Search results

The purpose of this study is to identify how the value dynamics of the freemium business model (BM) play out in a social enterprise.

We draw on a multiple case study of two social enterprises –one nonprofit (Aravind Eyecare) in Asia and one for-profit in Latin America (Biodent)– to analyze the implications of applying the value architecture of a freemium BM to social enterprises.

The freemium BM departs from standard practice when applied in social enterprises. Meaningful differences include the feasibility/desirability of converting free users to paying ones, the presence of significant variable costs –which requires balancing the ratio of free and paying customers– and the use of nontraditional pricing schemes to enhance value capture. The social freemium BM can increase scalability, value creation and value capture. Under this model, “beneficiaries” can be more than passive recipients of value and contribute to a venture's success in various ways –such as lowering its operational costs or enhancing its value proposition toward third parties.

While in the past years commercial enterprises have been disrupted by the emergence of freemium platforms, the social enterprise field has barely taken notice. We extract lessons and implications from this paradigmatic change for the theory and practice of business model innovation in social enterprises, of particular relevance to Latin America, where social and environmental disequilibria remain a recurring feat.

Identificar cómo el modelo de negocio freemium impacta el desarrollo de un emprendimiento social.

realizamos un estudio de caso múltiple de dos emprendimientos sociales –uno sin fines de lucro (Aravind Eyecare) ubicada en Asia y el otro con fines de lucro ubicada en América Latina (Biodent)– para analizar las dinámicas qué genera el modelo de negocio freemium en la arquitectura de valor de los emprendimientos sociales.

Cuando el modelo freemium se aplica a un emprendimiento social, surgen diferencias respecto de la práctica estándar en empresas comerciales. Estas diferencias incluyen la viabilidad/conveniencia de convertir a los usuarios gratuitos en clientes de pago, la presencia de costos variables significativos –que imponen la necesidad de equilibrar la proporción de usuarios gratuitos y clientes de pago– y el uso de esquemas de precios no tradicionales para mejorar la captura de valor. El modelo freemium social puede contribuir a facilitar la escalabilidad, así como la creación y captura de valor de un emprendimiento social. Bajo este modelo, los “beneficiarios” pueden ser más qué receptores pasivos de valor y contribuir al éxito de la empresa de diversas formas –por ejemplo, reduciendo sus costos operativos o mejorando su propuesta de valor.

En las últimas dos décadas, varias industrias sufrieron grandes disrupciones por el surgimiento de modelos de negocio basados en plataformas, como el freemium. Sin embargo, hasta ahora el campo del emprendimiento social parecía no haber tomado nota de este cambio paradigmático. En este artículo, extraemos lecciones e implicaciones de este cambio para la teoría y la práctica de los emprendimientos sociales. Nuestros hallazgos son particularmente relevantes para América Latina, en donde subsisten profundos déficits socio-ambientales.

This paper aims to explore the intersection between service and social innovation, using a service-dominant logic (SDL) ecosystem approach to analyze how service innovations cocreate transformative value for individuals and communities.

A case study, with different data sources, is used to understand different innovations in a program that provides financial training to women in poverty in Colombia.

In the program’s service ecosystem, actors worked in tandem to develop dialogical service innovations. These service innovations transformed into social innovations, cocreating transformative value at different levels of the service ecosystem, including beneficiaries, families and communities.

First, this study illustrates how, during service value cocreation experiences, a dialogical innovation path occurs with the simultaneous participation of different service entities. Second, it uses transformative value cocreation to integrate service and social innovations conceptually. Third, it reveals how service innovation cocreates transformative value at different levels of the service ecosystem. Fourth, it shows how technology in its material and immaterial forms, working as an operand and operant role, respectively, facilitates service innovations.

This study illustrates how a wider service focus including all actors involved, in addition to a holistic view of beneficiaries, can prompt service and social innovations.

Service and social innovations have been seen as parallel fields. This study uses SDL to integrate these types of innovation processes and outcomes by applying the concept of transformative value.

Fundraising plays a critical role in the success of non-profit organizations (hereafter NPOs). This study aims to propose to analyze fundraising from a service-dominant logic, specifically from a service ecosystem approach, to understand the different entities and interactions involved in this activity, as well as the types of value that emerge from them.

