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The penetration of X-rays is usually a limitation to the application of XRF analysis to multilayered materials, however it is possible, by software tools based on the fundamental parameters method, to overcome this problem and estimate thickness and composition of each layer. The cross of Rosciolo is a significant example of multilayer object: it is made of a wood core with attached gilt silver sheets and decorated with enamels. Measurements were carried out in situ and the PyMCA software was employed. The values of gilding thickness, Au/Hg ratios and Cu content in the silver sheets, and enamel's composition are discussed.

The goal of this research activity is to evaluate the capability of Laser Shock Peening (LSP) technology to improve fatigue life in open-hole aluminium specimens. Thin, dog-bone specimens were LSP treated in direct ablation mode and subsequently tested. The obtained results have not proven the advantage of LSP technology over traditional residual stress insertion techniques around open-holes, such as cold working. Therefore, the focus of the activity was moved towards understanding the causes of the observed fatigue life reduction.

IgA, IgG and IgM serum levels in 603 normal blood donors (510 males and 93 females) have been calculated by the method of single radial immunodiffusion. In every immunoglobulin class the normal values and other important statistical parameters have been determined. Several statistical examinations have been executed to test the influence of some factors as sex, weight, age and number of blood donations on IgA, IgG and IgM serum levels.

This paper reports the relationship between residual stress distribution and key friction stir welding parameters, transverse and rotational speeds, on 6056-T4 aeronautical aluminum alloy. Standard electric strain gauge based destructive technique was used to measure residual stresses at the top of the weld in the longitudinal direction. Residual stresses across the weld had the “M” distribution with asymmetry across the advancing and retreating sides. Location of retreating side tensile residual stress maximum was the weakest zone and microhardness minimum across the weld. Tensile longitudinal residual stress minimum and maximum at the retreating side of the weld reduced with increased translational speed and advance per revolution.

The paper emphasises the need for job satisfaction as a major ingredient of people’s well-being and also suggests that different jobs require different job skills (for example, statisticians resort to creativity and problem-solving). By investigating a sample of Amstat News issues, the American Statistical Association’s monthly magazine, the linguistic analysis has foregrounded the persuasive strategies employed by the organisation to promote the practice and profession of statistics by eradicating some misconstructions about statistics and prioritizing work-life balance and well-being.

This volume brings together different kinds of expertise and disciplinary approaches to human development and well-being, crucial issues in today’s world threatened by such diverse problems as climate change, unequal distribution of wealth and economic exploitation of developing countries, uncontrolled technological progress, systematic violations of human rights, discrimination and racism, health emergencies. The language analysis toolkit ̶ e.g., cross-cultural pragmatics, corpus linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional Linguistics ̶ has been enriched by the analytical tools and frameworks volunteered by our colleagues specialists in demography, economics, international relations, law and political geography. The analysis of the specialized discourses of well-being and human development has meant to investigate to what extent different communities of practice share approaches and methodologies around these current issues.

Purpose – Innovation and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are new levers on which act for redesigning social and economic relations and structures. The technology shifts produce disruptive effects on business models, having revolutionary impacts on internal growth strategies for the future of manufacturing. Joining the vibrant debate about the role of Innovation and ICTs in ensuring companies’ viable survival, the paper aims at investigating Open Innovation and Industry 4.0 using an interpretative framework rooted in Service and Systems research highlighting new opportunities to advance knowledge about value co-creation. Methodology/approach – A brief literature review on Open Innovation and Industry 4.0 is conducted using the interpretative lens provided by the Service and Systems perspectives. A deductive approach is adopted for interpreting key processes of Open Innovation and Industry 4.0 as drivers for enhancing value co-creation. Findings – The findings direct to identify Technology Readiness, Cognitive Alignment, Collaborative Orientation, and Shared Strong Beliefs as possible drivers that enhance the value co-creation potential created by Open Innovation and Industry 4.0. A framework of synthesis is outlined that can represent a useful reference for exploiting the value co-creation opportunities of Open Innovation and Industry 4.0. Research implications/limitations – The paper contributes to the multi- and inter- disciplinary research stream aimed at overcoming the limitations of a still dominant reductionist view by adopting systems approaches. Analyzing Open Innovation and Industry 4.0 as potential paths for addressing future evolutions in value co-creation studies, the paper enriches previous managerial researches. Nevertheless, the work is currently a preliminary study mainly directed to share ideas and views within the multi-perspective context of the Naples Forum on Service. Practical implications – Valorizing the opportunities for value co-creation linked to Open Innovation and Industry 4.0 practices, the paper provides decision makers with a road map for better understanding and managing critical drivers for effectively implementing value co-creation logics. Originality/value – The paper enriches the ongoing debate about Open Innovation and Industry 4.0 providing new insights through the interpretative lens of the Service and Systems perspectives that highlight the great potential for value co-creation linked to these new technologies.

