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Crowdfunding allows enterprises or individuals to collect funds from numerous other individuals. This study applies the anchoring effect and range theory in reward-based crowdfunding to explore how different pledge option designs affect the backers' final pledge amount. Moreover, this study examines whether showing the current average amount pledged in the fundraising process has an anchoring effect on the subsequent backers' pledge amount.

Online experiments were conducted, and data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman rank correlation analysis.

Results show that among the three pledge option designs, employing the “bolstering range offer” has the highest backing amount. However, presenting the current average amount pledged in the fundraising process has a reversed anchoring effect on subsequent backers' pledge amount only in the case of a crowdfunding project in the physical goods category with a “point offer.”

To the best of authors’ knowledge, no reward-based crowdfunding platform has yet provided the pledge option design of a “bolstering range offer.” This study reveals that the “bolstering range offer” can significantly increase the amount pledged. This study extends the crowdfunding research area to crowdfunding success and suggests a novel way to set up pledges.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how functional and appropriateness arguments influence the adoption of modularity principles during the design of a professional service architecture.

Action design research was conducted to examine the design process of a modular service architecture for specialised elderly care by a multi-professional group. Data collection methods included, partly participatory, observations of the interactions between professionals during the design process, interviews and document analysis. Data analysis focussed on the emerging design choices and the arguments underlying them.

A wide range of both functional and appropriateness considerations were enlisted during the design process. The three core modularity principles were adapted to varying degrees. In terms of the design outcome, the interdependencies between the modularity principles necessitated two trade-offs in the modular design. A third trade-off occurred between modularity and the need for professional inference where services were characterised by uncertainty. Appropriateness was achieved through the professionals reframing and translating the abstract modularity concept to reconcile the concept’s functionality with their professional norms, values and established practices.

The study adds to service modularity theory by formulating three trade-offs that are required in translating the core modularity principles into a functional set of design choices for a multi-professional service environment. Moreover, the inherent intertwinedness of the core modularity principles in professional services requires an iterative design process. Finally, the authors saw that the ambiguity present in the service modularity concept can be used to develop a design that is deemed appropriate by professionals.

The purpose of the present paper is to gain a first insight into the determinants of employee acceptance of, and participation in, workplace health promotion (WHP) in the German speaking part of Europe with a focus on Austria.

Being a neglected field of research so far, a qualitative approach using problem‐centred interviews was chosen. These were conducted with 19 employees in three different organizations, the four people there responsible for WHP as well as with nine health experts. These interviews form the basis for preliminary propositions.

Determinants of employee acceptance of, and participation in, WHP are shown to concern information plus offer design. As for information, crucial factors are its flow, how it is presented and how it is received by the individual. Criteria regarding offer design are found on the individual and interpersonal level as well as referring to general environmental and organizational conditions.

Further research on a broad quantitative level is required to test the propositions developed on the basis of the present qualitative study.

With their implications regarding information and offer design, the findings of the study can serve as a guideline for employee‐centred WHP and are of interest to practitioners as well as academics in the field.

Giving first insights into the employees' perspective regarding determinants of acceptance of, and participation in, WHP, this paper offers valuable suggestions for a target‐group oriented design of WHP.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

This paper aims to propose the application of quality engineering in the early phase of environmentally conscious design (Ecodesign).

Utilizing the Kano model and willingness to pay, the paper presents a framework for classification of environmental characteristics of products/services (i.e. offers) in two dimensions. The framework is connected to design management, i.e. design itself and external communication, where strategies for companies are given. The integration of the classification and the strategies is applied to three environmental characteristics against Japanese markets.

The classification framework was proved to be effective as it generates much richer implication than other existing methods. In addition, it works well especially for environmental characteristics. Generation of strategies was also found to work effectively. They suggested some potential of using quality‐engineering oriented methods/tools to deal with customer perception in the early phase of Ecodesign.

The results imply the needs for research on further utilizing quality‐engineering approach and methods in the early stage of Ecodesign. This would be effective as how customers perceive offers has been neglected in the research and practice of Ecodesign and the focus of Ecodesign has been rather in its technical aspects. This research, in a broader sense, exists in integration of marketing and design disciplines.

This paper has brought light into the arena where customer aspects in Ecodesign are addressed and has some potential for quality‐engineering approach and method to tackle the aspects.

Drawing from experiential theory and decision-making theory, this article aims to posit that workplace aesthetics acts as a driver for job choice when included with an employment offer. Whilst organisational literature has recognised that office experiential cues in general, and aesthetics in particular, affect employee performance and well-being, employer attractiveness scales have not yet incorporated office aesthetics as a component of job-offer choice.

A choice-based conjoint (CBC) experiment was conducted to estimate the weighted utilities of three aesthetic and three non-aesthetic employer attributes. Subsequently, the attributes' importance in the job choice decision was estimated.

