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This paper aims to explore how customer involvement unfolds in the development of a smart product. Smart product development poses new challenges to firms. In particular, the buyers’ and users’ involvement has shown novel dynamics in smart product development. These peculiarities are linked with the specific characteristics of the digital technology embedded into the smart products. This study’s rationale is to analyse the frictions arising from potential divergent objectives between the focal firm and its customers when digital technologies are embedded in traditional products.

This study adopted an explorative and qualitative approach to investigate new emerging dynamics of customer involvement during technological development. A coffee machine producer is selected as a case study to uncover new insights and a novel perspective on the phenomenon of customer involvement in smart product development. Data analysis followed an abductive approach that allowed to identify the dimensions of friction emerging during the technological development process.

The case study analysis depicts that smart product development presents novel customer involvement dynamics. In particular, this study abductively identifies dimensions of friction emerging between the focal firm and buyers/users. Friction arises in the technological interface between the actors involved. These dimensions of friction address the complexities of developing technology in terms of smart products with customer involvement. This study suggests that embedding of technology into an existing product might change how customers are involved.

Even though customer involvement in product innovation has been extensively studied in management literature, this paper focused on a new type of innovation, smart products. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have yet empirically explored customers’ involvement while embedding digital technologies into existing products to create smart products. In particular, this study sheds light on the dimensions of friction emerging between the focal firm and the actors of the business network. This study unfolds novel contributions to the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing literature on technological development.

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.

Emojis are quickly becoming a popular new language in social media and marketing. The capability to express emotions and make message understanding easier is one of the primary reasons for using emojis. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and involvement on customer engagement due to emojis used in digital marketing communications among Generation Z (Gen Z) in South Africa.

Following the descriptive research approach, quantitative research was used in this study. A questionnaire (self-administered) was utilized to test the effectiveness of using emojis among 1,000 young consumers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of the study yielded positive relationships between the variables, namely between trust and involvement; involvement and the perceived ease of use; involvement and perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; trust and customer engagement; perceived usefulness and customer engagement; involvement and customer engagement; customer engagement and intention to purchase; trust and intention to purchase; and perceived usefulness and intention to purchase.

This study can help organizations in emerging markets use emojis in their digital marketing communications to engage customers and stimulate intention to purchase among young people, especially the Gen Z cohort, who seek organizations and brands that understand and connect with them.

By investigating the effects of emojis in digital marketing communications, this study contributes to the customer-centric process and the literature on emoji usage while also involving a credible digital language when communicating with members of Gen Z. By extending TAM, the findings of this study contribute to the TAM literature by demonstrating that emoji usage in digital marketing communications positively influences various attitudinal associations among Gen Z consumers.

The purpose of this study is to operationalise and measure the effects of negative customer engagement (CE) in conjunction with positive CE. Both valences are explored through affective, cognitive and behaviour dimensions, and, in relation to the antecedent of involvement and outcome of word-of-mouth (WOM). It also explores the moderating influence of service context by examining engagement within a social service versus a social networking site (SNS). Engagement with the dual focal objects of a service brand and a service community are also examined.

Structural equation modelling is used to analyse 625 survey responses.

Involvement is a strong driver of positive CE, and positive CE has a strong effect on WOM. These findings are consistent across the “brand” and “community” object, suggesting positive CE is mutually reinforced by different objects in a relationship. Positive CE is also found to operate consistently across the service types. Involvement is a moderately negative driver of negative CE, and negative CE is a positive driver of WOM. These relationships operate differently across the objects and service types. Involvement has a stronger inverse effect on negative CE for the social service, diverging from assumptions that negative CE is reflective of highly involved customers. Interestingly, negative CE has a stronger effect on WOM in the social service, highlighting the active and vocal nature of customers within this service context.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to quantitatively measure positive and negative valences of engagement concurrently, and examine the moderating effect of dual objects across contrasting service types.

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study clarifies the roles of authenticity, interactivity and involvement in predicting customer engagement (CE) and, ultimately, customer loyalty towards an online peer-to-peer accommodation platform. In addition, the study explores the effect of interactivity in increasing authenticity.

