Interaction value formation spaces: configurations of practice-theory elements in service ecosystems

Purpose – Contemporary service and marketing research on value co-creation and value co-destruction assume a one-dimensional view on value,ranging from positive value co-creation, alignment and high value to negative value co-destruction, misalignment and low value. This limitation hasrecently led researchers to conceptually develop more dynamic spatial-temporal models of how value is formed during the interaction, e.g. in termsof different relationships between practice elements (procedures, understandings and engagements) both within and between actors in “valueformation spaces”. However, much of this research awaits validation and is in need of more details. This study aims to address this limitation withthe purpose of detailing how and why the mechanisms in such spaces are formed.Design/methodology/approach – Two different and interlinked typologies were analytically derived from previous research and applied onethnographically-inspired multi-perspective empirical data from a service combining health care and transport service ecosystems, using acombination of interviews, observations and service design methodologies. The design in combination with a practice theory perspective was usedto articulate crucial aspects related to understanding the dynamics of value co-formation for elaborative and illustrative purposes.Findings – The study contributes to service theory by conceptualizing as follows: a typology consisting of nine different configurations of practiceelements (within and between such elements) and eight possible directions that value formation can take, suggesting a theory that explains valueco-creation, value co-destruction and mixed cases.Research limitations/implications – Although the findings have been developed in a specific empirical context, they articulate a conceptualizationapplicable to many other service and marketing value co-formation settings.Practical implications – The typologies are conceptual tools to be used in identifying and measuring the alignment/misalignment of practiceelements in complex organizations. The empirical findings uncover service problems faced by disabled customers.Originality/value – The suggested typologies can guide research and practitioners in understanding and analysing value co-formation mechanismsin complex service setting