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11 – 20 of over 1000Jawwad Z. Raja and Thomas Frandsen
Previous research has predominately focused on the servitization strategies of western manufacturers in advanced economies, neglecting the potential for servitization in those…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has predominately focused on the servitization strategies of western manufacturers in advanced economies, neglecting the potential for servitization in those which are emerging, such as China. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the external service partner network of a European manufacturer providing services in China, in order to develop a better understanding of the resulting and associated challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth case study approach was used to examine the parent company, its subsidiary in China and the related service partner network. Data collection involved all three actors and took place in Denmark and China.
Findings
The findings suggest that motivation, opportunity and ability (MOA) need not only be mutually reinforcing for the organization attempting to move toward services but also aligned between organizational units, as well as with the service partner network. Furthermore, the findings suggest that while service partners are typically closer to the market, they may not be able to deliver the higher value-added services requiring customization.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to a single manufacturer attempting servitization in China. Future studies may consider other case firms in other markets.
Practical implications
The MOA framework provides a basis for understanding the managerial challenges of aligning and coordinating the MOA elements amongst different actors.
Originality/value
This paper contributes by exploring servitization in an emerging market through the MOA framework in order to better understand the challenges and complexities. Servitization is found to be a dynamic phenomenon which should be understood as a movement that is also dependent on an external service partner possessing the necessary capabilities. In turn, this requires understanding the MOAs of all actors in a network and how they may be influenced in order for the MOA elements to be mutually reinforcing.
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This paper aims to understand how structural characteristics of social media enable consumers to satisfy needs related to marketer-generated content (MGC) and identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how structural characteristics of social media enable consumers to satisfy needs related to marketer-generated content (MGC) and identify the consequences of consumer exposure to MGC.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper revisits research on antecedents and consequences of advertising consumption to build an emergent conceptual model applied to MGC through the investigation of consumer experiences in social media. Thirty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with consumers who follow brands on Instagram. The interview transcripts were coded and analysed using a grounded theory approach.
Findings
This study finds that, structurally, MGC consumption is characterised by the combination of: consumer micro-control over both content and timing/place of consumption and ease of consumption, enabling consumers to seek pleasure and utility without effort. The data show that MGC is only likely to be shared to a restricted group with strong social connections, such as family members and close friends with similar interests, with whom new interactions develop over brands and products, online or in person. MGC consumption experiences also generate significant consumer learning that improves purchase outcomes for consumers. Three types of MGC consumers were identified in the data: “enthusiasts”, “circumstantial” and “occasional”.
Research limitations/implications
This study updates previous literature, offering a conceptual framework that specifies how the structural characteristics of social media are conducive to consumer exposure to self-curated MGC flows. This research also uncovers unique social dynamics and consumer learning related to MGC consumption.
Practical implications
Insights from this study suggest alternative business models that may be attractive for consumers, brands and social media platforms. This research also suggests ways in which brands can improve consumer MGC experiences.
Originality/value
This research demonstrates how and why consumers embrace MGC at scale through social media and reveals consequences of MGC consumption.
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Josina Vink, Bo Edvardsson, Katarina Wetter-Edman and Bård Tronvoll
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation. Mental models are actors’ assumptions and beliefs that guide their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation. Mental models are actors’ assumptions and beliefs that guide their behavior and interpretation of their environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers a conceptual framework for innovation in service ecosystems through service design that connects the macro view of innovation as changing institutional arrangements with the micro view of innovation as reshaping actors’ mental models. Furthermore, through an 18-month ethnographic study of service design practices in the context of healthcare, how service design practices reshape mental models to enable innovation is investigated.
Findings
This research highlights that service design reshapes mental models through the practices of sensing surprise, perceiving multiples and embodying alternatives. This paper delineates the enabling conditions for these practices to occur, such as coaching, diverse participation and supportive physical materials.
Research limitations/implications
This study brings forward the underappreciated role of actors’ mental models in innovation. It highlights that innovation in service ecosystems is not simply about actors making changes to their external context but also actors shifting their own assumptions and beliefs.