Data were collected through an online questionnaire of a sample of Italian tourists who had previously booked a service on Airbnb. The analyses were conducted by adopting partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The model has high power in predicting customer loyalty to an online peer-to-peer accommodation platform. Specifically, involvement is the primary predictor of CE and customer loyalty. Authenticity and interactivity also have a significant and positive effect both on CE and customer loyalty. In addition, CE partially mediates the relationship between authenticity, interactivity and involvement and customer loyalty. Finally, interactivity has a significant positive effect on authenticity.

The results encourage hospitality service providers to invest in the creation (and co-creation) of authentic experiences to increase CE and customer loyalty. Hospitality managers can also enhance CE by increasing involvement and interaction with customers through various touchpoints (online and offline) in different moments of the customer journey.

This study proposes an original model to predict customer loyalty to peer-to-peer hospitality platforms. The findings shed new light on the drivers of CE and provide empirical support for the mediating effect of CE. The study also contributes to the literature on authenticity by demonstrating the positive effect of interactivity on authenticity.

The purpose of this paper is to assess, clarify and consolidate the terminology around the co-creation of services, establish its forms and identify its outcomes, to resolve the conceptual pluralism in service co-creation literature.

A focused literature review screened the articles published in five major service research journals to determine relevant contributions on the concept of co-creation of services. Then, a thematic analysis identifies the forms, themes and outcomes of co-creating services in the set of 80 qualifying articles.

The study reduces conceptual pluralism by establishing different forms of co-creating services and developing an explicit definition of co-creation in services. The authors develop an integrative framework that recognizes involvement, engagement and participation as prerequisites for co-creation. Relating to the different phases of the service process, the specific co-creation forms of co-ideation, co-valuation, co-design, co-testing and co-launching are classified as regenerative co-creation, while the specific co-creation forms of co-production and co-consumption are recognized as operative co-creation. Both beneficial and counterproductive outcomes of co-creation are identified and arranged into a typology.

The integrative framework illustrates that service providers and customers are involved, engaged and participate in co-creating services, which manifests in specific forms of co-creation; they attain beneficial and counterproductive outcomes (personal, social, hedonic, cognitive, economic and pragmatic); and are influenced by a contextual multi-actor network.

Co-creation in services is actionable; the typology of outcomes suggests service managers ways to motivate customers and employees to participate in co-creating services.

This paper defines and establishes the conceptual forms of co-creating services and the identified outcomes, and develops an integrative framework of co-creation in services.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how positive behaviors toward influencers (customer interaction) and promoted products (looking for product information) can be achieved, taking into account influencer–product fit, in a fashion marketing campaign. In addition, account following and product involvement are examined as possible moderators in these relationships.

The data were gathered from online participants. The participants were Instagram users who already knew a popular influencer on the platform. The experimental design manipulated the types of picture posted by the influencer to observe customers’ reactions in terms of intention to interact with the influencer’s account and to look for further information about promoted products.

The authors’ findings suggested that influencer–product matches in posts on Instagram encourage users to search for information about promoted products but do not affect their intention to interact with influencers’ accounts. Nevertheless, customers’ reactions toward an influencer’s posts differ based on whether they are followers of the influencer and whether they are highly or lowly involved with the promoted product.

Both brands and influencers should properly manage influencer marketing actions. Brands should control influencers’ audiences and their involvement with featured products so that they are seen to promote them in a natural way. Influencers should endorse branded products that fit their own style; this will increase the interaction on their accounts.

This research contributes to a better understanding of how users can be encouraged to undertake positive online actions as regards influencers (interaction with their accounts) and promoted products (information search) in influencer marketing campaigns.

Esta investigación analiza cómo lograr comportamientos positivos hacia los influencers (mayor interacción del consumidor con la cuenta) y los productos promocionados (búsqueda de información sobre el producto), en función del ajuste influencer-producto en una campaña de marketing de moda. Además, se estudian el seguimiento de la cuenta y la implicación con el producto como posibles moderadores en estas relaciones.

