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The philosophical foundations determine how an academic discipline identifies, understands and analyzes phenomena. The choice of philosophical perspective is vital for both marketing and service research. This paper aims to propose a social and systemic perspective that addresses current challenges in service and marketing research by revisiting the philosophy of science debate.

The paper revisits the philosophy of science debate to address the implications of an emergent, complex and adaptive view of marketing and service research. It draws on critical realism by combining structuration and systemic perspectives.

A recursive perspective, drawing on structures and action, is suggested as it includes multiple actors’ intentions and captures underlying drivers of market exchange as a basis for developing marketing and service strategies in practice. This is aligned with other scholars arguing for a more systemic, adaptive and complex view of markets in light of emerging streams in academic marketing and service research, ranging from value cocreation, effectuation, emergence and open source to empirical phenomena such as digitalization, robotization and the growth of international networks.

The reciprocal dynamic between individuals and the overarching system provides a reflexivity approach intrinsic to the service ecosystem. This creates new avenues for research on marketing and service phenomena.

This paper discusses critics, conflicts and conceptualization in service research. It suggests a possible approach for service research and marketing scholars capable of responding to current complexities and turbulence in economic and societal contexts.

This study aims to assess the potential mediating effects of formal and informal networks in the relationship between government support and Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation.

This study was a cross-sectional design, where the structured questionnaire was used in gathering data from 301 indigenous Ghanaian firms. The path estimation was conducted by running structural equation modelling in AMOS v.23.

It was concluded that government support had a significant positive effect on Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation. Formal network was found to partially mediate the relationship between government support and indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation. Finally, it was concluded that informal networks had no mediating effect.

One limitation is that the effect of the government support and network strategy was only explored on indigenous exporters, meaning that exporters which did not fall within the definition of indigenous firms were excluded from the study. Future studies could conduct a comparative study on the same variables, using indigenous and non-indigenous firms.

It is recommended that Ghanaian exporters should participate in government training and workshop programmes focussing on building export business strategies and networking to improve export activities.

This study’s unique contribution is its investigation of how networking portfolio, including formal and informal ties, helps explain the nexus between government support and the internationalisation of local firms in the developing market, such as Ghanaians.

This study aims to develop sweet chestnut incorporated corn-based extrudates by the optimization of process conditions.

The independent process variables for extrusion (blend ratio, barrel temperature, screw speed and feed moisture) were investigated to govern their impact on reliant variables, namely, bulk density, specific mechanical energy, water absorption index, water solubility index, color and hardness. Product and system responses were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by the independent variables. Experimental design with quadratic models experienced a high coefficient of determination (R² = 0.99).

Numerical optimization for the development of extrudates resulted in optimum conditions having corn flour: sweet chestnut flour (80:20), barrel temperature (120°C), screw speed (340 rpm) and feed moisture (12%). Fat, moisture and protein contents of the developed extrudates using optimum conditions were significantly (p < 0.05) lower compared to raw materials – corn and sweet chestnut. The packaging of extrudates in aluminum laminates revealed shelf stability of three months at room temperature without deterioration of quality.

Nutritionally rich sweet chestnut extruded products would be an exclusive option to already existing snacks in the market and can facilitate a new sphere in extruded product sector.

This study aims to follow a rigorous approach to identify, critically analyze and synthesize 75 papers published from 2000 to 2022.

The study presents a systematic literature review on identity expressiveness (IE), clarifying and expanding what is currently known about the concept.

To synthesize current knowledge on IE, the study uses the overarching framework of antecedents-phenomenon-consequences, using this same framework to identify gaps and future research directions. The findings show individual and brand-related factors such as the need for uniqueness and anthropomorphism as antecedents of IE, and eWOM/WOM, impulse purchases and upgrading to more exclusive lines as consequences of IE.

The study contributes to theory by synthesizing and mapping current understanding of the state of knowledge on the concept of IE while highlighting gaps in the extant literature and paving future research directions for scholars in the field.

The study offers useful insights for practitioners, broadening marketers’ actionable options in identity-based marketing. Marketers can use insights from this study to inform marketing strategy and communication campaigns for different types of brands.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind and offers an integrative review of the current literature on IE, thus enhancing understanding of the concept, its antecedents and consequences. The study also contributes to knowledge by highlighting future research priorities for researchers in this field of enquiry.

This teaching case aims to encourage reflection on the formulation of the strategic repositioning of an automotive dealership.

Built on the teaching case method, it portrays the situation of the Premium Motors automotive dealership in the face of a strategic repositioning. Management and the board discuss ways to minimize the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on sales figures. The situation presents the possibility of entering a new product segment.

How to make consumers correctly understand the new positioning? The case is structured to enable reflection and teaching of marketing strategies, with each student having the possibility of putting themselves in the role of company managers. The environment and trajectory are also portrayed, broadening the perception of the studied company and providing devices for solving the emerging problems of the case.

The case becomes a tool to promote knowledge, from the implementation to the management of strategic repositioning. Thus, the teaching notes offer directions on how professors can use the teaching case with their undergraduate and graduate students in disciplines related to strategy and marketing.

