Purpose: Industry 4.0 defines the application of digital technologies on business infrastructure and processes. With the increasing need to take into account the social and environmental impact of technologies, the concept of Society 5.0 has been proposed to restore the centrality of humans in the proper utilization of technology for the exploitation of innovation opportunities. Despite the identification of humans, resilience and sustainability as the key dimensions of Society 5.0, the definition of the key factors that can enable Innovation in the light of 5.0 principles has not been yet assessed.Design/methodology/approach: An SLR, followed by a content analysis of results and a clustering of the main topics, is performed to (1) identify the key domains and dimensions of the Industry 5.0 paradigm; (2) understand their impact on Innovation 5.0; (3) discuss and reflect on the resulting implications for research, managerial practices and the policy-making process.Findings: The findings allow the elaboration of a multileveled framework to redefine Innovation through the 5.0 paradigm by advancing the need to integrate ICT and technology (Industry 5.0) with the human-centric, social and knowledge-based dimensions (Society 5.0).Originality/value: The study detects guidelines for managers, entrepreneurs and policy-makers in the adoption of effective strategies to promote human resources and knowledge management for the attainment of multiple innovation outcomes (from technological to data-driven and societal innovation).

The work identifies the main enabling dimensions and the strategic drivers to foster value co-creation and sustainable innovation in service ecosystems. The aim is to explore how resource and knowledge integration, through technology-mediated interactions, can lead to the emergence of novelties (new products, services, processes, social, and environmental practices). Based on a re-elaboration of literature, the study introduces a framework that describes the main drivers for managing the emergence of value co-creation and innovation (co-design, co-development, co-delivery, co-learning) across the contexts of exchange of service ecosystems (micro, meso, and macro). A “meta”-level is conceptualized to investigate how management can harmonize an actor’s objectives with an ecosystem’s goal to encourage the diffusion and renewal of a sustainable and innovation-oriented culture. The empirical research applies the framework proposed in the theoretical section to a case study analysis on “Palm”, an Italian company that designs and produces wood packaging. The technique employed is qualitative content analysis. The findings permit conceptualization of the key strategic levers for the management of co-creation and to increase managers’ and scholars’ understanding of (1) the enablers of value co-creation and innovation; (2) the mechanisms leading to knowledge renewal and the continuous production of sustainable innovation.

In the service era, markets are reconceptualized as systems of actors interconnected through networked relationships based on resources exchange and producing value co-creation. Two of the main contemporary service research theories, Service-dominant logic and Service science, propose different organizational layouts for producing and harmonizing value co-creation: Service ecosystems and smart service systems. However, these two models show some limitations. So, this work aims at drawing an integrated model, the so called Smart service ecosystem that can be applied to hypercompetitive and experience-based sectors. The model was tested in the tourism sector by using a case study methodology. Ten interviews were administered to key informants to analyze their perception about the main dimensions of the smart service ecosystems. By adopting a holistic view, the results obtained can allow the elaboration of a framework which pinpoints: (1) the main stakeholder groups (actors); (2) the kind of resources exchanged (resource integration); (3) the tools employed (technology); (4) the institution exchange among users (institutions). Applying the model obtained to the tourism sector this work explores the main element-steps for managing and optimizing value co-creation and sustainability in the long run and thus for transitioning from innovation to social innovation.

Digital transformation and the possibility to collect large amount of data, the so-called big data, from different sources can lead to the redefinition of business processes, models and infrastructures. In this respect, data-driven decision making (DDDM) emphasizes the need to rethink management practices to view data as a driving force that can improve the effectiveness of decisions and nurture innovation. Over time, data-driven principles have been reframed as the foundations for the development of a new mind-set that considers data as a key asset that redesigns entrepreneurship and encompasses orientation, culture and human resources management to help entrepreneurs catch, evaluate and launch entrepreneurial opportunities that can improve technology and knowledge by stimulating innovation. For this reason, the study aims at reconceptualizing entrepreneurship according to a multi-levelled perspective based on the integration of cultural, human, knowledge-based and technological dimension to assess the impact of data-driven management on entrepreneurial opportunities creation and on the development of different kinds of innovation. To assess these goals, empirical research based on constructivist grounded theory and on the administration of semi-structured interviews is performed through the investigation of an Italian public–private Consortium specialized in big data. The findings allow the elaboration of a conceptual framework which classifies the activities of data-driven entrepreneurial processes, the phases of opportunity creation and the different kinds of innovation enabled in the Consortium by guiding entrepreneurs and managers in the elaboration of effective data analysis strategies.

Against the backdrop of the expanding debate on smart cities, the objective of this paper is to examine to what extent and to what end the connection between smart services and smart cities has been explored in the literature, and what to make of it. It is argued that smart services, including demand- and innovation-driven service development, constitute an essential part of the broad concept of smart city. Viewed in this way, smart services serve as one of the key levers through which smart cities grow, develop, and build their resilience. By placing the analysis in the broader context of the smart city as smart service system, this paper sheds light on the still underexplored fields of research and suggests how they could be examined. For the purpose of the analysis, the Science Mapping (SciMat) method is employed as it allows to quantify and to visualize research output featured in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), thus aiding the analysis. The added value of this paper is two-fold, i.e., (i) the SciMat analysis identifies the key dimensions of the nascent smart services in smart cities debate, and consequently, (ii) allows for suggesting topics that should be further investigated to detect the drivers for cities’ growth, resilience, and sustainability.