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Recent research places an increased emphasis on the inclusion of the customer in value creation, learning and innovation processes; yet, there remains a gap in the understanding of just how such customer involvement may work. This paper aims to address this gap by examining two aspects of customer involvement – their knowledgeability and their agency. In addition, three boundaries (semantic, syntactic and pragmatic) across which relationship development occurs and which may facilitate and/or inhibit value co-creation, collaborative learning and innovation processes have been explored.

Three case studies have been used. Two were large-scale construction projects in the UK, and one was a global professional accounting firm in the USA.

Customers may become frustrated if not allowed to exercise their agency. However, their involvement can create tensions for suppliers who may have to become more tolerant of divergent goals. In respect of knowledgeability, it was found that constraint satisfaction is important in allowing customers to reconcile their personal knowledge schema with the collective schema. However, it was also noted that customer knowledgeability brings with it challenges for suppliers, who must find ways to add value for such customers.

A number of further questions relating to the agency and knowledgeability of customers and their inclusion in value co-creation, collaborative learning and innovation processes have been posed. The need for guidance in identifying and minimising the barriers to crossing semantic, syntactic and pragmatic boundaries between customers and suppliers has also been highlighted.

This study makes an important contribution to research in the field, in that how the inclusion of the customer in business networks alters current assumptions and practices is investigated.

We have witnessed an evolution in the use of smartphones in recent years. We have been aware for some time of the potentially deleterious impact of smartphones on users' lives and their propensity for user addiction, as reflected in the large and growing body of work on this topic. One modern phenomenon – the distracted mobile phone user in public, or “smartphone zombie” – has received limited research attention. The purpose of the present study is to develop a robust measure of smartphone zombie behaviour.

The research deign comprises three studies: A round of focus groups (n = 5) and two online surveys (survey one n = 373, survey two n = 386), in order to develop and validate a three-factor, 15-item measure named the Smartphone Zombie Scale (SZS).

Following the round of focus groups conducted, Exploratory Factor Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the SZS measure (Cronbach's α = .932) is demonstrated to be robust and comprises three factors: Attention Deficit (Cronbach's α = .922), Jeopardy (Cronbach's α = .817) and Preoccupation (Cronbach's α = .835), that is shown to be distinct to existing closely related measures (Smartphone Addiction scale and Obsessive Compulsive Use).

The present study represents the first extant attempt to produce a measure of smartphone zombie behaviour, and provides us with a reliable and valid measure with which we can study this growing phenomenon.

The study aims examine the popular master narrative that marketing education in Britain first appeared in the 1960s and understand if its origins can in fact be traced to an earlier period. This is undertaken through an examination of the courses taught from 1902 to 1969 at the Faculty of Commerce, University of Birmingham, Great Britain.

The study draws on a number of primary source materials held at the archives at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, that are related to the Faculty of Commerce.

The study identifies that marketing courses were being taught in Britain long before the 1960s by the new business schools; we can trace its origins to the beginning of the twentieth century at Birmingham. From 1902 onwards, marketing was consistently part of the syllabus of the undergraduate programme and it became part of the core syllabus of the post-graduate programme.

The findings of the study require marketing education scholars and scholars of the emergence of marketing thought to revise their beliefs concerning the emergence of marketing education in Great Britain and situate this in an earlier period.

The paper demonstrates the historical value of studying early commerce syllabi and the manner in which marketing-themed content was delivered to students.

This paper aims to examine the characteristics of buyer‐supplier relationship dissolution in China.

The paper presents the results of nine in‐depth interviews of Chinese managers of dissolved long‐term business relationships.

The paper finds that it is common in China for relationships to have a transferable “energy” after the dissolution of a relationship due to the guanxi that exists between individuals prior to dissolution. It is also common for dysfunctional relationships to “fade away” so as not to lose “face” for a business partner or damage any guanxi developed by abruptly ending relations. Additionally, a characteristic of dissolution in China is the involvement of a third‐party (an individual who introduced subsequent business partners), who would often then play an active role in the dissolution of the relationship.

The findings are based on data from managers in private enterprises with no examination of state‐owned enterprises.