Increasing industrial agriculture and economic crisis has generated creative responses in pursuit of responsible solutions to the human and environmental cost of globalization by applying these models to promote social responsibility, help sustain livelihoods and foster biodiversity. A key issue concerns how responsible and circular businesses might provide appropriate responses to large-scale “wicked” problems. This paper aims to ask what such creativity looks like in the context of a circular economy that attempts to build closed value loops, by examining a case from the organic cotton textile industry: Appachi Eco-Logic.

This study uses an ethnographic extended-case approach to identify two phases of creative growth at Appachi Eco-Logic, examining how closing the value loop and creating circularity involved broadening the circle to include more and more actors.

This study identifies two major challenges to achieving and maintaining full circularity before concluding with a broad provocation for the study of circular economies.

The case offers insight into fundamental features of circularity, regeneration and redistribution, which can be used by managers to build responsible and sustainable closed value loops.

The purpose of this study was to gather insights from sport marketing professionals and identify key opportunities, challenges and knowledge that sport marketing educators and researchers could utilize in developing curriculum and research agendas.

A qualitative approach was used, and data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 sport marketing professionals. Participants were asked questions related to the knowledge, skills and experiences that they believe are important for students to have to be successful in the industry, as well as the types of research that would be most useful in their day-to-day work.

Industry professionals noted collaboration, transformation in digital marketing, data and analytics and experiential marketing as key trends facing the industry today. The findings suggest that sport marketing curriculum should focus on soft skill development such as communication, relationship building and empathy alongside hard skill development such as data analysis and storytelling. As well, findings show research areas where scholars can aid practitioners with a focus on consumer insights, technology, measuring ROI and experiential marketing.

With these findings, educators and scholars can better prepare students for successful careers in industry and contribute to the ongoing advancement of the scholarly field. This study serves as a starting point for further research in this area, and it is hoped that it will spark continued collaboration between academia and industry.

This study aims to examine an emerging product–place co-branding marketing practice in China’s rural areas. The role of this practice in inclusive development is analyzed from the perspectives of value proposition innovation, market legitimacy, media coverage and brand value. Both research and practice indicate value proposition innovation to exert an important influence on brand value enhancement, but little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation.

A moderated mediation model is constructed to examine whether market legitimacy mediates the relationship between value proposition innovation and brand value. vWhether this mediating process is moderated by media coverage is also examined. The primary data are collected from semi-structured interviews and observations conducted with two common cases to develop proper scales for value proposition innovation and market legitimacy. The research includes 100 product–place co-brandings published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2019. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression and a Bootstrap model.

Value proposition innovation has a positive effect on brand value, and market legitimacy partially mediates this relationship. Media coverage positively moderates the relationship between value proposition innovation and market legitimacy, and positively moderates the mediating effect of market legitimacy; the higher the media coverage, the stronger the mediating effect of market legitimacy.

Based on data availability and accessibility, the study sample focused on indicators from 100 brands in 2019. If the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs discloses consecutive annual information for other years, future studies could explore panel data to further test the study’s conclusions from a longitudinal perspective.

First, this paper adds to the emerging literature on product–place co-branding business models by examining the relationship between value proposition innovation and brand value. Second, this paper enriches institutional theory by including market legitimacy as a mediator between value proposition innovation and brand value. Third, this paper identifies the moderating role of media coverage, thus broadening the theoretical implications of institutional theory with respect to improving market legitimacy.

Given the lack of understanding of social marketing success in theory and practice, this study aims to investigate how social marketing experts conceptualize success.

In this qualitative study, the authors conducted an open-ended online questionnaire with 48 worldwide social marketing experts, most with more than 20 years of experience in the field. The authors analyzed data using topic modeling, a machine-learning method that groups responses/terms into cluster topics based on similarities. Keywords in each topic served to generate themes for discussion.

While behavior change is mentioned as paramount to conceptualizing success, participants prefer to use more tangible and less complex forms to define/measure success, such as campaign recall uptick. In addition, lack of funding was considered an important factor in measuring success. This study provides a two-stage taxonomy to better understand success in social marketing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to conceptualize success in social marketing practice.

Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a new interactive technology, swiftly transforming the field of marketing. Driven by its rapid uptake in marketing practices, academic research on AR has proliferated. This study aims to offer a holistic view of the past, present and future of augmented reality marketing (ARM) scholarship by analyzing its current and evolving research profile as well as its social and conceptual structures to inspire further research.

This study enriches the ARM scholarship by integrating a quantitative bibliometric analysis with a chronological-thematic review and a qualitative content analysis to develop a more comprehensive understanding of this novel area and suggest future research courses.

The bibliometric analysis reveals the key performance indicators as well as the social and conceptual structure of the ARM research field. The chronological-thematic review exhibits the advancement of ARM research over time and forecasts the emerging trends for the domain. Finally, the content analysis of recent articles reveals the current research hotspots and provides future research directions.

The database limits the selection of literature, as the information in databases such as Scopus is updated regularly, resulting in alterations in the number of articles and citations.

AR developers and brand managers may use this study’s findings to understand the current ARM landscape better and make strategic decisions based on AR adoption and consumption patterns.

This study is singular in using a mixed methods approach by integrating the findings from bibliometric and content analyses for more reliable results and to offer a holistic perspective of the ARM sector, thereby significantly advancing the field of technology-led marketing.