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1 – 10 of 170
Article
Publication date: 23 March 2010

Sabine Moeller and Kristina Wittkowski

The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the importance of proposed determinants of the growing consumer preference for renting consumer goods, as opposed to the actual…

7168

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the importance of proposed determinants of the growing consumer preference for renting consumer goods, as opposed to the actual transfer of ownership.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a qualitative preliminary study and a literature review, six factors are identified as possible determinants of a preference for non‐ownership modes of consumption. These are examined in a quantitative study using a sample of 461 members of a German online peer‐to‐peer sharing network. Hypotheses regarding the proposed determinants are tested using factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Findings

The results show that the demand for non‐ownership services is negatively influenced by “possession importance” (the importance that a consumer attaches to full ownership) and positively influenced by “trend orientation” and “convenience orientation”. The other proposed determinants – “experience orientation”, “price consciousness”, and “environmentalism” do not appear to influence a preference for non‐ownership modes of consumption.

Practical implications

Although the renting of goods is an increasingly popular form of consumption, consumers still value ownership. Suppliers should therefore consider offering a mixture of “ownership” and “non‐ownership” modes of consumption to their customers.

Originality/value

This study complements existing research in this area, which has largely been conceptual in nature, by undertaking an empirical evaluation of the importance of several proposed determinants for non‐ownership preference.

Details

Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0960-4529

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 3 December 2018

Nelson Oly Ndubisi and Celine Marie Capel

338

Abstract

Details

Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 39 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0275-6668

Article
Publication date: 30 May 2008

David Forlani, Madhavan Parthasarathy and Susan M. Keaveney

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate how opportunity for control and firm capability interact to moderate the amount of risk that managers associate with various…

7261

Abstract

Purpose

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate how opportunity for control and firm capability interact to moderate the amount of risk that managers associate with various international entry‐mode strategies. A secondary goal is to investigate how managers perceive the need to retain control over three core functional areas (marketing, production, and R&D) when making entry‐mode decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

A field experiment design was implemented in a sample of US business owner/executives. Using an online data collection method, the study asked a sample of small‐business owners and managers to assess the amount of risk they associated with three modes of entering the Japanese market: non‐ownership (export), equal partnership (50/50 joint‐venture), and sole‐ownership. They were also asked how much control they needed to retain over R&D, production, and marketing for the venture to be successful.

Findings

Ownership‐provided control interacts with capability to influence managerial risk perceptions. Managers in lower‐capability firms see the least risk in the non‐ownership entry mode while those in higher‐capability firms see the least risk in the equal‐partnership entry mode. Managers believe that for a new venture in a foreign market to be successful, control should be retained over the R&D function, regardless of entry mode.

Research limitations/implications

The findings appear to reconcile some of the conflicting predictions of the transaction cost and resource‐based theoretical perspectives, because it appears that international managers consider both control (internationalization theory) and capability (resource‐based theory) when judging the perceived risk of an entry strategy.

Practical implications

For firms that are incapable of managing in an international context, a low‐control no‐ownership entry mode is perceived as the least risky approach; for firms that have some capability for international management, then a partial‐ownership mode such as a 50/50 joint‐venture is perceived as having lower risk than no‐ownership. In non‐ownership and joint‐venture type entry modes, managers are more apt to outsource the marketing function to an agent/partner, but not R&D. In contrast, managers believe that marketing needs to be maintained in‐house when utilizing a sole‐ownership entry mode.

Originality/value

By illustrating the role of perceived risk in foreign‐market entry‐mode decisions and demonstrating how capabilities interact with ownership‐provided control to moderate these perceptions, the paper's findings suggest that managers' risk perceptions may mediate the effects of firm‐specific factors, and thus contributes significantly to both theory and practice.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2015

Jochen Wirtz, Sven Tuzovic and Michael Ehret

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of global business services (GBS) to improve productivity and economic growth of the world economy, which has gone largely…

6154

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of global business services (GBS) to improve productivity and economic growth of the world economy, which has gone largely unnoticed in service research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on macroeconomic data and industry reports, and link them to the non-ownership concept in service research and theories of the firm.