Los datos de la investigación se recogieron a través de una encuesta realizada a usuarios de Instagram que conocían previamente a la influencer estudiada. A través de un diseño experimental se manipularon las publicaciones de la influencer para analizar las reacciones de los consumidores, más concretamente, sus intenciones de interactuar con la cuenta del influencer y de buscar más información sobre los productos promocionados.

Los resultados de la investigación sugieren que un buen ajuste entre los influencers y los productos promocionados incentiva a los usuarios a buscar información sobre éstos productos, pero no afecta a su intención de interactuar con la cuenta de Instagram de la influencer. No obstante, las reacciones hacia las publicaciones de la influencer difieren dependiendo de si los consumidores son o no seguidores de la influencer y del nivel de implicación con el producto promocionado.

El trabajo muestra la necesidad de gestionar adecuadamente las acciones de marketing en las que participan influencers. Las marcas deben conocer el público al que se dirigen los influencers y su implicación con los productos promocionados, para que la publicación promocionada resulte natural. Por su parte, los influencers deben promocionar los productos de marcas que se ajusten a su propio estilo para así incrementar la interacción del público con sus cuentas.

Este trabajo indica algunas de las características que han de tener las campañas de marketing con influencers cuando su objetivo es estimular comportamientos de los consumidores tales como la interacción con la cuenta y la búsqueda de información sobre el producto.

Trabajo de investigación

Mobile services are expanding rapidly, and in this tremendously dynamic environment, companies should provide value-added services to meet users’ demand. In this context, the study aims to determine whether different user groups exist in this market and profile them.

Based on the information of 568 mobile service users, a research was developed in the context of a mature mobile services market – Spain. A behavior-based cluster analysis is developed by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), followed by two-step clustering. Then, an ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests are conducted to confirm differences among the obtained clusters.

The study findings show that mobile service users cannot be perceived as a homogenous group, as different users with different behaviors coexist in this market. More specifically, four behavior-based segments emerge in the mobile service sector: “service connoisseurs,” “uninvolved pragmatics,” “potential switchers” and “delighted loyal”; “potential switchers” being the most challenging segment for mobile service companies.

This study reports mobile service users’ heterogeneity; and in turn, mobile service managers should consider customers as four different types, instead of considering them as one single customer.

Los servicios móviles se están expandiendo rápidamente y en este entorno tremendamente dinámico, las compañías de servicios móviles deberían de proporcionar servicios de valor añadido para satisfacer la demanda de sus usuarios. En este contexto, esta investigación tiene como objetivo determinar si existen diferentes grupo de usuarios en este mercado y aportar su pefil.

Sobre la base de información de 568 usuarios de servicios móviles se lleva a cabo una investigación en el contexto de un mercado de servicios móviles maduro –España-. Se lleva a cabo un análisis clúster basado en el comportamiento de los usuarios, mediante un análisis factorial confirmatorio (CFA), seguido de un análisis clúster bi-etápico. A continuación, se realizan un test Anova y un test pos hoc de Tuckey para confirmar las diferencias entre los grupos obtenidos.

Los resultados de la investigación muestran que los usuarios de servicios móviles no pueden ser percibidos como un grupo homogéneo, ya que en este mercado coexisten diferentes usuarios con diferentes comportamientos. Más específicamente, cuatro segmentos de usuarios surgen en el sector de los servicios móviles basados en su comportamiento: “conocedores del servicio”, “pragmáticos no involucrados”, “potenciales cambiadores de servicio” y “leales encantados”, siendo “potenciales cambiadores de servicio” los que presentan un mayor desafío las empresas de servicios móviles.

Este estudio muestra la heterogeneidad de los usuarios de servicios móviles, y por tanto, los gestores de los servicios móviles deben considerar a sus clientes como cuatro tipos diferentes, en lugar de considerarlos como un único tipo de cliente.

