THE SERVICE ECOSYSTEM AND CO-CREATION OF VALUE IN THE CLUB CONTEXT
clubs; service dominant logic; value co-creation; service ecosystems
Clubs are groups where people come together to interact, play sports, hold events, socialize or simply be outdoors. Many of these clubs, like those in Brasília, are considered historical institutions of their cities and still resist changes over time, even in an increasingly competitive world with more leisure options. This work sought, from the perspective of value co-creation derived from the dominant logic of service, to investigate how clubs in the Federal District state in Brazil operate in their routines and how they interact with each other, seeking to improve the service they offer. The research objectives were to characterize the service ecosystem in the context of these clubs, map the actors and institutions and characterize the co-creation mechanisms between the organizations in this ecosystem. By conducting in-depth interviews with participants from three different clubs and the employers' union, in addition to the researcher's non-participant observation, results were obtained for several key concepts, categorized by their respective levels of analysis, that were based off the work of Reynoso, Barile, Saviano and Spohrer's (2018), used to guide this research. It was found that, despite interesting characteristics such as the idea of mutual non-aggression between clubs and initiatives to integrate resources between them, it cannot be said that there is a service ecosystem in this club sector, and that co-creation of value occurs in an incipient way. Actions were suggested to encourage the co-creation of value within this emerging ecosystem and an agenda for future research was also made available.