The Service Systems research group at WMG works in collaboration with large organisations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, IBM, Ministry of Defence as well as with SMEs researching into value constellations, new business models and value-creating service systems of people, product, service and technology.The group aims to advance the knowledge of value-creating service systems to help organisations innovate and evolve to new business models and make better decisions in the design, delivery and management of their value propositions to cocreate value.In particular, we pursue the knowledge of service systems for value co-creation that is replicable, scalable and transferable so that we can address some of the most difficult challenges faced by businesses, markets and society. Research StreamsThe WMG Service Systems research group conducts research that is capable of solving real problems in practice, and also to create theoretical abstractions from or research that is relevant and applicable across sector and industry, so that the impact of our research is substantial.The group currently conducts research under six broad themes:

This paper proposes an analysis of the evolution of approaches to knowledge management in order to identify useful patterns and perspectives for the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness, and affordable of managerial models for the economic development. The contribution offered by the literature is analyzed in the social network theory perspective and is reinterpreted in the light of the viable system approach (VSA) as a meta-model useful to highlight variables and processes involved in the interactions among several actors. The systematization of the contributions on the knowledge management facilitates the reading and the understanding of dominan managerial models, and somehow, outlines traits and characteristics of the knowledg society—as construct based on the relationship—that traditional approaches and instruments are often not properly adequate to understand. In this perspective, the paper aims to investigate the possible and potential contribution that university can offer t address the behaviors of local actors toward pathways of knowledge co-creation, able to positively impact on the local economic and social dynamics, in a win-win logic framework. Using a cross disciplinary approach, the paper proposes a conceptua framework able to identify possible influences that university can enforce on the local context in order to improve the social alignment requested to evolve from a transactional to a relational perspective, in which all actors play an active role in the processes of value generation and their needs are effectively satisfied. Proposed reflections are supported by the analysis of some practical observations with reference to the territory of Puglia region in Italy. They highlight the relevance of university as a key actor able to address the local resources to face the challenge of a changeable emerging context

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The paper aims to advocate the incorporating of the sustainability perspective into the management control system of healthcare organizations. The study is based on two main premises: (1) the evolution of business models towards a wide perspective of the sustainability approach; (2) the evolution of control systems in healthcare organizations towards a control-based approach to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the service targeted primarily to cut costs and expenses. Our methodology is developed at theoretical and conceptual level starting from: (1) a literature review on the issue, highlighting main trends and gaps and (2) the adoption of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA) as a conceptual framework oriented to integrate a wide variety of stakeholder perspectives and interests into the business model. Our findings lead us to introduce the Systems Viability Monitoring Model for Sustainability as a potential reference framework to build healthcare management control systems in which the notion of ‘systems viability,’ as defined by VSA, becomes a bridging concept by means of which the sustainability perspective can be incorporated into the management control system of healthcare organizations.

Obiettivo del paper: Il paper propone un modello di rappresentazione del territorio come sistema dinamico di relazioni intersoggettive capace di garantire non solo l'efficienza dei processi interni all'organizzazione sviluppata, ma anche risultati efficaci nel contesto complessivo e un impatto sostenibile nell'ambiente più esteso.Metodologia: Il contributo è sviluppato sulla base dell'Approccio Sistemico Vitale (ASV) sia come metodologia di indagine dei fenomeni sociali sia come metodologia di governo delle organizzazioni.Risultati: Attraverso l'impiego di concetti quali 'rilevanza', 'consonanza' e 'risonanza', l'approccio proposto conduce alla rappresentazione di un sistema territoriale vitale, capace di sopravvivere nel proprio contesto creando valore per i sovrasistemi di riferimento e determinando le condizioni per un equilibrio sostenibile.Limiti della ricerca: Il paper offre un framework teorico-concettuale che potrà essere oggetto di studio e di ulteriori sviluppi anche attraverso l'analisi di casi reali e verifiche empiriche.Implicazioni pratiche: Lo schema generale proposto è adottabile, congiuntamente ai modelli manageriali consolidati, tanto dall'attore istituzionale, che vede il territorio nel suo complesso come sistema vitale, quanto dall'attore imprenditoriale, che vede nel territorio un fertile contesto di azione dal quale trarre e al quale offrire opportunità di sviluppo in un intreccio armonico di finalità e in un'ottica condivisa di sostenibilità.Originalità del lavoro: L'originalità del paper risiede nel proporre un modello di sintesi per uno sviluppo sinergico del territorio che catalizzi istanze aziendali, di contesto e ambientali, promuovendo la sostenibilità nei rapporti impresa-territorio.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors for successful creation of social value using the social business model (SBM) as an explanatory framework. Design/methodology/approach This study follows the Krippendorff and Gioia’s methodology seeking the rigor while examining the selected case study – a social cooperative named La Paranza, in the city of Naples in the south of Italy. In doing so, the SBM canvas is used to present the research’s results in a systematic way. Findings The existence of a strong “identity” with the local context, the “enthusiasm and the wish to change things”, the presence of a “visionary”, acting as an orchestrator and the ability to provide for responses to the local needs were identified as key factors in the successful creation of social value in the examined case. Research limitations/implications The main research limits stem from the single case study methodology approach, which embodies the researchers’ subjectivity. A comparative study based on the collection of multiple successful case studies is therefore suggested to develop a generalization of the key drivers underlying the process of social value creation. Originality/value The study’s originality results from its use of the SBM framework in presenting a successful example of social value creation. The examined empirical evidence is also original in itself, mainly because of its inner uniqueness as a new and innovative formula: this allows an in-depth investigation and the inspiration for new ideas in the ground of SBM and, in a broader sense, in the field of social innovation and social value creation.

Following the construction of Maglio et al. (2009), we view a service system as a network of agents and interactions that integrate resources for value co-creation. The context of value creation is intrinsic to the system design and the adaptive, interactive actions of agents classify the network as an ecosystem (Lusch et al., 2010). To date, several disciplines have broached the systems view of service and the engineering of service systems. Operations research applied to services began with a rather simplistic, macro view of resource integration in the form of data envelopment analysis (DEA), introduced by Charnes,

Strategic Plans (SPs) and Sustainability Reports (SRs) represent institutional communication tools implemented by universities to demonstrate their adoption of sustainability and sustainable development goals (SDGs of Agenda 2030) as drivers in their strategic planning processes. These tools make the adopted strategies and operations visible and easily understandable to stakeholders, highlighting the university’s commitment to a new balance between business, environment, and the social sphere. Moving from this premise, with the aim to evaluate the degree of transposition of sustainability and sustainable development principles into the Italian university system, we propose an exploratory research on universities’ institutional declarations, in the form of the SRs and SPs available on their web sites. To this aim, we conducted a content analysis aiming at a preliminary phase of text coding, based on a set of analytical categories—pillars—namely Education and Learning, Research, Operations and Governance, and External Leadership. The work has allowed us to identify: an interesting extent to which the sustainability principles have been transposed into the Italian university system, with particular regard to the third category of Operations and Governance (36% of coded segments in SRs and 32% of coded segments in SPs); a considerable awareness of universities of their key role played on the sociopolitical and economic levels for the diffusion of the Agenda 2030 within civil society.