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1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 16 April 2024

Dr Dongmei Zha, Pantea Foroudi and Reza Marvi

This paper aims to introduce the experience-dominant (Ex-D) logic model, which synthesizes the creation, perceptions and outcomes of Ex-D logic. It is designed to offer valuable…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to introduce the experience-dominant (Ex-D) logic model, which synthesizes the creation, perceptions and outcomes of Ex-D logic. It is designed to offer valuable insights for strategic managerial applications and future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing a qualitative approach by using eight selected product launch events from reviewed 100 event videos and 55 in-depth interviews with industrial managers to develop an Ex-D logic model, and data were coded and analysed via NVivo.

Findings

Results show that the firm’s Ex-D logic is operationalized as the mentalizing of the three types of customer needs (service competence, hedonic excitations and meaning making), the materializing of three types of customer experiences and customer journeys (service experience, hedonic experience and brand experience) and the moderating of three types of customer values (service values, hedonic values and brand values).

Research limitations/implications

This study has implications for adding new insights into existing theory on dominant logic and customer experience management and also offers actionable recommendations for managerial applications.

Originality/value

This study sheds light on the importance of Ex-D logic from a strategic point of view and provides an organic view of the firm. It distinguishes firm perspective from customer perspective, firm experience from customer experience and firm journey from consumer journey.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 March 2024

Susanna Pinnock, Natasha Evers and Thomas Hoholm

The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex…

Abstract

Purpose

The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex healthcare market. Drawing on effectuation perspectives, we explore how entrepreneurial digital healthcare firms with disruptive innovations search for early customers in the healthcare sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a qualitative, longitudinal multiple-case design of four entrepreneurial Nordic telehealth firms. In-depth interviews were conducted with founders and senior managers over a period of 27 months.

Findings

We find that when customer buying conditions are highly flexible, case firms use effectual logic to generate customer demand for disruptive innovations. However, under constrained buying conditions firms adopt a more causal approach to customer search.

Practical implications

Managers need to gain a deep understanding of target buying environments when searching for customers. In healthcare sector markets, the degree of flexibility customers have over buying can constrain them from engaging in demand co-creation. In particular, healthcare customer access to funding streams can be a key determinant of customer flexibility.

Originality/value

We contribute to effectuation literature by illustrating how customer buying conditions influence decision-making logics of entrepreneurial firms searching for customers in the healthcare sector. We contribute to entrepreneurial resource search literature by illustrating how entrepreneurial firms search for customers beyond their networks in the institutionally complex healthcare sector.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 April 2023

Mian M. Ajmal, Amin Jan, Mehmood Khan, Matloub Hussain and Anas A. Salameh

This study aims to identify and categorize the barriers and motivators to value co-creation and to establish its theoretical link with the five axioms of value co-creation.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to identify and categorize the barriers and motivators to value co-creation and to establish its theoretical link with the five axioms of value co-creation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a qualitative approach based on a bibliographic literature review for identifying barriers and motivators of value co-creation. Subsequently, this study grouped those barriers and motivators into three categories. It further linked those barriers and motivators with five axioms of value co-creation using the grounded theory.

Findings

Results based on the categorization of barriers show that the first category “organization and system-related barriers” is associated with Axioms 1, 2 and 5 of the service-dominant logic. The second category “customer-oriented barriers” is associated with Axioms 2, 4 and 5. The third category of barriers “social environmental and economic barriers” is related to only Axiom 3. Results based on the motivators show that the first category “organization and system-related motivators” is associated with Axioms 2 and 4. The second category of “customer-oriented motivators” is associated with Axioms 1, 2, 3 and 5. The third category of motivators “social environmental and economic motivators” is related to Axioms 3 and 5.

Practical implications

These results provide insights to managers for eradicating barriers from the value co-creation process by emphasizing strategic intrusion into those axioms that contain a high percentage of barriers. Similarly, it also provides insights to managers for expediting motivators of value co-creation by strategic intrusion based on the axioms that contain a high percentage of motivators. Overall, this study will serve for greater value co-creation by eradicating barriers and promoting motivators. This study also provides a theoretical foundation for future studies intended to establish a theoretical connection between the barriers and motivators with value co-creation in other industries.

