creation activities extending the understanding of self-adjustment and re-humanisation of the service ecosystem.

The service environment is becoming increasingly turbulent, leading to calls for a systemic understanding of it as a set of dynamic service ecosystems. This paper advances this understanding by developing a typology of service ecosystem dynamics that explains the varying interplay between change and stability within the service environment through distinct behavioral patterns exhibited by service ecosystems over time.

This study builds upon a systematic literature review of service ecosystems literature and uses system dynamics as a method theory to abductively analyze extant literature and develop a typology of service ecosystem dynamics.

The paper identifies three types of service ecosystem dynamics—behavioral patterns of service ecosystems—and explains how they unfold through self-adjustment processes and changes within different systemic leverage points. The typology of service ecosystem dynamics consists of (1) reproduction (i.e. stable behavioral pattern), (2) reconfiguration (i.e. unstable behavioral pattern) and (3) transition (i.e. disrupting, shifting behavioral pattern).

The typology enables practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of their service environment by discerning the behavioral patterns exhibited by the constituent service ecosystems. This, in turn, supports them in devising more effective strategies for navigating through it.

The paper provides a precise definition of service ecosystem dynamics and shows how the identified three types of dynamics can be used as a lens to empirically examine change and stability in the service environment. It also offers a set of research directions for tackling service research challenges.