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The purpose of this paper is to propose that the recasting of supplier and customer roles reconfigures the role of marketing.

A conceptual paper that suggests the need to rethink the role of marketing in the strategic decision making of companies. The study accesses recent theories of marketing, service and value and provides illustrative case examples.

Consumers are progressively more active and the traditional supplier role of controlling consumers is less viable. The case examples show the variety of ways in which companies may adopt a new role in relation to customers and the market. The paper argues that adapting to this role change needs to take place at the highest level in the company and is the way to reinvent marketing strategy. This also necessitates marketing employing unconventional methodologies and relevant theory to address the complexity and ambiguity of current markets.

The paper is a conceptual paper restricted to supplier and customer roles, albeit set in a broader context of stakeholders.

The marketing-oriented supplier of the future can design service systems and exert a certain control at the same time adapting to and supporting consumer initiatives through interaction in networks of stakeholder relationships.

Stressing the new roles of consumers and suppliers; reinventing the role of marketing, breaking with conventional marketing research methodology.

This article aims to explore the character of an emerging model of corporate social responsibility (CSR)‐oriented societal governance in an exchange theoretical perspective and to examine the distinctive characteristics of the relations between civil society, business and government in the new model and the drivers behind it.

By analyzing typical roles and role‐sets in political, commercial and regulatory exchange, the article pin‐points characteristics of the embedded relational governance/CSR model contrasted against liberal governance and the Keynesian welfare state. The analysis is stylized and conceptually based, in line with the Weberian ideal type concept and brings out stylized juxtapositions of the three governance models based on previous studies.

An emerging model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or embedded relational governance seems to share the basic market orientation of the liberal model, yet, at the same time, sharing many of the social and collective goals of the welfare state. This combination is apparently achieved by embedding the social dimension into civil society and self‐regulatory market processes. Finally, the paper reflects on the drivers behind the new governance approach, in the context of a globalizing economy. The paper argues that NGO‐driven communicative intermediation interfacing with an increasing CSR and corporate governance focus in financial evaluation may serve to retain some of the social agenda from the welfare state, under the CSR‐ or embedded‐relational model, an agenda that seemed to be gradually losing out with the global competitive exposure of the welfare state.

The article presents a stylized analytical framework of CSR/embedded relational governance that lays a basis for further exploration and systematic testing through comparative empirical studies.

The paper brings out the interplay between political, regulatory and commercial processes and gives a broader understanding of the societal implications of CSR.

Original contributions of this paper: first, the analytical formulation of the societal governance implications of CSR; second, the exchange theoretical conceptualization of this mode of societal governance.

The purpose of this paper is to extend understandings of the demand-side view of strategy and how organizations co-create value with stakeholders. Through an iterative process of theory development, data collection, data analysis and writing, the authors propose a value co-creation perspective that more fully takes into account stakeholder complexity.

The empirical data derives from a wider exploratory study on value creation and competitive advantage in Christian churches in Canada. Here the authors explore one case study from that wider study and analyze interviews with church members and leaders.

The authors discuss two mutually constitutive processes of value co-creation, building a culture of community and enacting relational and shared leadership.

The authors propose a stakeholder-complex understanding of value creation where stakeholders can enact multiple roles, often simultaneously, in co-creation and where products/services are consumed for their symbolic, rather than material value. Further, co-creation may involve ongoing interactions and value creation can occur in non-monetary transactions.

The authors offer, through an empirical exploration of a religious organization, an illustrative account of how value co-creation might be tied to stakeholder complexity. This study stretches the boundaries of mainstream strategy research by challenging two fundamental assumptions: that stakeholder roles must be distinct and that “value” must be clearly defined and explicitly linked to exchange value.

The purpose of this paper is to create socio-technological future scenarios of Japan in the year 2050 and beyond, with a particular focus on energy and its relation to science and technology (S&T).

A workshop based on the scanning-based foresight method (SBFM) was conducted. Social change scenarios were created by participants browsed scanning materials about futuristic topics. Then, energy and society scenarios were produced by combining social change scenarios and future issues describing S&T related to energy in Japan in the future.

The participants who have different scientific and technological experties produced various images of Japan’s energy society around the year 2050. Based on these depictions, future visions of scenarios about energy and society were different in terms of consistency between S&T and future needs from current visions which focus on the transient of social awareness. The sociocentric view and confidence in self-made technology were found in the workshop and the participants believed some social problems would be solved with rich experiences and expertises in S&T even if human resources were limited. It was also found that each scenario portrayed an optimistic view of the relatively near future, in which innovative energy-related technologies are developed to optimize both personal satisfaction and social efficiency. On the other hand, we found rather pessimistic survival scenarios about the far future as concerns climate change and natural disasters.

