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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 May 2023

Ignacio Cepeda-Carrión, David Alarcon-Rubio, Carlos Correa-Rodriguez and Gabriel Cepeda-Carrion

This article aims to open the black box of the relationship between customer experience and customer satisfaction. The authors also take a fine-grained approach to the concept of…

1833

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to open the black box of the relationship between customer experience and customer satisfaction. The authors also take a fine-grained approach to the concept of customer experience analysis in terms of four dimensions: basic service experience (BSE), moments of truth (MT), focus on results (FR) and peace of mind (PM).

Design/methodology/approach

A total sample of 185 industrial customers in Spain was collected via an online platform from March to April 2020. The data were analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The results indicated that the four dimensions of customer experience are the foundation of commercial success (i.e. customer satisfaction) for express parcel companies in the business-to-business (B2B) environment. Therefore, the most innovative express parcel companies should not only pay attention to providing services in accordance with the customer agreement but also go beyond that; hence, these companies must understand customer needs to be able to offer a unique experience. Therefore, these companies must design experiences that go beyond pure technical delivery services.

Originality/value

Although previous work has linked customer experience to customer satisfaction, there is little work that does so specifically in an industry as in vogue as express parcels and less so in the B2B environment. In addition, this work analyses fine-grained customer experience in terms of grain's four dimensions, and therefore, the authors analyse how each dimension (e.g. more rational or more subjective dimensions) impacts customer satisfaction. Few studies have focussed on this type of analysis for express parcel companies in the B2B environment.

Details

International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 53 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0960-0035

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Antonietta Megaro

This work tries to detect the factors that can impact service innovation in the retail sector according to a service ecosystem (SES) perspective. This paper aims to understand…

Abstract

Purpose

This work tries to detect the factors that can impact service innovation in the retail sector according to a service ecosystem (SES) perspective. This paper aims to understand whether it is possible to study innovation focusing on the impact of technology on resource integration practices in SESs and to rank different patterns of innovation by evaluating their effects in terms of value co-creation.

Design/methodology/approach

To show up the perception of actors, a case study has been carried out through semi-structured interviews. The aggregates of practices and the service innovation archetypes, drawn from the theoretical background, have been used as categories of analysis.

Findings

Service innovation is reconceptualised as the result of the application of new technology to resource integration practices in the retail SES, and it is possible to rank its patterns and outcomes by deepening its effects on the emergence of value co-creation phenomena. Shared intentions have been identified as drivers of service innovation, but greater transparency in systems used to embolden a higher willingness to use could be necessary.

Originality/value

Service innovation has been studied by focusing on value co-creation; for this reason, the willingness to use technology emerged as a determinant of service innovation. This result implies the need for a multilevel reinterpretation of contemporary SES, both regarding the technical features of digital solutions and their adherence to users' skills and the effects of willingness or unwillingness to use on value co-creation.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 October 2023

Roland Hellberg

A deteriorating security situation and an increased need for defence equipment calls for new forms of collaboration between Armed Forces and the defence industry. This paper aims…

Abstract

Purpose

A deteriorating security situation and an increased need for defence equipment calls for new forms of collaboration between Armed Forces and the defence industry. This paper aims to investigate the ways in which the accelerating demand for increased security of supply of equipment and supplies to the Armed Forces requires adaptability in the procurement process that is governed by laws on public procurement (PP).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a review of current literature as well as empirical data obtained through interviews with representatives from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration and the Swedish defence industry.

Findings

Collaboration with the globalized defence industry requires new approaches, where the PP rules make procurement of a safe supply of defence equipment difficult.

Research limitations/implications

The study's empirical data and findings are based on the Swedish context. In order to draw more general conclusions in a defence context, the study should be expanded to cover more nations.

Practical implications

The findings will enable the defence industry and the procurement authorizations to better understand the requirements of Armed Forces, and how to cooperate under applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Originality/value

The paper extends the extant body of academic knowledge of the security of supply into the defence sector. It serves as a first step towards articulating a call for new approaches to collaboration in defence supply chains.

Details

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-6439

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 March 2018

Stefan Scheidt, Carsten Gelhard, Juliane Strotzer and Jörg Henseler

While the branding of individuals has attracted increasing attention from practitioners in recent decades, understanding of personal branding still remains limited, especially…

5588

Abstract

Purpose

While the branding of individuals has attracted increasing attention from practitioners in recent decades, understanding of personal branding still remains limited, especially with regard to the branding of celebrity CEOs. To contribute to this debate, this paper aims to explore the co-branding of celebrity CEOs and corporate brands, integrating endorsement theory and the concept of meaning transfer at a level of brand attributes.

Design/methodology/approach

A between-subjects true experimental design was chosen for each of the two empirical studies with a total of 268 participants, using mock newspaper articles about a succession scenario at the CEO level of different companies. The study is designed to analyse the meaning transfer from celebrity CEO to corporate brand and vice versa using 16 personality attributes.

