Search results

This study aims to investigate how configurations of boundary objects (BOs) support innovation teams in developing innovative product concepts. Specifically, it explores the effectiveness of different artefact configurations in facilitating collaboration and bridging knowledge boundaries during the concept development process.

The research is based on data from ten undergraduate innovation teams working with an industry partner in a creative industry. Six categories of BOs are identified, which serve as tools for collaboration. The study applies fsQCA (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) to analyse the configurations employed by the teams to bridge knowledge boundaries and support the development of innovative product concepts.

The findings of the study reveal two distinct groups of configurations: product envisioning and product design. The configurations within the “product envisioning” group support the activities of visioning and pivoting, enabling teams to innovate the product concept by altering the product vision. On the other hand, the configurations within the “product design” group facilitate experimenting, modelling and prototyping, allowing teams to design the attributes of the innovative product concept while maintaining the product vision.

This research contributes to the field of innovation by providing insights into the role of BOs and their configurations in supporting innovation teams during concept development. The results suggest that configurations of “product envisioning” support bridging semantic knowledge boundaries, while configurations within “product design” bridge pragmatic knowledge boundaries. This understanding contributes to the broader field of knowledge integration and innovation in design contexts.

This paper aims to investigate the role of new value creation mechanisms in a company's sales strategy. Using value creation and strategic marketing as theoretical approaches, the study explores the underpinnings of blue ocean strategy (BOS) and categorizes ways in which BOS is reflected in sales management activities. The link to performance and the influence of contextual moderation are also examined.

The article reports on a study on sales management in a 168‐respondent survey of CEOs and sales directors of Finnish companies across industries. The operationalization is quantitative, and principal component analysis with the varimax rotation method is used to examine the companies' approach to executing BOS and the firms are categorized using the cluster analysis method. Furthermore, the linkage to self‐reported business performance is statistically analyzed.

This study identifies four approaches to using BOS: strategic awareness‐building; customer‐specific solution orientation; enforcement‐orientation; and non‐employment of blue ocean thinking. While only the enforcement‐orientation cluster has superior performance to non‐users of BOS across the entire sample, there are surprisingly notable performance differentials within different combinations of contexts.

The study points out that enforcing BOS at the level of action and implementation in sales management pays off. The findings entail that choosing between the identified BOS approaches and implementing them should be context‐specific. Furthermore, the development of skills is emphasized over knowledge management.

For concepts primarily directed at managerial audiences, the theoretical foundations and empirical testability is often not the primary concern. This study presents investigative work geared at revealing the key factors underlying blue ocean strategies in sales management. The paper represents one of the first verifications of the link between blue ocean strategy and business performance.

This teaching case focuses on the field of marketing, particularly, the situation of building a global brand as small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) internationalizing from an emerging market.

It is recommended for postgraduate and post-experience students, for example, in MBA programmes and executive education courses.

This teaching case focuses on the field of marketing, particularly, the situation of building a global brand as SME internationalizing from an emerging market. It is recommended for postgraduate and post-experience students, for example, in MBA programmes and executive education courses. BOS Brands provides an interesting case on the internationalisation experience of a Born Global firm, particularly from an emerging market context. This medium-sized South African business develops, distributes and markets Rooibos-based beverages in Southern Africa and Europe, with eyes on a broader global presence. The case provides insights into the strategic decisions required to successfully take a medium-sized business into competitive foreign markets without the capital and support enjoyed by many larger multinational corporations. Among other issues, BOS Brands provides fertile ground to explore the selection of target country and entry mode, overcoming cultural and physical distance, opportunity recognition and the roles of networks and innovation.

The expected learning outcomes are to: analyse the decision-making process of the internationalising SME in terms of internationalisation factors, timing and phases and evaluation of potential target countries and entry mode options and launch marketing approach; understand the complexities of marketing in a foreign cultural and business context (including cultural and physical distance); and develop alternative marketing strategies for an entrepreneurial SME to grow internationally given limited resources.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to discover an uncontested market space in the European fruit and vegetables industry (EFVI), and thereby assess the ex‐ante applicability of the Blue Ocean Strategy of Kim and Mauborgne.

The search for an untapped market space made it necessary to first configure the logic of the Blue Ocean Strategy, which the authors coined the BOS‐framework. Next, the application to the EFVI required a two‐stage research strategy, namely desk research with six case studies, and a large survey.

The findings confirm that the Blue Ocean Strategy‐framework enables one to identify ex ante an untapped market space, characterized by the combination of sweeties' attributes with fresh fruit. The revolutionary untapped market space which the authors arrived at is “Youngfruit”, targeted at the new buyer group children and teenagers.

The research provides important insights in future key success factors to set oneself apart from competitors and change the rules of the game in the very competitive EFVI. Furthermore, this paper is (one of) the first to assess empirically the qualities and limitations of the Blue Ocean Strategy.