A cross-case study was developed using three health-care Brazilian NPOs. Data collection methods were performed to build each case, including observation of NPOs’ telemarketing staff interaction with donors and long interviews with their marketing managers. Data analysis involved applying the service ecosystem framework to each NPO and contrasting them.

First, the findings revealed the way in which religious, political and child-rearing institutions integrate into citizenship ideals that permeate both NPOs’ and donors’ attitudes and behaviors. Second, five different fundraising interactions (emotional, religious, political, influencer and empathetic) in which NPOs and donors pool their resources to co-create value are presented. Third, how the outcomes of fundraising interactions manifest for NPOs in the form of financial (money and time) and social value (social legitimation) and for teleworkers and donors in the form of emotional value (joy and relatedness) are identified.

This paper used a service ecosystem approach to analyze a new service context “fundraising,” which has been scarcely discussed in the literature. The findings show how macro-level institutions work together for fundraising. Five different fundraising interactions were identified, linking the communication with the service experience literature. Finally, the findings identify fundraising’s different value outcomes extending traditional approaches for evaluating this activity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which hope and perceived goal attainment can be developed in subsistence entrepreneurs through the right training tools.

A longitudinal study of a subsistence entrepreneurship training program in three Central American countries was carried out. Participants were divided on the basis of their exposure to training (yes, no), and of the type of training received (none, business plan, business model). The authors carried out three assessments (just before the program, six months and one year after the program) of participants’ business goals and their hope of attaining them. Information was analyzed using linear regression.

Participants exposed to training reported significant increases in perceived goal attainment and in their hope levels. Training based on the business plan affected hope agency in the short term, as predicted by the logic of causation theory. Training based on the business canvas affected hope pathways, as predicted by the logic of effectuation theory.

Given the data collection process (a non-random sample and selection of participants), the findings are not generalizable without stringent procedures and further replication.

If hope is a reliable predictor of goal attainment, it should be promoted and measured. Given the limited means of gathering data and making reliable projections that most entrepreneurs endure, the business canvas’ contribution to entrepreneurs’ “emotional equipment” ceteris paribus should be more valuable for subsistence entrepreneurs.

This is the first study comparing the short- and long-term effects of two entrepreneurial learning devices on entrepreneurs’ hope and business goal attainment.

Within Santiago, Chile's capital city, Barrio is a fundamental urban concept: an identity of place that defines a social space more than the territorial boundary of a designated area. Nearly 30 years of sustained, economic growth have positioned Chile, and Santiago with 40% of the country's population, as a tourist, financial and investment centre for South America. After a general decline of the inner-city area during the time of dictatorship (1973-1990), three inner-city residential barrios are being re-defined by their social and urban heritage as part of the “coolest” city of South America. These residential barrios possess the social characteristics of an urban unit within the concept of an ethical city—autonomy, conviviality, connectivity and diversity—and, in form and use, the basis of urban cultural tourism, a living heritage of residential architecture, public space and urban culture. The spatial and economic transformation of these barrios shifts the existing dynamic between the residents' social capital and the barrios' symbolic capital to the question of whose rights and interest should prevail. Through a literature review, policy review and an analysis of morphology and land use of three barrios, this article draws lessons to assist a re-thinking of the development of this urban, social-spatial unit of Chilean cities.

This paper aims to analyse the level of informative transparency among Spanish political parties and political foundations, according to general and descriptive information (e.g. contact, ideas and values, electoral programmes, members, etc.) and economic, governance and financial information.

The situation of the parties in each year is represented by a biplot, which is a graphical representation of a multivariate sample. The data for this analysis were obtained from the reports published by Fundación Compromiso y Transparencia (Foundation for Integrity and Transparency) for 2011 and 2012.

This paper evidences the existence of serious problems of opacity, especially in relation to financial information (balance sheet, income statement, annual accounts and audit report) and information on the fulfilment of goals and programmes (management report and compliance report).

This is the first attempt to analyse statistically the level of transparency of political parties and foundations, showing the need for a robust control system and for mechanisms to penalise conduct that limits citizens’ access to public information.

This research proposes analytical valuation models throughout football players' life cycles based on crowd valuations from social media to produce dynamic sporting human capital disclosures, and therefore, supplying further useful information to capture the intellectual capital (IC) of football clubs.