Originality/value

This study is novel in terms of identifying barriers and motivators of value creation by categorizing those identified barriers and motivators into three sub-categories. This study is the first one for linking barriers and motivators with five axioms of value creation for a micro-level policy formulation.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2024

Marco Antonio Robledo

Customer transformation is currently overlooked in service research. This article aims to conceptualize customer transformation and develop a research agenda to encourage more…

Abstract

Purpose

Customer transformation is currently overlooked in service research. This article aims to conceptualize customer transformation and develop a research agenda to encourage more exploration in this area.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual article builds on the literature on transformation and related topics in psychology, sociology, education and anthropology.

Findings

The presented definition of customer transformation distinguishes itself from other related concepts such as minor change. The research agenda, structured around five themes, reveals four distinctive attributes of customer transformation that warrant academic investigation. These include the inability of businesses to guarantee transformations, the potential tension between transformational aspirations and immediate needs and well-being, the imperative of cultivating long-term engagement and the likelihood of encountering customer resistance. This highlights the criticality of embracing a customer-centric approach in transformational services.

Research limitations/implications

Given the vastness of the topic, the literature review is limited and the research agenda could be widened. Furthermore, the dynamic nature of the subject introduces the possibility that the conceptual framework and research agenda may become outdated. Lastly, the universal applicability of the findings and the proposed conceptual framework are uncertain, necessitating potential validation across diverse contexts. The practical implications may also fall short of addressing the specific challenges encountered by different industries or businesses.

Practical implications

The article provides insights on customer transformation and strategies for businesses to support ongoing transformations, emphasizing personalized engagement and co-creating value to meet evolving customer aspirations.

Social implications

The need for development and growth is more pressing and decisive than ever. This need is often not well understood and, as a result, is not addressed by either scholars or companies. This paper helps address that social need.

Originality/value

The research enriches the service literature by paving the way for a crucial subfield in service research. Additionally, it establishes a shared understanding of customer transformation by highlighting its distinct characteristics and analyzing their implications for service management, proposing a conceptual framework and research agenda.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 August 2023

Liang Xiao, Jiawei Wang and Xinyu Wei

Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms…

Abstract

Purpose

Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms. This study integrates VCC and social network theories, introduces relational embeddedness and divides this variable into economic and social relational embeddedness to explore its impact on VCC intention. This study also explores the mediating and moderating roles of customers' psychological ownership (CPO) and regulatory focus, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was conducted among users of mainstream social e-commerce platforms in China, and the relationship among the variables was revealed through a structural equation modeling of 464 valid responses.

Findings

The dimensions of relational embeddedness positively affect CPO and VCC intention, with social relational embeddedness exerting the strongest effect. CPO positively affects VCC intention and partially mediates the relationship between relational embeddedness and VCC intention. Promotion and prevention focus positively and negatively moderate the relationship between CPO and VCC intention, respectively.

Originality/value

This study expands the VCC research perspective and links the VCC concepts to social network dynamics. From the relational embeddedness perspective, this study identifies the type and intensity of relational embeddedness that promotes users' VCC intention and contributes to theoretical research on VCC and relational embeddedness. This study also introduces CPO as an intermediary variable, thus opening the black box of this mechanism, and confirms the moderating role of regulatory focus as the key psychological factor motivating users' VCC intention.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 18 December 2023

Christian Grönroos

In servitization research, there has been a call to move further toward the development of business models based on a service approach. This article aims to answer this call by…

Abstract

Purpose

In servitization research, there has been a call to move further toward the development of business models based on a service approach. This article aims to answer this call by adopting service logic (SL) and developing strategies and organizational resources and processes to create a service-centric business model called servification, defined as the process of identifying and developing strategies and organizational resources and processes to create a business model based on SL.

Design/methodology/approach

This article is conceptual and extends servitization in the direction of service-centric business model innovation by drawing on and extending SL.

Findings

The article defines service as a higher-order concept according to SL and develops the concept of a helping strategy as the foundation for a service-based business model. Further, it develops a typology of organizational resources and processes that must be developed for the emergence of such a business model.

Research limitations/implications

Since this article is the first to conceptually develop servification, more both theoretical and empirical research is naturally required. The development of servification takes servitization in the direction of service-based business model innovation and also contributes to the research on SL.

Practical implications

Servification enables the development of service-centric strategies and organizational resources and processes and service-based business models.

