A2A Relationships in Service Contexts

Abstract

This work aims at developing the actor-to-actor (A2A) relationship concept in service contexts enhancing the contribution of the systems theories. The most recent progresses related to the research on the service, as a matter of fact, highlight how the nowadays co-creation processes are key elements in each service context. Both the Service Science (SS) and the Service Dominant (S-D) logic analyse the importance of the role played by the numerousness of actors involved in the service exchange because of the resources held (and released) and the contribution they can offer. System theories, and in particular the Viable System Approach, offer the possibility of an holistic perspective able to re-interpret the same characterizing mechanisms of the value co-creation. In the following parts of the work it will presented a conceptual analysis based on the contribution of the VSA, the SS and the S-D logic, whose scientific proposals will be developed and critically analysed in order to verify the proposition coherence in terms of A2A relationships within the value co-creation process. The relational perspective of the Service Eco-systems shows a view open to network in relation to economic and social actors, where each organization can be considered as an actor because it is actively committed in the value co-creation development, going beyond the difference between the user, the producer, or the exchange facilitator. Therefore, the contribution proposes some progresses compared with the business to business (B2B) approach and literature, through the introduction of the new A2A interaction concept within the service context for the indistinct role that the actors play in the value co-creation process. In this perspective, the contribution introduces the research line focused on the service, giving attention, afterwards, to the service system context, in order to analyse the features of these systems with the specific goal of identifying its peculiarity. The contribution proceed with the presentation of the systems thinking, and in particular the VSA contribution, directed toward the description of the gaps that the authors identify in the present research attempting to offer some orientations for the comprehension and the improvement of the service systems and of their planning and management implications. The contribution finally proposes an integrated interpretation of the several emerging paradigms (VSA, SS and S-D logic) seeking an in-depth-analysis of the A2A relationships in the service contexts.