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Customer suggestions offer valuable insights to companies, and suggestion sharing is a form of engagement that strengthens customers’ relationships with firms. Yet research to date has neglected to explicitly study the antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing or to adequately characterize the behavior. This paper aims to address this deficiency.

The research draws on two surveys using three different elicitation techniques – critical incident, direct reporting and scenario response. Inductive content analysis of consumer responses is used to derive exploratory insights regarding the range of factors that motivate and inhibit consumer suggestion sharing, with an emphasis on consumer service-related contexts.

Potential self, other and firm benefits motivate suggestion sharing, whereas a host of factors, including the effort involved, a lack of perceived firm efficacy and unpleasant sharing contexts inhibit it. The findings reveal a rich portrait of antecedents that illustrates how direct-to-firm suggestion-sharing behavior combines elements of customer citizenship behavior, customer complaint behavior and online community idea sharing.

The research relies upon reporting by US students and consumers.

Service firms hoping to avail themselves of customers’ desire to contribute to their and their customers’ betterment must understand and manage the tripartite nature of consumer suggestion sharing evinced by the antecedents revealed.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research offers the first description of the range of factors that motivate and inhibit direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing. As such, it provides a theoretical foundation upon which future consumer suggestion-sharing research can build.

Value co-creation is known to increase innovation, but it can backfire under certain conditions. The purpose of this study is to investigate co-creation activities for their effects on consumer perceptions of symbolic designs and to investigate the mediation effect of psychological distance and the moderation effect of peer feedback.

Three studies were designed by using a survey (Study 1) and two controlled laboratory experiments (Study 2 and 3). Study 1 had a sample size of 160 respondents and examined whether innovative ideas and behavior intensity had different impact on symbolic design. Study 2 had a sample size of 204 respondents and verified the interaction effect between innovativeness and intensity and to show that psychological distance is the underlying internal mechanism. Study 3 examined peer feedback as a critical moderator by using a sample of 235 participants.

Results show that idea innovativeness positively influences perceptions of symbolic design, while behavior intensity has a negative influence. The studies verify that innovativeness interacts with intensity to affect perceptions of symbolic design. Psychological distance explains why it is difficult to co-create luxury goods. Peer feedback is revealed to be a new moderator.

This research uniquely develops an extensive theory-based conceptual model and highlights two dimensions of value co-creation that interact with product design. The article emphasizes the theoretical and practical importance of studying both direct and indirect moderating effects.

The aim of this paper is to explore whether open innovation is emerging in the Italian fashion industry.

Based on available studies on innovation and open innovation, we first identified the main facets of open innovation within the industry investigated, such as the process of searching for new ideas, the involvement of external partners in the new product development process and the use of collaboration mechanisms between supply chain partners. Starting from these findings, the authors designed a semi-structured questionnaire that was used as a guideline for 15 case studies, carried out in the Italian fashion industry.

The outcomes from the case studies allow drawing some conclusions about the emergency of open innovation in the fashion industry and the related patterns.

Given its exploratory nature, this study is expected to start a debate about open innovation in the fashion industry, as well as to encourage future studies in this field.

The purpose of this research is to provide an empirical examination of the role of the salesperson in the new product/service development process.

A survey was mailed to 2,650 sales managers representing US firms across the nation, and the resulting sample size consisted of 246 respondents with a response rate of 9.3 percent. The survey sample included firms with a business‐to‐business emphasis, and those with a minimum of 50 employees.

The majority of the respondents reported that salespeople are indirectly or directly involved in the new product/service development process. In spite of this contribution, many firms do not directly reward salespeople for their involvement. Offering appropriate incentives could greatly increase their efforts to collect information for new product/service idea generation.

Suggested future research includes the perspectives of salespeople, new product development directors, etc. In addition, the study was strictly domestic and could benefit from an international focus, as well as a comparison of products versus services sectors.

The findings from this study can be used by managers as a benchmark for assessing sales force participation in the new product/service development, and to identify ways to encourage increased participation by the sales force with incentives.

Little formalized research has been conducted on the specific role that salespeople play in the new product/service development process. The findings from this study may provide strategic guidance to organizations with respect to the role of salespeople in the critical new product/service development process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the dialogue, access, risk assessment and transparency model of value co-creation processes (dialogue, access, risk and transparency) on new service market performance (NSMP) with the mediating role of value-informed pricing in the context of business-to-business (B2B).

The data were collected through a cross-sectional survey of 230 managers of the telecommunications industry in Malaysia and analyzed through structural equation modeling using SmartPLS v.3.3.3 software.

This study found that dialogue and transparency are predictors of NSMP. The findings indicate that value-informed pricing plays a mediating role in the relationship between dialogue and transparency with NSMP.

Disclosing pricing related information, providing up to date information to the customers, making clear to the customers about new offerings would certainly influence value-informed pricing. Thus, managers can enhance customer engagement in the interaction processes to better understand customer expectations of new services and how the new services should be priced.

The link between value co-creation and value-informed pricing has been only conceptualized in literature. This study has opened a new stream of research, examining the relationship of interactional-based value co-creation process with value-informed pricing and NSMP in the context of B2B relationship from providers’ perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to identify process-related value propositions in terms of process execution when using enterprise social media (ESM) for external communication purposes. Additionally, capabilities of ESM technologies to realize the value propositions are identified.

