Service Ecosystem Design for Improving the Service Sustainability: A Case of Career Counselling Services in the Italian Higher Education Institution

Abstract

The call for further research on service sustainability at all levels has been increasingly stated within the past years. However, limited research has been conducted with regard to the macro level, in which services are inevitably influenced by social, cultural, economic and technological factors. This paper develops an ecosystem approach within the service context to design a service not only from a micro level (e.g., service experience, service encounters), but also from a social level in order to help businesses and public sectors to transform the relationship among individual, collective, social, and environmental systems and increase service sustainability. Then, it applies the developed Service Ecosystem Design (SED) model in a Career Counselling Service (CCS) in the University of Milano-Bicocca (Unimib) in order to demonstrate the usefulness of this model. The empirical data were collected from service providers to illustrate the current service system maps and from first-year undergraduates to understand their perceptions and expectations on campus CCS. The results show that the Unimib CCS is a research-oriented career service and the fundamental service improvements should focus on designing the peer counselling, follow-up, pre-service, a holistic online platform, law education, technology education, optional course, hands-on experiences and student activities.