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The development of new information technology and telecommunication (ITT) devices has increased the complexity of business‐to‐business (B2B) interactions, forcing the service organisations to adopt a multi‐channel, customer‐oriented approach. The purpose of this study is to present an exploratory study of B2B interactions in Romania, which measures the preference of both service providers and client firms for various channels of interaction, and identifies the main dimensions of the interactive process.

The primary data were collected through an e‐mail questionnaire that was answered by 113 service providers and 102 client organisations, and then analysed using the SPSS statistical package.

Five main interaction dimensions have been identified as the framework used by client organisations to evaluate the quality of B2B interactions. These dimensions are complex constructs that have a double projection in the context of ITT systems and CRM procedures.

The process of B2B interactions is poorly documented for transition economies, such as Romania. After describing the dimensions of B2B interactions, the paper proposes a diagnostic procedure for evaluating the perception gaps between the service provider firm and the client organisation, concerning the quality level of each dimension. This diagnostic can be adapted and used by each service provider organisation to identify the possible areas of customer dissatisfaction and the requirements for future improvements.

Firms need to develop absorptive capacities to effectively source and exploit knowledge relevant to environmental behaviour for their own innovation activity. Business-to-business interactions can represent a significant route through which knowledge and resources about environmental innovations are transferred along the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms exploit business partnerships in order to build capacity for environmental innovation. In order to do so, it investigates two elements of B2B interactions – partner alignment and compatibility – and their influence on absorptive capacity-building.

This paper is based on a qualitative interview study of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) operating in the environmental goods and services sector and their clients involved in adopting environmental innovations. Matched pairs of engineering consulting firms and their clients – tourism accommodation establishments – were selected as a sampling frame in order to study the influence of partner alignment and compatibility on the exchange of environmentally relevant knowledge and competencies.

The findings show that the synergistic attributes of business partners influence absorptive capacity-building and give rise to different patterns of interaction of KIBS with their client. The B2B interactions investigated are characterised by alignment along multiple objectives about the relevance of environmental behaviour. Furthermore, the compatibility of the partners’ competences is a key determinant of environmental innovation outcome.

The study highlights the role of managers in identifying and selecting those business partnerships that accrue greater potential benefit for accessing resources and competencies for eco-innovation.

The study contributes to the literature on absorptive capacity and innovation by demonstrating how B2B interactions – in this study, the interaction of KIBS with their clients – influence the capacity of firms to adopt environmental innovations which is an area of study that deserves further attention.

This paper aims to introduce the Empatia video reflection method, designed to enhance care workers’ awareness of empathic care. The method makes the quality of care visible, which is needed when digitalization efforts in elder care focus on the efficiency and adequacy of care work.

The Empatia method leans on previous studies of the interaction between care professionals and clients and elaborates further previous video reflection methods. In empathic care work, the care worker sees the client on their life continuum, rather than focusing on only medical treatments.

The empirical example demonstrates how a care worker gained awareness of their empathic interaction habits. Within the work community, the reflection process sparked discussions on values: the purpose of care work and how to conduct empathic care. Focusing on empathic relationships in care fosters both the client’s and the care worker’s well-being.

The strength of the Empatia method is that it makes empathy visible in interaction and something that is individually and collectively learnable. The Empatia includes an analytical tool for researchers to reveal empathy in client interaction. It can be developed further into a reflection tool for service work to learn how to be empathic in service encounters.

Compared to other video-stimulated recall methods, the Empatia involves contextual understanding of care work. Empowering positive interactions instead of detecting errors and solving problems is a novel concept and is scantily used in studies of organizational learning. The Empatia provides a detailed method description that allows for the replication of the method by anyone.

This article aims to examine how situational constraints impact clients' valuations of the task and socio‐emotional resources exchanged when interacting with consultants. In consultant‐client relationships, the emphasis on economic resources has commodified these interactions into explicit exchanges of time, money, and deliverables.

A total of five hypotheses were tested using a within‐subjects experimental design. Subjects consisted of 110 adult professionals who were presented with five different scenarios in a random sequence and asked to rank order and evaluate a list of professional‐service resources.

The valuation of resources was found to change when situational constraints were present. Regardless of the context, task resources were generally valued more than socio‐emotional resources. When relational constraints were salient, socio‐emotional resources were valued more in long‐term than short‐term relationships. When faced with time pressure or budgetary constraints, task needs were valued more than socio‐emotional needs.

There is potential bias due to snowball sampling, and the hypothetical nature of the experimental scenarios limits the generalizability of this study.

