Marialuisa Saviano

Viable Service Systems and Decision Making in Service Management

This paper addresses decision making in the management of complex service systems, highlighting the contribution of the viable systems approach as an interpretative and governance methodology based on systems thinking. In the last few decades, business management has undergone significant changes due to rapid developments in markets. New competitive strategies and technologies have stimulated global discussion about business models and tools (Ghoshal, 2005). The role of relationships has become increasingly relevant in businesses, and researchers as well as industries are shifting their focus to a service-oriented approach, moving from a paradigm of product to one of service (IfM-IBM Cambridge SSME Report, 2008).

A service research contribution to the global challenge of sustainability

Purpose Poverty, hunger, inequalities, diseases, unsustainable use of resources, etc., in spite of scientific progress, still remains unsolved worldwide issues. All these issues relate to the challenges of sustainability and sustainable development that now call for urgent answers. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the service research community can respond to this call and to identify key areas of potential contribution. Design/methodology/approach After a brief review of selected service literature aimed at exploring its interest in the topics of sustainability and sustainable development, the authors develop the interpretative proposal identifying the key requirements of a global engagement in the challenge of sustainability and sustainable development and highlighting the potential contribution of service research. Findings Findings highlight the potential contribution of service research to the global challenge of sustainability and suggest acting upon education by considering the “T-Shaped” professional model as a possible reference for embedding sustainability in the education of future managers and addressing the need of interdisciplinary thinking through the systems approach. Research limitations/implications The proposed study of service literature is only an exploratory analysis of main contributions that does not aim to identify gaps but only to highlight the potential of a greater engagement of service research in the global call for a more sustainable and inclusive development. Practical implications A trans-disciplinary approach is also required. This implies the involvement of the business and the social real world. Originality/value This paper represents a novel call for engaging the service research community in a boundary-crossing collaboration with the aim of contributing to address the challenge of sustainability.

Il rapporto impresa-territorio tra efficienza locale, efficacia di contesto e sostenibilità ambientale

Obiettivo del paper : Il paper propone un modello di rappresentazione del territorio come sistema dinamico di relazioni intersoggettive capace di garantire non solo l’efficienza dei processi interni all’organizzazione sviluppata, ma anche risultati efficaci nel contesto complessivo e un impatto sostenibile nell’ambiente piu esteso. Metodologia : Il contributo e sviluppato sulla base dell’Approccio Sistemico Vitale (ASV) sia come metodologia di indagine dei fenomeni sociali sia come metodologia di governo delle organizzazioni. Risultati : Attraverso l’impiego di concetti quali ‘rilevanza’, ‘consonanza’ e ‘risonanza’, l’approccio proposto conduce alla rappresentazione di un sistema territoriale vitale, capace di sopravvivere nel proprio contesto creando valore per i sovrasistemi di riferimento e determinando le condizioni per un equilibrio sostenibile. Limiti della ricerca : Il paper offre un framework teorico-concettuale che potra essere oggetto di studio e di ulteriori sviluppi anche attraverso l’analisi di casi reali e verifiche empiriche. Implicazioni pratiche : Lo schema generale proposto e adottabile, congiuntamente ai modelli manageriali consolidati, tanto dall’attore istituzionale, che vede il territorio nel suo complesso come sistema vitale, quanto dall’attore imprenditoriale, che vede nel territorio un fertile contesto di azione dal quale trarre e al quale offrire opportunita di sviluppo in un intreccio armonico di finalita e in un’ottica condivisa di sostenibilita. Originalita del lavoro : L’originalita del paper risiede nel proporre un modello di sintesi per uno sviluppo sinergico del territorio che catalizzi istanze aziendali, di contesto e ambientali, promuovendo la sostenibilita nei rapporti impresa-territorio. Parole chiave: rapporto impresa-territorio; approccio sistemico vitale; efficienza; efficacia; sostenibilita

The financial gap for women in the MENA region: a systemic perspective

Purpose This paper aims to investigate women’s financial inclusion as a critical element for the competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market for entrepreneurship and sustainable development of the region, as MENA financial institutions’ loans to women-owned SMEs tend to be significantly lower than the share of women-owned SMEs in their target markets. Causes of under-serving this market are not very well studied. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on an inductive approach supported by the interpretative contribution offered by the viable systems approach as methodological and interpretative lens to investigate the topic of women financial inclusion in MENA regions. Reflections herein are supported by an exploratory study on the conditions for women financial inclusion in MENA regions. Findings The main focus of this paper is to study the financial gap that women entrepreneurs are experiencing in enlarging their businesses and/or lunching innovative projects. In accordance with this, the paper highlights the need of a more systemic approach and long-term vision to support a more extensive women financial inclusion in MENA regions. Originality/value Financial institutions’ need to understand women-owned SMEs’ financial needs for innovation and growth to build new customized financial products. This paper’s argument is that the dominant short-term approach to credit-granting for women, although providing support, may be inadequate to achieve a real financial inclusion, and possible causes and solutions are discussed.

From the Management of Cultural Heritage to the Governance of the Cultural Heritage System

This chapter highlights the need for a change in perspective in the approach to cultural heritage management towards the adoption of a systems view of governance. Given the current unsatisfactory performance in the management of Italy’s rich cultural heritage, we suggest that a dominant traditional view focused on conservation and protection should be integrated with more effective action through enhancement. The key elements of a model of cultural heritage system governance are illustrated from the perspective of the viable systems approach.