Purpose – The increasing variety and variability of social and economic dynamics is pushing both researchers and practitioners in developing approaches, models, and tools for supporting decision makers in observing, interpreting, understanding and managing emergent dynamics. For contributing to the ongoing debate, the paper aims at discussing possible paths for facing the challenges of the increasing complexity through flexible decisional and behavioral approaches. Methodology/approach – The paper adopts a qualitative approach for systematizing and refreshing the interpretative role of existing literature within managerial and organizational fields. Through the interpretative contributions provided by the systems thinking, a multi-disciplinarity literature review is conducted for identifying possible constructs through which addressing the development of flexible managerial and organizational models. Findings – Managerial and organizational fields are enriched through the concepts of exaptation and bricolage as explicative domains able to provide useful indications to decision makers interested in building more flexible decisional and behavioral approaches. A possible path for managing the increasing social and economic complexity is depicting in the light of systems perspective, and a system based interpretative framework is defined for explaining actors’ reciprocal adaptation as a way for supporting value co-creation. Research implications – The paper provides possible pillars on which acting to build managerial and organizational approaches able to enhance actors’ contributions through the definition of shared processes. The concepts of exaptation and bricolage enrich previous managerial and organizational literature promoting research on value co-creation as a driver for ensuring systems’ viability in dynamic ecosystems. Practical implications – The paper calls the attention of decision makers on the need for the systems’ flexibility trough the enhancement of actors’ contributions for facing the challenges of increasing social and economic complexity. Acting on exaptation and bricolage, a possible model is provided for clarifying managerial and organizational paths for increasing the systems’ flexibility and for supporting practitioners in defining approaches able to support actors’ collaboration as a required condition for value co-creation. Originality/value – Adopting a multi-disciplinary perspective the paper enriches previous managerial and organizational literature trough the definition of concepts, processes, and approaches able to support both researchers and practitioners for better understanding and managing increasing social and economic complexity by acting on exaptation and bricolage. Thanks to the interpretative lens provided by the systems studies, a conceptual model for addressing systems’ decisions and behaviors in the light of value co-creation is proposed.

The aim of this research is to adopt the Service-Dominant (S-D) logic lens (Vargo et al., 2008; Akaka & Vargo, 2014) to analyse a particular service industry, namely energy, in order to identify the ongoing and future trajectories. The main empirical contexts analysed in service scholars’ studies are usually retail (Willems et al., 2016; Balaji & Roy, 2017), healthcare (McColl- Kennedy et al., 2017), and tourism (Carlson et al., 2016) while energy is mainly studied by engineers with research published in non-service journals. However, energy management is a field of study strictly related to the changing role of suppliers and customers where the concept of prosumer (Chandler & Chen, 2015) is widely adopted (Espe et al., 2018; Zafar et al., 2018). So, the S-D logic can be very useful in order to better understand this phenomenon, stimulating service scholars’ attention to energy management as a particular context of analysis for empirical research.

Service marketing literature suggests that omnichannel approach (Verhoef et al., 2015) can influence engagement metrics such as, among others, awareness, conversions, cross-channel, customer retention, customer lifetime value (Ailawadi and Farris, 2017; Broussard 2016) and can generate a positive word-of-mouth (advocacy) and a higher revisit rate (Sopadjieva et al., 2017). Starting from the point that “a customer is always a co-creator of value” (Vargo and Lusch 2006), firms are trying to combine physical and digital touch points (Verhoef et al., 2015) with the aim of providing the customer a seamless experience with no barriers between channels (Rodríguez-Torrico et al., 2017 Ailawadi and Farris, 2017; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Beck and Rygl, 2015) which lead to greater engagement and value co-creation (Payne et al., 2017; Nordgren and Johansson, 2017). The aim of this work is to analyse how the omnichannel strategy, as a communication proposition, can influence customers’ value through the lens of S-D Logic.

