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This study aims to investigate how customers' perception of service innovation aspects (innovativeness, service newness and relative advantage) and their participation impact value perception, satisfaction and loyalty.

The conceptual model was tested using a nationwide survey from 430 Australian customers of Uber, using structural equation modeling.

Results show that customer participation (CP) and innovativeness positively influence perceived value. Satisfaction is positively influenced by perceived value, innovativeness and relative advantage. Both perceived value and satisfaction drive loyalty. Yet, CP did not influence satisfaction. The study’s findings generally support the mediating roles of perceived value and satisfaction.

Cross-sectional data were used. Thus, the results only provide a snapshot of the relationships among constructs.

To promote loyalty, service organizations emphasize how innovative aspects of services (innovativeness and relative advantage) can create value and satisfaction. Also, CP is critical in promoting customer perceived value and loyalty.

Building on service-dominant logic (SDL), this study proposes a conceptual model investigating how perceived innovative aspects of service and CP influence perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty of service organizations.

In the past few decades, relationship management (RM) theory and RM strategies in business-to-business (B2B) contexts have evolved tremendously, driven by constant innovation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand the trends and evolution of RM and relationship quality (RQ) in B2B contexts and empirical insights on RM and RQ in B2B, which in turn would provide insights into trends and future research directions.

Grounded on the industrial marketing and purchasing group, this study adopts a critical systematic literature review to provide a comprehensive analysis of the past, current and future trends in empirical research insights of RM and RQ in B2B markets.

This study provides some novel insights into RM in B2B context by using a multidimensional approach to RM and RQ and analyzing prior marketing research from three perspectives: the evolution of RM and RQ in B2B context; prior empirical research; and practical business insights. Overall, these perspectives inform the development of an evolving side of RQ in B2B contexts, leading to some predictions regarding the future of RM in B2B markets.

The exploratory results of this study shed light on the key factors that drive RQ and the importance of RM in B2B markets in the digital age where customers still long for human interaction regardless of the prevalence of advanced technology.

In the wake of advanced technologies and particularly, B2B companies had to turn to virtual platforms and embrace digital transformation to establish and manage their customer relationships. Yet, managing relationships via digital channels has its own challenges for both B2B practitioners and scholars. This indicates that there is still a huge need for attuned RM strategies that align with the changing environments – mainly driven by technological advancement – in B2B markets.

The unprecedented changes in the marketplace induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant accelerated corporate migration to virtual ecosystems have added several unique research opportunities and theoretical gaps, especially in business-to-business (B2B) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) markets in the service sector. Particularly, customer interactions in B2B services that were once sustained by the “people mix” now demand a huge overhaul in light of the “new normal” restrictions. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore how B2B service firms can engender firm value through virtual customer interactions during and in the post-COVID-19 era from an SME’s perspective.

This study adopts an exploratory qualitative inquiry to contribute to this discourse by proposing a conceptual framework based on prior literature and relevant theoretical frameworks, as well as qualitative interviews with SME managers, CEOs and/or owner-managers.

The qualitative findings reveal organizational preparedness, empathy, digital content and trust as key enablers of effective B2B virtual interaction that enhances cocreated value, thereby augmenting firm value. This study offers a much-needed examination of virtual interaction in B2B contexts and proposes a business customer virtual interaction model.

The exploratory nature of this study is one limitation, and future studies with a bigger representative sample size that uses survey or experimental data drawn from large enterprises might add value to the current findings. Also, while this study is conducted in dynamic markets due to the COVID-19 crisis, future research must examine the customer/firm’s experiences in other forms of crises-led market ecosystems.

B2B service firms must be strongly inclined to continuously take steps to develop and maintain virtual interaction with customers. Proactive efforts to familiarize internal and external stakeholders with virtual interaction platforms are a crucial step for effective customer engagement. The effectiveness of B2B virtual interactions can be strengthened through digital content that elicits trust and exhibits empathy, especially in crises led-markets. Also, the value created for the firm must be redeployed strategically to sustain positive customer engagement behaviors that continue to deliver value to the firm and the customer.

This paper contributes to the increasing B2B customer engagement literature by exploring the ongoing dialogue on how B2B firms can strive and succeed in the post-COVID-19 era or related crises-led market ecosystems through enhanced virtual B2B customer interaction efforts.

This paper aims to examine how suppliers doing business with customers in emerging industrial markets can leverage their innovativeness to foster trust and commitment toward maximizing customer adoption behaviors.

Based on commitment-trust theory, this research uses survey data collected from a large sample of Chinese business-to-business executives, which were then analyzed using three-stage least squares simultaneous estimation models and PROCESS.

The results show that supplier innovativeness can help customers build trust in a supplier. Consequently, a reciprocal commitment is forged among customers that manifest in favorable adoption decisions, including a higher willingness to pay premium prices. Notably, this approach is beneficial when robust interfirm communications are difficult to establish.

Innovation decisions in interfirm relationships are important for suppliers doing business in emerging markets. This is because customer adoptions in such settings can foster enduring relational market-based assets and other competitive advantages that can improve supplier performance. Unfortunately, the understanding of how interfirm relationships influence innovation-adoption decisions in emerging markets is lacking. The findings of this research shed light on how suppliers interested in entering emerging markets can interact with customer firms in such settings to maximize favorable adoption outcomes.

To understand consumer brand engagement processes in luxury fashion brands. Grounded on the brand engagement in self-concept (BESC), this study examines key drivers (i.e. value co-creation, social media marketing (SMM) activities, brand self-connection and brand image) of BESC that in turn, enhance brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) in the context of luxury fashion brands.

