Lessons from nature: Enhancing the adaptable potential of service ecosystems

Organisms and species have evolved through adaptation and extinction for over a billion years. Service science can learn from this large library of success and failure because species interact and struggle for survival in biological ecosystems in many of the same way as organizations and other actors behaves in service ecosystems. The authors draw upon their collective knowledge of biological ecosystems, biological evolution, business, and service science to develop an integrated framework, including rules of adaptability, adaptability practices, and guidelines for creating adaptable systems. Collectively, these key lessons from the biological world can be used to help organizations be a vital part of service ecosystems adaptability and can be the catalyst for the emergence of innovation.