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: Loneliness and isolation are on the rise, globally threatening the well-being across age groups; global social distancing measures during the COVID-19 crisis have intensified this so-called “loneliness virus”. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative framework and research agenda on the role of companion robots in mitigating feelings of loneliness. Design/methodology/approach: A netnographic analysis of 595 online visual and textual descriptions offer empirical insights about the role of the companion robot Vector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings: The contributions of this study are twofold. First, it postulates that companion robots have the potential of mitigating feelings of loneliness (i.e. indicator of well-being). Second, this study contributes to transformative service by developing an integrative framework introducing the roles (personal assistant, relational peer and intimate buddy) that companion robots can fulfill to mitigate feelings of loneliness through building different types of supportive relationships. Research limitations/implications: The proposed research agenda encourages future service scholars to investigate 1) the role of robots in addressing loneliness, 2) design features that drive adoption of robots, 3) social support for different groups, 4) the operationalization and the measurement of loneliness and 5) an impact analysis of companion robots. Practical implications: Service providers and policy makers can leverage the insights about how companion robots can help reduce a sense of loneliness. Originality/value: The integrative framework on loneliness reduction, based on 595 unprompted online contributions issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers initial evidence for the impact of companion robots in reducing people's feelings of loneliness.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on Temporary Shops, a recent communication and distribution innovation used by firms in order to improve interaction with customers and to reinforce brand loyalty and equity. The main aim of the study is to frame the Temporary Shops phenomenon in Italy and to analyze its value co‐creation potential.Design/methodology/approach: The DART model proposed by Prahalad and Ramaswamy has been chosen as the theoretical framework for understanding the Temporary Shops phenomenon. The authors investigate the process of value co‐creation inside the Temporary Shops through its four key building blocks, namely, dialogue, access, risk/benefits and transparency. Through a multiple‐case study, the authors study in‐depth evidence from five leading firms that represent the main Temporary Shops in Italy over the last two years.Findings: Temporary Shops provide a locus of value co‐creation in which the interactive and experiential relationship between the firm and the customer is engaged and value co‐creation emerges.Research limitations/implications: There are two main limitations: this study is exploratory and analyzes co‐creation only from the company perspective. Further studies may widen the unit of analysis from firm to customer's network and thus provide further insights about antecedents and implications of the interaction in a multi‐sensory context.Originality/value: The work contributes to understanding the role of experiential environment in value co‐creation processes, as well as analyzing the contribution of a new distribution phenomenon with respect to co‐creation through the application of the DART model.

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.

The label “phygital” (physical plus digital) has been proposed to describe how companies try to engage customers due to the exploitation of smart technologies. Although used mainly by practitioners, research into phygital’s theoretical development is lacking. We conduct a systematic literature review to obtain an overall vision of the phenomenon and to understand how the scientific debate uses the term. The in-depth analysis allows for the identification of four main aspects: (1) objects and applications, (2) context (space/place), (3) customer journey, and (4) shopping (retail) experience. Using the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes model, we offer an interpretation of the phenomenon in a more comprehensive framework. The development and use of physical and digital objects and applications (i.e., phygital resources) in a phygital context (i.e., spaces and places) affect the customer journey in a phygital manner to enable the development of new forms of phygital experience. We suggest specific research avenues to develop the phygital construct.