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1 – 10 of 10Jonathan David Schöps, Christian Reinhardt and Andrea Hemetsberger
Digital markets are increasingly constructed by an interplay between (non)human market actors, i.e. through algorithms, but, simultaneously, fragmented through platformization…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital markets are increasingly constructed by an interplay between (non)human market actors, i.e. through algorithms, but, simultaneously, fragmented through platformization. This study aims to explore how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors co-codify markets through expressive and networked content across social media platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies digital methods as cross-platform analysis to analyze two data sets retrieved from YouTube and Instagram using the keywords “sustainable fashion” and #sustainablefashion, respectively.
Findings
The study shows how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors, co-codify markets across two social media platforms, i.e. YouTube and Instagram. The authors introduce the notion of sticky market webs of connection, illustrating how these dynamics foster cross-platform market codification through relations of exteriority.
Research limitations/implications
Research implications highlight the necessity to account for all involved entities, including digital infrastructure in digital markets and the methodological potential of cross-platform analyses.
Practical implications
Practical implications highlight considerations managers should take into account when designing market communication for digital markets composed of (non)human market actors.
Social implications
Social implications highlight the possible effects of (non)human market co-codification on markets and consumer culture, and corresponding countermeasures.
Originality/value
This study contributes to an increased understanding of digital market dynamics by illuminating interdependent market co-codification dynamics between (non)human market actors, and how these dynamics (de)territorialize digital market assemblages through relations of exteriority across platforms.
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Temi Abimbola and Christine Vallaster
This paper is a brief historical examination of brand, organisation identity and reputation in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The discussion is situated within the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is a brief historical examination of brand, organisation identity and reputation in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The discussion is situated within the context of the challenges that the global knowledge‐based business environment poses to organisations of differing sizes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' approach is discursive. The argument is supported by findings from published studies and empirical reality. The authors analyse and distill our thoughts (and the empirical findings) in a way that is relevant to the activities of entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Findings
Organisations are better able to create strong firm by integrating branding, reputation building, relevant and appropriate organisational identity beyond their visual façade. They need to be more proactive, and also have to express and embed their brand value propositions within their identity and reputation in their dealings with customers. The authors surmises that researching about (and evaluations of) brand, reputation and organisation identity need to play more active roles in offering novel ways of conceptualising and documenting the realities of the contemporary (global) business environment in which firms operates.
Originality/value
The study offers new horizons on brand, organization identity and reputation as they relate to economic reality. The authors unequivocal articulation is that these concepts are critical factors in the success of enterprises and small businesses in competitive markets.
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The paper aims to offer an approach that allows an analysis and construction of a typology of virtual city brand co-creation practices.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to offer an approach that allows an analysis and construction of a typology of virtual city brand co-creation practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is illustrated by using data collected in regard to the branding of Stockholm; it is based on visual representations expressing the process in which brand co-creation unfolds in a network of different affective modalities.
Findings
Virtual representations emerge as expressive trans-locations that obtain communicative qualities in which practices are included and also in which practices are constituted. Practices represent how experiencing is carried out by different stakeholders’ relationships and emotional interactions. They are labeled as contributing, using, esteeming and opposing. These practices constitute analytical abstraction that represent different power plays between the visual and material content of the images, the technologies of production and the display and performance of the virtual.
Research limitations/implications
The focus on practices suggests a way to perform a critical analysis that could be used to research the performative process of co-creating brands in a way that the practices offer signals that can be used to grasp the dynamism of the process. Further, it suggests that the analysis of the practices in the virtual realm has the potential to unfold the material, nonlinear dynamic of communication that resides beyond forms of meaning and cognition.
Practical implications
The offered approach posits an alternative view of co-creation in which the process is uncontrollable by any stakeholders involved; the process might therefore not have a start and end or it could start everywhere in the internet and can transform at any point in space-time.
Originality/value
It contributes to the research on performative place branding by problematizing the issue of agency. It does so by displaying the way in which the process of virtual city brand co-creation could be analyzed based on practices involving the co-construction of visualization and materialization. Analytically, by dealing with virtual representations where practices of brand co-creation unfold, such an approach also helps to unpack the consequences of those practices and can highlight the technologies that are used and the specific qualities of the visual objects enacted.
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This paper focuses on the relationships that consumers develop with experiential objects in the context of the Biennale of Contemporary Art Exhibition, viewed from a dialogical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on the relationships that consumers develop with experiential objects in the context of the Biennale of Contemporary Art Exhibition, viewed from a dialogical and intersubjective approach. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the interpersonal relationships that visitors of the Biennale establish with contemporary artworks and to understand the characteristics of these relationships as well as their role in shaping Biennale visitors’ identity narratives.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs an instrumental case study that draws on multiple data sources and examines consumers’ relationships with contemporary artworks.
Findings
The case study evidence introduces the relationships that emerged from Biennale visitors’ interactions with contemporary artworks and the identity narratives evolving from these relationships. The findings suggest that Biennale visitors’ relationships with the contemporary artworks take the form of I-thou and I-it relationships. These two modes of interpersonal relationships by entailing different characteristics led investigated visitors to live different types of experiences of contemporary art consumption.
