Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of actors that allow them to relate to others actors in the system through shared intentionality (orientation) and the nature of the A4A relationship and the results that such interactions bring to the emergent system based on this shared purpose (finality).Design/methodology/approach: The topic is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development of three integrative frameworks: the sociological perspective, service-dominant logic and a particular perspective of system thinking: the viable system approach (vSa).Findings: The A4A relationships involve value co-creation based on actors integrating their resources and acting with intentionality to obtain value by providing benefits to other parties and by belonging to the emergent viable system; actor acts for other actors directly involved in the relationship generating positive effects for the whole system in which it is contextualized.Research limitations/implications: Future empirical research might better support findings.Social implications: Many social implications deriving from an augmented role of actors engaged within social relationships in co-creation exchanges. From the title of the paper A4A over on the manuscript describes numerous social inferences of actors in co-creation.Originality/value: A4A is a relationship formed by actors that interact for the benefit of the whole system in which are involved. They find own benefit from the benefit created for the system in which they live and act. In A4A relationships the value of the single actor comes from the participation to the viability of the whole system.

While companies are investing increasingly in sustainability measures, the effects of firms’ sustainability actions on consumer perceptions should not be taken for granted and deserve to be investigated. By adopting the interpretative lens of consumer culture theory, this paper defines a set of cognitive dimensions which can describe consumer perceptions of sustainability actions and the behaviors of small–medium enterprises (SMEs), with the aim of identifying the relationships between firms’ sustainability actions and the economic performance of SMEs. To this extent, the cognitive dimensions proposed by Green & Petre (1996) are re-elaborated to define a set of customer cognitive dimensions in the sustainability domain (resilience, wholeness, mapping, coding, and engagement). Thus, the relationships between SMEs’ sustainability actions and behaviors, the defined cognitive influencers and SME performance is empirically tested. In particular, a survey of a sample of 1137 customers of 175 Italian SMEs is analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings show that the adoption of certain sustainability actions influences consumer perceptions, which in turn impacts the economic performance of SMEs.

Citizens are an essential part of the process of smartification and sustainable development of cities as they must adopt, understand and interact with the enabling technologies of digital transformation of societies, cities, and public administration. Therefore, technology acceptance is crucial to creating smart and citizen-centered cities. This is even more challenging in small towns that suffer from an aging population, desertification, lack of infrastructure, and especially the digital divide. The purpose of this research is to investigate the adoption of an Urban Services Technology (UST) in tourism management within a tourism-oriented small town in Southern Italy. A questionnaire was then constructed according to the 12-variable Urban Service Technology Acceptance Model (USTAM), and 216 responses were obtained from a defined group of 1076 subjects. Analyzing the data with a quantitative approach by conducting Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the assumptions of the initial model were all rejected and new five factors emerged. The path diagram shows that only the factors Sustainability, Ease and Value have a positive correlation with technology adoption. Future research might investigate the mediating role of socio-demographic variables on technology acceptance by considering geographical and cultural diversity among small towns.

Sustainability seems to be a hot topic today upon which a paradigmatic transformation is going on; this affects many fields and sectors by revealing the significant implications for actors’ participation, such as in healthcare. Today, healthcare calls for renewing and increasing its own main processes of hospitalization, as inspired by the current new light of sustainability; hospitalization at home (HaH) practices allow for new forms of hospitalizations, which are much more adherent to the real needs of patients and caregivers. Studies in service dominant logic (S-D logic) on service ecosystems help us in understanding which are the dynamics that are shaping actual conditions in healthcare. With the aim of contributing to the challenging debate about the role of “sustainability for healthcare”, this manuscript proposes a conceptual framework for investigating healthcare domains through the interpretative lens provided by the service ecosystems view. Previous managerial contributions are analyzed in an attempt to emphasize the contact points between studies about service ecosystem and sustainability so as to outline the possible roadmaps for sustainability in the healthcare domain. The three dimensions of HaH—efficiency of healthcare service, effectiveness in resource usage, and patients’ satisfaction—have been identified as possible levers on which promoting healthcare processes inspired by sustainability principles and their relations with the three pillars of sustainability science—the economy, society, and environment—have been analyzed. The reflections herein are finally discussed for proposing possible future directions for research interested in promoting a sustainability-based healthcare management.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show the relevance of the interest in sharing the common purpose and in searching for a common survival of emerging eco-system (ES) as an entity that “is not” but emerges by the viable actors interaction.Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper contributes to the research by defining the ES building on the contributions of SD logic and viable systems approach (VSA), with a particular focus on the VSA perspective.Findings: An ES emerges as a viable “system of systems” by an observer’s interpretation of the simultaneous interactions between different viable actors/systems that are sharing a common purpose (the survival of the ES), exchanging resources following a viable value co-creation model. Each actor/system could represent a level of quality of belonging to the ES looking for the opportunity to be resonant with the ES.Research limitations/implications: The ES features and the role of each actor inside could be deepened through different theoretical perspectives and the same VSA to the ES could be reached with empirical explorations.Practical implications: Understanding the nature of the ES, the practitioners are able to explain better their position in relation to partners and competitors. It is possible to be a part of several emerging ESs looking for the will to contribute to the ES’ survival and to the sharing of the purpose of the interactive systems/actors. In a medium and long run, the measure of the resonance is useful to understand the quality in interaction.Originality/value: The work provides a definition of the ES and the actors inside focusing on the perspective of VSA, by integrating the concept of viable value co-creation and solidarity-based logic; in particular, the concept of Centro Commerciale Naturale is used to show the emergence of the ES in a relational context generated by the interaction between city, service and retailers in a city center.

To symbolize the importance of contextual factors of provision in the contemporary service era, in festival research, the term festivalscape has been proposed. Despite the large number of works investigating the construct, extant research does not adequately assess the systemic and interactive nature of festivals, which can be viewed as a set of interconnected elements. To bridge this gap, this article evaluates four festival attributes (atmosphere, service quality, people interaction and collateral services) according to service-dominant logic and service-ecosystem view. Current work examines a light festival organized in Salerno during the Christmas holiday using a sequential regression analysis, revealing the mediating role of experience and satisfaction in influencing behavioural intention.