Purpose

This paper aims to explore practice innovation and organizational resiliency during exogenous service ecosystem disruptions. This inquiry focuses on the extreme disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required service firms to recodify long-established service scripts, adapt digital and physical material elements of the service encounter and ultimately reconfigure a system of practices. The specific context is forced practice innovation in Starbucks servicescape (kiosks and coffeehouses). Starbucks is best known for its custom beverages and third-place strategy. Their strict adherence to a complex service script and unique ordering practices altered during pandemic stay-home disease prevention mandates.

Design/methodology/approach

Thematic coding consistent with prior research on practice innovation and diffusion and a grounded theory methodology was conducted. Data were triangulated and analyzed within and across a variety of sources. These include field notes from direct observation, interviews, focus groups, firm-authored collateral in the form of marketing communications and third-party authored secondary sources such as news, social media, blogs and forums.

Findings

Data reveal how practice innovation occurs through the reconfiguration of a system of practices, which support organizational resiliency and can force brand evolution, in prolonged exogenous service ecosystem disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic required service industries to adapt and recodify service scripts and alter physical and digital elements of service encounters. While the pandemic affected all firms in the sector, we argue that Starbucks' established scripts and third-place strategies, which characterized the brand experience, were particularly vulnerable. We find that practice innovation occurs through the reconfiguration of practice elements – competences, meanings and materiality – and restructures the service encounter. Practice codification, transposition, adaptation and stabilization support organizational resiliency and brand evolution. We find that Starbucks' brand experience emphasis on the third place is reconceptualized from an in-person community-based retailscape to a platform-based strategy necessitating script recodification and practice adaptation. Our analysis of Starbucks' kiosks and coffeehouses illuminates how a distinctly branded service encounter is constituted by a system of practices that can be reconfigured and diffused anew in the face of disruption.

Originality/value

The conceptualization of practice innovation as systems reconfiguration establishes a novel approach to understanding innovation in service ecosystems. The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique context to study a sector-wide exogenous extended service disruption. We focus on a firm with an elaborate pre-pandemic service script and commitment to a third-place brand experience guiding its system of practices. We reveal unique insights on practice innovation within service ecosystems during exogenous prolonged disruptions in which brands evolve through the recodification of service scripts and sustained reconfiguration of systems of practice.

中文翻译：

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通过实践创新实现组织弹性：在长期的外生服务生态系统破坏中迫使品牌演变

 目的

本文旨在探索外生服务生态系统中断期间的实践创新和组织弹性。本次调查的重点是 COVID-19 大流行造成的极端破坏，这要求服务公司重新编写长期建立的服务脚本，调整服务体验的数字和物理材料元素，并最终重新配置实践系统。具体背景是星巴克服务景观（售货亭和咖啡馆）的强制实践创新。星巴克以其定制饮料和第三名战略而闻名。他们严格遵守复杂的服务脚本和独特的订购做法，在大流行的居家疾病预防任务期间发生了变化。

设计/方法论/途径

进行了与实践创新和传播的先前研究以及扎根理论方法一致的主题编码。对各种来源内部和之间的数据进行三角测量和分析。其中包括来自直接观察、访谈、焦点小组的现场记录、公司撰写的营销传播形式的宣传资料以及第三方撰写的二手来源（例如新闻、社交媒体、博客和论坛）。

 发现

数据揭示了实践创新如何通过实践系统的重新配置来实现，在长期的外生服务生态系统中断中，实践系统支持组织的弹性并可以迫使品牌进化。 COVID-19 大流行要求服务行业调整和重新编写服务脚本，并改变服务体验的物理和数字元素。虽然这一流行病影响了该行业的所有公司，但我们认为，星巴克既定的剧本和以品牌体验为特征的第三方战略尤其容易受到影响。我们发现实践创新是通过重新配置实践要素（能力、意义和物质性）而发生的，并重组服务体验。实践编纂、换位、适应和稳定支持组织弹性和品牌发展。我们发现，星巴克对第三空间的品牌体验重视被重新概念化，从基于社区的面对面零售景观转变为基于平台的策略，需要脚本重新编码和实践适应。我们对星巴克售货亭和咖啡馆的分析揭示了一种独特的品牌服务体验是如何由一个实践系统构成的，该实践系统可以在面对颠覆时重新配置和重新传播。

 原创性/价值

将实践创新概念化为系统重构，建立了一种理解服务生态系统创新的新方法。 COVID-19 大流行是研究全行业外源性扩展服务中断的独特背景。我们专注于一家拥有精心设计的大流行前服务脚本并致力于指导其实践系统的第三方品牌体验的公司。我们揭示了在外源性长期干扰期间服务生态系统内实践创新的独特见解，其中品牌通过服务脚本的重新编码和实践系统的持续重新配置而发展。