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1 – 10 of 209Roberto Grandinetti, Maria Vincenza Ciasullo, Marco Paiola and Francesco Schiavone
Industry 4.0 is dramatically affecting businesses behaviours and strategies, transforming products design, manufacture, operations and services. An outcome of this transformation…
Abstract
Purpose
Industry 4.0 is dramatically affecting businesses behaviours and strategies, transforming products design, manufacture, operations and services. An outcome of this transformation is digital servitization. This paper aims to contribute to the extant literature about digital servitization in B2B contexts by analysing how I4.0-based servitization affects the quality of supplier–customer relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted a qualitative methodology based on an exploratory multiple case study. In particular, the study included 22 Italian B2B manufacturing firms whose I4.0-based digital servitization approaches are described and, then, analysed in relation to the quality of supplier–customer relationships.
Findings
The access to customers and data is critical to enable advanced digital services and for improving relationship quality; the levels of relational intimacy and informational openness lead to two subsequent levels of data-driven efficiency and data-driven effectiveness, impacting significantly on relationship quality and enabling relational innovation.
Originality/value
The research explores the link, so far underestimated, between digital servitization and relationship quality in industrial contexts.
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Dan-Richard Knudsen, Anatoli Bourmistrov and Katarina Kaarbøe
Research suggests that centers of calculation, empowered by accounting inscriptions, are similar to maps: they provide a useful, albeit simplified, version of reality. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests that centers of calculation, empowered by accounting inscriptions, are similar to maps: they provide a useful, albeit simplified, version of reality. The purposes of this paper are to examine whether and how digital platforms change the nature of centers of calculation, and to improve the understanding of the relationship between digital platforms and accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth, single case-study design is used to empirically investigate how a Nordic hotel chain competed with global online travel agencies (OTAs) in the quest for the “new oil”—customer data.
Findings
The paper demonstrates how the case organization created a local alternative to global digital platforms with the aim of acquiring customer data, thereby moving from a center of calculation (CoC) to what authors label a “center of data appropriation” (CDA). While CoCs are guided by accounting inscriptions that enable “mapping”, CDAs are constructed around accounting inscriptions with other properties that enable digital “mirrors” of the economic domain. The authors find that this has two governing effects. First, multiple centers emerge that compete for access to the periphery. Second, future forms of competition can follow dynamic trajectories, where mutual dependence between CDAs may lead to coopetition.
Originality/value
Scholars have suggested that surveillance capitalism creates market-power imbalances. This study indicates that the transformation of local organizations into CDAs enables them to challenge global digital-platform organizations. Therefore, authors argue that local organizations may retain some market power by establishing local CDAs.
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Riyad Moosa and Smita Kashiramka
This study aims to explore the relationship between the objectives of Islamic banking, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the South African context. Diving deep, this…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relationship between the objectives of Islamic banking, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the South African context. Diving deep, this study also explores the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used, resulting in 163 respondents participating in this study. The data was collected using an online survey and analysed using a structural equation model based on the partial least squares method.
Findings
The results indicate that the construct related to the objectives of Islamic banking influences both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In addition, customer satisfaction is also found to influence a customer’s loyalty to the Islamic bank.
Originality/value
In South Africa, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind; thus, the results provide context-specific insights into the extant literature on Islamic banking for Muslims residing in a non-Muslim majority country.
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Razali Haron, Noradilah Abdul Subar and Khairunisah Ibrahim
The objective of this study is to examine the impact of PAKSERV model on customers' satisfaction, loyalty and trust in Malaysian Islamic banks. These comprehensive measures…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this study is to examine the impact of PAKSERV model on customers' satisfaction, loyalty and trust in Malaysian Islamic banks. These comprehensive measures concern on the cultural dimension of service quality by focusing on the mediating role of trust in the Malaysian context.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted involving 401 customers of Islamic banks in the states of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. The data were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model employing AMOS 23 and SPSS 23.
Findings
The study found positive relationship of PAKSERV dimensions of service quality, customers' satisfaction, customers' loyalty and the mediating role of trust in enhancing customers' loyalty. This study provides new evidence on how trust can act as a partial mediation on the relationship between customers' satisfaction and customers' loyalty in the cultural context of Islamic banking in Malaysia.
Practical implications
The findings of this study can be used as a framework for other Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in improving services to its customers.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the body of knowledge in enhancing the understanding on customers' satisfaction, loyalty and trust in Islamic banks in Malaysia. This study also covers a broad range of respondents, hence representing a good diversity of Islamic banks' customers.
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This paper determines how travel intentions can be predicted using self-disclosure behaviour, trust and intimacy. This case study focuses on Tinder users who utilised the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper determines how travel intentions can be predicted using self-disclosure behaviour, trust and intimacy. This case study focuses on Tinder users who utilised the application's Passport feature which allowed them to travel virtually and interact with other users around the globe amid global travel restrictions.
Design/methodology/approach
This quantitative research conveniently sampled 294 Tinder users who used the Passport feature during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Data were analysed using PLS-SEM.
Findings
This study revealed that self-disclosure had a significant influence towards future travel intentions. Findings show that the more users self-disclose, the more their intent to travel increase. Trust and intimacy also had significant relationship on travel intentions while intimacy had a mediating effect between self-disclosure and travel intentions.
Practical implications
Tourism-oriented establishments and destination marketers should consider Tinder users as a market segment of future tourists. These users have developed travel intentions through in-app interactions and thus comprise an untapped market of potential tourists seeking for meet-ups and niche experiences in a post-pandemic era.
