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The present study sets out to understand how a manufacturing company in the maritime industry utilized creative design principles and developed service design routines to advance digital servitization (i.e. the transition to offering smart product-service-software systems–PSS) and realize subsequent positive growth outcomes.

We build upon a longitudinal single case of a marine solution provider. Using an action research approach, we collected data through in-depth interviews and informal conversations involving senior managers, project members and customer representatives over a three and a half-year period. In addition, secondary data such as documentary data, service design tools and visualization were utilized.

The inductive analysis highlights the underlining role of four service-design routines that drive creativity and an innovative approach to digital servitization transformation. More specifically, we identify (a) user insights through creative customer data acquisition, (b) smart PSS collaboration through co-creation across departments, (c) smart PSS ideation through creative forms of collaboration and (d) effective smart PSS delivery and commercialization through creative concept design as the drivers of the case company digital servitization transformation.

We encourage senior managers within large manufacturing companies to promote the development of service design routines as these promote the transformation process from being a product-centric to service-centric firm. The four service design routines are built on a set of service design sub-activities providing concrete actions that can be applied by senior managers to successfully develop and deliver smart PSS offerings and achieve growth outcomes.

This study contributes by integrating digital servitization and service design literatures. We illustrate how manufacturing firms can drive a transition to digital servitization through service design activities and routines development for smart PSS strategy implementation.

Online brand communities (OBCs) are an effective avenue for brands to engage consumers. While engaging with the brand, consumers simultaneously interact with other OBC members; thus engaging with multiple, interrelated engagement objects concurrently. The purpose of this paper is to explore both positively and negatively valenced consumer engagement with multiple engagement objects, the interplay between these, and the spillover effect from consumers’ engagement with the OBC to their engagement with the brand.

Drawing on 16 in-depth interviews with OBC members of a luxury accessory brand, a constant comparative method was adopted using axial and selective coding procedures. The objective was to understand the nature of participants’ engagement with the brand, the OBC, and the interplay between individuals’ engagement with these objects. The coding framework and resultant interpretive frameworks address engagement valence, outcomes, and direction.

This study illustrates consumer expressions of consumers’ positively and negatively valenced engagement with a focal brand, and with the OBC. Further, it demonstrates the interplay (spillover effect) that occurs between consumers’ engagement with the OBC, to their engagement with the brand. While the existence of positively valenced engagement with the OBC was found to further enhance consumer brand engagement (i.e. reflecting an engagement accumulation effect), negatively valenced engagement with the OBC was found to reduce consumer brand engagement (i.e. reflecting an engagement detraction effect).

While consumer engagement has been recognized to have both positive and negative manifestations, this study demonstrates that consumers’ engagement valence may differ across interrelated engagement objects (i.e. the brand and the OBC). Further, we demonstrate the existence of engagement spillover effects from the OBC to the brand for both positively and negatively valenced engagement.

Omnichannel retailing emphasises the interplay between channels to provide seamless customer experiences across shopping journeys but is challenging for retailers to implement. This research explores the necessary actions and dynamic capabilities needed of retailers to create, extend and modify the organisational resource base required for realising omnichannel retailing.

A qualitative exploratory design with in-depth interviews of Generation Z customers and retail firms was used to provide insights into the dynamic capabilities necessary for obtaining omnichannel retailing.

This research elaborates on the dynamic capabilities needed for omnichannel solutions related to (1) the underlying technology (i.e. develop an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and online store), (2) customer experience optimisation (i.e. develop product delivery, return routines, supply chain management, curated exhibitions, showrooms and pop-up stores), (3) internal and external collaboration (i.e. collaborate across business units, strengthening the core leadership team and collaborate and align with service ecosystem partners and (4) overall omnichannel functionality (i.e. establish a customer-oriented retail culture, and integrate marketing communication and customisation through data exploration).

This research enriches the retailing literature on omnichannel solutions and responds to the need for theoretical anchoring by applying the dynamic capability perspective to address actions useful for realising omnichannel retailing.

Value co-creation assumes that customers take active roles and create value together with firms. This paper aims to investigate the short- and long-term effects of customer participation on brand loyalty, through brand satisfaction. Participation effects were also examined among social media-using customers with the additional explanatory factor of brand engagement.

Two studies were conducted among insurance customers: a cross-sectional study using a nationwide sample (N = 954) and a subsample of social media users (N = 145) to examine short-term effects, and a longitudinal study using data from three assessment timepoints (N = 376) to enable empirical long-term testing.

The cross-sectional study showed positive short-term effects of customer participation on brand loyalty, mediated by satisfaction. Among customers using social media, positive participation effects gained from brand engagement strengthened brand satisfaction. The longitudinal study did not show similar positive long-term effects of customer participation.

These findings help deepen service marketers’ understanding of the possible short-term effects of customer participation and customer brand engagement, and caution them to not expect that customer participation will have long-term positive satisfaction and loyalty effects.

This research provides interesting short- and long-term findings, due to the complementary cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs.