Abstract
Tourism, as a highly service-dependent industry, faces increasing environmental and social sustainability pressures. To address these challenges, service design is becoming a critical mechanism for systemic change. This study aims to investigate how Service Ecosystem Design (SED) contributes to sustainable development in the tourism industry from a design-oriented perspective. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis were conducted. From a total of 1,342 articles published between 2014 and 2024, 35 empirical studies were rigorously selected and analyzed using a design-focused coding framework. The research classified design intervention strategies and mapped them to environmental, social, and economic sustainability dimensions. The results show that SED plays a valuable role in advancing sustainability across the tourism sector, particularly within hotel services and environmental initiatives. Based on these findings, the study proposes the Sustainable Tourism Service Design Model (STSD Model). The model integrates three core intervention types—eco-efficient operations, green value co-creation, and environmental education—and illustrates how these strategies lead to sustainable outcomes. This model offers a visual and theoretical framework that supports both academic exploration and practical application. Although developed from tourism literature, it holds relevance for broader service industries pursuing sustainable transformation.
Keywords
Service Ecosystem Design; Sustainability; Tourism Industry; Meta-analysis
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.349
Citation
Yang, W.,and Hsu, Y.(2025) Research Trends and Knowledge Mapping in Sustainable Service Design: A Systematic Literature Review, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.349
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 8 - Circular/Sustainable Design
Research Trends and Knowledge Mapping in Sustainable Service Design: A Systematic Literature Review
Tourism, as a highly service-dependent industry, faces increasing environmental and social sustainability pressures. To address these challenges, service design is becoming a critical mechanism for systemic change. This study aims to investigate how Service Ecosystem Design (SED) contributes to sustainable development in the tourism industry from a design-oriented perspective. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis were conducted. From a total of 1,342 articles published between 2014 and 2024, 35 empirical studies were rigorously selected and analyzed using a design-focused coding framework. The research classified design intervention strategies and mapped them to environmental, social, and economic sustainability dimensions. The results show that SED plays a valuable role in advancing sustainability across the tourism sector, particularly within hotel services and environmental initiatives. Based on these findings, the study proposes the Sustainable Tourism Service Design Model (STSD Model). The model integrates three core intervention types—eco-efficient operations, green value co-creation, and environmental education—and illustrates how these strategies lead to sustainable outcomes. This model offers a visual and theoretical framework that supports both academic exploration and practical application. Although developed from tourism literature, it holds relevance for broader service industries pursuing sustainable transformation.