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Purpose The study aims to delve into the “phygital customer journey” (PCJ), which merges physical and digital interactions in customer experiences, using a practice-based lens to reveal the underlying dynamics of these blended encounters. Design/methodology/approach Feedback from 60 individuals established the groundwork for a qualitative analysis. They chronicled customer journeys through diaries and used UXPressia software for journey mapping. This strategy enabled a detailed exploration of the PCJ, focusing on customers’ lived experiences and perceptions. Findings The study presents an integrative framework for the PCJ, identifying four key elements: hybrid artefacts (the melding of digital and physical tools/interfaces), blended contexts (the seamless integration of digital and physical spaces), circular actions (the non-linear paths of customer engagement) and intertwined emotions (the complex emotional responses to phygital experiences). These elements underscore the intricate and interconnected nature of the PCJ. Originality/value This study advances the field by applying a practice-based approach to unravel the complexities of the PCJ, illuminating the nuanced interplay between digital and physical realms. This innovative lens foregrounds the significance of practices in consumer experiences, thereby contributing to a deeper academic and practical understanding of phygital integration.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of technology as it has been framed within Innovation System (IS) and Innovation Ecosystem (IE) literature research streams. The methodological choice is a systemic review that allows to focus on theoretical proposals by scholars and the identification of the commonalities regarding the pivotal role of technology and the differences in describing innovation-based mechanisms in both literatures. Results show that the key elements are the overall idea of technology as pivotal in driving innovation, the actors affecting technology and contributing to reach innovation-based goals, and the decisional process emerging because of technology. Furthermore, emerging features on evolution through time and knowledge-transforming mechanisms favored by technology in IE show an opportunity to learn in-depth from specific insights generated in both the literatures and to delineate a more comprehensive approach to technology related to innovation in wider interconnected contexts.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the evolving concept of the metaverse and its implications for service innovation. It seeks to understand how integrating technologies such as extended reality, blockchain, artificial intelligence and non-fungible tokens enables companies to experiment and innovate. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative methodology, this investigation conducts an immersive netnography across more than 25 case studies spanning diverse industries such as gaming, retail, health care and education. The thematic analysis method is used to distill critical insights, providing a deep dive into the technological enablers, innovation processes and market adaptations within the metaverse. Findings The study addresses four main building blocks through which companies experiment with the metaverse to foster innovation: enabling virtual identities’ agency, developing non-fungible tokens, designing immersive paths and crafting phygital microworlds. They shape the metaverse by enacting actors, resources, processes and phygital ecosystems. Companies obtain learning outcomes from such experimentation and identify learning challenges. Originality/value This research contributes to the nascent body of knowledge on the metaverse and service innovation by providing a comprehensive framework that encapsulates the multifaceted ways companies experiment within the metaverse. It extends the understanding of digital-physical convergence in service research, offering theoretical and practical insights into the development of phygital service ecosystems.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to frame innovation as a process of co-creation according to a practice-based view.Design methodology approach - The paper focuses on the innovation practices that occurred within the web contexts of ten companies. In accordance with netnography research, data include preliminary studies of the web-based context, naturalistic observations of the community and the activities of its members, and direct interactions with the members of the innovating community.Findings - This work proposes the integration of innovation, practice and the emerging co-creation research. The paper develops the five \"Co-s\" model including: co-ideation, co-valuation, co-design, co-test and co-launch. Each \"Co-\" represents a phase of the innovation process resulting from dynamic and on-going interactions among resources, actions, and a group of actors who are interrelated via a dense network. Within each \"Co-\", the authors identify practices and elements of practices.Practical implications - A firm's managers should influence co-creation opportunities by contributing to script practices. These managers should be able to consider more clearly the full options of co-creation activities and be involved in designing and responding to co-creation initiatives. They should also understand that each phase could provide an opportunity for collaboration that enhances the value of co-creation. In this manner, managers could orchestrate multiple resources (e.g., actors, actions tools and output language).Originality value - This work brings innovation into the realm of practice by moving the focus from the outcome to the process -, i.e. from innovation as a new artefact to the act of innovating. In this context, innovating is the system of on-going co-creation practices performed by people who merge knowledge, actions, tools, languages and artefacts to create something new and better. In this view, innovators are carriers of practices.

Purpose Over recent years, few industries have seen such dramatic changes as the healthcare industry. The potential connectivity of digital technologies is completely transforming the healthcare ecosystem. This has resulted in companies increasingly investing in digital transformations to exploit data across channels, operations and patient outreach, by building on a practice approach and actor-network theory and being informed by service-dominant logic, this study aims to contribute by advancing the agential role of third-party actors to prompt innovation and shape service ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach This research is grounded in an epistemological contextualism. To gain situated knowledge and address the role of context in knowledge, understanding and meaning the authors adopted a qualitative methodology to study actors in their different contexts. The empirical research was based on case theory. The authors also took guidance from practice scholars about how to investigate actors’ practices. The unit of analysis moves from dyadic relationships to focus on practices across different networks of actors. Findings This study expands on the conceptualization of triad as proposed by Siltaloppi and Vargo (2017) by moving from the form of triadic relationships – brokerage, mediation and coalition – to the agency of e-health third-parties; and their practices to innovate in the healthcare ecosystem. This study focuses on the actors and the performativity of actions and grounding the conceptual view on an empirical base. Practical implications Third-party actors bring about innovative ways of doing business in the healthcare ecosystem. Their actions challenge the status quo and run counter to long-time practices. Third-parties support the complex set of interconnections between different healthcare actors for the provision of new service co-creation opportunities. Considering how these e-health third-parties performs has implications for health managers, patients and other actors. Originality/value This study focuses on the actors and the performativity of actions and grounding the conceptual view on an empirical base. The agency of third-party actors is their ability to act among others and to connect multiple social and material structures to boost innovation. They prompt innovation and shape service ecosystems by brokering, mediating and coalescing among a great variety of resources, practices and institutions.

