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The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the service infusion literature explains competitive advantage through services. The four strategic management theories – competitive forces, the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, and relational view – are applied in the analysis.

A systematic literature review analyzes the links between the service infusion and strategy literature.

The review reveals that although discussion of service infusion applies strategic management concepts, the stream lacks rigor with respect to construct definition and justification. Additionally, contextual variables are often missing. The result is an over-emphasis of contextually bound measures, such as technology, and focal actors.

The growing trends toward social networks, co-specialization, actor dependency and shared resources encourage service infusion scholars to focus on network-related and relational capabilities, co-opetition, open business models, and relational rent extraction. Furthermore, service infusion research would benefit from considering strategy-based theoretical discussions, constructs, and constraints that would improve the scientific rigor, impact and contribution.

This paper represents a systematic attempt to link the service infusion literature with strategic management theories and thoroughly analyzes the knowledge gaps and possible misconceptions.

This paper aims to investigate the conditional indirect effect of innovativeness on performance via supply chain agility (SCA) in the service industry at higher and lower collaborative relationships.

The hypothesised model is operationalised with survey data from 245 Australian service firms collected via LinkedIn and analysed using structural equation modelling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The analysis found that SCA significantly mediates the relationship between innovativeness and performance. Further, the conditional indirect effect of innovativeness on performance via SCA was significant when the collaborative relationship was high. Results also revealed that a configuration of both innovativeness and agility better predicts performance.

This study is an early attempt to investigate SCA in service industries by scrutinizing SCA from an innovative point of view. While previous studies have demonstrated the role of innovativeness in enhancing a firm's performance, this study explores this link further by investigating the conditional indirect effect of innovativeness on performance via SCA at different levels of collaborative relationships.

The aim of this research is to examine the key determinants influencing the success of new service development projects (NSDPs) across four service typologies context.

The researchers used the scenario-based survey method in an NSDP setting. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses based on survey data from 570 managers under four service typologies.

Service firms' cross-functional integration (CFI) and internal project team efficiency (IPTE) positively influenced NSDPs. The results also indicated that both technology infrastructure (TI) and IPTE mediated the relationship between CFI and NSDPs. In addition, the mediation effect of TI existed between the relationship of IPTE and NSDPs. Furthermore, the proposed model confirms that, for NSDPs, the role of knowledge-sharing behaviour (KSB), authentic leadership (AL) and firm's culture (FC) across the four service typologies moderated the relationship.

With a better understanding of the dynamics of the aforementioned variables, service managers and the project team can more effectively develop and execute strategies for an NSDP. The article enables practitioners to expand their current understanding of NSDPs by providing insights of the unique antecedents that are significant for new service development across four service types.

This research is the first of its kind to examine the mediating role of KSB and TI in determining NSDPs. This study provides one of the first empirical examinations on NSDPs in the context of four service typologies from the perspective of a developing country, where the service industry is competitive. The study demonstrates that the critical success factors of NSDPs do not differ across service types, thereby confirming the “One Basket Fits all” assumption in the current NSDP research study.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between dynamic service innovation capabilities (DSICs) and startup growth in an emerging country.

This paper used a theoretical DSIC model to process data on 137 Brazilian startups, using a stepwise regression.

Service startup growth is related to the capability of enterprises to understand market signals, learn from customers and design a scalable, repetitive and profitable business model.

Despite the innovative nature of startups, this paper found that technological and networking capacities are not a determinant of growth.

Managers should commit themselves to improve their competence in terms of understanding market signals, even when they already have a consolidated business model, products and service offerings. The findings also function as a warning about the dangers of an excessive focus on technological capabilities.

Innovative startups, which achieve high growth create a disproportionate number of new jobs. Hence, by indicating the dynamic capabilities that are more conducive to firm growth, this paper contributes to society and the economy at large.

The findings challenge the myth of technological capacity and networking skills as the main sources of startup growth. This paper shows that founders and managers of service startups who want to achieve rapid growth should concentrate more effort on other skills. Marketing competence and building scalable business models – abilities that are common to successful traditional firms – are more relevant for short-term growth than technological innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to review state-of-the-art literature on product/brand positioning to re-examine the positioning concept and developing a more comprehensive definition from a theoretical viewpoint.

