Expanding understanding of service exchange and value co-creation: A social construction approach

According to service-dominant logic (S-D logic), all providers are service providers, and service is the fundamental basis of exchange. Value is co-created with customers and assessed on the basis of value-in-context. However, the extensive literature on S-D logic could benefit from paying explicit attention to the fact that both service exchange and value co-creation are influenced by social forces. The aim of this study is to expand understanding of service exchange and value co-creation by complementing these central aspects of S-D logic with key concepts from social construction theories (social structures, social systems, roles, positions, interactions, and reproduction of social structures). The study develops and describes a new framework for understanding how the concepts of service exchange and value co-creation are affected by recognizing that they are embedded in social systems. The study contends that value should be understood as value-in-social-context and that value is a social construction. Value co-creation is shaped by social forces, is reproduced in social structures, and can be asymmetric for the actors involved. Service exchanges are dynamic, and actors learn and change their roles within dynamic service systems

Ecosystem Services in the Service-Dominant Logic Framework.

Peer reviewe

Intestinal-derived FGF15 protects against deleterious effects of vertical sleeve gastrectomy in mice

Bariatric surgeries such as the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (VSG) are invasive but provide the most effective improvements in obesity and Type 2 diabetes. We hypothesized a potential role for the gut hormone Fibroblast-Growth Factor 15/19 which is increased after VSG and pharmacologically can improve energy homeostasis and glucose handling. We generated intestinal-specific FGF15 knockout (FGF15INT-KO) mice which were maintained on high-fat diet. FGF15INT-KO mice lost more weight after VSG as a result of increased lean tissue loss. FGF15INT-KO mice also lost more bone density and bone marrow adipose tissue after VSG. The effect of VSG to improve glucose tolerance was also absent in FGF15INT-KO. VSG resulted in increased plasma bile acid levels but were considerably higher in VSG-FGF15INT-KO mice. These data point to an important role after VSG for intestinal FGF15 to protect the organism from deleterious effects of VSG potentially by limiting the increase in circulating bile acids.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169579/2/s41467-021-24914-y.pdfAccepted versio

A mathematical model of a criminal-prone society

Criminals are common to all societies. To fight against them the community takes different security measures as, for example, to bring about a police. Thus, crime causes a depletion of the common wealth not only by criminal acts but also because the cost of hiring a police force. In this paper, we present a mathematical model of a criminal-prone self-protected society that is divided into socio-economical classes. We study the effect of a non-null crime rate on a free-of-criminals society which is taken as a reference system. As a consequence, we define a criminal-prone society as one whose free-of-criminals steady state is unstable under small perturbations of a certain socio-economical context. Finally, we compare two alternative strategies to control crime: (i) enhancing police efficiency, either by enlarging its size or by updating its technology, against (ii) either reducing criminal appealing or promoting social classes at ris

Haploinsufficiency for p190B RhoGAP inhibits MMTV-Neu tumor progression

Introduction: Rho signaling regulates key cellular processes including proliferation, survival, and migration, and it has been implicated in the development of many types of cancer including breast cancer. P190B Rho GTPase activating protein (RhoGAP) functions as a major inhibitor of the Rho GTPases. P190B is required for mammary gland morphogenesis, and overexpression of p190B in the mammary gland induces hyperplastic lesions. Hence, we hypothesized that p190B may play a pivotal role in mammary tumorigenesis. Methods: To investigate the effects of loss of p190B function on mammary tumor progression, p190B heterozygous mice were crossed with an MMTV-Neu breast cancer model. Effects of p190B deficiency on tumor latency, multiplicity, growth, preneoplastic progression and metastasis were evaluated. To investigate potential differences in tumor angiogenesis between the two groups, immunohistochemistry to detect von Willebrand factor was performed and quantified. To examine gene expression of potential mediators of the angiogenic switch, an angiogenesis PCR array was utilized and results were confirmed using immunohistochemistry. Finally, reciprocal transplantation of tumor fragments was performed to determine the impact of stromal deficiency of p190B on tumor angiogenesis. Results: P190B deficiency reduced tumor penetrance (53% of $p190B^{+/-}Neu$ mice vs. 100% of $p190B^{+/+}Neu$ mice formed tumors) and markedly delayed tumor onset by an average of 46 weeks. Tumor multiplicity was also decreased, but an increase in the number of preneoplastic lesions was detected indicating that p190B deficiency inhibited preneoplastic progression. Angiogenesis was decreased in the p190B heterozygous tumors, and expression of a potent angiogenic inhibitor, thrombospondin-1, was elevated in $p190B^{+/-}Neu$ mammary glands. Transplantation of $p190B^{+/-}Neu$ tumor fragments into wild-type recipients restored tumor angiogenesis. Strikingly, $p190B^{+/+}Neu$ tumor fragments were unable to grow when transplanted into $p190B^{+/-}Neu$ recipients. Conclusions: These data suggest that p190B haploinsufficiency in the epithelium inhibits MMTV-Neu tumor initiation. Furthermore, p190B deficiency in the vasculature is responsible, in part, for the inhibition of MMTV-Neu tumor progression