Practical implications
This paper offers insights for service managers and service designers interested in supporting innovation on how to catalyze shifts in actors’ mental models by creating the conditions for specific service design practices.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to shed light on the central role of actors’ mental models in innovation and identify the service design practices that reshape mental models.
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Thomas Boysen Anker, Leigh Sparks, Luiz Moutinho and Christian Grönroos
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the ontological and semantic foundations of consumer-dominant value creation to clarify the extent to which the call for a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the ontological and semantic foundations of consumer-dominant value creation to clarify the extent to which the call for a distinct consumer-dominant logic (CDL) is justified. This paper discusses consumer-driven value creation (value-in-use) across three different marketing logics: product-dominant logic (PDL), service-dominant logic (SDL) and CDL. PDL conceptualises value as created by firms and delivered to consumers through products. SDL frames consumer value as a function of direct provider-consumer interaction, or consumer-driven chains of action indirectly facilitated by the provider. Recently, the research focus has been turning to consumer-dominant value creation. While there is agreement on the significance of this phenomenon, there is disagreement over whether consumer-dominant value creation is an extension of SDL or calls for a distinct CDL.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper, which is informed by five cases of consumer dominance. The cases are used to clarify rather than verify the analysis of the ontological and semantic underpinnings of consumer-dominant value creation.
Findings
The ontological and semantic analysis demonstrates that PDL and SDL have insufficient explanatory power to accommodate substantial aspects of consumer-dominant value creation. By implication, this supports the call for a distinct CDL.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the ongoing theoretical debate over the explanatory power of SDL by demonstrating that SDL is unable to accommodate important ontological and semantic aspects of consumer-driven value creation.
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Jungmin Yoo, Jung-Hwan Kim, Minjeong Kim and Minjung Park
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of visual and verbal information presentations on mental imagery, perceived informativeness and purchase intention. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of visual and verbal information presentations on mental imagery, perceived informativeness and purchase intention. The study assesses two types of product-related information: (1) visual information: static product images and augmented reality (AR) and (2) verbal information: abstract and concrete product reviews.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 320 mobile consumers participated in the experiment. To increase external validity, this study was conducted in an existing digital shopping environment.
Findings
The results suggest that AR has a greater effect on consumers' shopping outcomes than static images. The findings further reveal that concrete product reviews are important in increasing mental imagery, perceived informativeness and purchase intention when visual information does not provide an AR function.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the current literature by providing empirical support for AR effects and concrete reviews on consumer responses. The results further provide an important perspective for retailers seeking ways to develop effective information presentations in digital retailing.
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Simona D'Antone and Dwight Merunka
The purpose of this paper is to explore how brand origin (BO) cues affect the consumer’s association of a new brand with BO learning and the subsequent effects on brand image (BO…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how brand origin (BO) cues affect the consumer’s association of a new brand with BO learning and the subsequent effects on brand image (BO semiotics). An integrative theoretical framework is proposed that includes both processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model is based on analogical learning theory and triadic semiotic theory.
Findings
Two types of BO knowledge form BO meanings in consumer minds: country-related categories and exemplar brands, which have a classification and/or inferential role. The brand cues (indexes or icons) used by consumers to identify BO generate one or the other type of BO knowledge. Indexes trigger the classification function of country-related categories while icons trigger the inferential role of country-related categories and exemplar brands. BO knowledge informs the meaning transfer when consumers interpret the meaning of a new brand, leading to either a transfer of relations or a transfer of attributes to the new brand.
Practical implications
Marketers should monitor BO exemplar brands that consumers use as meaning sources and carefully select the signs used in their communications to evoke BO.
Originality/value
The proposed framework contrasts with dominant categorisation perspectives, re-establishing the dual role of categories and emphasising the relevance of brand cues in BO identification and BO exemplar brands in the BO meaning transfer process. A meaning-centred perspective is adopted to integrate BO identification and the related transfer mechanisms.