A systematic review of positioning was conducted. The review conformed to a rigorous set of core principles: it was systematic (organized according to a method designed to address the review questions), transparent (explicitly stated), reproducible and updatable and synthesized (summarized the evidence relating to the review question).

The literature review reveals that there is lack of coherent definition for positioning, and there is no mutual agreement among marketing scholars and practitioners about the exact meaning of the concept. Therefore, comprehensive definition of positioning encompassing the five underlying positioning perspectives (competition; empty slot/mind; consumers’ perception, differentiation and competitive advantage) is suggested.

This paper will be useful for academicians to analyze the current nature of academic research in this area and will provide an added advantage to managers to design and implement positioning strategies for their product/brands that will allow their organizations to gain competitive advantage. This study acknowledges limitations with respect to its exclusive search criteria, which might affect its generalizability.

Position and positioning is of relevance in society in broad terms, e.g. in sports, politics and culture. Positioning strategy is discussed and implemented in different industries (business-to-business and consumer), for all kinds of brands (including, for instance, corporate brands) and for “brands” in the very widest sense (such as places or people).

This is the first systematic review of positioning that provides a detailed understanding of the current state of positioning research on a single platform and also draws a comprehensive positioning conceptualization.

Research was conducted to investigate whether, and how, political accountability might stabilise when agents are faced with profound changes in external structures such as competition laws and austerity policies.

We performed a field study from 2007 to 2015 in a regional hub in Finland and worked with data from document analysis, interviews and meeting observations. We have used embedded research design, where we apply methodological bracketing as well as composite sequence analysis for field research.

Accountability declined when irresistible external structures were the dominant influence on the unreflective actions of agents-in-focus. With time, however, the agents started acting critically by drawing on structures that could facilitate strategic actions to stabilise political accountability.

The field research and interpretation of the data were limited to the organisation analysed; however, the theoretical arguments allow for analytical generalisations.

The research demonstrates how public officials and political decision-makers can eventually adopt a strategic approach when faced with irresistible change in external structures.

The research demonstrates how public officials and political decision-makers can eventually adopt a strategic approach when faced with irresistible changes in external structures.

The study locates political accountability in the context of strong structuration theory and discusses how it is redefined by external structures.

The business landscapes in Asia and Africa are predominantly characterized by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facing significant resource constraints. Understanding the capability dynamics of these enterprises in such contexts carries significant implications for theory and practice. This paper aims to addresses a crucial question of whether increasing customer involvement capability consistently yields the necessary rent for enterprises operating under resource constraints in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. By investigating this question, the paper offers SMEs a more nuanced approach to capability development, enabling them to achieve better returns on their investments.

To ensure the robustness of the findings, data were collected from SME service firms operating in two emerging economies: India (Asia) and Ghana (Africa). Data were collected in two waves to allow for catering to specific environmental conditions not accounted for in the study. Two-stage data analysis was then conducted to test the hypothesized relationships across the two countries.

The findings reveal that customer involvement capability does not always lead to an increase in firm-level competitiveness, and the effect follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. However, the nature of this relationship varies under different market conditions in both contexts. Specifically, in periods of low customer demand and intense competition, the relationship is linear and positive. On the other hand, in periods of high demand and competition, the relationship becomes inverted U-shaped, returning to a direct relationship with firm-level competitiveness.

This paper provides a resolution to the critical issue of whether customer involvement capability consistently delivers firm performance benefits, particularly for resource-constrained SMEs in emerging markets. By explaining how SMEs in emerging markets can fully capitalize on their capability development to optimize their resources, this paper makes a distinctive contribution. Moreover, it sheds light on the importance of aligning involvement capabilities with prevailing market conditions for SMEs to reap the maximum benefits.

Several different factors have an influence on the hotel sector in Jordan. Due to the different circumstances and the turbulence in this region, hotels face a competitive and dynamic economic environment, which causes these hotels to seek differentiation. Consequently, hotels need different strategies and support from information technology to achieve a competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which enterprise resource planning ERP system usage affects service differentiation in the hotel sector in Jordan and examine the mediating effect of organizational agility on the aforementioned relationship.