Justice rules are standards that serve as criteria for formulating fairness judgments. Though justice rules play a role in the organizational justice literature, they have seldom been the subject of analysis in their own right. To address this limitation, we first consider three meta-theoretical dualities that are highlighted by justice rules – the distinction between justice versus fairness, indirect versus direct measurement, and normative versus descriptive paradigms. Second, we review existing justice rules and organize them into four types of justice: distributive (e.g., equity, equality), procedural (e.g., voice, consistent treatment), interpersonal (e.g., politeness, respectfulness), and informational (e.g., candor, timeliness). We also emphasize emergent rules that have not received sufficient research attention. Third, we consider various computation models purporting to explain how justice rules are assessed and aggregated to form fairness judgments. Fourth and last, we conclude by reviewing research that enriches our understanding of justice rules by showing how they are cognitively processed. We observe that there are a number of influences on fairness judgments, and situations exist in which individuals do not systematically consider justice rules.

In the context of organisation studies, Shotter and colleagues have used the notion of practical authorship of social situations and identities to explain the work of managers and leaders. This notion and contemporary theories of authorship in literary scholarship can be linked to the authoring of documents in the context of document studies to explain the impact and use of documents as instruments of management and communication. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The conceptual discussion is supported by an empirical interview study of the information work of N=16 archaeologists.

First, the making of documents and other artefacts, their use as instruments (e.g. boundary objects (BOs)) of management, and the practical authorship of social situations, collective and individual identities form a continuum of authorship. Second, that because practical authorship seems to bear a closer affinity to the liabilities/responsibilities and privileges of attached to documents rather than to a mere attribution of their makership or ownership, practical authorship literature might benefit of an increased focus on them.

This paper shows how practical authorship can be used as a framework to link making and use of documents to how they change social reality. Further, it shows how the notion of practical authorship can benefit of being complemented with insights from the literature on documentary and literary authorship, specifically that authorship is not only a question of making but also, even more so, of social attribution of responsibilities and privileges.

This paper shows how the concepts of documentary and practical authorship can be used to complement each other in elaborating our understanding of the making of artefacts (documentary) BOs and the social landscape.

This study is an effort to explore a relationship between benefits of schemes (BoS) on the job satisfaction among handloom weavers. The weavers who are engaged in this work however face lot of challenges in terms of remuneration and working conditions. The government has been immense with various schemes that cater to the work-related problems. This paper aims to understand whether work-related support can be a predictor for job satisfaction in this context.

A cross-sectional survey design was used where 335 handloom weavers randomly participated in the study. Questionnaire was administered and scale was developed and validated for the measurement of BoS by using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The effect of the benefits on the job satisfaction was investigated by using structural equation modelling on AMOS 21 platform.

The outcome suggested that the BoS significantly affects the job satisfaction and a possible predictor. This which was indicated by the value of r^2, i.e.0.38 at significance level p < 0.001.

The study suggests a method for analyzing the schemes/policies in the light of the benefits that schemes intend to deliver. This would help in making suitable modifications in the schemes order to have wider outreach and large-scale inclusion of the beneficiaries.

The study can be useful for the policymakers to further strengthen the features of the schemes. They might work in direction of inclusion of more handloom weavers in the framework of the schemes.

The effects of the work-related policies on job satisfaction is still in nascent stage, so this work is all about exploration in that area.

Considers the question: if a system is recognized as a network and networks face an informational risk, which sort of networks should be employed to reduce the risk? Shows that if infection type is strong, then the worst infected groups are subnetworks with the strong number of the network. If infection type is weak, then the worst infected groups are pivotal sets with the pivotal number of the network. Also shows that under the restriction of process capacity if n ≤ (3/2) × k + 1, then a strong and weak infection proof network exists. If n > (3/2) × k + 1, then finds a weak infection proof network with the smallest strong number such that 2 × q ‐ 1, if r = 0, 2 × q if 1 ≤ r ≤ ^k‐₂ and 2 × q + 1 if ^k‐₂ < r ≤ k ‐ 1.

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of a blue ocean strategy (BOS) in selected hotels in Taiwan.

Semi‐structured interviews and the grounded theory approach were applied in this study. A total of 32 senior and top managers working in the corporate executive office and the divisions of rooms and marketing were selected from international tourist chain hotels and resorts for semi‐structured interviews.

The results show that the features of BOS are identifying guest value perceptions, innovating distinctive added‐value offerings, developing new market segments, branding and re‐branding, creating a unique hotel ambience, adjusting distribution channels, and establishing strategic alliances.

The study suggests that in the sampled hotels, hoteliers should integrate a demand‐based pricing strategy with a supply‐based product‐development strategy. Organizational effectiveness could be further advanced in those hotels by the introduction of revenue management based on the determination of variations in guest demand, making it possible to offer different pricing strategies to diverse market segments.

The results show that the sampled hotels should be able to create unique products and services for customers that strengthen their competitive positions in the marketplace of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. This study advances academic knowledge in the field of organizational effectiveness, particularly with respect to managing customer demand and capacity in the hotel industry.

In the current contribution I suggest that reactions to decision-making procedures often are influenced by egocentric concerns. Such egocentrism can be inferred from various theories that assume people's procedural justice judgments to be based on the implications of decision-making procedures for themselves instead of for others. The present review considers evidence for two propositions: (1) People respond more negatively to procedural injustice when it happens to themselves than when it happens to others, and (2) an egocentric self-focus amplifies people's fairness-based responses to decision-making procedures. It is concluded that egocentric motives play a central role in procedural justice effects.