The results indicate that aesthetic attributes in the workplace can be equally important in the decision-making process as non-aesthetic attributes and that aesthetic attributes deliver as much utility as non-aesthetic attributes in driving job choice.

These conclusions are relevant for Human Resource (HR) managers engaged in crafting job offers, who should consider that employees may improve their assessment of a job offer as a result of superior organisational aesthetics demonstrated during the recruitment process as well as in contexts where employees would be expected to combine remote and office-based work.

The present study represents a novel approach to understanding job applicants' preferences for aesthetic elements in the workplace. The results suggest that the workplace experience is relativistic and that considering applicants' latent preferences is crucial when designing efficient job offers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a workshop model for engaging children and parents in mathematics activities in public libraries or other informal education settings.

This paper explores a workshop model for helping the school-aged children learn mathematics outside the school. The model includes five workshop sessions and designs the parent’s role in the mathematics activities. Each workshop session has both a mathematics task activity and a user interface design activity. The model was implemented in a major Canadian city and a major Chinese city over a period of one month. This paper presents the workshop attendees’ experiences and their feedback on the workshop design. It also presents several suggestions on the design of such workshops.

The parents acknowledged that they learned about how mathematics is currently taught in schools and appreciated the opportunities to interact with their children in the workshops. The children participated in the workshops actively and enjoyed the design sessions the most. The potential of using design activities to help children learn mathematics concepts is recognized.

The findings suggest that future workshops should provide a structure to the parents’ engagement in design activities, offer one design project that spans several design sessions and set aside time for families to mingle and share experiences with each other. A big limitation of this paper is the small sample size – 12 families participated in the workshops on each site. Although the paper offered rich data about the participants’ experiences, a larger sample would have made the findings more generalizable and conclusive.

Computer technologies such as iPad and tablets are increasingly common as public library resources; yet the integration of these technologies into library programs is falling behind. This paper offers one example of how such integration can bring benefits to the patrons, encouraging more considerations to be put on this aspect in library practice.

Although many programs are offered in public libraries that facilitate children to learn mathematics concepts, very less research has been reported on the design of these programs. In addition, the existing programs have not considered the inclusion of parent–child design activities for mathematics learning engagement. This paper reports an empirical study that addresses these research gaps. The encouraging results call for more investigations on this workshop model.

The aim of this paper is to explore and empirically investigate the characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design.

Informed by the service strategy triad, a single embedded case study was designed to explore empirical data on four target markets, four service concepts, and on the design characteristics of the corresponding four service delivery systems. Data were collected in a market‐leading organisation in the business‐to‐business sector within the power industry. The service delivery systems comprise processes that sell electricity contracts and processes that bill against those contracts.

First, the findings indicate what design characteristics are contingent upon the degree of customisation of the service concept. The authors show how this contingency has implications for the extents of employee skills, employee discretion, task routineness, automation, and for front office (FO)‐back office (BO) configurations. Second, the authors challenge the consensus that low customer‐contact processes are designed for the purpose of efficiency. Third, the findings contradict Metters and Vargas who state that it is not possible to have different FO‐BO configurations in a single organisation.

While there are major interactions between the four service delivery systems supporting each individual service concept, this paper does not examine the trade‐offs between the various possible designs of these service delivery systems.

The paper emphasises the importance of considering the complexity of the service offering, the customer relationship strategy, and of taking a process‐orientation to address service delivery system design.

This paper extends current understanding of service delivery system design characteristics and contingencies. The authors show how design characteristics are contingent on the service concept. Research propositions are formulated to emphasise this contingency. Additionally, we report findings which challenge existing FO‐BO design theory.

Although flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are widely regarded as a desirable employee benefit, questions remain about which factors drive (or attenuate) applicant attraction to them. The authors offer a novel theoretical account by advancing the concept of lay theories (i.e. mindsets) around an individual's ability to juggle work and life responsibilities, defined as beliefs that the ability to juggle is either malleable (i.e. growth) or cannot be changed (i.e. fixed), which suggests greater efficacy increases attraction.

Utilizing an experimental policy-capturing design, 86 participants each rated a series of 64 job offers (N = 5,376) with several manipulated job attributes. Participants were randomly assigned into a growth or fixed mindset condition.

Multilevel regressions revealed that a growth (vs fixed) mindset caused participants to place greater weight on flexible work scheduling policies by reporting greater attraction to jobs with flexible arrangements.

Organizations may increase applicant attraction by taking steps to ensure that the value of work–life benefits is salient, such as offering concrete examples of how policies have been used.

This study questions the assumption that those who need flexibility are more attracted to FWAs and demonstrates that beliefs around one's ability to juggle work–life demands are a unique mechanism shaping applicant attraction.