Findings

This study gives empirical support for meaning transfer effects at the brand attribute level in both the celebrity-CEO-to-corporate-brand and corporate-brand-to-celebrity-CEO direction, which confirms the applicability of the concept of brand endorsement to celebrity CEOs and the mutuality in co-branding models. Furthermore, a more detailed and expansive perspective on the definition of endorsement is provided as well as managerial guidance for building celebrity CEOs and corporate brands in consideration of meaning transfer effects.

Originality/value

This study is one of only few analysing the phenomenon of meaning transfer between brands that focus on non-evaluative associations (i.e. personality attributes). It is unique in its scope, insofar as the partnering relationship between celebrity CEOs and corporate brands have not been analysed empirically from this perspective yet. It bridges the gap between application in practice and the academic foundations, and it contributes to a broader understanding and definition of celebrity endorsement.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 April 2022

Yasin Sahhar and Raymond Loohuis

This paper aims to explore how unreflective and reflective value experience emerges in value co-creation and co-destruction practices in a consumer context.

2601

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how unreflective and reflective value experience emerges in value co-creation and co-destruction practices in a consumer context.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a Heideggerian phenomenological heuristic consisting of three interrelated modes of engagement, which is used for interpretive sense-making in a dynamic and lively case context of amateur-level football (soccer) played on artificial grass. Based on a qualitative study using ethnographic techniques, this study examines the whats and the hows of value experience by individuals playing football at different qualities and in varying conditions across 25 Dutch football teams.

Findings

The findings reveal three interrelated yet distinct modalities of experience in value co-creation and co-destruction presented in a continuum of triplex spaces of unreflective and reflective value experience. The first is a joyful flow of unreflective value experience in emergent and undisrupted value co-creation practice with no potential for value co-destruction. Second, a semireflective value experience caused by interruptions in value co-creation has a higher potential for value co-destruction. Third, a fully reflective value experience through a completely interrupted value co-creation practice results in high-value co-destruction.

Research limitations/implications

This research contributes to the literature on the microfoundations of value experience and value creation by proposing a conceptual relationship between unreflective/reflective value experience and value co-creation and co-destruction mediated through interruptions in consumer usage situations.

Practical implications

This study’s novel perspective on this relationship offers practitioners a useful vantage point on understanding how enhanced value experience comes about in value co-creation practice and how this is linked to value co-destruction when interruptions occur. These insights help bolster alignment and prevent misalignment in resource integration and foster service strategies, designs and innovations to better influence consumer experience in journeys.

Originality/value

This study deploys an integral view of how consumer value experience manifests in value co-creation and co-destruction that offers conceptual, methodological and practical clarity.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 56 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 November 2018

Maryna Chepurna and Josep Rialp Criado

Value co-creation is an important topic of interest in marketing domain for the past decade. Co-creation via the internet has received a particular attention in the literature…

6088

Abstract

Purpose

Value co-creation is an important topic of interest in marketing domain for the past decade. Co-creation via the internet has received a particular attention in the literature (O’Hern and Rindfleisch, 2010). Although there have been substantive number of studies of what motivates customers to participate in value co-creation in the internet-based platforms, there is a lack of research of what the deterrents are that may prevent customers from contributing their ideas online. This research was undertaken to define the deterrents from the customers and companies’ point of view. Furthermore, the difference, if exists, between the users’ and marketing professionals’ ranking of the inhibitors to co-creation online is also studied.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory qualitative research is based on 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with customers and 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with marketing specialists from different companies. Spearman’s rank correlation is applied to explore the relationship between the internet users’ and marketers’ responses.

Findings

There are nine constraining factors. The results show that although there is a repetition of the mentioned constraining factors indicated by the both groups of the interviewees, the ranking of the barriers is distinctive.

Research Implications

New conceptual information is received on what restrains customers from co-creation from both customers’ and companies’ point of view.

Practical Implications

This paper explains the potential problems to be confronted when launching a co-creation project in the internet-based platforms and offers managers a preliminary guide to comprehension of the users’ deterrents rating.

Originality

The paper that defines deterrents to co-creation online.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 August 2021

Susan Danissa Calderón Urbina, Antonios Stamatogiannakis and Dilney Goncalves

This study aims to introduce the duration of uniqueness, an important dimension of unique products. It studies how choices between products with long versus short duration of…

3556

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to introduce the duration of uniqueness, an important dimension of unique products. It studies how choices between products with long versus short duration of uniqueness are influenced by the interaction between pressure and consumers’ need for uniqueness (NFU).

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a multi-method study approach. A pilot field-study tested the novelty and importance of the research by asking retail professionals to predict the choice of a hypothetical consumer. A retrospective study assessed the importance of duration of uniqueness in unique product choices, by asking consumers about a real and recent unique product purchase. Four additional experimental studies directly tested hypotheses by manipulating pressure and by measuring or manipulating uniqueness motivations.

Findings

The pilot field-study showed the novelty and relevance of this research for professionals. Study 1 revealed that, retrospectively, uniqueness duration was considered important for the choice of unique products, by high-NFU consumers under pressure. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that pressure increases the tendency of high-NFU, but not low-NFU, consumers to choose products with long over short uniqueness duration. Study 4 provided initial evidence for the process behind the effect. Study 5 showed that considerations of uniqueness duration when choosing mediated the effects.