Purpose – The paper aims to enrich conceptual frameworks of Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, and Network and Systems Theory by integrating their pillars in a common interpretative approach and providing a tool to support a better understanding of service functioning as well as design in Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). Design/Methodology/approach – The paper proposes an integrated literature review in order to link Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, and Network and Systems Theory in a common trans-disciplinary conceptual framework. Building upon this, the practical approach of recommender system and the modelling functionalities of IBM Bluemix are used to define an application overview of service design in CAS. Finally, theoretical and empirical reflections herein are donated to the context of Smart City as an example of CAS. Findings – The paper proposes a multi-dimensional constructive tool for service and systems analysis in order to better understand the interactions among users, services, and infrastructures in a shared environment. Research limitations/implications – Although it is challenging to bring the Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, and Network and Systems Theory together, we have initially taken a theoretical lens to view the previous studies from Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, and Network and Systems Theory. This intends to connect their fundamental pillars in order to support a wider understanding of their dimensions and dynamics in CAS. Practical implications – We have deployed the proposed framework in IBM Bluemix, which is a real-world shared environment. This finding outlines the effective interactions between users, services, and infrastructures, which indicate that more alternatives and outcomes can be obtained by designing service and systems interactions. Therefore, for researchers and practitioners, this paper implicates that designing the services and related interactions is critical to CAS and it is important to focus on the design of services in Smart City. Originality/value – The paper has contributed to the state of knowledge in the domains of Service Dominant Logic, Service Science, as well as Network and Systems Theory by providing an effective application of a shared conceptual framework. Both theoretical and practical contributions can be used to build an effective application of multi- and trans- disciplinary models in order to manage networks and service systems.

Purpose – Poverty, hunger, inequalities, diseases, unsustainable use of resources, etc., in spite of advances of the last decades, still result unsolved worldwide issues. All relate to the challenges of sustainability and sustainable development that now call for urgent answers. Education is one of the key drivers of a really transformative change. To address this change, however, a profound re-thinking of education programs is required, as has emerged at the end of the UNESCO’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the scientific community of the Naples Forum on Service responds to this call. Design/Methodology/approach – By adopting a “3Pillars-Based” integrated perspective, key assumptions and findings from the three scientific communities of the Forum are identified to find foundational elements of a lifelong education process, targeted to address the multiple challenges of sustainability and sustainable development. Findings – Through the interpretative lens of the Viable Systems Approach, convergence between the three scientific proposals of Network and Systems Theory, Service-Dominant logic and Service Science, relevant to the building of a common framework for re-thinking education, are discussed. Findings indicate the skills with which decision makers must be endowed to face the challenges of transformative change toward sustainability and sustainable development. Boundary crossing and systems thinking capabilities are specifically identified as key skills to be developed. These findings suggest the opportunity to consider the “T-Shape” model as a general reference for re-thinking education methodologies and programs, as it implies an effective integration of soft and hard skills. A trans-disciplinary systems thinking based body of theoretical and practical knowledge is required as fostered by Sustainability Science. Education of T-shaped People may be a solution. Research implications - An integrated effort of scientific communities engaged in research that can contribute to the global call for a more sustainable and inclusive world, is essential. Practical implications – Trans-disciplinarity implies the involvement of people from the business and social real world in the education process, to test and put in practice advances by adopting real problem solving approach. Originality/value – This paper represents a call for engaging the Naples Forum on Service scientific and professional communities in worldwide collaboration to contribute to address the global challenge of a more sustainable and inclusive world by leveraging on education. Paper type – Conceptual paper

The paper is a theoretical contribution on the role of consumer brand engagement (CBE) in marketing theory and moves within the Service Dominant Logic paradigm. The paper aims to identify the distinctive positioning of consumer brand engagement topic in marketing literature filling a literature gap and contributing to a better definition of the concept useful also for a good managerial practice. Several Authors have investigated the interface between CBE and SDL (Merz and Vargo, 2009; Hollebeek 2013, Brodie, et al. 2006). However, still remain in marketing literature a certain confusion and overlapping among several research topics that probably derive from an unclear systematization of brand theory in particular that related to brand feelings (brand love, brand attachment, brand engagement) and consumer active role in Brand Equity Creation. The literature contribution on CBE suffer this limitations. As a consequence of that, it is very difficult to identify an effective scale measurement that measures CBE and not something else (brand experience, brand image, brand perceptions, consumer brand resistance, brand antagonism, and so on). This probably because CBE topic is still under-conceptualized and, consequently, under-investigated. Methodology/Research design/Approach for empirical investigation. The methodology of empirical investigation is qualitative (Gummesson, 2005; Cantone and Testa, 2011) and quantitative based on Multiple Components Analysis (MCA) protocol (Stewart, 1981)

