Crisis behaviors as drivers of value co-creation transformation

Purpose The paper aims to conceptualize how behavioral shifts in times of crisis drive the transformation of value co-creation. Design/methodology/approach Referencing two empirical contexts, the paper explores how digital service platforms facilitate changes in actors’ mental models and institutional arrangements (legal, social, technological) that drive transformation of value co-creation in service ecosystems. Findings The proposed conceptual framework contributes to existing research by identifying micro-level changes in actors’ mental models and macro-level changes in institutional arrangements enabled by digital service platforms in service ecosystems. In particular, the framework identifies motivation, agility and resistance as moderators of behavioral shifts in times of crisis. This account offers a finer-grained theorization of the moderating factors and underlying mechanisms of service ecosystem transformation but does not extend to the ensuing “new normal.” Practical implications The proposed framework indicates how digital platforms support shifts in actors’ behavior and contribute to the transformation of value co-creation. While the enablers are situation-specific and may therefore vary according to the prevailing conditions, the actor-related concepts advanced here seem likely to remain relevant when analyzing the transformation of value co-creation in other crisis situations. Originality/value The new conceptual framework advanced here clarifies how behavioral shifts during a crisis drive the transformation of value co-creation and suggests directions for future research.

Situating Spirituality

Spirituality is in the spotlight. While levels of religious belief and observance are declining in much of the Western world, interest in spirituality is surging. This volume advances our understanding of contemporary spirituality by highlighting its profoundly social dimensions. It demonstrates how spirituality is shaped by its religious, cultural, and political contexts; how embodied and collective spiritual practices undergird spiritual life and intersect with social characteristics (e.g., race, gender, and sexuality); and how spirituality is impacted by power relations and institutional arrangements. The contributors are leading international scholars, and their chapters address spirituality in a wide range of religious and global contexts.

Augusta (c. AD 350–80)

London’s later Roman defences were enhanced by a series of towers, or bastions, likely to have been built in association with military campaigns in Britain in the 360s. The revived walled city housed important institutions of Roman government, several of which were later described in the Notitia Dignitatum, and was renamed Augusta. This chapter reviews the archaeological evidence for the fourth century city set within its historical context. It also summarizes the uncertain evidence of London’s first Christian communities, and considers the extent to which new institutional arrangements gave rise to new forms of public architecture.

Health Literacy Promotion and Its Institutional Arrangements: Rethinking collaborative health promotion in Thailand

This research explores institutional arrangements that govern health literacy promotion policies in Thailand since 2014. This study sets the main questions as what are the main institutional arrangements that governed health literacy promotion policies in Thailand since 2014 and can these arrangements be viewed as collaborative health governance? This paper argues that the military coup in 2014 transformed institutional-governing arrangements on health system management and health promotion greatly as many legal-political institutions and various social-political agencies were involved and brought together to promote health and health literacy. A so-called principle of ‘collaborative governance’ has been employed and implemented to promote health in Thailand recently, however, this study argues that the institutional constraints under authoritarian regime offer a ‘fictitious-collaborative health governance’ instead. Furthermore, deliberative processes on health literacy promotion regulated by many legal - institutional constraints had characteristics of ‘pseudo-deliberation’. This work is qualitative research, and it analyzes and explains research results by looking through theoretical concepts of institutionalism and collaborative governance. This study argues that to reach the goal of health literate community and society, Thai health agencies and authorities should re-approach health and health literacy promotion from the bottom-up perspective. Also, overcoming fictitious collaborative health promotion and pseudo-deliberation are necessary. To do that, we need a long-term project of building up a ‘critical health regime’ based on critical education and anti-authoritarianism as major principles. (*The paper was presented at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s College of Professional and Continuing Education (CPCE) Conference “Post-pandemic health and long-term care: A new paradigm”. September 2021)

Microfoundations for Macromarketing: A Metatheoretical Lens for Bridging the Micro-Macro Divide

Macromarketing is often contrasted with micro-views of dyadic relationships, such as firm/customer interactions and transactional exchange. However, developing solutions for “wicked” social problems that are often viewed through a macro lens requires an approach that considers multiple perspectives at aggregated levels of interaction. We propose a framework for bridging the micro-macro divide by applying a metatheoretical lens, based on service-dominant logic and its service-ecosystems view. This approach highlights the importance of studying value cocreation practices as a microfoundation of macrostructures and highlights the need for studying institutions and institutional arrangements at varying levels of granularity. We argue for consideration of a meso-level, which is conceptually nested between micro-actions and macro-structures and allows researchers to investigate the emergence of markets as institutionalized, and potentially sustainable solutions. Exploring multiple levels of interaction can aid researchers and practitioners in understanding the complexity of wicked problems and cocreating solutions for major societal challenges faced in the world today.

Interventions to Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Peri-Urban Water Management in South Asia

Institutions, defined as social rules which guide decision-making, are an important feature of peri-urban water governance. Peri-urban institutions structure the access to and management of water resources during rural-to-urban transitions. However, peri-urban areas are dynamic in nature and heterogeneous in composition. This generates challenges for the effectiveness of institutional arrangements. Peri-urban spaces of South Asian cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Khulna demonstrate the various ways in which institutional arrangements influence issues of water insecurity, conflicts, and crises in the urbanisation process. This chapter explores this important dimension and demonstrates ways to intervene in the institutional context of water resources in such transitional settings. Two types of interventions to build institutional capacity are presented. First, the Approach for Participatory Institutional Analysis (APIA), is designed to help peri-urban actors frame problems through an institutional lens and offers skills to navigate the solution space. The second approach, Transformative Pathways, facilitates efforts to cope with the uncertain and dynamic nature of urban transitions. Based on the adaptation pathways approach, it helps peri-urban actors work from their existing situation and design pathways towards more sustainable and resilient futures. Practical applications of these approaches in South Asia offer insights on how to intervene institutionally in water problems during rural-urban transitions.

Rethinking Occupational Mobility in Developing Countries

This chapter discusses current methods for measuring and analysing occupational mobility, and the way in which methods designed for the analysis of industrial countries may need to be modified when applied in other contexts. The chapter discusses particular features of some developing countries, such as their large and complex agricultural and informal sectors, and the problem of ‘equivalence of meaning’, which arises when stratification systems involve rather different institutional arrangements, for example with respect to land tenure. The chapter concludes with a discussion of absolute and relative mobility in Chile, China, Egypt, and India, bringing out both the similarities and the differences between these countries in their absolute and relative rates of mobility and intersectionality with gender.

Space, Place and Educational Settings: An Introduction

We present this volume as an invitation to explore and critically reflect the interplay between space, place, and educational settings. As part of the Knowledge and Space series, this book’s authors follow a comprehensive approach bringing together a set of contributions reflecting various disciplines with their methodologies and theoretical backgrounds. We understand educational settings as the broader framing of education, which includes the out-of-school environment, neighborhoods, and institutional arrangements, as well as the agendas of the multilateral and corporate world. Education literally takes place in the neighborhood and educational landscapes are embedded in local communities, although they are exposed to and are part and parcel of educational policies and the ongoing dynamics of transformation at regional, national and international scales.