Findings

Business services explain a large share of the growth of the global service economy. The fast growth of business services coincides with shifts from domestic production toward global outsourcing of services. A new wave of GBS are traded across borders and have emerged as important drivers of growth in the world’s service sector.

Research limitations/implications

This paper advances the understanding of non-ownership services in an increasingly global and specialized post-industrial economy. The paper makes a conceptual contribution supported by descriptive data, but without empirical testing.

Originality/value

The authors integrate the non-ownership concept and three related economic theories of the firm to explain the role of GBS in driving business performance and the international transformation of service economies.

Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

Jochen Wirtz, Jonas Holmqvist and Martin P. Fritze

The market for luxury is growing rapidly. While there is a significant body of literature on luxury goods, academic research has largely ignored luxury services. The purpose of…

5830

Abstract

Purpose

The market for luxury is growing rapidly. While there is a significant body of literature on luxury goods, academic research has largely ignored luxury services. The purpose of this article is to open luxury services as a new field of investigation by developing the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings to build the luxury services literature and show how luxury services differ from both luxury goods and from ordinary (i.e. non-luxury) services.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a conceptual approach drawing upon and synthesizing the luxury goods and services marketing literature.

Findings

This article makes three contributions. First, it shows that services are largely missing from the luxury literature, just as the field of luxury is mostly missing from the service literature. Second, it contrasts the key characteristics of services and related consumer behaviors with luxury goods. The service characteristics examined are non-ownership, IHIP (i.e. intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability), the three additional Ps of services marketing (i.e. people, processes, and physical facilities) and the three-stage service consumption model. This article derives implications these characteristics have on luxury. For example, non-ownership increases the importance of psychological ownership, reduces the importance of conspicuous consumption and the risk of counterfeiting. Third, this article defines luxury services as extraordinary hedonic experiences that are exclusive whereby exclusivity can be monetary, social and hedonic in nature, and luxuriousness is jointly determined by objective service features and subjective customer perceptions. Together, these characteristics place a service on a continuum ranging from everyday luxury to elite luxury.

Practical implications

This article provides suggestions on how firms can enhance psychological ownership of luxury services, manage conspicuous consumption, and use more effectively luxury services' additional types of exclusivity (i.e. social and hedonic exclusivity).

Originality/value

This is the first paper to define luxury services and their characteristics, to apply and link frameworks from the service literature to luxury, and to derive consumer insights from these for research and practice.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 March 2024

Stefanie Fella and Christoph Ratay

Recently emerged Packaging-as-a-Service (PaaS) systems adopt aspects of access-based services and triadic frameworks, which have typically been treated as conceptually separate…

Abstract

Purpose

Recently emerged Packaging-as-a-Service (PaaS) systems adopt aspects of access-based services and triadic frameworks, which have typically been treated as conceptually separate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of blending the two in what we call “access-based triadic systems,” by empirically evaluating intentions to adopt PaaS systems for takeaway food among restaurants and consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

We derived relevant attributes of PaaS systems from a qualitative pre-study with restaurants and consumers. Next, we conducted two factorial survey experiments with restaurants (N = 176) and consumers (N = 245) in Germany to quantitatively test the effects of those system attributes on their adoption intentions.

Findings

This paper highlights that the role of access-based triadic system providers as both the owners of shared assets and the operators of a triadic system is associated with a novel set of challenges and opportunities: System providers need to attract a critical mass of business and end customers while balancing asset protection and system complexity. At the same time, asset ownership introduces opportunities for improved quality control and differentiation from competition.

Originality/value

Conceptually, this paper extends research on access-based services and triadic frameworks by describing an unexplored hybrid form of non-ownership consumption we call “access-based triadic systems.” Empirically, this paper addresses the need to account for the demands of two distinct target groups in triadic systems and demonstrates how factorial survey experiments can be leveraged in this field.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 January 2011

Olga Godlevskaja, Jos van Iwaarden and Ton van der Wiele

This paper aims to propose a framework that can be used for analysing services in the automotive industry.

9012

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a framework that can be used for analysing services in the automotive industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Existing categorisation schemes for services are investigated and evaluated in terms of their applicability to services in the automotive industry.