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Kallol Das, Yogesh Mungra, Anuj Sharma and Satish Kumar
This paper aims to take stock of research done in the domain of relationship marketing (RM). Additionally, this article aims to identify the potential areas of future research.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to take stock of research done in the domain of relationship marketing (RM). Additionally, this article aims to identify the potential areas of future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have used machine learning-based structural topic modelling using R-software to analyse the dataset of 1,905 RM articles published between 1978 and 2020.
Findings
Structural topic modeling (STM) analysis led to identifying 14 topics, out of which 7 (viz. customer loyalty, customer relationship management systems, interfirm and network relationships, relationship selling, services and relationship management, consumer brand relationships and relationship marketing research) have shown a rising trend. The study also proposes a taxonomical framework to summarize RM research.
Originality/value
This is the first comprehensive review of RM research spanning over more than four decades. The study’s insights would benefit future scholars of this field to plan/execute their research for greater publication success. Additionally, managers could use the practical implications for achieving better RM outcomes.
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Wann-Yih Wu, Li-Yueh Lee, Nhu Vo Quynh Phan, Alfiyatul Qomariyah and Phuoc-Thien Nguyen
As the dynamic competition in the global marketplace becomes increasingly severe, multinational firms have no choice but to improve their competitive advantages and enhance…
Abstract
Purpose
As the dynamic competition in the global marketplace becomes increasingly severe, multinational firms have no choice but to improve their competitive advantages and enhance productivity through innovation, learning and leadership. One essential issue is the capability of expatriates to support knowledge sharing and transfer from organizations headquarter to their subsidiaries through expatriates; however, there are few studies on this issue. This study attempts to identify the antecedents, consequences and moderators of knowledge sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a questionnaire survey approach, data were obtained from 234 expatriates working for Taiwanese multinational enterprises. The hypotheses were tested by SmartPLS 3.0.
Findings
The empirical results indicate that opportunity and ability have a significant impact on expatriates' knowledge sharing. Trust, commitment and social capital also have significant influences on expatriates' collecting and donating of knowledge. The level of tacitness, specificity and complexity of knowledge have a negatively impact on knowledge sharing. Knowledge collecting can positively promote the outcome of knowledge sharing, including learning and growth, internal process, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Furthermore, organizational support and the richness of transmission channels served as two of the moderators that can amplify the influences of the antecedents on knowledge sharing and the influences of knowledge sharing on outcomes.
Originality/value
The results of this study can provide valuable references for academicians and professionals when deciding how to facilitate knowledge transfer from the company headquarters to subsidiaries through expatriates.
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Janet Davey, Eldrede Kahiya, Jayne Krisjanous and Lucy Sulzberger
While service inclusion principles raise the awareness of scholars to service that improves holistic well-being, little research explicitly investigates the spiritual dimensions…
Abstract
Purpose
While service inclusion principles raise the awareness of scholars to service that improves holistic well-being, little research explicitly investigates the spiritual dimensions of service inclusion. This study, therefore, aims to explore faith-based service inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study of the Salvation Army’s Chikankata Services in Zambia was undertaken. Semi-structured interviews with the organization’s leaders and professionals were analyzed thematically.
Findings
Service inclusion pillars evince contextualized meaning and priority. In resource-constrained, vulnerable communities, faith-based service inclusion prioritizes two additional pillars – “fostering eudaimonic well-being” and “giving hope,” where existence is precarious, fostering (hedonic) happiness is of low priority. Findings reveal that pillars and processes are mutually reinforcing, harnessed by the individual and collective agency to realize transformative outcomes from service inclusion.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides unique insight into faith-based service inclusion but acknowledges limitations and areas warranting further research.
Practical implications
The study yields important managerial implications. Service providers can use the framework to identify the contextual priority and/or meaning of service inclusion pillars and relevant reciprocal processes. The framework emphasizes the harnessing potential of individual agency and capability development for transformative well-being.
Social implications
Faith-based service inclusion, predicated on inclusion, human dignity and holistic well-being, has important implications for reducing the burden on scarce resources while building resilience in communities.
Originality/value
By examining a faith-based service in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper provides a holistic framework conceptualizing pillars, processes, agency and outcomes to extend Fisk et al.’s (2018) service inclusion pillars and to better understand the shaping of service delivery for service inclusion.
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