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The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether triad structures, as the smallest unit of a network, can facilitate or inhibit the evolution into a service ecosystem. According to SD logic literature, the triad structure and the institutions that dominate the triads determine the evolution into ecosystem, remain as triad or die. “Balanced centricity” is considered a desirable institution that increases the possibility of transforming triads into ecosystems through marketing equilibrium.

The authors apply a conceptual approach to develop a framework for deepening understanding about triads’ structures from the institution’s perspective (balanced centricity). Qualitative case study research was conducted using different methods of data generation including personal interviews and netnography analysis in the arts sector. Three case studies were developed, one for each triad structure: Sothebýs, Patreon and Vibuk.

New business models start being a triad, and it is a strategic option to evolve into an ecosystem. In this sense, authors argue for considering balanced centricity as an institution that enables the ecosystems to arise. From this perspective, balanced centricity can be considered a strategy that helps to balance and reach positive relationships among actors, enabling the process to become a “balance triad structure”.

The paper is a conceptual work that combines with an empirical approach. The empirical approach considers three success cases on the arts context. Considering other contexts as different from arts industry would be useful to add new perspectives to the theory development.

The present paper defines a new form of triad “balanced triad structure” (BTS) and identifies categories depending on the way balanced centricity institution is adopted, facilitating or inhibiting the future evolution into an ecosystem. Hitherto, previous papers have not put together these concepts that build on the triads and ecosystems theory to better understand triads management and facilitate the evolution of three-actor networks into ecosystems.

The purpose of this viewpoint is to analyze and interpret the author’s career as a researcher in marketing.

This viewpoint applies case theory (Gummesson, 2017a), in which the author is the case.

One should respect the difficulty of understanding the complex and dynamic world of marketing and not be fooled into premature generalizations and reverence to established theory.

The emphasis is on marketing as a revenue-generating activity through interaction in the network of complex relationships; the need for less ritualistic research methodology; and the orientation toward theory generation, decision-making, implementation and achievement of desired results.

This paper aims to emphasize the need for generation of more general, abstract and grand theory in marketing by synthesizing relationship marketing and other developments and to address complexity instead of fragmented bits of marketing.

This study is a discourse based on new theoretical developments, literature and personal reflection.

Relationships, networks and interaction constitute the core of marketing.

Future focus on theory generation and complexity through case study research and not on fragmented quantitative surveys and hypotheses testing. When complexity is better understood, boil it down to actionable simplicity in the form of mid-range theory.

Research in marketing is there to be used in real life; it is not an academic parlor game. The paper addresses complexity instead of shunning it, search for the core of marketing and offer simplification as mid-range theory (checklists, heuristics, etc.) and with focus on decisions, action and results.

Going from the current fragmented approach of marketing to a holistic and theory-based approach, linking theory with practice.

This paper explores whether, in the context of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, new innovation strategies can be developed through actors' interactions, the exchange of resources and the co-creation of value for and within the system. In the context of the U–I relationship, the innovation perspective can highlight the need to develop strategies that elicit new formulas of value co-creation, which then facilitate innovation as a result of actor collaboration.

A total of 45 public universities in Spain, representing 95% of the total, participated in qualitative research. Personal in-depth interviews with technology transfer officers (TTOs) were conducted by an external firm; in a second phase, two of the researchers conducted eight interviews with the directors of TTOs in those universities with higher rates of transfer.

Findings reveal that enterprises with a technological focus are strengthening their relationships with universities and attempting to build a university business ecosystem by designing strategies for value co-creation such as co-ownership, co-patenting, and co-invention.

The empirical research is conducted in Spain, and results should be interpreted according to this context. Future research should examine new contexts (other countries) to improve the robustness of the data and enrich the results, thus enabling generalization of the management consequences.

The results provide a means to design strategies under a new collaborative and innovating logic. The theoretical framework contributes to theory, with implications for management.

Can internal marketing be used in changing a corporate culture? Can approaches and know‐how developed in services marketing be of help to an industrial firm producing and marketing to business customers? This article is about an ongoing effort at Ericsson, a major international firm in telecommunications equipment, to change its “quality culture” by means of the Ericsson Quality (EQ) internal marketing program. The presentation stresses two particularly essential issues. The first issue is the actual implementation of the ideas supplied by the internal marketing program. The second is the broadening of the internal marketing concept to include the notion of the “internal customer.”

From a service ecosystem perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine students’ evaluation surveys as a tool used by most higher education (HE) institutions worldwide to measure teaching quality with consequences for tenure and promotion.

This study is based on the service-dominant (S-D) logic and specifically on the service ecosystem approach. Through an in-depth literature review and analysis the authors explore the effect of student evaluation surveys on the value co-creation process, describe the role they play in the HE ecosystem and critically evaluate their efficacy. The research is based on empirical data from the literature and previous studies findings.

The literature review highlights the detrimental consequences of the use of students’ evaluation surveys for teachers and students and for the rest of actors of this service. The authors argue that institutions should embrace a service ecosystem perspective based on S-D logic. The authors highlight the role of institutions as moderators of the interactions between actors and, finally, the authors have introduced the concept of “service ecosystem pollution” which the authors define as the presence or introduction of disruptive elements in the service ecosystem adversely affecting the nature of value co-creation.

This study emphasizes the importance for HE institutions to embrace a service ecosystem approach so as to foster and preserve the value co-creation processes taking place within the interactions among the HE actors. Conclusions drawn from this paper suggest that HE institutions should focus on strategies such as investing in improving students’ and teachers’ operant resources rather than polluting the HE service ecosystem with the use of students’ evaluation surveys.

Hitherto there are no studies analyzing the tools HE institutions use to measure teaching quality from a service ecosystem perspective. The study is especially valuable due to the consequences and the use of these measures entails for teachers, students and society.

Considers the current state of health‐care provision – noting that the sector is in distress. Suggests that we need to find the root cause of the problems and not just the symptoms. As an example of good practice, points to Shouldice Hospital in Toronto, Canada – a single‐service clinic doing 7,000 hernia operations per year. Notes that Shouldice has an almost nil recurrence rate – one out of 200 operations – which is close to Six Sigma. Suggests that the Shouldice story underlines the importance of obvious service quality factors such as the need to be long‐term and to work on continuously developing methods and skills.

It is estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the GNP in western developed countries is services. Some twenty‐five years after the discovery of this fact the academic world found the time ripe to recognize services as a research area. Says German service pioneer Professor Wolfgang von Dienstbode: “We consider it obvious, although a lot remains to be done to prove it scientifically, that the service sector has come to stay.” The theoretical advances in services marketing and the management of service businesses have also boomed during the past few years.