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The service environment is becoming increasingly turbulent, leading to calls for a systemic understanding of it as a set of dynamic service ecosystems. This paper advances this understanding by developing a typology of service ecosystem dynamics that explains the varying interplay between change and stability within the service environment through distinct behavioral patterns exhibited by service ecosystems over time.

This study builds upon a systematic literature review of service ecosystems literature and uses system dynamics as a method theory to abductively analyze extant literature and develop a typology of service ecosystem dynamics.

The paper identifies three types of service ecosystem dynamics—behavioral patterns of service ecosystems—and explains how they unfold through self-adjustment processes and changes within different systemic leverage points. The typology of service ecosystem dynamics consists of (1) reproduction (i.e. stable behavioral pattern), (2) reconfiguration (i.e. unstable behavioral pattern) and (3) transition (i.e. disrupting, shifting behavioral pattern).

The typology enables practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of their service environment by discerning the behavioral patterns exhibited by the constituent service ecosystems. This, in turn, supports them in devising more effective strategies for navigating through it.

The paper provides a precise definition of service ecosystem dynamics and shows how the identified three types of dynamics can be used as a lens to empirically examine change and stability in the service environment. It also offers a set of research directions for tackling service research challenges.

Dyadic interactions between customers and service providers rarely occur in isolation. Still, there is a lack of systematic knowledge about the roles that different types of nontechnological third parties – that is, other customers, pets, other employees and other firms – can adopt in relation to customers and service providers during encounters. The present study aims to unravel these roles and highlight their implications for customers, service providers and/or third parties.

This research relies on a systematic review of literature in the Web of Science using a search string pertaining to the research study’s objectives. In total, 2,726 articles were screened by title and abstract using clear inclusion and exclusion criteria, thereby extracting 189 articles for full-text eligibility. The final sample consisted of 139 articles for coding and analysis.

The analyses reveal that other customers, pets, other employees and other firms can adopt five roles: bystander, connector, endorser, balancer and partner. Each role has different implications for customers, service providers and/or third parties. Additionally, the five roles are associated with distinct constellations of the customer, the service provider and the third party. These roles and constellations are dynamic and not mutually exclusive.

This research contributes to the service encounter literature by providing a thorough understanding of the various third-party roles and their implications for customers, service providers and/or third parties during encounters. As such, this research sheds light on the conditions under which third parties become “significant others” in service encounters and identifies avenues for future research.

The study aims to explore how lean research and development (R&D) tools and techniques (T&T: i.e. R&D hard practices) affect the relationship between lean R&D soft practices and organization performance within R&D-based manufacturing firms in Malaysia.

The current study is a quantitative study that utilized an online survey questionnaire for data collection. Data were collected based on a cross-sectional survey of R&D managers from 102 R&D-based manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the impact of lean R&D soft and hard practices on firms' performance.

As per the study findings, it was determined that T&T of lean R&D was significant mediator in the relationship between lean R&D soft practices (i.e. managerial practices, transformational leadership, financial capability and supplier involvement) and R&D firms' performance.

The study delivers an important message to R&D companies that lean practices could be applied in R&D environments to drive organization performance.

The study extends the knowledge regarding lean principles and framework beyond the domains of production and services. The study offers new conceptual contribution in term of lean principles and framework in R&D environments by introducing the role of lean R&D tools and technique to enhance the effects of lean R&D practices on organization performance.

The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine the design requirements of Islamic fashion in the new product-development process; second, to explore the different practices of new product-development activities from successful and unsuccessful new product lines; and third, to investigate the sequence of the new product-development practice in the fashion industry, specifically the Islamic fashion industry in Indonesia.

Questionnaires were distributed and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect information regarding the practice of the new product-development activities. The Mann–Whitney U test was performed based on the quality of the new product-development activities of 100 Islamic fashion firms, including five innovative companies that had won several awards in Indonesia. An analysis of the extent to which fashion firms were engaging in new product-development activities provided a more detailed picture of the sequence of those activities.

Islamic norms were adapted during the early design and promotional phases of new product development in Islamic fashion. Various choices of design and colour in Islamic fashion were also perceived as a way of preaching to women to dress more accordingly to the Islamic norm. The new product-development activities that were conducted differently for successful vs unsuccessful new product lines were idea conceptualisation, market analysis, technical and engineering analysis, financial analysis and commercialisation. The commercialisation phase was given the least priority of all the activities. Nevertheless, it contributed to the very first communication to the customers about new product lines.

This study makes an important contribution to the deeper and more detailed research on how Islamic fashion companies perceive Islamic values during new product developments and how they perform new product-development activities between successful and unsuccessful products.

This paper aims to fill a gap in the literature of marketing communication by exploring the role of different nudges implemented through advertising and personal selling in enhancing purchase intention and sales of mutual funds in Pakistan.

Data collected by 20 semi-structured individual qualitative interviews in Pakistan were subjected to thematic analysis.

This study reveals the way managers apply different nudges in the form of Islamic beliefs and values in advertising and personal selling to enhance purchase intention and sales of mutual fund products among Muslim customers. Nudges that can be used in marketing communication may include religious cues, religious beliefs, religious values, spiritual elements, halal aspects of investment plans, religious icons and symbols, cultural music and images, appropriateness and correctness of sales messages and communicating halal aspects of mutual funds.

The conclusions are based on findings from a relatively small number of respondents from one investment firm, but they offer an empirical basis for future research on the effect of advertising and personal selling on the sales and purchase intention of mutual fund products in an Islamic society.

This study offers practitioners a better understanding of the marketing communication tools likely to influence consumers’ purchase intention of mutual fund products, with positive implications in creating advertising and sales management in Pakistan.