Questionnaires were used to collect data from the hotel sector in Jordan. The response percentage was 75.41%.

The result showed that there is a significant effect of ERP system usage on service differentiation in Jordanian hotels, and this relationship was mediated by organizational agility. Organizational agility and its dimensions have a partial mediating role on the relationship between ERP system usage and service differentiation except for responsiveness which has a full mediating role. So, being an agile hotel will increase the ability to achieve service differentiation by using ERP systems.

This research focuses on investigating the mediating role of organizational agility in the relationship between ERP system usage and service differentiation within hotel sector in Jordan. Moreover, this research investigated the applicability of organizational agility on the hotel sector as it is mainly implemented in the manufacturing sector. The results show that organizational agility and its dimensions have a partial mediating role on the relationship between ERP system usage and service differentiation except responsiveness which has a full mediating role. So, being an agile hotel will increase the ability to achieve service differentiation by using ERP systems. Therefore, hotel practitioners in Jordan should focus on applying the required technologies and achieving organizational agility in order to achieve service differentiation. In addition, this study highlights that ERP usage has a positive impact on achieving organizational agility and service differentiation; hence, using these systems will help hotels in Jordan to implement agility capabilities which, in turn, help to achieve service differentiation. However, there are real challenges in hotel sector as implementation of ERP is expensive and time-consuming. The outcomes of this research can have additional reference that could benefit researchers in the future and bring attention of hotel managers in Jordan to the importance and advantages of this research.

A new model has been developed. An empirical investigation was performed on the hotel sector in Jordan to test the new model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine peer-to-peer sharing platform business models, their sources of competitive advantage, and the roles, motivations and behaviors of key actors in their ecosystems.

This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, tourism and hospitality, and strategy literature.

First, this paper defines key types of platform business models in the sharing economy anddescribes their characteristics. In particular, the authors propose the differentiation between sharing platforms of capacity-constrained vs capacity-unconstrained assets and advance five core properties of the former. Second, the authors contrast platform business models with their pipeline business model counterparts to understand the fundamental differences between them. One important conclusion is that platforms cater to vastly more heterogeneous assets and consumer needs and, therefore, require liquidity and analytics for high-quality matching. Third, the authors examine the competitive position of platforms and conclude that their widely taken “winner takes it all” assumption is not valid. Primary network effects are less important once a critical level of liquidity has been reached and may even turn negative if increased listings raise friction in the form of search costs. Once a critical level of liquidity has been reached, a platform’s competitive position depends on stakeholder trust and service provider and user loyalty. Fourth, the authors integrate and synthesize the literature on key platform stakeholders of platform businesses (i.e. users, service providers, and regulators) and their roles and motivations. Finally, directions for further research are advanced.

This paper helps platform owners, service providers and users understand better the implications of sharing platform business models and how to position themselves in such ecosystems.

This paper integrates the extant literature on sharing platforms, takes a novel approach in delineating their key properties and dimensions, and provides insights into the evolving and dynamic forms of sharing platforms including converging business models.

This study aims to explore the innovative strategies of business model of the free-to-fee switch, the relationship between the business model innovation and customer knowledge and further develop a conceptual model.

This study adopts a multiple case study method with abductive research logic, following the replication logic to select samples. A total of eight outstanding companies with altogether 312 free-to-fee switch events were selected from 1998 to 2021.

A strategic matrix with four innovative business models for the free-to-fee switch is generated. The parallelism between the models and customer knowledge orientations is also found. Further, the study develops the conceptual model regarding customer knowledge orientation as a key mediation.

The study highlights the conceptualization definition of customer knowledge orientation and its mediation effect to the business model innovation of free-to-fee switch, which is a new issue compared with previous research. Furthermore, it reveals that there exists organizational ambidexterity, which brings a new definition of customer knowledge orientation.

This study suggests how to integrate customer knowledge orientations to support the marketing process of the business model of free-to-fee switch. It also proposes a specific mechanism to conduct the free-to-fee switch with the introduction of four innovative strategic models and eight evolutional paths.

This study creatively proposes the strategic matrix and the conceptual model of business model innovation of free-to-fee switch. Moreover, a new conceptual definition of customer knowledge orientation is specified.