Digital service innovation and ecosystem value co-creation: the moderating role of B2C contexts under service-dominant logic

Purpose This study investigates digital service innovation as a socio-technical driver of ecosystem value co-creation in manufacturing. Guided by Service-Dominant Logic, it uncovers how digital service innovation – comprising smart interactive services and smart working technologies – enables resource liquefaction and usage-phase co-creation, while examining how market orientation (business-to-consumer versus business-to-business) conditions this relationship. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative analysis was conducted on a sample of 303 manufacturers. Hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling applied to a higher-order construct that captures smart working technologies and smart interactive services through reflective and formative structures. Findings Results confirm that digital service innovation serves as a foundational engine for ecosystem value co-creation. However, business-to-consumer environments significantly amplify this relationship compared to business-to-business settings, where structural inertia and competency barriers create interaction friction. Furthermore, smart working technologies and smart interactive services demonstrate an essential socio-technical synergy. Originality/value This research advances Service-Dominant logic by unpacking digital service innovation from a conceptual black box into a multidimensional socio-technical assemblage. By contrasting business-to-consumer and business-to-business realities, it explicitly establishes the contextual boundaries of ecosystem value co-creation, revealing how market structures dictate the velocity and efficacy of digitally enabled resource integration.