Originality/value

This article is the first to adopt SL in studies of business model innovation.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 March 2024

Inma Rodríguez-Ardura, Antoni Meseguer-Artola, Doaa Herzallah and Qian Fu

There is an ongoing challenge to map the efficacy of e-retailing strategies in building both value co-creation opportunities for online customers and customer value for companies…

Abstract

Purpose

There is an ongoing challenge to map the efficacy of e-retailing strategies in building both value co-creation opportunities for online customers and customer value for companies. Based on the service-dominant (S-D) logic, an integrative model is provided that connects the impact of convenience and personalisation strategies (CPSs) on an e-retailer's performance – by offering co-creation opportunities and customer engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey instrument is validated and the model is tested with data from active online customers using a novel methodology that blends artificial neural network (ANN) analysis with partial least squares (PLS) in both the measurement model and the path analysis.

Findings

The findings robustly support the model and yield evidence of the contribution of CPSs in effective value propositions, the interface between the S-D logic and customer engagement, and the direct effect of customer engagement on tangible forms of value for companies.

Originality/value

This study is the first scholarly effort to provide a comprehensive understanding of how and why CPSs can maximise customer value for the e-retailer, while simultaneously testing the customer value/engagement interface with a new blended ANN-PLS method.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2024

Fengwen Chen, Lu Zhang, Fu-Sheng Tsai and Bing Wang

This study focuses on the self-organized cooperative consumption of platform participants on social media platform, and reveals how the brand owner cooperates with two-sided…

Abstract

Purpose

This study focuses on the self-organized cooperative consumption of platform participants on social media platform, and reveals how the brand owner cooperates with two-sided customers to achieve value co-creation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted a case study approach to explore how a Chinese beauty startup developed collaborative networks from 2013 to 2022, and tracked the the changes of network structure and cooperation mechanism.

Findings

The study finds that the brand owner cooperates with two-sided customers to integrate resources and establish diverse relational trust, which enhances the evolution of a heterogeneous collaborative network for value co-creation.

Originality/value

The study builds upon traditional dyadic actor-to-actor interactions between providers and customers, develops a novel interaction framework of actor-to-network to explain the value co-creation by collaborative networking, reveals the self-organized mechanism of cooperative consumption on social media.

Details

Management Decision, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2023

Rodrigo Guesalaga, Jose L. Ruiz-Alba and Pablo J. López-Tenorio

The purpose of this study is to investigate the drivers of business-to-business (B2B) sales success and the role of digitalization, in a selling and sales management landscape…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the drivers of business-to-business (B2B) sales success and the role of digitalization, in a selling and sales management landscape being disrupted by COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology follows a discovery-oriented grounded theory approach, which consists of a two-stage qualitative study with sales professionals in Chile, and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

Findings

This research shows that interfunctional coordination, agility in the selling process and business customer engagement are critical determinants of B2B sales success, whereas digitalization moderates these relationships.

Originality/value

This research responds to a call for more research on the impact of digitalization on business relationships in different contexts and perspectives. The authors study the Chilean context, through a two-stage qualitative study, and a fsQCA analysis, which constitutes a novel combination in this stream of research.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 June 2023

Eugenia Rosca and Kelsey M. Taylor

This paper examines how different configurations of societal impact are pursued by purpose-driven organizations (PDOs) and how these configurations align with the application of…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines how different configurations of societal impact are pursued by purpose-driven organizations (PDOs) and how these configurations align with the application of varying supply chain design (SCD) practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This multi-method study uses quantitative data from 1588 B Corps and qualitative data from 316 B Corps to examine how PDOs align SCD with the pursuit of diverse types of societal impact. The authors first conduct a cluster analysis to group organizations based on the impact they create. Second, qualitative content analysis connects impact with enabling SCD elements.

Findings

The analysis of the five identified clusters provides detailed empirical insights on influencers, design decisions and building blocks adopted by PDOs to drive a range of societal impacts. Specifically, the nature of the impact pursued affects (1) whether a PDO will be more influenced by a need in the political environment or an opportunity in the industry environment, (2) the relative importance of the design of social flows versus material flows and (3) the need to develop new relational resources with beneficiaries versus leveraging existing capabilities to manage inter-firm processes.

Originality/value

This study responds to calls to disaggregate different dimensions of societal impact and examines the relationship between SCD and a breadth of sustainability impacts for different stakeholders. In doing so, the authors identify four SCD pathways organizations can follow to achieve specific societal impacts. This study is also the first to employ a supply chain perspective in the study of certified B Corps.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

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