This work is carried out using an econometric model that includes 658 observations of crowd judgments versus their transfer fees, for the best footballers of the three major European Leagues between 2006 and 2018. To make the model more parsimonious, the set of independent variables that really add value has been found across the stepwise methodology.

The significant differences between both models are analyzed, integrating previous academic literature based on the existence of negotiation elements in prices, and in the capacity of crowdsourcing to explain assessments of football players, from a dynamic perspective, alongside a new variable: injuries, which has not been explained before.

The broader assessments from crowdsourcing should be integrated in intellectual capital disclosures (ICD), from a critical, novel and dynamic perspective, creating a virtuous cycle between managers and fans, to increase transparency of financial information for stakeholders and society.

The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the players' contribution and economic value in the soccer industry. Media visibility records provide us with comparable metrics to identify talent and make hiring decisions – these records can jointly capture sport (on-field) skills and other attractive (off-field) abilities.

This paper presents a valuation method that applies media visibility appraisals to estimate “theoretical values” of the transfer fees paid for hiring soccer players. The estimations are performed by analysing the evolution over time of the media exposure of about 5,000 individuals of more than 200 clubs.

The study’s empirical results reveal that, along with sport performance, the players' media status also affects their economic valuation, which explains why the clubs – in search of greater economic returns – fiercely compete for the most popular players. The paper also identifies the main factors determining the players' economic value. In predicting the players' transfer fees, some variables are statistically significant: individual media visibility, media visibility share of the player within his team, contract duration, status of the hiring team, years of experience, player's age at the end of the contract and the domestic league of the hiring team.

Professional sports provide reliable measures on individuals' performance that may help in the hiring process of workers. This paper identifies gifted soccer players while taking into account their skills as media leaders and the economic implications. Insofar as players' talents determine their teams' sport and economic achievements, the transfer fees paid for players must then be seen as a crucial factor. Measuring individual talent and being able to translate this talent into productivity levels entail serious methodological and empirical challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between inspirational leadership, participative decision making (PDM) and happiness at work (HAW).

The sampling frame consists of medical specialists in allergy of Spanish public hospitals (n=167). The authors used structural equation modelling to verify if the relationship between inspirational leadership and HAW is mediated by PDM.

Results suggest that PDM fully mediates the relationship between inspirational leadership and HAW. Thus, PDM plays an essential role in explaining how inspirational leader behaviours.

The authors put forward a cross-sectional research, which does not guarantee similar results in the future. Future longitudinal studies may reveal further effects of inspirational motivation and PDM beyond HAW. Also the authors focussed on a specific population of medical specialists working in public allergy units. Future research might consider longitudinal analysis and other populations.

This research provides evidence of the direct and positive effect of inspirational leadership on HAW. However, fostering inspirational leadership is not sufficient on its own to foment HAW, and should be complemented by applying other organisational factors such as PDM.

In recent years, some studies have put forward different conceptual models to explain the gap in the relationship between human resource management and performance, considering the effect of mediating variables. This study proposes a theoretical model that attempts to develop this human resource “black box” by empirically validating a conceptual proposal that links inspirational leadership, PDM and HAW.

The tensile test is one of the fundamental experiments used to evaluate material properties. Simulating a tensile test can be a replacement of experiments to determine mechanical parameters of a continuous material. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This research uses a new approach to model a tensile test of a high-carbon steel on the basis of discrete element method (DEM). In this research, the tensile test specimen was created by using a DEM packing theory. The particle-particle bond model was used to establish the internal forces of the tensile test specimen. The particle-particle bond model was first tested by performing two-particle tensile test, then was adopted to simulate tensile tests of the high-carbon steel by using 3,678 particles.

This research has successfully revealed the relationships between the DEM parameters and mechanical parameters by modelling a tensile test. The parametric study demonstrates that the particle physical radius, particle contact radius and bond disc radius can significantly influence ultimate stress and Young’s modulus of the specimen, whereas they slightly impact elongation at fracture. Increasing the normal and shear stiffness, the critical normal and shear stiffness can enable the increase of ultimate stress, however, up to maximum values.

To improve the particle-particle bond model to simulate a tensile test for high-carbon steel, the damping factors for compensating energy loss from transition of particle motions and failure of bonds are required.

This work reinforces the knowledge of applying DEM to model continuous materials.

This research illustrates a new approach to model a tensile test of a high-carbon steel on the basis of DEM.