Purpose: – Contemporary debate is increasingly focused on ICT and sustainability, especially in relation to the modern configuration of urban and metropolitan areas in the so-called smartization process. The purpose of this paper is to observe the connections between smart city features as conceptualized in the framework proposed by Giffinger et al. (2007) and new technologies as tools, and sustainability as the goal. Design/methodology/approach: – The connections are identified through a content analysis performed using NVivo on official reports issued by organizations, known as industry players within smart city projects, listed in the Navigant Research Report 2013. Findings: – The results frame ICT and sustainability as “across-the-board elements” because they connect with all of the services provided to communities in a smart city and play a key role in smart city planning. Specifically, sustainability and ICT can be seen as tools to enable the smartization process. Research limitations/implications: – An all-in-one perspective emerges by embedding sustainability and ICT in smart interventions; further research could be conduct through direct interviews to city managers and industry players in order to understand their attitude towards the development of smart city projects. Practical implications: – Potential approaches emerging from this research are useful to city managers or large corporations partnering with local agencies in order to increase the opportunities for the long-term success of smart projects. Originality/value: – The results of this paper delineate a new research path looking at the development of new models that integrate drivers, ICT, and sustainability in an all-in-one perspective and new indicators for the evaluation of the interventions.

The present work aims to determine the existence of commonalities between two modern conceptions of cities, i.e., smart and sustainable. To accomplish this, the authors carried out a systematic review of the most-cited scientific contributions chosen by the scholars proposing conceptualisation of the two topics, according to the H-index determined by Web of Science. The findings show that the most important contributions representing the antecedents with respect to the concepts of a smart city and a sustainable city can be classified into three groups: labelled as what, how and with, and describing the definitions, the role of technology, and the pillars (in the case of a smart city); the groups labelled as what, how and with depicts definitions, change and challenges, and key features (in the case of a sustainable city). Starting from the conception of a smart city as the evolution of a digital city, the smart city concept not only considers aspects related to technology and innovation but adds the human features of city life. The sustainable city concept can be understood as a new approach through the filter of a new philosophy; it is an equitable and balanced setting of goals in line with the principles of sustainable development. Both concepts cannot be thought of as contrasting; in fact, they share many commonalities. This is because the attention focused on social, environmental and economic issues has framed the debate over sustainability and converged in the definition of a smart city and—obviously—in the notion of a sustainable city. The main contribution of this paper is in considering the smart city as mainly setting the guidelines of a transforming city, while the sustainable city is mostly thought as an approach and a philosophy to modern cities.

Olive oil consumption has grown substantially in recent years, due in part to the fact that olive oil is healthy. Much of the global olive oil production comes from the rural areas of Jaén in southern Spain. Surrounding this industry, services such as oleotourism are increasing. This paper aims to identify the key elements supporting the development of oleotourism. After a preliminary exploratory analysis of the existing data, a qualitative analysis was performed with actors directly involved in the industry in Jaén. The results helped us define the level of the stakeholders’ involvement and the sustainability, the opportunities, and the constraints affecting oleotourism in this area. The practical implications of this investigation can be useful for governing agencies, local firms, and the tourism industry in support of oleotourism development.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the interdisciplinary debate promoted by service research community by establishing the conceptual frame within which different perspectives addressing systemic and multifaceted approaches to innovation are framed. Growing research interest in innovation has led to different definitions, which are referred to here as “innovation system(s)”, “innovation network(s)” and “innovation ecosystem(s)”. The paper examines the theoretical foundations, outcomes, and patterns of contributions to which each innovation perspectives is tied and proposed a subject and the framework allowing an exploration of an interdisciplinary dialogue between the different research positions.Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted to discern differences in concepts and their meanings. An overview obtained using Web of Knowledge leads to a focus on studies, followed by a content analysis using NVivo, which enables identification of key concepts and their definitions. By highlighting relationships among terms, the paper establishes a framework of the ontological assumptions of different innovation discourses and explores their contribution to the interdisciplinary dialogue promoted by service research perspective on innovation.Findings: A comparison among the three innovation perspectives leads us to focus on innovation itself, alongside context, actors, enablers, and governance, which are useful to mark the commonalities and differences among the three research approaches. The framework is helpful to break down the fragmented and sometimes overlapping points of view of innovation and provides a more integrative stance from which to address the emergence of the service ecosystems approach on innovation.Research limitations/implications: The investigation focuses on three innovation perspectives and on top-cited articles alone; hence, it can be complemented with a full analysis through a bibliometric approach to test whether the features highlighted are linked to other elements. Moreover, the different approaches grouped on “innovation ecosystems” perspective suggest the possibility to enhance service ecosystems discourse on innovation by looking at different knowledge and contributions that are rapidly growing in this area.Social implications: The central idea this work puts forward is that after some decades of separation, there is a need to move towards an increasing convergence of economics, business and service based on the milestones of innovation systems, innovation networks, and innovation ecosystems thoughts.Originality/value: This research sheds light on the different ways innovation, in multi-actor and the interconnected setting, is theoretically framed and described. By capturing established thinking in different innovation perspectives, the paper provides an integrated framework to making sense of the full picture of economies and societies seen as complex networks and systems of service systems.

Purpose: The paper offers a comprehensive understanding of how digital transformation affects business models and how firms operate and compete effectively and successfully in a digital economy.Design/methodology/approach: The research adopted an abductive approach (Dubois and Gadde, 2002) through constant movement between theory and empirical evidence. A systematic literature review led the first conceptual development and examples of practices from cultural heritage sectors were used in the theorizing process.Findings: This paper depicts a digital model framework through a set of assumptions about how an organization creates and delivers value in an interconnected way by orchestrating new interactive processes, and providing experience propositions to customers, and about how value is framed in terms of economic, social and cultural outcomes.Originality/value: The study contributes to the scientific debate by discussing the role of digital business models as enhancements more rather than replacements of traditional business models; it frames a digital business model as consisting of three main pillars: value orchestration, experience propositions and value sharing.