Natural polymers, such as alginate and chitosan, are widely exploited for drug delivery applications due to their biocompatibility, low toxicity, and sustainable sourcing. In this study, pH-responsive gel microspheres were fabricated from an alginate/Ozoile emulsion. Ozoile (Stable Ozonides) is a biological inducer, derived from olive oil, which stimulates the endogenous defense system by promoting the repair of tissue damage and restoration of proper physiology through the regulation of gene transcription. Here, the versatile and cost-effective electrospray technique without the use of organic solvents was used to fabricate alginate/Ozoile microspheres with high throughput. The process parameters (voltage, flow rate, and needle gauge) were optimized to obtain microspheres with good sphericity factor and tailored diameter (250–700 μm). The microspheres were additionally optimized through a chitosan coating to enhance their stability and regulate the gel matrix’s degradation process. Morphological analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, and degradation tests confirmed the structural integrity and pH-responsive behavior of the gel microspheres. This research offers a promising route for targeted drug delivery systems, particularly in applications related to the modulation of oxidative stress and management of inflammation.

Purpose This paper aims to focus on how companies shape the architecture of a phygital customer journey through the exploitation of smart technologies. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a qualitative method using a grounded theory approach involving leading players in digital customer solutions and service providers from different industries. Findings The shaping of the architecture of the phygital customer journey comes from the interplay between systems of insights and systems of engagement activated by multiple customer-provider interactions in an entanglement of physical and digital contexts. Practical implications Companies need to design a blended approach to bridge disconnected contexts, capture new opportunities and provide customer engagement along the entire journey. Originality/value This study depicts the “phygital customer journey” under systems of insights and systems of engagement: These systems operate as dynamic architectures to capture insights and engage customers.

PurposeIn this article, we reflect on how smart technology is transforming service research discourses about service innovation and value co-creation. We adopt the concept of technology smartness’ to refer to the ability of technology to sense, adapt and learn from interactions. Accordingly, we seek to address how smart technologies (i.e. cognitive and distributed technology) can be powerful resources, capable of innovating in relation to actors’ agency, the structure of the service ecosystem and value co-creation practices.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual article integrates evidence from the existing theories with illustrative examples to advance research on service innovation and value co-creation.FindingsThrough the performative utterances of new tech words, such as onlife and materiality, this article identifies the emergence of innovative forms of agency and structure. Onlife agency entails automated, relational and performative forms, which provide for new decision-making capabilities and expanded opportunities to co-create value. Phygital materiality pertains to new structural features, comprised of new resources and contexts that have distinctive intelligence, autonomy and performativity. The dialectic between onlife agency and phygital materiality (structure) lies in the agencement of smart tech–enabled value co-creation practices based on the notion of becoming that involves not only resources but also actors and contexts.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a novel conceptual framework that advances a tech-based ecology for service ecosystems, in which value co-creation is enacted by the smartness of technology, which emerges through systemic and performative intra-actions between actors (onlife agency), resources and contexts (phygital materiality and structure).

PurposeThe coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a tremendous impact on companies worldwide. However, researchers have no clear idea of the key issues requiring their attention. This paper aims to close this gap by analysing all business-related posts on a coronavirus subreddit (“r/coronavirus”) and identifying the main research streams that are guiding the research agenda for a post-coronavirus world.Design/methodology/approachWe use data from reddit, particularly the subreddit “r/coronavirus” to identify posts that reveal the impact of coronavirus on business. Our dataset has more than 200,000 posts. We used an artificial intelligence–based algorithm to scrape the data with business-related search terms, clean it and analyse the discussion topics.FindingsWe show the key topics that address the impact of coronavirus on business, combining them into four themes: essential service provision, bricolage service innovation, responsible shopping practices and market shaping amid crisis. We discuss these themes and use them to develop a service research agenda. The results are reported against the backdrop of service research priorities.Originality/valueThe study identifies four key themes that have emerged from the impact of coronavirus on business and that require scholarly attention. Our findings can guide service research with unique insights provided immediately after the coronavirus outbreak to conduct research that matters to business and helps people in vulnerable positions in a post-coronavirus world.

Background Mature cystic teratomas of the ovary (MCTO) are a type of germ cell tumor that may contain well-differentiated tissues developed from three germ cell layers and constitute about 20% of ovarian germ cell tumors. They are rare ovarian tumors with an annual incidence variable from 1.2 to 14.2 cases per 100,000 that occur mainly in women of reproductive age. They are frequently benign with a slow growth rate, even if they can undergo a malignant transformation in about 1–2% of cases. Case presentation Here, we present the case of an elderly woman referred to gynecological first aid for acute abdominal pain and showing a giant and unusual MCTO at rapid growth with malignant transformation in squamous cell carcinoma (FIGO stage Ia). The patient underwent pelvic mass removal trough emergency longitudinal midline laparotomic incision with intraoperative frozen pathologic examination. A complete surgical staging during the first surgery was performed. After about 9 years of follow-up, she died of non-oncological reasons without recurrence. Conclusions Present case highlights that CMTO with malignant transformation should always be suspected in elderly women in presence of pelvic mass at rapid growth, even if in absence of other clinical and ultrasonographic signs of malignancy. An intraoperative frozen pathologic examination may drive the best treatment.