The paper offers guidelines for the characteristics of relationship dissolution in China that make it distinctive, particularly in comparison to dissolution in a Western context.

This study contributes to the understanding of relationship dissolution by examining buyer‐supplier relationship dissolution in China. The findings of this study suggest that much can be gained by examining predominantly western views of relationship functionality and dysfunctionality in different cultural contexts.

Firms collaborate for many reasons; however, sharing resources would seem a primary motive. This paper seeks to argue that in many instances firms collaborate to become part of a knowledge network – to learn about their industry and collectively use their knowledge to serve their own customers more effectively in a competitive environment.

This is a conceptual paper; however, the authors illustrate the work with examples from the automotive industry.

The authors conclude that it is necessary to expand traditional approaches to understanding networks to include the nature and purpose of the interactions between the firms, as well as the structural features of the network and the development of shared meaning and consensus among the network participants.

The authors demonstrate the need to take a broader view of learning and collaboration in networks.

The automotive and other industries are beginning to witness firms collaborating with competitors and other firms that can add value through collective learning. What seems certain is that for many industries the basis of future competition will be collaborative learning communities versus collaborative learning communities rather than OEM versus OEM in competing for resources and market share.

The paper examines how and why firms interact and how this influences what learning is shared, and how such learning is utilised by the firms involved. The paper explores the concept of collective learning, and discusses how the nature and purpose of the interactions between network partners facilitate key learning capabilities.

This study focuses on the potential difficulties in implementing a relationship marketing strategy within a retail context. We suggest that a number of attributes characterise the nature of the service and market structure are influential in an organisation’s ability to implement relationship marketing. Specifically, these are balance of power; level of involvement with the purchase; professionalism of the service provider; and level of personal contact. Seven dimensions central to relationship marketing in a retail context are derived from the literature. Via survey research, these are evaluated in four service contexts, namely: hairdresser/barber; optician; recreation centre; and supermarket. Findings indicate that because of the influence of the four factors identified above, hairdressers, opticians, and recreation centres are more likely to operate in conditions that give greater support to the development of relationship marketing.

Previous research has reported that the adoption of a strategic purchasing orientation (SPO) requires closer relationships with key suppliers and greater long‐term planning in supply management. This paper aims to develop a generic framework for the evaluation of key supply relationships incorporating seven key categories and to empirically test these assumptions by comparing firms reporting high levels of strategic purchasing to those with low levels.

The data collection employed a mail survey sent to the senior manager responsible for purchasing in their organisation (n = 50).

The article finds that high SPO firms more closely scrutinise their supply relationships across a broad range of attributes, and, as well as perennially important issues such as quality and delivery, they emphasise “fit” between buyer and supplier (e.g. fit with the competitive strategy and organisational culture of the buying firm) as an important criterion in identifying failing relationships.

The positioning of the current study as one of the first to address the evaluation of suppliers under strategic purchasing adoption calls for further replication.

The results of this study afford suppliers an understanding of the criteria by which firms adopting strategic purchasing evaluate troubled or weak relationships. This would seem particularly timely given the shift towards strategic purchasing by many organisations.

This study presents one of the first attempts to assess “ineffective” supplier performance and to incorporate metrics on strategic supplier selection.

Human needs and motivation are a central tenet of marketing discourse. In this exploratory study we attempt to understand the factors that drive individuals' higher‐order human needs in a relatively new electronic marketing context, that of virtual worlds.

The study employs the higher‐order needs from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy (i.e. belonging, esteem and self‐actualization) and a series of drivers related to the characteristics of the virtual world medium, personality characteristics, channel interaction, and demographic criteria. Data is collected via a survey delivered in Second Life (n=404) and analyzed using PLS path modeling.

Arousal, pleasure, and individualism act as particularly potent drivers of higher‐order needs in virtual world channels, while channel intensity, affinity for technology and gender act as lesser drivers.

An understanding of personal motivations affords us an insight into consumers' needs and wants and is a useful precursor to targeting them and in effectively fulfilling these needs. This has implications not only in a single channel but across multiple channels.

This study represents one of the first attempts to better understand consumer behavior in virtual world channels, and, by so doing, better inform our understanding of personal needs in the modern multi‐channel environment.