Search results
1 – 10 of 874Marius Kristiansen and Tor Helge Aas
Digital servitization research has focused on how manufacturing firms use digital technologies to change business models and offer smart services; less attention has been devoted…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital servitization research has focused on how manufacturing firms use digital technologies to change business models and offer smart services; less attention has been devoted to the degree to which external actors in the existing ecosystem accept these smart services. Therefore, the authors pose the following research question: How does a manufacturing firm introduce and gain acceptance of new smart services within an established ecosystem?
Design/methodology/approach
Building on servitization, ecosystem and legitimacy theories, this paper addresses the research question through an in-depth case study of a world-leading original equipment manufacturer that is currently developing and introducing new smart services in its existing ecosystem.
Findings
The findings suggest that external actors emphasize different types of legitimacy in deciding whether to accept a new smart service. The findings also show that the type of legitimacy required to gain acceptance changes throughout the development of the smart service, from the definition of the value proposition to the design and delivery of the service.
Practical implications
This study can assist smart service providers in identifying which type of legitimacy is important for each ecosystem actor and strengthening these types of legitimacy to gain acceptance from the ecosystem.
Originality/value
This study develops a framework to help describe the thresholds for acceptance of a smart service through the development phases, as well as to indicate the types of legitimacy that smart service providers must relate to when seeking to gain acceptance for their new offering.
Details
Keywords
Magnus Jansson, Patrik Michaelsen, Doron Sonsino and Tommy Gärling
The paper aims to investigate differences in non-professional and professional stock investors’ trust in and tendency to follow financial analysts’ buy and sell recommendations.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate differences in non-professional and professional stock investors’ trust in and tendency to follow financial analysts’ buy and sell recommendations.
Design/methodology/approach
Online experiment conducted in Sweden in March 2022 comparing non-professional private investors (n = 80), professional investors (n = 33), and master students in finance (n = 28). Information was presented about four company stocks listed on the New York stock exchange. Two stocks were buy-recommended and two stocks sell-recommended by financial analysts. For one stock of each type, the recommendation was presented to participants. Dependent variables were predictions of the stock price after three months, ratings of confidence in the predictions and choices of holding, buying or selling the stock. Ratings were also made of the importance of presented stock-related information as well as trust in analysts’ skill and integrity.
Findings
More positive return predictions were made of buy-recommended than sell-recommended stocks. Non-professionals and to some degree finance students tended to trust financial analysts more than professional investors did and they were more influenced by the presentation of the buy recommendations. All groups made too optimistic return predictions, but the professionals were less confident in their predictions, more likely to sell the stocks and lost less on their investments.
Originality/value
A new finding is that non-professional stock investors are more likely than professional stock investors to trust financial analysts and follow their recommendations. It suggests that financial analysts’ recommendations influence non-professional investors to take unmotivated investment risks. Non-professionals in the stock market should hence be advised to exercise more caution in following analysts’ recommendations.
Details
Keywords
The principal–agent literature often draws criticism for its ahistorical, acontextual and static nature, particularly when theories such as the agency or the stewardship theory…
Abstract
Purpose
The principal–agent literature often draws criticism for its ahistorical, acontextual and static nature, particularly when theories such as the agency or the stewardship theory are being used. This is because the field of economics tends to develop universalistic models and theories, excluding history, context and change, which renders them unusable for practitioners whose behavior is (partially) guided by the complex and differing environments in which they find themselves. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this criticism by investigating how (and if) history, context and change influence the principal–agent relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Instead of using the typical economic methodologies to study the principal–agent relationship, this paper makes use of the methodologies of the field of history to investigate how history, context and change affect principal–agent relationships in three cases in the early modern Southern Netherlands (the Dukes of Arenberg, the Roosewalle farm and Abbot De Loose of the Abbey of Ename). This methodology is especially suited, as it results in historical narratives that incorporate all of these three elements.
Findings
The main finding is that the cases show how history, context and change clearly affect the principal–agent relationship. These aspects are intricately intertwined, as earlier choices and context can cause a change in the principal–agent relationship, this creates a new presence (with an altered history) and sometimes even a new context. This results in a highly dynamic relationship that can evolve in very short periods, mostly in a path-dependent manner.
