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This paper validates the customer contact measurement model by performing a replication using three different sample groups. The impact of customer, managerial, and cultural differences is examined. Findings indicate that all validation groups use similar variables when defining the customer contact construct. The measurement model is robust when compared to US customer and managerial validation groups. However, the applicability across culture is questioned.

Presents a programme of research from which a typology of service customers’ quality assurance behaviours was developed. The typology’s four behaviours define the broad range of service customers’ participation in service quality assurance. Examines the relationship between these behaviours and satisfaction. Presents an initial conceptualization of a service customer’s value chain constructed from these behaviours. Provides implications for services marketing, human resource management and service operations. In sum, the two conceptual frameworks presented in this research add to researchers’ and practitioners’ understanding of how customer participation in service delivery is related to satisfaction.

Drawing upon the consistency literature, the theory of visual rhetoric and social judgment of warmth and competence, this study examines the determinants and impacts of perceived interface design consistency in the context of charity websites.

To identify design factors of perceived interface design consistency, this study separates charity website interface design into two aspects: main appeal design (i.e. appeal quality) and peripheral design (i.e. image type). The authors designed a two (appeal quality: low vs high) × three (image type: control vs adults vs children) controlled lab experiment to investigate the effects of various interface choices. A total of 217 subjects participated in the experiment. The authors used structural equation model (SEM) analysis and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to test the research hypotheses.

This study found that appeal quality and human images increase perceived interface design consistency. The authors also found that the relationship between appeal quality and perceived interface design consistency is moderated by image type. Finally, the authors showed that perceived interface design consistency increases perceived warmth and competence of charity websites, which in turn affect intention to use the website for donations.

The authors’ findings provide novel insights for theory on consistency and interface design and practical implications for charity website designers by identifying determinants and consequences of perceived interface design consistency.

Volumes 70 and 71 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations combine to comprise cutting edge theory and empirical scholarship at the interface of practice and institution in organization studies. As we highlight, this interface has spurred particularly generative conversations with many open questions, and much to explore. We provide a review of scholarly developments in practice theory and organizational institutionalism that have given rise to this interest in building a bridge between scholarly communities. As signaled by recent efforts to construct a practice-driven institutionalism, we highlight how connecting practice theory with the institutional logics perspective provides a particularly attractive focal point for scholarship at this interface due to a variety of shared ontological and epistemological commitments, including the constitution of actors and their behavior. Collectively, the papers assembled unlock exciting opportunities to connect distinct, but related scholarly communities on practice and institution, seeding scholarship that can advance our understanding of organizational and societal dynamics.

Volumes 70 and 71 of Research in the Sociology of Organizations combine to comprise cutting edge theory and empirical scholarship at the interface of practice and institution in organization studies. As we highlight, this interface has spurred particularly generative conversations with many open questions, and much to explore. We provide a review of scholarly developments in practice theory and organizational institutionalism that have given rise to this interest in building a bridge between scholarly communities. As signaled by recent efforts to construct a practice-driven institutionalism, we highlight how connecting practice theory with the institutional logics perspective provides a particularly attractive focal point for scholarship at this interface due to a variety of shared ontological and epistemological commitments, including the constitution of actors and their behavior. Collectively, the papers assembled unlock exciting opportunities to connect distinct, but related scholarly communities on practice and institution, seeding scholarship that can advance our understanding of organizational and societal dynamics.

HP sells configure-to-order products. With millions of part combinations going into an order, the challenge is deciding which parts to keep in the portfolio to balance costs with revenues. The case explains how one would approach this problem before product introduction, but focuses on managing the existing portfolio.

Students will develop a systematic, data-driven approach to decide on the best product portfolio to sell for a configure-to-order business. Which SKUs are candidates for a “global core” product offering? For an extended offering? For elimination?

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Borrowing from practice theory to enhance institutional theory has much potential. It may help institutional scholars reconnect with its constructivist, processual origins. Yet previous attempts of borrowing across paradigmatic boundaries – both in organization studies and in institutional theory – teach us that borrowing is not a straightforward adoption. Instead, theories that cross known paradigmatic boundaries go through a process of translation, and may well get lost in the way. In this paper, the author focuses on methodology and points to impediments to the fruitful adoption of a practice-driven approach to institutionalization, and offers ways to overcome them. In particular, the author points to the need to change the focus from process as an outcome to the inner life of the process; capturing action in vivo and in situ; and finding ways to focus on practice yet not lose connection to its institutional context and implications.

The aim of this study is to understand the knowledge-sharing structure and co-production of trip-related knowledge through online travel forums.

The travel forum threads were collected from TripAdvisor’s Sydney travel forum for the period from 2010 to 2014, which contains 115,847 threads from 8,346 conversations. The data analytical technique was based on a novel methodological approach – visual analytics, including semantic pattern generation and network analysis.

Findings indicate that the knowledge structure is created by community residents who camouflage as local experts and serve as ambassadors of a destination. The knowledge structure presents collective intelligence co-produced by community residents and tourists. Further findings reveal how these community residents associate with each other and form a knowledge repertoire with information covering various travel domain areas.

The study offers valuable insights to help destination-management organizations and tour operators identify existing and emerging tourism issues to achieve a competitive destination advantage.

This study highlights the process of social media mediated travel knowledge co-production. It also discovers how community residents engage in reaching out to tourists by camouflaging as ordinary users.