Originality/value
This study provides novelty in showing the predictive relationship of self-disclosure, trust and intimacy towards travel intentions. A model consisting of these constructs in the context of online interactions was also empirically tested and found adequate to predict travel intentions.
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Apostolos Giovanis and Pinelopi Athanasopoulou
The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test a lovemark measure that can be used to identify how brands of wireless-enabled computing devices are classified based…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test a lovemark measure that can be used to identify how brands of wireless-enabled computing devices are classified based on customers’ respect and love toward them.
Design/methodology/approach
On evidence drawn from 1,016 consumers of wireless-enabled computing devices (e.g. netbooks and tablets) in Greece, partial least squares method is used to test the validity of the proposed hierarchical model.
Findings
Results show that a lovemark measure can be conceptualized as a third-order reflective construct having respect and love as its second-order dimensions. In turn, respect reflects on brand performance, trust and reputation, and love reflects on brand commitment, intimacy and passion. The proposed measure presents a very good external validity as it can explain big portions of variance in consumer responses including repurchase intentions, positive WOM and willingness to pay a price premium. Finally, the proposed measure is used to classify eight well-known devices as products, fads, brands and lovemarks and identify the love styles associated with brand relationships.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence for measuring and identifying lovemarks using a hierarchical model, which can be further used to develop a more effective strategy for managing the functional and emotional aspects of brands to strengthen consumer-brand relationships.
Propósito
El objetivo de este estudio es el desarrollo metodológico y validación empírica de una escala para clasificar las marcas de productos tecnológicos en base a las dos dimensiones que caracterizan a las marcas Lovemark: el respecto y amor.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Con una base de datos recogidos de una muestra de 1.106 consumidores de productos tecnológicos (e.g., tablets y portátiles pequeños) en Grecia, se usa PLS para testar la validez del modelo jerárquico propuesto.
Resultados
Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que el concepto Lovemark puede ser conceptualizado como un constructo reflectivo de tres dimensiones siendo el respeto y el amor hacia la marca las dimensiones de segundo orden. A su vez, el respeto hacia la marca refleja el desempeño, la confianza y reputación de la marca mientras que el amor queda reflejado en conceptos tales como el compromiso, la intimidad y la pasión. La medida propuesta presenta una aceptable validez externa pues es capaz de explicar mayor porcentaje de la varianza de las intenciones de compra, la comunicación boca-oreja positiva y la disposición a pagar un mayor precio por la marca. Finalmente, se demuestra la utilidad de la medida propuesta para clasificar ocho marcas conocidas según los niveles de amor y respeto que los consumidores manifiestan hacia las mismas así como identificar los estilos de amor asociados a la relación que los consumidores mantienen con estas marcas.
Originalidad/valor
Este trabajo ofrece evidencias empíricas para medir e identificar las Lovemark usando un modelo jeráquico que puede ser utilizado posteriormente para desarrollar una estrategia más efectiva en la gestión de los aspectos funcionales y emocionales de las marcas como medio para fortalecer las relaciones marca-consumidor.
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Bart Kamp and Iñigo Ruiz de Apodaca
This paper aims to study whether international niche market leaders (INMLs) gained their leading position as early mover or diligent follower, and assess whether they leveraged…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study whether international niche market leaders (INMLs) gained their leading position as early mover or diligent follower, and assess whether they leveraged hard or soft forms of technological, supply pre-emption and customer lock-in advantage mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical material stems from qualitative and quantitative data on a sample of 20 niche companies from the Basque Country (Spain) that operate in business to business markets.
Findings
The sample predominantly followed an early entrant strategy and applied soft measures to reach niche market leadership.
Research limitations/implications
Findings imply that early entering fosters conquering leadership in niche markets, that pioneer advantage is easier to sustain in niches than in mainstream markets, and that soft measures are more effective in niche markets than in larger markets. A limitation to our findings is that they follow from explorative research on a sample of firms from a reduced geographic setting.
Practical implications
Hidden champions and INMLs can be important sources of technological progress and economic value for the localities that host them. Therefore, despite their traditional low profile and the fact that they are not always the largest firms around, policymakers may want to pay more attention to this type of companies.
Originality/value
Tot he best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to research entry timing and its outcome for market leadership with regard to niche players or hidden champions-type of firms. It introduces an original taxonomy to operationalize and distinguish between hard and soft measures to leverage advantage mechanisms related to market entry timing.
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Abstract
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Elisabete Sá, Minoo Farhangmehr, José Carlos Pinho and Sally Dibb
This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the marketing process and practices taking place during the initial stages of the company development, by revealing the distinct…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the marketing process and practices taking place during the initial stages of the company development, by revealing the distinct entrepreneurial marketing process and mix resulting from the entrepreneurs’ decision-making process.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the critical incident technique, the study analyzes 146 marketing decisions made by entrepreneurs. The resulting marketing activities are aligned in a process and compared with the mainstream managerial marketing process.
Findings
The results provide the basis for an entrepreneurial marketing framework with four phases: product creation – product–market fit – market expansion – refocus. An entrepreneurial marketing mix is also proposed, consisting of productisement, people and proof of value.
Originality/value
While the managerial marketing process is well established, the entrepreneurial marketing process remains largely uncharted. The framework provided contributes to identifying the main marketing concerns and understanding how the marketing process is implemented by entrepreneurs in the earlier phases of the firm. Practical suggestions are offered regarding the marketing operations of the new firms and the critical marketing aspects to consider.
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