Ontological representation and governance of business semantics in compliant service networks

The Internet would enable new ways for service innovation and trading, as well as for analysing the resulting value networks, with an unprecedented level of scale and dynamics. Yet most related economic activities remain of a largely brittle and manual nature. Service-oriented business implementations focus on operational aspects at the cost of value creation aspects such as quality and regulatory compliance. Indeed they enforce how to carry out a certain business in a prefixed non-adaptive manner rather than capturing the semantics of a business domain in a way that would enable service systems to adapt their role in changing value propositions. In this paper we set requirements for SDL-compliant business service semantics, and propose a method for their ontological representation and governance. We demonstrate an implementation of our approach in the context of service-oriented Information Governance

Description and evaluation of the Community Ice Sheet Model (CISM) v2.1

We describe and evaluate version 2.1 of the Community Ice Sheet Model (CISM). CISM is a parallel, 3-D thermomechanical model, written mainly in Fortran, that solves equations for the momentum balance and the thickness and temperature evolution of ice sheets. CISM's velocity solver incorporates a hierarchy of Stokes flow approximations, including shallow-shelf, depth-integrated higher order, and 3-D higher order. CISM also includes a suite of test cases, links to third-party solver libraries, and parameterizations of physical processes such as basal sliding, iceberg calving, and sub-ice-shelf melting. The model has been verified for standard test problems, including the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for Higher-Order Models (ISMIP-HOM) experiments, and has participated in the initMIP-Greenland initialization experiment. In multimillennial simulations with modern climate forcing on a 4&thinsp;km grid, CISM reaches a steady state that is broadly consistent with observed flow patterns of the Greenland ice sheet. CISM has been integrated into version 2.0 of the Community Earth System Model, where it is being used for Greenland simulations under past, present, and future climates. The code is open-source with extensive documentation and remains under active development.</p

An Integrative Design Framework for New Service Development

Service innovation is focused on customer value creation. At its core, customer-centric service innovation in an increasingly digital world is technology-enabled, human-centered, and process-oriented. This requires a cross-disciplinary, holistic approach to new service design and development (NSD). This paper proposes a new service strategy-aligned integrative design framework for NSD. It correlates the underlying theories and principles of disparate but interrelated aspects of service design thinking: service strategy, concept, design, experience and architecture into a coherent framework for NSD, consistent with the service brand value. Application of the framework to NSD is envisioned to be iterative and holistic, accentuated on continuous organizational and customer learning. The preliminary framework's efficacy is illustrated using a simplified telecom case example. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

e3 service: A Critical Reflection and Future Research

Commercial services are of utmost importance for the economy. Due to the widespread use of information and communication technologies, many of these services may be delivered online by means of service value networks. To automate this delivery, however, issues such as composition, integration, and operationalization need to be addressed. In this paper, the authors share their long-term vision on composition of service value networks and describe relationships with fields such as cloud computing and enterprise computing. As a demonstration of the state of the art, capabilities and limitations of e 3 service are described and research challenges are defined