A descriptive survey approach was utilized and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The findings reveal that value co-creation, SMM activities and brand self-connection are significantly related to BESC and subsequently, BESC is related to both brand loyalty and positive WOM. However, brand image is not related to BESC and brand loyalty but shows a strong relationship with WOM.

The recognition that consumer experiences add significant value to a brand drives companies to engage with their consumers focusing on the self-concept.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of perceived value and innovativeness (service concept newness and relative advantage) in promoting customer brand engagement behaviors (CBEBs) and brand loyalty.

The conceptual model was empirically tested using nationwide survey data from 430 customers of Uber in Australia. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results of this study show that collecting brand information is positively influenced by perceived value, service concept newness and relative advantage. Participating in brand marketing activities is positively influenced by service concept newness and relative advantage. Interacting with others is positively influenced by perceived value and service concept newness. Subsequently, brand loyalty is positively influenced by participating in brand marketing activities and interacting with others. The direct impacts of perceived value and relative advantage on brand loyalty are also established.

This study only collected data from Uber customers. Another limitation of this study is the use of cross-sectional data.

To promote brand loyalty, service innovation needs to have both the right characteristics (i.e. perceived value, service concept newness and relative advantage) and practices that foster customer brand engagement behaviors.

Although service-dominant logic (SDL) is a theoretical lens used by research in the areas of service innovation and customer engagement, empirical studies that integrate the two areas remain limited. The findings of this study suggest a new mechanism in which service innovation can increase loyalty through increased CBEBs.

This study aims to investigate how the relationship factors, including equity, shared responsibility and relationship dependence leverage the value co-creation. The research studies the value co-creation process in a business-to-business (B2B) context between suppliers and customers and provides empirical evidence of the underlying effects.

Using social exchange theory, the research uses a mixed-method of in-depth interviews and questionnaire surveys. The sample of the survey has 123 business customers.

The findings suggest that equity not only positively affects but also mediates the effect of shared responsibility on value co-creation. The mediation effect is further moderated by the relationship dependence that buyers have on the seller.

The cross-sectional survey used cannot establish causality relationships. Although the goal was not to establish causality, it could limit the rigor of the study. The longitudinal design could be used in the future to better address this deficiency. While the paper is the initial step to analyze the factors influencing value co-creation empirically, more studies could examine other commonly discussed constructs.

This empirical study enriches the value co-creation literature by examining the antecedents’ detailed mechanism that facilitates value co-creation in a B2B context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role played by corporate social responsibility (CSR) in building relationship quality (RQ) in the context of sports organisations. In turn, the link between RQ and customer loyalty is examined. Acknowledging that customers develop a psychological connection with the sports organisation over time, the study also examines whether the link between CSR and RQ is moderated by the psychological continuum model (PCM) stages (awareness, attraction, attachment and allegiance).

The survey data were drawn from almost 6,000 season ticket holders of a professional sports club. Structural equation modelling and the non-parametric bootstrapping regression technique were used to test the hypotheses.

The results support the direct impact of CSR activities on RQ. RQ, in turn, drives customer loyalty. Importantly, RQ is found to fully mediate the relationship between CSR and customer loyalty. However, as customers move through the psychological connection stages, the effect of CSR on customer loyalty via RQ tends to diminish.

This study provides evidence of a direct impact of CSR activities on RQ, and also attests the role of psychological connection in sports organisations.

The incorporation of a multidimensional RQ construct and the PCM stages allows a deeper understanding of how CSR might be employed to achieve organisational goals.

COVID-19 has dramatically changed how people live, socialise and think about their future. The disruptive shock that hit societies all over the world had a significantly negative impact on businesses, creating not only economic discontinuity but also uncertainty and disorientation. This special issue on COVID-19 aims to phrase the pandemic crisis and its impact on how to do business.

The authors follow MacInnis’s (2011) suggestion that a conceptual article sees what others have identified in a new or revised way.

The authors develop the crisis management framework. The authors acknowledge that disruptive events may be repeated, and their consequences will have long-term and permanent impacts. These aspects highlight the need for a systemic approach in which the focus is not limited to an analysis of the cause of the crisis and ways of solving it but includes the paths through which the business, economic and social systems evolve because of the crisis.

Managerial policies, business models and practices that have been effective up to now will probably no longer work. Beyond this backdrop, the articles compiled in this special issue aim to help set the agenda for post-COVID business research

The authors identify four primary themes captured by these articles: strategies, capabilities, organisational transformations and value processes. In their entirety, they represent pieces of a conceptual puzzle that do not provide knowledge of “hard facts” but rather a “soft interpretation of how to approach the “new normal”, i.e. a new social and business context.

Digital platforms have transformed how brands engage with collaborative consumption actors, such as prosumers. This study aims to examine the role of customer innovativeness and perceived economic value as important boundary conditions on the effects of customer brand engagement behavior on co-production, which subsequently influences customer satisfaction.

The authors test the model using survey data from 430 users of a digital platform (i.e. UBER) in Australia. Hypotheses were tested using the bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

The findings suggest that customer innovativeness and perceived economic value positively moderate the effects of customer brand engagement behavior on co-production. Further, the mediating effects of co-production on satisfaction are stronger for highly innovative customers and for those who associate high perceived economic value with the brand.

This study provides novel insights on the boundary conditions of the effects of customer brand engagement behavior on co-production. Future research could apply this study’s conceptual framework to other digital platforms to extend the generalizability of this framework.

This study provides managerial insights into how firms can customize marketing strategies to encourage customers as prosumers in co-production by targeting highly innovative customers and focusing on perceived economic value.

This study builds on service-dominant logic and social exchange theory to examine the role of customer innovativeness and perceived economic value as novel boundary conditions in digital platform ecosystems.