Purpose – Understanding the role and implications of information and communication technology (ICT) in service is the key research priority for service science and the management of service quality. The purpose of this paper is to address this priority by providing insights into the role of “engagement platforms” (EPs), physical or virtual customer touch points where actors exchange resources and co-create value. Despite an emerging body of literature that emphasizes the fit between engagement and technology-enabled service contexts, EPs remain ill-defined. Specifically, little is known about the particular types of EPs, their characteristics, and implications for the performance of service ecosystems and managing service quality. Design/methodology/approach – By drawing on two illustrative case studies, the authors investigate and theorize about the characteristics and dynamics of EPs in virtual/physical contexts, and identify if, how and to what extent configurations of EPs may enhance resource exchange within and across service ecosystems. Findings – By building on emerging research at the service/engagement interface, the paper introduces the notion of the “engagement ecosystem,” as a configuration of individual, mutually dependent EPs that represent specific interactivity-facilitative loci. The paper explicates the relevance of the model and highlight opportunities for future research in this emerging field of inquiry. Research limitations/implications – The work addresses the call for research at the intersection of ICT and service science through development and application of the engagement ecosystem concept. The theorizing process draws on two illustrative case studies, and thereby provides a theoretical contribution and foundation for future research in this emerging area. Practical implications – The authors guide managerial decision-making regarding the implementation, adoption, and utilization of engagement ecosystems. Furthermore, the nature of “engagement” as a bridging concept implies that the work can help managers to operationalize service-centric thinking. Originality/value – By showing how individual EPs form engagement ecosystems, the paper bridges theory and practice, and offers new insight in the realm of practical application of the S-D logic.

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Service innovation is intertwined with service design, and knowledge from both fields should be integrated to advance theoretical and normative insights. However, studies bridging service innovation and service design are in their infancy. This is because the body of service innovation and service design research is large and heterogeneous, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for any human to read and understand its entire content and to delineate appropriate guidelines on how to broaden the scope of either field. Our work addresses this challenge by presenting the first application of topic modeling, a type of machine learning, to review and analyze currently available service innovation and service design research (n ¼ 641 articles with 10,543 pages of written text or 4,119,747 words). We provide an empirical contribution to service research by identifying and analyzing 69 distinct research topics in the published text corpus, a theoretical contribution by delineating an extensive research agenda consisting of four research directions and 12 operationalizable guidelines to facilitate cross-fertilization between the two fields, and a methodological contribution by introducing and demonstrating the applicability of topic modeling and machine learning as a novel type of big data analytics to our discipline.

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Resource integration, as it relates to value creation, has recently been a key aspect of the discussions about service-dominant (S-D) logic. However, the majority of research pays relatively little explicit attention to the process of theorizing and the epistomological and ontological assumptions upon which the theorizing process is based. This article addresses these issues. The processes that relate to theorizing and developing strong theory are discussed. We then examine how to conceptualize 'resources' and 'resource integration' following differing ontological and epistemological assumptions that guide the theorizing process. Research recommendations to help navigate through the finer details underlying the theorizing process and to advance a general theory of resource integration are developed.