For clients, this research indicates that the context surrounding consultant‐client interactions plays an important role in shaping clients' valuation of resources, both individually and collectively. For consultants, these findings suggest that a “one‐size‐fits‐all” strategy is not the most effective way to approach consultant‐client interactions.

This study contributes to our knowledge about how situational constraints impact clients' valuation of the task and socio‐emotional resources offered by consultants.

This study examines how assurors make sense of sustainability assurance (SA) work and how interactions with assurance team members and clients shape assurors’ sensemaking and their actual SA work.

To obtain detailed accounts of how SA work occurs on the ground, this study explores three SA engagements by interviewing the main actors involved, both at the client firms and at their Big Four assurance providers.

Individual assurors’ (i.e. partners and other team members) sensemaking of SA work results in the crafting of their logics of action (LoAs), that is, their meanings about the objectives of SA work and how to conduct it. Without organizational socialization, team members may not arrive at shared meanings and deviate from the team-wide assurance approach. To fulfill their objectives for SA work, assurors may engage in socialization with clients or assume a temporary role. Yet, the role negotiations taking place in the shadows of the scope negotiations determine their default role during the engagement.

Two options are available to help SA statement users gauge the relevance of SA work: either displaying the SA work performed or making it more uniform.

This study theoretically grounds how assurors make sense of SA work and documents how (the lack of) professional socialization, organizational socialization and socialization of frequent interaction partners at the client shape actual SA work. Thereby, it unravels the SA work concealed behind SA statements.

Notes that the literature on personal selling and advising on services stresses the importance of analysing the actual client‐adviser interaction process. Explores this process of interaction in a mortgage setting by observing 42 conversations between advisers and 26 clients. The exact content and characteristics of interactions were recorded and coded using a category system based on consultative selling. The results show vast differences between advisers in their selling approach. In most cases, the sequence of problem‐solving phases that advisers employed differed from those of the ideal model. Advisers generally did not probe for the wishes of clients but instead started by presenting alternative product solutions, a typical feature of a hard selling approach. Demonstrates the effectiveness of direct observation for the study of client‐server interaction in financial services.

This study uses a microanalysis of interaction approach to study how interactive service workers collaborate with one another in conversations to construct their professional identity in the face of the rapid contextual change. The data consist of (1) a complex written exchange downloaded from an Internet listserv and (2) a mechanically recorded conversation and detailed transcript showing the exact sequence of turns in the conversation, overlapping utterances, laughter, and speech errors. Everyday descriptions in these conversations reveal how knowledge workers produce and reproduce professional identity and a shared culture in the ways they: (1) categorize themselves and other workers, (2) amend or collaborate on each other's characterizations of clients, and (3) negotiate local policies and rules as they intersect with professional values and emotional boundaries. The results demonstrate a need for opportunities to integrate the increasing complexity of interactive service into professional identity as a response to technological and social change.

Although much has been written on skills and strategies of management consultants, little research has been done on what management consultants actually do. In this study, three senior consultants were shadowed, each for a one week period. Management consultancy turns out to be a hectic and highly interactive job. Important interaction partners are clients, colleagues, and secretaries, although only the first are highlighted in literature. Catalytic intervention is the most dominant approach in client contacts. The relatively rare desk work sessions of management consultants are even more interrupted than those of managers. An important function of their desk work (and of their work as a whole) is structuring information gained in client contacts.

Discusses the qualitative analysis of a case study of analyst‐client communications using grounded theory and themed analyses. Describes in detail the interaction that took place between an analyst and a client in a public sector agency in Tasmania, Australia. Uses a theatrical metaphor to give a representation that encompasses chronological and contextual aspects, providing an immediacy that enables the reader to appreciate how the interaction developed over time. Using concepts derived from the use of grounded theory techniques, demonstrates how these concepts and themes operated in this particular case. Concludes with a general discussion of themes and contextual influences as they occur in the case of the student assistance scheme and other cases studied by the author.

Meals on Wheel Central Texas (MOWCTX) provides meals to more than 5,000 home-bound older adults in the Austin area every weekday. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of client-volunteer interactions to assess the social benefits clients receive and ascertain if and how loneliness and social isolation are addressed.

Observations of volunteer-client interactions, interviews with clients and surveys of clients were conducted to gain insight into clients’ experiences with MOWCTX services.

Qualitative analysis of observation and interview data revealed four non-tangible benefits clients received from MOWCTX: reduced physical risks when mobility issues are present, a daily safety check, opportunities for social contact and increased ability to maintain independence. Survey results supported these conclusions.

This research examines the impact of volunteer-client relationships on the experience of loneliness and social isolation.