移动服务正在迅速扩张，在这个巨大的动态环境中，企业应该提供增值服务来满足用户的需求。在此背景下，本研究旨在确定该市场是否存在不同的用户群体，并对其进行分析。

基于568名移动服务用户的信息，在一个成熟的移动服务市场（西班牙）的背景下开展了本次研究。通过确认性因子分析（CFA）进行基于行为的聚类分析，然后进行两步聚类。最后，方差分析和事后Tukey检验被用于确认获得的聚类之间的差异。

研究结果表明，移动服务用户不能被看作是一个同质的群体，因为在这个市场上共存着不同的用户，他们具有不同的行为。具体来说，移动服务领域可以划分为基于用户行为的四个细分市场："服务行家"、"不参与的实用主义者"、"潜在的转换者 "和 "愉悦的忠诚者"；其中，"潜在的转换者 "是对移动服务企业来说最具挑战性的细分市场。

本研究报告了移动服务用户的异质性；反过来，移动服务管理者应该考虑把客户划分为四种不同的类型，而不是将他们视为一个单一的整体。

This paper aims to study the impact of innovation climate (IC) on co-creating modular mass-customisation (CMMC) in terms of cost effectiveness, volume effectiveness, responsiveness, product modularity and collaborative assembly. Additionally, this research paper investigates the effect of IC and CMMC on the value to customer (VC) in a modular jewellery emerging market that includes international companies.

After conducting a comprehensive literature review, the authors suggested a conceptual framework and examined it using mixed methods approach. In addition to qualitative focus groups, questionnaires were filled – across five-point Likert scale format – through 63 depth interviews carried out with subject-matter-experts working at 14 international organisations in the Egyptian modular jewellery market. SmartPLS software was used for structural equation modelling analysis.

Results showed that CMMC positively and significantly affects VC. Furthermore, IC positively and significantly affects both CMMC and VC.

Recent industrial developments that can be observed in such international modular jewellery sector can be enhanced by the empirical evidence of this research regarding the importance of developing IC for more creative manufacturing approach of modular mass-customisation and better VC.

To the best of our knowledge, it is the first empirical study that investigates the relationship between CMMC, IC and VC in a unique jewellery market, which recently generated high customer involvement in the assembly/reassembly processes. Conceptually and empirically, it consolidates and adds to the literature of production and operations management (mass-customisation), organisational studies and innovation science (organisational climate for innovation) and applied social sciences.

I aimed to obtain a deeper insight into the link between supplier involvement in product development (SIPD), supplier relationship resilience and company performance.

To collect data, a survey among 500 Polish manufacturing companies was conducted. I used quantitative methods (structural equation modeling) to test several research hypotheses referring to a single supplier–customer relationship. Thanks to the use of multi-construct measurement of SIPD and supplier relationship resilience, the study provides detailed research results on the topic.

Collaborative practices implemented during SIPD increase procurement flexibility and decrease redundancy in the relationship with the involved supplier. Communication during SIPD increases supplier flexibility and procurement flexibility. Increased supplier flexibility and increased procurement flexibility in the relationship with the involved supplier as well as collaborative practices during SIPD positively impact company performance. I confirmed the indirect effect between communication during SIPD and company performance when the mediators are supplier flexibility and procurement flexibility. Decreased redundancy in relationship with involved supplier does not impact company performance.

Supply chain managers need to rethink SIPD practice to effectively ensure supply chain resilience (SCRES), especially in the face of the contemporary global crisis and black swans affecting the supplier base. My article provides important managerial insights into drivers of SCRES and company performance.

To the best of my knowledge, this research is among the first to conclude that SIPD does not have an unequivocally positive or direct impact on supplier relationship resilience. The research fills the gap by analyzing the impact of SIPD on two main SCRES elements. The study examines supplier relationship resilience, understood as flexibility and redundancy elements, in a single supplier–buyer relationship perspective. Thus, the presented considerations go beyond the traditional understanding of flexibility and redundancy in supplier relationship management, that is through the prism of double or multi sourcing and having back up-suppliers.