A literature review of case studies, describing ESM usage for external communication purposes, is performed. Further, face-to-face interviews with employees from companies are conducted to complement the findings retrieved from the literature.

It is shown that manifold process-related value propositions for different business processes can be realized by ESM application for external communication purposes. However, certain value propositions and the corresponding capabilities of ESM technologies are particularly emphasized.

This research is different from existing studies about ESM usage because an explicit perspective on business processes is taken. Therefore, the findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge of beneficial ESM usage. Analyzing the literature and interview transcripts underlies a certain amount of subjectivity, a circumstance addressed by engaging two researchers in the coding procedure.

Practitioners discussing potentials of ESM application are provided with concrete hints as to which business processes will most likely profit from the use of social technologies for the external communication with customers.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the beneficial impact of social technologies on business processes and thus prepares the ground for a better alignment of ESM and processes. An extensive overview of value propositions for a company’s business processes has so far not been compiled in this form.

This study aims to investigate how the gratifications obtained through brand-related social media content affect brand intimacy and thereby influence customer extra-role behavior.

Using the uses and gratification theory, this study proposes information, entertainment and remuneration content that motivates customers to develop brand intimacy and thereby perform customer extra-role behavior. The study also tests the moderated moderation effect of self-congruence and customer experience using 704 observations from South India in the food industry context.

The study’s results reveal the influence of entertainment and remuneration content on brand intimacy, which further influences customer extra-role behavior (civic virtue, cocreation, sportsmanship and helping behaviors). The study confirms a moderated moderation effect in the relationship between brand intimacy and civic virtue and brand intimacy and sportsmanship behaviors.

The study suggests that brands may include entertainment and remuneration elements in their social media content to build intimate customer relationships, further influencing customers’ extra-role behaviors. Besides, brands should focus on customers’ self-concepts and experiences to encourage them to act voluntarily.

This study makes a unique contribution by investigating the influence of brand-related social media content on customer extra-role behavior through brand intimacy. It uses self-congruence and customer experience to test their moderated moderation effect in the relationship between brand intimacy and customer extra-role behavior.

Explores the concept of viewing retail customers as partial employees. When retailers provide services to customers, they tend to rely solely on store employees, missing out on a hidden asset, their customers. When shopping, customers perform two roles: in‐role; and extra‐role. The former term refers to the work that a customer has to do when shopping, such as driving to the store. Extra‐role behaviour refers to voluntary behaviour on the part of the customer, e.g. cooperating with employees of the organisation and sharing their positive experiences with other customers. Customers are viewed as “partial employees” due to their participation in supplying labour and knowledge to the service creation process. A conceptual framework to study the phenomenon of using customers as partial employees is proposed and literature from marketing, economics, psychology and organisational behaviour is drawn upon. Research propositions and a future research agenda are advanced.

Despite their economic and cultural significance, the growth of handicraft micro firms is vulnerable, given their small size and resource limitations. By examining the impact of cooperation on firm performance via innovation capability, this study shows how micro firms can address constraints and achieve sustainable development by acquiring and utilizing external resources, complemented by innovation capability, through internal development.

Data were collected from 164 handicraft micro firms in Pakistan via a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was employed to estimate interrelations of various constructs simultaneously and control measurement errors.

The impact of cooperation with customers and suppliers on firm performance via innovation capability was positive and significant. Contrarily, competitor cooperation did not significantly affect innovation capability. Furthermore, there was a positive and significant interaction effect of customer and competitor cooperation on innovation capability. Thus, micro firms must reinforce their customer and supplier relationships through innovation capability and internal transformation for sustainable development. Moreover, a balance must exist between cooperation and competition to achieve optimal innovation returns for the sustainable development of firms.

This study emphasized that micro firms must strengthen their customer and supplier relationships via innovation capability and internal development to achieve higher performance. Moreover, the study introduced a new dimension for measuring firm performance.

The focus of this study is on how online-only retailers, known as pure-play e-retailers, leverage e-commerce platforms to identify and pursue market opportunities. Through the perspective of entrepreneurial marketing, this study aims to explore the influence of e-commerce technologies on the decision-making process of entrepreneurial marketing. This exploration is conducted via a case study of pure-play e-retailers based in China.

This study utilised a qualitative case study methodology to examine the complex processes of entrepreneurial marketing in an online environment. The study gathered detailed insights from both owner-managers and staff members of eight pure-play e-retail businesses. Additionally, the research involved a careful review of the firms' webpages and social media pages. This holistic approach facilitated a comprehensive understanding of their marketing strategies and practices.

The case study findings indicate that while many core aspects of entrepreneurial marketing remain important, there are distinct factors influencing the entrepreneurial marketing decision-making in the online marketplace. The online EM framework can be visualised as follows: (1) trend-orientated as well as innovative-orientated (2) data-orientated and entrepreneur-orientated (3) innovative-driven customer stimulation (4) orientated towards both platforms and proactiveness.

The paper provides an initial understanding of how digitalisation is enabling and transforming entrepreneurship in companies with high level digitalisation but low level digital development. Building on current entrepreneurial marketing literature, this paper develops an online entrepreneurial marketing framework to enhance understanding of the interaction between e-commerce technology and entrepreneurial marketing decision making.