Society As an Interaction Space: A Systemic Approach

As digitalization and social media are increasingly blurring the boundaries between traditional societal, political, and economic institutions, this book provides a cross-disciplinary examination of value co-creation. From various standpoints, it examines how institutions contribute to service ecosystems and how digitalization is transforming value co-creation in these ecosystems. Further, the book shares new perspectives on relational dynamics among government, companies, and citizens. These insights fill the gaps between service science and political science by integrating institutional logics into the concept of value co-creation.

The book subsequently examines society as an interaction space. Topics discussed include the new logic and transformation mechanisms of economic activities, citizen participation, governance, and policy-making in the face of technological innovations, market-based reforms, and the risk of disconnect between citizens and policy-making. Here the focus is on value co-creation in complex adaptive systems where institutions, individuals, and businesses negotiate value and interests in networked relations.

In closing, the book presents a range of empirical case studies on value co-creation, which provide examples of active networked citizenship, innovative governance and policy-making, democratic leadership, and trust-building dialogue among institutions. The studies address the context of Nordic countries, recognized as world-leading democracies. Pursuing a systems approach, the book articulates a social reality composed of interacting and interconnected elements that cannot be captured with only micro or macro levels of analysis. Service ecosystems are considered as configurations of people and technologies embedded in institutionalized rules, cultural meanings, and practices, offering valuable insights into the service-centered view of markets and society. Given the breadth and depth of its coverage, the book offers a valuable resource for all students and scholars interested in understanding and envisioning the future democratic landscape.

Hanna Lehtimäki (PhD) is a Professor of Innovation Management at the University of Eastern Finland Business School, and serves as a docent at the University of Tampere, Faculty of Management and Business. She has extensive international experience as a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto, Canada; Fulbright Senior Scholar at George Mason University, USA; co-chair of the International Conference on Management Cases at BIMTECH, India; and international Strategy Practice interest group leader at the international Strategic Management Society. Dr. Lehtimäki’s research interests include strategic management, leadership, and organizational renewal. Her work chiefly focuses on constructionist meaning-making and language, stakeholders and networks, a humanist view on strategizing, and relational leadership.

Petri Uusikylä is a co-founder and director at Frisky & Anjoy. He has over 25 years experience in policy analysis, capacity building and evaluation. Mr. Uusikylä is a member of the Board of the European Evaluation Society and of various OECD expert groups in the field of performance management. He has an extensive list of publications (more than 100 published articles, books and research reports) in the fields of public budgeting, policy evaluation and methodology, European policy-making and public management reform, and development aid. He has given several training courses on project management, EU policy-making, statistical methods, data analysis, and survey techniques. He has also consulted and offered training on evaluation and performance management in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and other OECD countries.

Anssi Smedlund (PhD) is a Chief Research Scientist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH), Helsinki, Finland and an Adjunct Professor of Organizational Structures at the University of Tampere, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere, Finland. He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management from Aalto School of Science and has held visiting scholar positions at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, USA. Dr. Smedlund’s research interests include knowledge management, service science, and information system science.