Despite the prevalence of promoting mutual fund products, little research-based analysis has been available to academics or practitioners.

This study examines the yin (promotive) and yang (prohibitive) of employee voice based on employee preference for voice channel attributes. Employee inputs may be disregarded, requiring employees to maneuver for unheeded voice and adopt alternate voice tactics. The authors emphasize the ubiquity of lurking employee silence and its affective effects on subsequent cycles of voice or silence.

Qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews of employees from service sector firms in India assisted the inquiry.

Employees prefer voice channel attributes that ensure visibility and data substance for promotive voice and anonymity and confidentiality for prohibitive voice. Voice target switching and message reframing were common employee strategies. Silence on both sharing views/opinions (promotive) and voicing issues/concerns (prohibitive) weakens employee future voice incidents, besides suppressing the affect. Post-silence cognitive reappraisal increases voice incidences.

Findings may have limited generalizability given the qualitative design of the study. Moving beyond extant episodic voice research, the authors demonstrate the recurrent nature of employee voice and silence. The study broadens perspectives on how varied voice types necessitate nuanced voice channel attributes.

Present work brings together organizational behavior (OB) perspective on discretionary voice through human resource (HR)-based channels, helping bridge the gap between previously disparate stands.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the various factors that influence a small and medium enterprise’s (SME) decision to apply for bank loans.

Data from survey responses of 145 SMEs from Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur are used for this purpose. Exploratory factor analysis, logistic regression and SEM-PLS are used to analyze the data.

The findings from the survey show that an SME’s financial performance, its access to finance and its legal form play a significant positive role in its decision to apply for debt financing. Private limited SMEs that perform well and are able to access to various financing options are more likely to apply for financing. However, there is also evidence of a significant negative influence of credit history on the decision to apply for financing, as SMEs with a poor credit history are more likely to apply for financing. The age of an SME has weak influence while its size is found to be insignificant in influencing its decision to apply for financing.

The results imply the role of financial market imperfections such as adverse selection and information asymmetry in defining the SME’s demand for debt financing. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the debt financing decisions of SMEs.

The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the relationship between the dimensions of creditworthiness and access to finance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, with creditworthiness as the mediating variable. The lack of empirical research on the relationship between creditworthiness and access to finance forms the motivation of this study.

Questionnaires covering various characteristics of the firms, their access to finance and creditworthiness were distributed to a total of 456 SMEs in the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor region for this purpose. A total of 158 responses were returned, of which 145 were usable responses and the relationships are tested using SEM-PLS.

This study finds that an SME and its owner’s character have significant influences on access to finance. An SME’s condition and its ability to provide high quality collateral are found to be highly significant in influencing its access to finance. Capacity is significant but its significance is low, while capital is insignificant. Creditworthiness has a significant positive influence on access to finance.

This study contributes to the important yet under-researched issue of access to finance for SMEs. It highlights the issue of character of applicant as an important dimension of creditworthiness that can significantly influence access to finance for SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impacts that the adaptive reuse of historical building has on museum service quality by analysing the visitors’ expectations and perceptions through the HISTOQUAL model. It looks deeper into investigating the enhancement of adaptive reuse approach to historical buildings not only to the surrounding environment, but also to the building’s cultural significance.

A field survey implementing quantitative approach was conducted by using questionnaires to collect the visitors’ expectations and perceptions on their visits to the selected case study sites. The selected two case study sites are both newly adaptive reuse museums located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Through these case studies, the visitors’ expectations and perceptions were analysed and the differences were identified.

Positive feedback on the level of service quality provided at both museums indirectly shows the success of adaptive reuse initiative on the historical buildings towards adapting their new functions as a museum. It was also noted that foreign language leaflets and facilities for less able visitors were among the two service criteria that do not exceed the expectations of users. In general, these findings are crucial in identifying the gap within the services provided and appropriate measures that can be undertaken for further improvement.

Further study can be employed to a larger population of study to cater for a variety of perspectives from both users and managers of the buildings.

This paper highlights the implications of users’ feedback towards building usability and functions. It provided imperative findings from the users’ point of view pertaining to the services provided.

The paper illustrates the significance of social perceptions on the implications of service delivery. It also reports empirical evidence in highlighting the importance of users’ attributes towards excellent service delivery.

Up to present, there exists a small number of studies that look into reviewing the new functions of adaptive reuse buildings. This study now contributes to create a larger number of studies in this scope, especially within the context of Malaysia.

This study investigates the influence of inter-firm linkages between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large firms on the relationship between an SME's creditworthiness and its access to finance.

Survey questionnaire was distributed to 456 SMEs in the manufacturing sector in the Selangor and Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur regions and a total of 145 useable responses were gathered. Investigation into the possible differences in the effect of creditworthiness – and its dimensions – on access to finance for SMEs with and without linkages are examined using Partial Least Squares-Multi Group Analysis (PLS-MGA).

It is found that the relationship between creditworthiness and access to finance is significant for both SMEs with and without links to large firms. However, no significant difference is found in the effect of creditworthiness on access to finance for both types of SME. Further analysis on the five different dimensions of creditworthiness shows statistically significant differences between SMEs with links and those without for the dimensions of collateral and condition. This implies that alliances formed between SMEs and large firms do not have much of an influence on the overall creditworthiness but do influence the collateral and condition of the SME.

This study contributes to the understanding of the effects of interfirm linkages on SME creditworthiness and access to finance. To the authors' knowledge no such study has been conducted on links between SMEs and large firms, especially in a developing country such as Malaysia.