Resilience in service innovation ecosystems: adaptive capacities, co-creation and institutional agility amid external shocks

Purpose The study seeks to explain how service innovation ecosystems (SIEs) develop resilience when confronted with external shocks. While resilience has often been examined at the level of individual firms or supply chains, far less is known about the processes and mechanisms that allow multi-actor service ecosystems to absorb turbulence, adapt collaboratively and institutionalise new practices. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a qualitative, multiple-case study design, the research investigates five service sectors – Fintech, HealthTech, Tourism, Higher Education and Logistics – that have faced significant disruptions. Data were collected through 25 semi-structured interviews with ecosystem actors, complemented by secondary documents and analysed using Gioia’s methodology to trace the emergence of themes and aggregate dimensions. Findings The analysis reveals that resilience in SIEs unfolds as a temporal and recursive process moving through improvisation, adaptation and institutionalisation. Actor-level improvisations provide the raw material for ecosystem change, digital modularity enables scaling and stabilisation and institutional agility and flexibility determine whether emergent practices gain legitimacy and permanence. Sectoral comparisons illustrate that resilience mechanisms vary across contexts, with distinct enablers and trade-offs in each industry. The findings highlight both the positive pathways and the unintended consequences of resilience strategies, such as risks of fragmentation, legitimacy erosion or digital exclusion. Originality/value The study advances service theory by integrating service-dominant logic, complex adaptive systems theory and dynamic capabilities into a stratified framework of ecosystem resilience. It contributes a temporal model that explains not only what resilience is in service ecosystems but how it is built, scaled and institutionalised. For managers and policymakers, the paper provides sector-specific and risk-aware recommendations to strengthen resilience in digitally dependent and shock-prone service markets.