Research limitations/implications
The paper advocates by example for a shift in principal–agent research, emphasizing the necessity of considering history, context and change. This study demonstrates that these factors greatly affect the nature of the principal–agent relationship. In doing so, it may provide practitioners with better insights, as real-world principal–agent relationships are indeed impacted by these three factors.
Originality/value
By using historical methods, this study shows for the first time how context, change and history indeed influence principal–agent relationships. The findings of this paper encourage the development of theories and theoretical frameworks that more closely resemble reality, rather than being universalistic.
Details
Keywords
Chiara Ancillai, Sara Bartoloni and Federica Pascucci
The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the B2B customers’ perspective regarding salespeople’s social media use.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the B2B customers’ perspective regarding salespeople’s social media use.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 26 key informants performing their job in customer role in various industries.
Findings
The authors inductively identify five themes regarding the B2B customers’ perspective of social media use in B2B selling. These themes allow for valuable implications for social selling activities and expected outcomes.
Originality/value
Against a growing body of literature on drivers, best practices and outcomes of social media use by B2B salespeople, less attention has been paid to the customer’s side. The authors extend current research by providing a more complete picture of social selling activities and expected outcomes.
Details
Keywords
Sharneet Singh Jagirdar and Pradeep Kumar Gupta
The present study reviews the literature on the history and evolution of investment strategies in the stock market for the period from 1900 to 2022. Conflicts and relationships…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study reviews the literature on the history and evolution of investment strategies in the stock market for the period from 1900 to 2022. Conflicts and relationships arising from such diverse seminal studies have been identified to address the research gaps.
Design/methodology/approach
The studies for this review were identified and screened from electronic databases to compile a comprehensive list of 200 relevant studies for inclusion in this review and summarized for the cognizance of researchers.
Findings
The study finds a coherence to complex theoretical documentation of more than a century of evolution on investment strategy in stock markets, capturing the characteristics of time with a chronological study of events.
Research limitations/implications
There were complications in locating unpublished studies leading to biases like publication bias, the reluctance of editors to publish studies, which do not reveal statistically significant differences, and English language bias.
Practical implications
Practitioners can refine investment strategies by incorporating behavioral finance insights and recognizing the influence of psychological biases. Strategies span value, growth, contrarian, or momentum indicators. Mitigating overconfidence bias supports effective risk management. Social media sentiment analysis facilitates real-time decision-making. Adapting to evolving market liquidity curbs volatility risks. Identifying biases guides investor education initiatives.
Originality/value
This paper is an original attempt to pictorially depict the seminal works in stock market investment strategies of more than a hundred years.
Details
Keywords
Kaan Kasaroğlu and Simge Kömürcü Sarıbaş
Wars all over the world have changed the course of history, affected communities and ways of life, and caused much pain, sadness, and destruction. Today, these areas are seen as…
Abstract
Wars all over the world have changed the course of history, affected communities and ways of life, and caused much pain, sadness, and destruction. Today, these areas are seen as tourist attractions and are visited by many people with different motivations every year. In these travels, which are described as battlefield tourism, intermediary institutions serve as a bridge between the consumer and the producer, in other words, between the tourist and the touristic product. In this section, first the factors that have led people to travel throughout history are discussed, and then the history, purposes, activities, and importance and contributions of intermediary institutions within the tourism industry are explained. Afterward, battlefield tourism, a relatively new concept, was mentioned, and the importance of intermediary institutions in travels to battlefields was explained. Finally, intermediary institutions that organize tours to various major battlefields in the world are listed, and brief descriptive information is given about the wars in question and the tours organized to these areas.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this self-study is to analyze my experiences learning in Poland, the country where Nazis imprisoned and murdered my family. I share findings from multiple museum…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this self-study is to analyze my experiences learning in Poland, the country where Nazis imprisoned and murdered my family. I share findings from multiple museum locations, including implications for history teachers, teacher educators and visitors to Holocaust museums.
Design/methodology/approach
I participated in a ten-day professional development seminar designed for American teachers to visit Poland. To allow for self-study after the trip, I maintained a reflexive journal and photographic records of each day I was in Poland. I analyze these data in conjunction with publicly available data from the museums and historical sites I visited in Poland.
Findings
The findings suggest that teachers can face many challenges when learning in a land of traumatic absences. Many challenges stem from the absences of buildings and survivors, as those may be integral to place-based learning. Testimonies and first-person accounts may ameliorate these challenges for teachers engaging in place-based learning. Additionally, teachers may use these accounts to bring a pedagogy of remembrance from Poland to their classrooms.