Experts from several fields used their insight to apprehend an energy future and depicted, from scientific and technological perspectives, a vision of a different future society from the one that would emerge in a traditional linear scenario in which a proper balance is struck between the usage of S&T and its limitations. SBFM was also found to be beneficial for insight into energy S&T with its many uncertainties.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically validate the role of different stakeholders in a co-creation context. In this paper, a new triadic brand co-creation concept has been presented highlighting why consumers participate in brand co-creation, what is the role of the organizing company and what is the role of suppliers in such event and what are the benefits each of these three stakeholders receives in-turn of participating in such an event.

A quantitative approach has been adopted in this study using structural equation modeling to verify brand co-creation from the triadic stakeholder participation standpoint.

The empirical study validates that consumer’s perceived psychological benefits, brand self-connection and participation in brand communities all have a positive impact on the brand co-creation process. The results also suggest co-creating organizations should create an environment of trust and openness in such a brand co-creation event and they should show participatory leadership and provide proper tools and training to the participating consumers. The participating suppliers should show higher levels of professionalism, they should be willing to invest in research and development (R&D) and collaborate with organizations in their R&D effort. The results also validate that the brand co-creation event ensures increased brand knowledge and value of consumers. Also, brand co-creation is positively related to purchasing, helping others and consumers’ feedback intention. Through brand co-creation sponsoring organizations creates innovation and reduces resource issues and marketing costs. The results also show that brand co-creation can lead to better brand loyalty among consumers. Suppliers should also be actively engaged in brand co-creation as it leads to a better performance in terms of greater revenue, market offerings and reputation.

The research investigates all aspects of inputs and benefits of the three different stakeholders – consumers, organizations and suppliers. It gives a comprehensive framework to validate the roles and benefits of each of the stakeholders from a consumer’s viewpoint. It conceptualizes and validates the constructs to provide the holistic concept and its associated framework.

The findings offer new insights to brand managers, Chief Experience Officers of how a brand co-creation event can be organized successfully, what should be the role of them, how they should involve suppliers in this kind of an event and finally how this kind of event can have a long-term impact on the brand in question.

This is the first empirical research on brand co-creation which investigates the roles and benefits from a triadic stakeholders’ standpoint. This study also analyzes and validates the comprehensive framework of brand co-creation proposed.

Management within the creative industries can face many challenges, some of which may be unique to these forms of organisations. The perceptions and actions of the creative employees, consumers and clients, can impact directly on the overall creative output and end product. This paper aims to explore the current literature relating to organisational creativity within the context of creative organisations and their relationships with those whom consume their output.

The paper opens with a discussion of the relatively recent trend towards considering social and contextual factors within creativity research. The next section discusses in detail some of the identified factors in relation to creativity and its consumption. The paper is then concluded with managerial implications and avenues for future research.

The literature review uncovers issues of relevance to owners and managers relating to social control and creative: leadership; motivation; evaluation; feedback; risk; trust; role ambiguity and organisational boundary structures. The review helps to draw attention to some of the possible barriers to achieving full potential between the main stakeholder groups during long‐term creative projects.

The review encapsulates many key issues that need to be taken into account due to the nature of the interface between creative employees and consumers. In so doing it outlines how many of these issues may interrelate, whilst providing a number of managerial implications and useful avenues for future empirical research.

Green innovation strategy is not only a new idea to achieve green development but also the inevitable choice for enterprises to upgrade. At present, the research on the driving forces of green innovation strategy mainly focus on direct impact of single factor, lacking the overall consideration of internal and external environment. At the same time, research on the contingency effect of top management’s environmental awareness is scarce. This paper aims to explore how external environment pressures (policy pressures and market pressures) and internal environment driving force (innovation resources and innovation capability) make enterprises to choose green innovation strategy with moderating effect of top management’s environmental awareness.

Based on the sample of 216 enterprises, this paper explores the relationship between policy pressure, market pressure, innovation resources, innovation capability and the green innovation strategy with moderating effect of top management’s environmental awareness from inside and outside driving angle.