Research limitations/implications
The first limitation of this research is that it focuses on the establishment of interpersonal relationships at the microgenetic level. Further research can provide additional insights by conducting a longitudinal case study. The second limitation is that it provides limited insights into the relationships that are revealed by consumers’ experiences with possessive objects. Future research may examine interpersonal relationships in terms of consumers’ relationships with their brands.
Practical implications
The understanding of visitors’ interactions and relationships with contemporary artworks provides insights into curatorial and marketing practices for such art institutions.
Originality/value
The findings of the current research provide new theoretical insights into the interpersonal relationships that consumers develop with experiential objects and into the distinctive identity narratives that evolve from the establishment of different types of interpersonal relationships.
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Yu-Ting Lin, Thomas Foscht and Andreas Benedikt Eisingerich
Prior work underscores the important role of customer advocacy for brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the critical role customers can play as brand heroes. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior work underscores the important role of customer advocacy for brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the critical role customers can play as brand heroes. The authors developed and validated a measurement scale composed of properties that are derived from distinct brand hero motivational mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted one exploratory pilot, using semi-structured interviews, with industry and academic experts, and employed three main studies across varying brands and market settings.
Findings
This study explores and empirically demonstrates how the brand hero scale (BHS) is related to, yet distinct from, existing scales of opinion leaders, market mavens, attachment and customer advocacy. The six-item BHS demonstrates convergent, discriminant, nomological and predictive validity across several different brand contexts.
Research limitations/implications
This research extends the extant body of work by identifying and defining brand heroes, developing and validating a parsimonious BHS, and demonstrating how its predictive validity extends both to a range of key advocacy and loyalty customer behaviors.
Practical implications
The study provides provocative insights for marketing researchers and brand managers and ascertains the important role heroes may play for brands in terms of strong customer advocacy and loyalty behaviors.
Originality/value
Building on the theory of meaning, this study shows that identifying and working with brand heroes is of great managerial importance and offers critical avenues for future research.
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Andreas Aldogan Eklund, Adele Berndt and Susanne Sandberg
This paper aims to advance the theoretical knowledge of how manufacturers develop a multisensory value proposition.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to advance the theoretical knowledge of how manufacturers develop a multisensory value proposition.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory case study with a global automotive manufacturer was conducted. Personal in-depth interviews with key informants within a manufacturer were performed to obtain in-depth knowledge and insights on how the manufacturer plans and designs a value proposition.
Findings
This paper reveals how a value proposition is created from a sensory marketing perspective, which includes orchestrating the sensory experience, harmonising sensory cues to ensure they provide a consistent experience, thereby providing a memorable experience.
Practical implications
Understanding how to offer value might assist managers in tailoring a unique experiential value proposition to position the brand.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a theoretical framework, enriching the understanding of the underlying mechanisms used to create an experiential value proposition. The framework illustrates that harmonising sensory cues based on brand-related stimuli fosters a memorable experience, which enables consumers to (sub)consciously infer value.
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The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework for the analysis and evaluation of city brands equity that is firmly anchored to the interdisciplinary characteristics of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework for the analysis and evaluation of city brands equity that is firmly anchored to the interdisciplinary characteristics of the city branding research domain.
Design/methodology/approach
The study builds upon a database of 217 articles dealing with the phenomena of city branding retrieved from Lucarelli and Berg.
Findings
City brands are understood by different scholars as being characterized by both intangible and tangible elements, properly researched adopting a mixture of different methods and endowing certain type of outcomes that concern both the more directly related image and identity of the city as well, to a larger extent, the socio‐political and economical aspects.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based only on published English articles in the last 20 years.
Originality/value
The present paper suggests a framework that is based on the individualization of diverse city brand elements and the relations those have with the reported impact and the methodologies applied to reach this purpose. The framework can be used for both analyzing city brand equity research and practices. The paper contributes to the emerging field of city branding by offering a city brand equity framework that goes beyond the previous attempt in its interdisciplinary breath.
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Anna Farmaki, Elena Spanou and Prokopis Christou
Following Airbnb’s recent turn to the luxury market, this paper aims to explore how Airbnb hosts construct meanings of luxury as enacted in their hosting practices.
Abstract
Purpose
Following Airbnb’s recent turn to the luxury market, this paper aims to explore how Airbnb hosts construct meanings of luxury as enacted in their hosting practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with 46 Airbnb hosts were undertaken using purposing sampling.
Findings
Study findings reveal that social and personal meanings of luxury manifest in host practice, with “home feeling” representing the epicentre of the luxury peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation experience.
Research limitations/implications
Although this study draws from host views, it represents a first attempt to empirically examine perceptions and applications of luxury within P2P accommodation. The study provides a conceptual framework which may serve as a point of departure for further research into which luxury service dimensions guests value.
Practical implications
The findings of the study carry implications to the wider hospitality context. Specifically, hospitality practitioners need to reconceptualize luxury hospitality provision to promote a “homotel” accommodation model which highlights the offering of physical and social luxury dimensions in addition to elements of personalized service and home-like hedonic benefits.
Originality/value
The study offers a conceptual framework of the luxury P2P accommodation servicescape, which identifies two distinct luxury offerings that may be informative to both P2P accommodation providers and hospitality practitioners.
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