Complexity and Sustainability in Management: Insights from a Systems Perspective

The growing inadequacy of traditional ‘management toolkits’ for dealing with ever more complex phenomena highlights the need for a rethinking of consolidated management approaches: it is necessary a paradigmatic change for setting a pathway of knowledge and taking into account awareness of the limits and, at the same time, capability of overcoming and updating past schema. Acknowledging the unquestionable value of the long tradition of systems thinking contributions to social sciences and business management, the purpose of this work is to highlight the reasons why a systems approach is really needed to better understand business and social dynamics in condition of complexity, how the Viable Systems Approach can support decision making in condition of complexity, and how the discussion of complexity and the survival of viable systems in a complex scenario, implies inevitably, discussion about sustainability.

Service Innovation in Translational Medicine

Innovation implies collaboration among business actors and is fundamental in value cocreation networks. A significant context is the healthcare, where Translational Medicine (T-MED) aims at decreasing barriers between clinical research and medical treatments. The Translational Medicine is the integration and optimization of inputs in basic research improving the patient care, advancing and speeding up the process of offering new protocols, therapies, and practices. This conceptual contribution analyzes the Service Innovation in Translational Medicine using the paradigms of the Service Science (SS), Complex Service Systems, and Viable Systems Approach (VSA). It aims to increase the comprehension of relationships and complexity reduction processes in Translational Medicine and in Service Innovation in healthcare and improving of understanding the constraints to the innovation supporting Translational Medicine approach, seeking strategic solutions with a holistic view of healthcare networks.

People, technology, and governance for sustainability: the contribution of systems and cyber-systemic thinking

We live in an ever-increasing unsustainable world in which sustainability shows to be a complex multidimensional and multi-stakeholder problem. The complexity to address is increasingly beyond our traditional response capabilities. Hence the challenge is ‘‘how we account for this complexity in the quest for a sustainable world underpinned by inclusion and fairness’’ (Espejo 2018). What is required is to account for the ‘‘individual and cumulative social, environmental and economic implications of decision or process based on an understanding of the systemic nature of the world, the interconnectedness of natural and human systems’’, and for the ‘‘direct and indirect consequences for people and ecosystems based on an understanding of the global nature of the world and how local and regional issues are part of the whole’’ (Crofton 2000: 400). People and technology are key resources for addressing the above challenge. Dominant interpretative and governance approaches, however, tend to reduce complex problems to the application of techno-centric knowledge and pseudo-solutions focusing on single aspects of the problems instead of trying to capture and read their complexity as a whole. Governance in such complex contexts requires challenging our dominant thinking, practices,institutions and development narratives (Ison 2017, http:// wosc2017rome.asvsa.org/). Any phenomenon of reality relevant to the goals of sustainability and sustainable development is indeed characterized by highly interconnected dynamics that involve a variety of ecological, social and economic dimensions that cannot be effectively analysed in isolation (Holling 2001). When dealing with such complex, interrelated, realworld, riddled with uncertainties and contested problems disciplinary knowledge requires being effectively integrated and linked to action (Best and Holmes 2010). Interand trans-disciplinary approaches are needed in order a body of knowledge can be co-produced which is capable of overcoming the limits of still fragmented and specialized disciplines and capable to include all perspectives, interests, values of all actors involved or affected (Barile et al. 2018a). Active collaboration with various stakeholders throughout society—transdisciplinarity—must form a critical component of sustainability science’’ (Yarime et al. 2012: 101). Since its origins, Sustainability Science has been engaged in such missions, providing a platform for building a corpus of knowledge which can ‘‘point the way to a sustainable global society by facing challenges that existing disciplines have not addressed’’ (https://link.springer. com/journal/11625): although the academic landscape has constantly evolved over the years, shifting from discussions focused on specialized fields to an interdisciplinary debate that pursues a comprehensive understanding of social, economic and ecological systems, there is still much work to do (Komiyama and Takeuchi 2006; Orecchini et al. 2012; Wiek et al. 2012). & Marialuisa Saviano msaviano@unisa.it

Governance for sustainability: a triple-helix model

In the last decades much attention has been dedicated to the interpretation of relevant phenomena in the socio-economic field, highlighting the need of general frameworks of reference for the governance of sustainability and often recurring to the Elkington’s triple bottom line and the Etzkowitz’s triple-helix representations as reference models. In front of a massive scientific production that points out criteria and method of the model, the theory could seem less rich of applications and examples, especially in the field of the inquiry defined by sustainability. In this work, our aim is to provide a little contribution to cover this gap by (1) drawing a more general view from the triple bottom line; (2) highlighting a ‘triple-helix’ functioning in the triple bottom line as represented in the triple helix of sustainability; (3) providing an example, very actual and important, and some general reasoning related to the use of the model as a possible reference in the basic understanding of the complexity of governance for sustainability.

A new systems perspective in retail service marketing

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the necessity of a change in perspective and a new approach to Retail Service Marketing by addressing the recent challenges posed by a radical rethinking of market exchange logic using a service view. Recent Service Marketing advances are analyzed, which lead to the Service Dominant Logic proposal to take a general service view of market exchange, envisaging an emerging paradigm change. However, the key to this potential paradigm change is not yet well focused. A gap in the theoretical approach emerges that can be closed by adopting the Viable Systems Approach and the structure-system interpretation scheme. Their implications for retailing are discussed, and the key to change is emphasized. This chapter introduces a new theoretical and conceptual framework rooted in systems thinking, which recommends a Service Systems Approach to Retail Marketing.