Research limitations/implications

The results of the pilot field-study and retrospective study might be affected by recall bias or lay theories. The findings need to be replicated with other sources of pressure and uniqueness. This calls for further research.

Practical implications

Results are important for companies marketing unique products and they suggest that pressure-based marketing appeals can be used strategically to increase sales of products with long uniqueness duration but decrease sales of products with short uniqueness duration. Although the research provides these guidelines, managers should consider the ethical implications of pressure strategies.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt to empirically investigate the duration of uniqueness. Although extant research has examined choices between products with different degrees of uniqueness, this research studies choice of products with similar degrees of uniqueness, but different uniqueness duration. Thus, this research adds to the scarce literature studying the duration of symbolic benefits. Moreover, although pressure and NFU frequently co-exist in uniqueness consumption settings, this study is the first to study their joint effects.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 55 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Francesco Scarpa, Riccardo Torelli and Simona Fiandrino

This paper aims to understand how companies addressed and revisited their sustainable development goals (SDGs) engagement during COVID-19.

1443

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand how companies addressed and revisited their sustainable development goals (SDGs) engagement during COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

The study conducts semi-structured interviews with the sustainability managers of 16 Italian listed companies acting for the accomplishment of the SDGs. Then, the interviews’ transcripts and the companies’ sustainability reports were thematically analysed to tease out relevant findings.

Findings

The findings show that companies have intensified their SDGs efforts during COVID-19, implementing an approach closer to the “Sustainability for Braving Crisis”. The findings unveil the transformational mechanisms which determined and facilitated this improvement at three levels of the business SDGs engagement: “WHY” (general awareness and motivations), “HOW” (governance mechanisms, organizational structure and stakeholder dialogue) and “WHAT” (SDGs identification and prioritization and actions for the SDGs). These findings uncover the mechanisms through which a global crisis may prompt and catalyse sustainable business practices, acting as i) an inspirational and empowering event, ii) an organisational lever and iii) a reference point.

Practical implications

This research has important implications for practice and policy, as it offers managers and stakeholders guidance to understand how companies have reshaped their sustainability practices during the pandemic and drives future corporate responses in times of crisis.

Social implications

This study shows that a crisis may be a powerful lever to intensify business sustainability practices towards a better contribution to the SDGs.

Originality/value

This study focuses on how companies have revised their SDGs practices when faced with a global crisis such as COVID-19.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 14 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 July 2021

Marianne Ylilehto, Hanna Komulainen and Pauliina Ulkuniemi

The purpose of this study is to explore the customer shopping experience in the innovative technology setting. Specifically, the purpose is to understand how do innovative…

9206

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the customer shopping experience in the innovative technology setting. Specifically, the purpose is to understand how do innovative technologies influence the customer shopping experience?

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative, explorative study has characteristics of a phenomenological research strategy. The data were collected from four focus groups and ten in-depth interviews with consumers. Abductive approach with an implementation of content analysis was used as a method of analysis.

Findings

The results show that there are three critical factors in customer's shopping experience in the context of innovative technologies; (1) channel choice, (2) value dimensions related to convenience and enjoyment, and (3) social interaction. All factors are highly intertwined and influence each other.

Originality/value

This study contributes to customer experience literature by offering a framework for understanding customer shopping experiences in the innovative technology setting. These findings have important implications for retail managers seeking to enhance customer experience and achieve a competitive advantage by utilizing innovative technology.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 16 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 March 2023

Teresa Fernandes and Manuel Aires de Matos

Non-profit organizations (NPO) contribute significantly to the welfare of citizens and communities. Engagement in volunteering is crucial for sustaining volunteer motivation and…

3522

Abstract

Purpose

Non-profit organizations (NPO) contribute significantly to the welfare of citizens and communities. Engagement in volunteering is crucial for sustaining volunteer motivation and for the effective and efficient functioning of NPO, with significant implications for society at large. Yet, literature on volunteer engagement (VE) is limited to date. Grounded on service-dominant logic, self-congruity theory and self-determination theory, this study aims to understand what motivates VE and how it may evolve into a co-creation process valuable to NPO and its stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on survey data collected from 450 volunteers, working with a diverse set of NPO, a comprehensive model of drivers and outcomes of VE was empirically tested using PLS-SEM, considering the mediating role of volunteers' congruence with the core values of the NPO.

Findings

The impact of volunteers' perceived autonomy, competence and relatedness on VE and its subsequent role in volunteers' loyalty and extra-role engagement behaviors (i.e. co-development, influencing and mobilizing behaviors) were validated. Moreover, the study validates value congruence as an internalizing mediating mechanism in the engagement process, a role that has been implied but not empirically tested.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the engagement and volunteering literature, which despite an unprecedented parallel have developed almost independently, with limited reference to one another. As the nomological network of VE is still underexplored, the study extends the engagement literature to the volunteering sector, validating the key (but underexplored) role of self-determination needs and value congruence in driving VE and value co-creation behaviors. The study further adds to engagement research while addressing other actors' engagement beyond the customer–brand dyad. While adopting a seldom explored marketing perspective of VE, this study provides NPO valuable insights on how to manage and engage volunteers.

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