Between service culture, empathy and ethical behaviour: insights derived from the Viable Systems Approach

Purpose – Scope of the paper is to analyze service research and its connection with empathy and ethical behaviour of individuals, and other socio-economic actors in light of the Viable Systems Approach, a methodological lens useful for the interpretation of complex phenomena. Methodology/approach – This papers is a conceptual analysis of recent developments in human behaviour, with specific reference to business environment I search for individual contribute to organization competitiveness. The quest is pursued taking into account developments concerning Service Science, Service Dominant logic and Viable Systems Approach (proposed by Italian researchers and highly diffused in Italy in last decade) based upon recent developments of the concept of Service and of the concept of Empathy, both declined in a business environment. Findings – Several marketing research important scientific proposal, such as Service Dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004; 2006; 2008), Many-to-Many Marketing (Gummesson, 2009) and Service Science (Spohrer et al, 2007; etc.) propose the interpretation of Service as a cultural, philosophical attitude for relationship management capable of fostering successful and competitive behaviour. Every decision maker in the market, or in every business context, is influenced in his/her choice and behaviour by empathy and ethics, as well as his/her strong believes and intimate values. Satisfactory/viable decision may be detected and highlighted also through the Viable Systems Approach methodologies and practices (Golinelli, 2000; 2010; Barile, 2000; Barile & Polese, 2010). Research implications – In order to improve marketing research interpretation of markets and marketing decision makers it is important to adopt scientific proposal capable of analyze and manage complexity and the role of many actors, naturally involved in co-creation exchanges. The Viable Systems Approach, being it a scientific proposal based on systems theory and synthesizing several interdisciplinary contributes, with its 10 Fundamental Concepts represents interesting insights for this purpose. Practical implications – The paper helps practitioners to better manage service and enables a better comprehension of decisions displayed the numerous actors involved in co-creating exchanges and experiences. Originality/value – The paper suggests that service research cannot be anymore confined within its natural boundaries, since it is starting to involve human behaviour, markets and complex phenomena. Thus it ought to valorize managerial and system theories, as well as scientific proposal developed in many other research domains, in order to accomplish his demanding task. Key words: Service Dominant logic; Service Science; Viable Systems Approach; ethics; empathy. Paper type – Conceptual paper