The paper evaluates the potential development of a territory’s productions of excellence, which have to express territory’s identity and have to represent a call for luxury’s tourism. Enterprises of luxury’s products seem not to be affected by the global crisis as they keep having niche consumers and they invest in quality and innovation. The research intends: to analyze the concept of luxury from a request and offer’s point of view; to verify the operative proposals to realize specific luxury tourism chain; to evaluate this kind of productions as attractive factors to increase territory tourism’s flows in the areas where companies are placed, considering consumers as co-producers. The draft starts from the literature of the luxury’s concept, considered either in the S-D Logic (Vargo, Della Corte, Mele) and in the RBT. This method brings to a complex overview of a more difficult value creation process, produced by the link of several actors who cooperate to have a systemic offer of a territory productions of excellence. The potential researches intend to verify: hp1) Which is the running and perspective role of the luxury customer? hp2) which is the luxury production’s configuration? hp3) are there systemic features to evaluate/enforce territorial productions of excellence? The empiric research has been made through the analysis of the main production field of excellence in Naples area, elaborating several companies examples and territory study.

The purpose at the basis of this research is to demonstrate that the network strategy influences the complex tourist product quality and if the firms pursue a co-planning value strategy, this latter affects marketing choices of tourist product.We propose a theoretical model which represents an application of service-dominant logic according to resource-based theory, with specific attention to a particular branch and precisely how the “relational view” leads to value co-creation and that takes into account the central issue of tourism and in particular hotel quality management. We demonstrate the usefulness of this framework through a structured questionnaire, submitted to a sample of hotels, helpful to understand the club’s implications on the quality co-creation process. According to the high quality hotels’ offering, Campania’s hotels have to improve network relationships with local authorities and private firms, as well as regional offer forms, creating adequate conditions of competitiveness on global tourist market.

Purpose Despite many studies about co-creation in innovation, a comprehensive understanding of all the elements that shape the process of co-creating innovation is still lacking. We aim to begin filling this gap. This paper is designed to frame innovation as a process of co-creation according to a practice-based view. Methodology/approach First, we draw from the work of Frow Payne and Storbacka (2010) and Frow, Brodie, Little, Payne (2010) and conceptualise co-creation as a series of “co.” Second, we adopt a practice-based perspective and conceptualise innovation as a collection of practices. We outline two research propositions which guide the empirical research carried out on ten companies. We focus our analysis on the encounter process as it involves practices of interaction. Moreover, we analysed a specific encounter contest, “the web sites”. Findings Companies developed specific web sites to foster innovation by a network of actors. This practice is a new way to innovate and extends through the Internet. We present the findings according to two dimensions:1 ) the “co‟s” for innovation and 2) the elements of practices. The “co‟s” for innovation can be seen as different phases of innovation processes in which actors interact, collaborate and integrate resources. We identified the following “co‟s”: co-generation of ideas, co-evaluation of ideas, co-design and co-launch. Within each “co,” we identified practices and elements of practices, namely actors, actions, tools, and images. Practical Implications This work addressed the need to frame innovation in terms of a group of interactions within a constellation of practices. From this perspective, co-creation in innovation shifts its focus from customer collaboration to the creation of new value proposals by several actors with the focal firm‟s engagement in the creation of practices supporting other actors‟ value-creating processes. Originality/value In finding a fresh conceptualization of innovation, the authors move from the outcome to the process, that is, from innovation (as a new artefact) to innovating (as a set of co-creation practices). This works can stimulate the debate about innovation and co-creation.