Findings

Services categorisation schemes are grouped under eight service paradigms, expressing the understanding that various authors had about services in different times and contexts.

Research limitations/implications

The remarks are limited to the automotive industry.

Practical implications

The paper suggests services classification schemes, which can be effectively applied to automotive services in order to generate valuable managerial insights.

Originality/value

This paper provides an overview over multiple services categorisation schemes existing in the literature.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 October 2019

Bashir Ahmad and Mehmet Erçek

The purpose of this paper is to explain the link between national business system (NBS) and innovation decisions at the firm level by offering sequentially ordered sense-making…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the link between national business system (NBS) and innovation decisions at the firm level by offering sequentially ordered sense-making mechanisms that enable the formation of firm-specific knowledge repositories and knowledge-processing capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

This study engages in an extensive scale development effort to collect representative data about the NBS in the Pakistani setting, complemented by relevant validity and reliability tests. The overall theoretical model was tested on 214 firms by means of a structural equation modeling approach, using partial least-squares algorithms.

Findings

The results statistically supported the role of firm-level knowledge repositories (intellectual capital) and knowledge exploration and exploitation capabilities (absorptive capacity) as sequential mediators in the association of NBS and firm-level innovation. Besides, bridging networks of lateral ties among Pakistani businesses are found to be more effective than bonding networks of vertical ties in encouraging radical innovations.

Originality/value

This study significantly extends the literature about the NBS approach. It provides specific sense-making mechanisms (i.e. priming, triggering and editing) about how abstract institutional templates constituted at the business system level are translated into firm-level actionable sets by the help of intangible resource repositories and processes that guide knowledge exploration and exploitation.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 23 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 June 2009

Jochen Wirtz and Michael Ehret

The purpose of this paper is to express the widely underestimated role of business services in driving the growth of the service sector, and the increasing specialization and…

2685

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to express the widely underestimated role of business services in driving the growth of the service sector, and the increasing specialization and productivity of the economies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on statistical data and industry reports and link them to the non‐ownership‐concept in service research and the theory of the firm.

Findings

Business services are the major driver of the service economy. Organizations focus on core competencies and outsource commoditized and non‐core activities in order to free managerial capacity for the entrepreneurial pursuit of opportunities. This in turn drives the specialization and enhanced productivity of economies.

Research limitations/implications

This paper advances the non‐ownership discussion in service research and integrates it with economic theories of the firm, including the property rights theory, the resource‐based view and the entrepreneurial theory of the firm. This paper makes a conceptual contribution without empirical testing.

Practical implications

Implications for individual businesses include recommendation to focus on core activities and outsourcing of non‐core competencies to competitive business service providers. Here three fundamental value propositions business service providers can offer their clients are identified: reduction of the costs of asset‐ownership (property rights theory); freeing scarce management capacity to focus on high value‐creation opportunities (resource‐based view); and the enhancement of their entrepreneurial agility and leverage (entrepreneurial theory of the firm). Policy implications include a better understanding of the role of business services in wealth creation and the recommendation to create and ensure competitive business services markets that are open to global competition.

Originality/value

The authors provide an explanation for the role of business services as a driving force of economic development and business productivity.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2009

Darrel Moellendorf

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership in the social philosophy of Henry George, and a Georgist social theorist Nicolaus Tideman.

347

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership in the social philosophy of Henry George, and a Georgist social theorist Nicolaus Tideman.

Design/methodology/approach

The accounts of George and Tideman are evaluated using the tool of conceptual and logical analysis.

Findings

The paper argues that although the institutional proposals of Georgist are important and worth serious consideration, there are fundamental problems with the Georgist accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership.

Practical implications

The Georgist institutional recommendation of a land tax is not necessarily rejected by the criticism of the Georgist accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership.

Originality/value

The value of this paper derives from its careful analytic evaluation of the most basic concepts of the Georgist tradition. It serves, then, as a philosophical evaluation of that tradition and of those parts of the tradition that Georgism share with libertarianism generally. It also serves as a comparison of the basic commitments of Georgism and liberal egalitarianism.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 36 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

1 – 10 of 170