Originality/value
This study is not under review with another journal.
Details
Keywords
Melinda Smale, Veronique Theriault and Amidou Assima
To orient the commercial development of cowpeas, we identify the determinants of the value of cowpea grain sold by traders in Senegal’s local markets. We test whether the…
Abstract
Purpose
To orient the commercial development of cowpeas, we identify the determinants of the value of cowpea grain sold by traders in Senegal’s local markets. We test whether the determinants differ between men and women traders and explore seasonal patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
We employ ordinary least squares and seemingly unrelated regressions using a nationally representative dataset of 973 traders, of whom 380 sell cowpea grain, in 99 urban and rural markets across the 14 regions of Senegal.
Findings
The value of cowpea grain sold is influenced by vendor and market characteristics but not by cowpea type. Women and men traders represent statistically distinct groups. The sales value was eight times higher during the survey season among men. Most women grain sellers are retailers, whereas men are involved in both retailing and wholesaling. The picture that emerges is that men traders are able to respond more to economic signals, such as purchase cost, credit and labor payments, perhaps because they operate on a larger scale. Sales were significantly correlated across seasons.
Research limitations/implications
To support cowpea commercialization, researchers should explore the characteristics of enterprises led by women and men traders in greater depth. Sampling grain sold in markets to test genetic relationships with improved varieties would enable researchers to link market-based incentives directly to cowpea breeding.
Originality/value
Previous economics research about cowpea grain markets emphasized the hedonic analysis of grain characteristics to guide crop improvement. This study reveals differentiation among traders by gender and the importance of trader and market characteristics in sales value.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to examine the construction of feminine beauty by onnagata kabuki actors in Japan’s history, with a focus on their narratives in modern advertorials about beauty…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the construction of feminine beauty by onnagata kabuki actors in Japan’s history, with a focus on their narratives in modern advertorials about beauty products. The objective is to identify emerging themes in their narratives and to analyze the symbolism and rhetoric used to persuade the audience to enhance traditional feminine “beauty” by using the specific brand in the wake of Japan’s modernization and Westernization.
Design/methodology/approach
The study primarily employs semiotic analysis of advertorials in the newspaper and in the kabuki theatre’s program. They are supplemented with images from premodern prints. Visual content is described and analyzed as well.
Findings
The narration of the onnagata in the advertorial is the process of “truth-telling,” where the primary concern of the storyteller is persuasion about truth, such as belief in the new method of makeup with the advertised brand, and falsehood, such as belief in the old method of skincare. Four themes and binary oppositions of values emerged from the data: (1) Identity: selves vs others; (2) Material objects, cosmetics: scientific vs primitive; (3) Practice: competent vs incompetent, and (4) Transformations: intentional vs incidental.
Originality/value
The research shows that Japan’s onnagata transvestism tradition and its influences on women’s beauty practice have existed since the premodern period, preceding contemporary cross-gender beauty practices observed in social media.
Details
Keywords
By 1901, New Zealand had the first national government-controlled department of tourism in the world. This was the vehicle used to acquire and control tourism assets. In 1954, the…
Abstract
Purpose
By 1901, New Zealand had the first national government-controlled department of tourism in the world. This was the vehicle used to acquire and control tourism assets. In 1954, the hotel assets were consolidated as the Tourist Hotel Corporation of New Zealand (THC). Whilst hotel consolidation was not unique in the world, comparatively little has been written about the establishment of the THC. The following contributes to this ongoing history.
Design/methodology/approach
The research used relevant archival records held within the Archives New Zealand. Altogether 195 files were accessed. Information was analyzed and sorted into themes. The following involves one of those themes, conflict.
Findings
The establishment of the THC was the result of corporatist ideology based around the need to preserve the importance of tourism to New Zealand. The legislative requirements relating to the management and governance of the THC led to conflict between the THC CEO and the government. Such conflict has been placed within an institutional context. This conflict may have “got in the way” of effective running of the THC.
Research limitations/implications
There is a large volume of data still to be analyzed. Subsequent work on the later years, and demise of the THC could add further context to the overall history of the THC. The extent to which institutionalism was at the root of conflict between the management of the THC and the controlling government department are explored.
Originality/value
Very little has been written about the establishment of the THC. The following contributes to the discussion on the establishment and problems that emerged in the early management of the THC.
Details