Purpose This case reviews how a specialist medical organization in Europe has been able to build sustained positive market value by simultaneously focusing on a market orientation as well as a resource orientation. Design/methodology/approach The case study draws on market orientation, the resource-based view and customer value theories and uses interviews, internal company documentation and secondary research. Findings The case provides an analysis of how an organization has adopted elements of market and customer strategies to survive in an intensely competitive knowledge-driven industry. Findings show that effective differentiation for medical equipment is required to increase client adoption levels and the likelihood of purchase (by medical specialists and patients). From the case, it is apparent that the success of specialist medical devices depends on attention to customer value, as well as product and service quality. These are each driven by facets of resource and market orientations. Originality/value This study provides support for emerging research which demonstrates that a dual focus on the resource composition of an organization, as well as the focus on the provision of customer value are able to drive innovation and financial performance. It shows that organizations cannot limit their focus on one strategic orientation to be successful.

Purpose. S-D logic and service science are reframing the conceptual landscape of business. From these perspectives, performing business means for firms to act as resource facilitators and integrators, connecting service systems via value proposals. The aim of the paper is to analyse innovation as a value-creating process occurring through many-to-many resource integration. The article will argue for a merging of innovation, S-D logic, and network approaches. Methodology. A case study has been carried out. First, we selected a highly innovative firm and focused on conception of and approach to innovations. In detail, we investigated six innovation projects within three main research streams. Then we identified the innovation projects’ networks. The problem of network boundaries (who and where) was handled by focusing the study on the main actors involved in the innovation projects. By studying the interaction and integration process that takes place between the network’s partners, we have been able to highlight innovative patterns, resource contribution to innovation, and the value co-creation process. Findings. Innovation is a network affair, carried out through interaction and with an integration process in which several actors participate as advocated S-D logic. This changes the traditional vision of innovation, in which the supplier is the innovator and the customer a user or source of innovation. Customers and other stakeholders become the real co-innovators, and the innovation process is developed by continuous interactions among stakeholders through which they develop, exchange and integrate resources and co-create value. Partners and networks are seen as a set of potential resources that are to be matched through new value proposals and that need actualisation to create new value in use. Practical implications. A company or a service system should develop the innovation process, managing the contribution of the network’s members and considering both B2B and B2C/C2B (as well as C2C) interactions part of an integrated, complex context (many-to-many). Innovation development should be framed as an open process in which all of the network’s actors can mobilise resources and be co-innovators, co-producing value innovation as a step toward creating value for themselves and for the others. To develop open innovation, managers should draw on the potential of resources, competencies, and talent—not only inside the firm, but above all, from the residents of its ecosystem. Research implications. There is a clear need to develop further researches where innovation is framed as a resource-integrating process. Studies could widen the unit of analysis from firm to network and from dyadic to multiple actors, and enlighten us further as to the antecedents and implications of the interaction and integration process. Originality/Value Framing innovation with S-D logic allows companies and other service systems to move the locus of innovation from product to value, supporting service flow and transforming their understanding of value from a vision based on units of the firm’s output to one based on processes that integrate resources. Innovation is a key theme in service science. This paper offers a wide perspective on innovation to frame the phenomenon using a service-dominant logic, highlighting the role of the network in developing value-creating innovation (processes and results) as instrumental to increasing stakeholder value.

The aim of this paper is to frame innovation within S-D Logic and Service Science and propose a framework in order to launch a call for service innovation research. Methodology. Through a review of the literature, we analyse innovation using different approaches such as goods-dominant logic, S-D logic, and cognitive-relational studies as a transitional view. Findings. We outline the main elements of each approach and develop a framework with a focus on their differences in terms of drivers, outcomes, processes, and actors‘ roles. Innovation within goods-dominant logic is analysed in terms of new product development and new service development. In both of these research streams, innovation is seen as an output (a new good or a new service), coming out from an organisational internal process where the firm is the main actor, protecting its knowledge with an owner and secret approach. The cognitive-relational approach provides a different perspective on innovation in which the drivers of the process are knowledge, competencies, and relationships. The firm is still the main innovator, with the key users and partners acting as sources of knowledge that is used to produce superior value for the recipients. Recognising the role of resource-based view, S-D logic moves the focus to value-creating innovation. This is an ‗open‘ innovation process in which all actors in the network can mobilise their resources to become co-innovators and co-producers of value. Research implications Our theoretical findings represent a good basis upon which further studies of innovation can be undertaken. We call for the development of models and innovation patterns within S-D logic and Service Science. Originality/Value Innovation is a key theme in service systems and service science. However, studies are widely based on a goods-dominant logic, even when the offering is itself a service. This paper offers a new and wider perspective on innovation to frame the phenomenon in S-D logic as a basis for further studies.