The results of the hierarchical regression model show, first, the driving effect of factors in the external environment. The coercive policy has an inverted U-shaped impact on the green innovation strategy. The incentive policy and the market pressure both have a significant positive impact on the green innovation strategy. Second, the driving effect of factors in the internal environment. The innovation capability has a significant positive impact on the green innovation strategy. The innovation resources have no significant impact on the green innovation strategy. Third, the moderating effect of top management’s environmental awareness. The relationship between the green innovation strategy and the coercive policy is stronger when the top management’s environmental awareness higher. The relationship between the green innovation strategy and the market pressure is stronger when the top management’s environmental awareness higher. The relationship between the green innovation strategy and the innovation resources is stronger when the top management’s environmental awareness higher. Otherwise, the relationship between the green innovation strategy and the innovation capability is weaker when the top management’s environmental awareness higher. And there is no significant change about the relationship between the green innovation strategy and the incentive policy when the top management’s environmental awareness higher.

First, the authors have promoted the integrated research on the drivers of the enterprise’s green innovation strategy. From the perspective of internal and external environment driving forces, this paper analyzes the key factors influencing the decision-making of the green innovation strategy. Second, the study has contributed to the strategic choice theory. This paper studies the driving mechanism of the green innovation strategy from a new perspective of the strategic choice theory.

The purpose of this paper is to find supplier's role in brand co-creation. This paper also discusses the perspective of suppliers on the role and benefits of other stakeholders like consumers and the sponsoring organization in brand co-creation and to come up with some concepts and constructs related to these.

A qualitative approach has been used to identify supplier roles. Depth interviews were conducted on 15 selected suppliers from India already participated in brand co-creation. Grounded theory method was used to code and analyze the data and come up with important themes.

The grounded theory findings showed that suppliers need to have certain features like professionalism, willingness to invest in research and development (R&D) and flexible attitude in order to participate in brand co-creation. In turn, suppliers are benefited from participating in such an event as it improves their performance, growth and offerings. The depth interview findings also showed the reasons for successful and failed brand co-creation and the informant suppliers' view on the roles consumers and organization play in band co-creation and the benefits they receive.

This is one of the first academic studies of identifying supplier's role in brand co-creation looking beyond consumers and organization. There is no qualitative and quantitative study that was conducted to find out supplier's role. The paper conceptualizes important concepts related to supplier's features, roles and benefits in brand co-creation.

This paper aims to propose a “Four-F (finding facts, fostering alternates, fulfilling implementation and feasibility testing)” action plan to global food service businesses (FSB) such as restaurants (dine-in/take away) to build resilience during times of global crises. The 2019 Coronavirus disease and FSBs apply as working examples elaborating the proposed Four-F action plan with several managerial implications for the internal and external stakeholders of FSBs.

The method involves reviewing and coding 108 articles using the PRISMA approach, then applying findings to develop the Four-F action plan integrating multiple theoretical concepts (such as stakeholder, crisis management and dynamic capabilities).

There are two key findings. First, though all four crisis phases should be considered by decision-makers as part of their contingency planning process, the pre and post-crisis stages need higher attention. Second, the Four-F action plan provides specific recommendations to FSBs stakeholders (consumers, suppliers and government) for each crisis phase (pre-crisis, crisis emergence, crisis occurrence and post-crisis).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that has incorporated multiple theoretical frameworks (stakeholder theory, crisis management and dynamic capabilities) within the FSBs context and provided the Four-F action plan for decision-makers to understand and manage crisis phases.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a key player in the food services and restaurants sector; thus, the aim of this work consists in studying the previous research on ICTs in food services and restaurants in the context of tourism and hospitality through a systematic literature review.

The systematic literature review is performed on full papers published in journals included in the Journal Citation Report of the WoS in the category of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism. A total of 165 articles from 28 journals are analyzed, following different criteria, such as the research methods, perspectives, statistical techniques, geographical focus, topics, technologies, authors and universities.

The restaurant sector is more and more based on the creation of experiences and ICTs, through their multiple possibilities, can undoubtedly contribute to adding value to the simple meal and create and recreate experiences to attract and retain customers who are increasingly sophisticated and hooked on ICTs. ICTs are basic for managers taking decision at the highest level in food services and restaurants, so ICTs should not be seen as a technical tool but as an essential element for top management.

This paper examined articles from very well-known tourism and hospitality journals, leaving aside others as well as different publication formats such as books or papers presented at conferences.

A significant contribution made with this paper is the availability of a list of topics in the context of ICTs in food services and restaurants. These topics are classified into three areas (Consumers, Suppliers and Environment and Tendencies) that can serve as a future research framework. The paper also provides useful information to restaurant managers about ICTs, to researchers for their future projects and to academics for their courses.