Combining the pillars of the Naples forum

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.