The role of digital service innovation for value proposition co-creation in emerging sustainable platform ecosystems

Abstract

This study aims to explore how value propositions emerge during the early stages of sustainability-focused B2B digital platform ecosystems. It examines the role of Digital Service Innovation (DSI) in supporting collaborative practices that address regulatory uncertainty, infrastructural fragmentation, and environmental challenges. An exploratory single-case study was conducted, focusing on the development of a regional biogas platform ecosystem in Finland. Data were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews and three collaborative workshops with sector-specific stakeholders. A process-oriented framework was developed to explain the emergence of value propositions within the platform ecosystem. The results reveal that value propositions emerge through repeated, stakeholder-driven co-creation practices influenced by external factors such as policy uncertainty and market thinness, which act as catalysts for collaboration. The concept of value-in-risk-mitigation is introduced, illustrating how stakeholders co-create value by managing shared vulnerabilities. Digital Service Innovation-enabled services were found to reduce coordination challenges while enhancing environmental performance through integration of digital tools to support emission traceability, circular resource flows, and compliance support. The study demonstrates the role of Digital Service Innovation (DSI) in helping firms and policymakers build trust, develop neutral governance models, and establish digital infrastructure that promotes both competitiveness and sustainability. It also expands service-dominant logic literature by introducing value-in-risk-mitigation as a new driver for initiating value co-creation. It bridges digital servitization and sustainability research by showing that Digital Service Innovation (DSI) strengthens both economic viability and ecological resilience in emerging ecosystems. The research is limited to a single regional case, which may limit the applicability of the findings. Future studies should compare different sectors and include quantitative measures of environmental performance enabled by Digital Service Innovation(DSI).