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Policy and practice documents are increasingly adopting a focus on outcomes. This article seeks to clarify what is meant by the term ‘outcome’, the outcomes that have been highlighted in key policy documents, and the extent to which they reflect the outcomes prioritised by service users. The discussion will draw on the early stages of a DoH‐funded project exploring the effectiveness of health and social care partnerships from the perspectives of service users.

Uses survey results from a national sample of quality managers to examine the relationship between how a firm defines quality and what product quality dimensions it considers important to its competitive strategy. Garvin proposed a well‐known framework for thinking about product quality based on eight dimensions: performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and perceived quality. Alternative definitions of quality have evolved from five different approaches: transcendent, product‐based, user‐based, manufacturing‐based, and value‐based. Of the five approaches to defining quality, the manufacturing firms in our sample subscribed most often to the user‐based definition. Using regression analysis within a factor analytic framework, some empirical support was found for hypothesized linkages between the product quality dimensions and the alternative definitions of quality. Specifically, the user‐based definition was related significantly to aesthetics and perceived quality, the manufacturing‐based definition to conformance, and the product‐based definition to performance and features.

User‐based evaluation in archives and special collections is in its infancy, and this paper aims to discuss the conceptualization, development, and testing of Archival Metrics Toolkits. The development and adoption of standardized metrics to support the management of both analog and digital collections is a critical need in archives and manuscript collections.

The Archival Metrics Toolkits were created, and comprised five user‐based evaluation instruments for archives and special collections in colleges and universities: researcher, archival web sites, online finding aids, student researchers, and teaching support.

The Archival Metrics Toolkits, as developed, represent a first step toward standardized evaluation created specifically for archives. Now it is up to the community to adopt these tools and report their use.

These are the first standardized questionnaires to target archives and special collections and take into consideration the unique environment of primary sources and the specific dynamics involved in connecting researchers with archival and manuscript collections.

This paper aims to advance the current understanding of social media (SM) brand engagement. Specifically, it validates the dimensionality of SM brand engagement, examines its drivers and explores the impact of SM brand engagement on brand equity.

A survey was conducted with 433 Generation Y (Gen Y) SM users.

The study results validate SM brand engagement as a multidimensional construct comprising utilitarian, hedonic and social dimensions. Three categories of SM engagement antecedents were identified: social factors (social identity and tie-strength), user-based factors (service, product and price information, hedonic motives and prior experience with SM) and firm-generated information (personalized advertising, mass advertising, promotional offers and price information). Finally, SM brand engagement was positively related to brand equity.

This study focused on Gen Y SM users in India. This study should be replicated in other contexts to establish the generalizability of the findings.

A better understanding of the dimensionality and drivers of SM brand engagement can help managers to enhance their SM strategies to build brand equity.

This is the first study to provide a comprehensive examination of the dimensions, drivers and consequences of SM brand engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the conditions under which a co-design team comprised of in-house professionals and leading-edge service users can generate innovative service design concepts.

The investigation used a field-experimental design to conduct two studies. Observations and open-ended questionnaires were used to examine cross-comparison matrices with experts rating the generated outcomes and t-tests being used to compare the outcome ratings between teams of different compositions.

The outcomes produced by a co-design team seem to be linked to the team diversity – process facilitation relationship. Bringing a variety of knowledge and skills into the team can lead to original outcomes, while a high disparity between members’ backgrounds can require extensive efforts to facilitate a collaborative process. Separation between users’ objectives can result in a user-driven process and outcomes that are too specific for the broader marketplace. Co-design teams that characterize minimum separation, maximum variety, and moderate disparity are likely to produce the most promising results.

The research was restricted to a narrowly defined study setting and samples. Future research should replicate the current study in other service contexts using different team compositions.

Co-design requires the careful selection of users based on their background and motivations, as well as the facilitation of a process that enables the team to collaboratively transform relevant knowledge into innovative outcomes.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the team composition – process facilitation relationship affecting innovation outcomes. Doing so provides a more fine-grained picture of the co-design team composition and the facilitation requirements for service design.

Many firms use customer co-creation practices with the aim of benefiting from their customers’ knowledge, skills and resources. This paper aims to explore co-creation processes which involve users with different background characteristics and motivational drivers.

The study builds on an analysis of data from six teams in which users collaborated with in-house professionals for the development of new service concepts. Observations and open-ended questionnaires provided insights into the teams’ development processes. Independent experts rated the generated concepts. The data were analysed using cross-comparison matrices.

The findings suggest that the co-creation process and outcomes can be influenced by numerous intra-team factors, including relationship and task conflicts, participation style, team bonding, team identity and cohesiveness and intra-team collaboration. Their occurrence and influence seem to be linked with a specific team composition. A conceptual co-creation process model and six propositions are used to describe the complex relationships between team composition, intra-team factors and key innovation outcomes.

Research that investigates user involvement in teams needs to consider the complexity of intra-team factors affecting the development process and outcomes. The findings are limited to a specific setting, design task and user sample. Future research should replicate this study in different sectors.

Key to customer co-creation is the systematic recruitment of users based on their background characteristics and motivational drivers. For instance, the involvement of users with very specific innovation-related benefit expectations can cause conflict, leading to narrowly focused outcomes. This, however, can be mitigated by the form of facilitation and roles adopted by in-house professionals. Understanding intra-team dynamics can allow the firm to assemble and facilitate customer co-creation so that generated outcomes can align with set innovation targets.

This paper provides original insights into the “black box” of the customer co-creation process and the complex relationship between team composition, intra-team factors and key innovation outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is evaluate the public value of municipal Wi-Fi networks by examining their costs and benefits. Increasing attention has been focused on the digital divide, i.e. inequalities in digital access, use and benefits, to a lesser extent on technologies providing opportunities to overcome these inequalities. Different theoretical traditions have approached the problem of the digital divide, this research represents a synthesis by combining a bottom-up approach to calculating the benefits of municipal Wi-Fi networks with an in-depth analysis of the digital divide in Europe.

After a systematic literature review, the paper uses a bottom-up methodology to evaluate the public value of a municipal Wi-Fi network by quantifying its potential benefits and costs. In addition, it includes different types of users based on the access opportunities available to them. It develops different scenarios for these users depending on the connection alternatives and the digital skills available across European countries.

By using data from the euro-28, the paper shows that, in general, the private value of a municipal Wi-Fi network is negative, the public value is positive. However, a greater public value is depending on the extent to which the benefits can be attributed to expectations about the arrival and usage of e-government services.

Based on the quantitative analysis, the authors suggest that municipal Wi-Fi networks can provide the potential to bridge the digital divide. To generate public value, these networks have to be driven by a strong need for e-government services.

However, important factors in the adoption of these services are related to digital skills available in the particular region.

In addition, public investment is required to stimulate the growth of broadband infrastructure in a complementary manner to enable public wireless networks.

The paper combines new insights into the cost calculations of municipal Wi-Fi networks with socioeconomic data on digital skills to examine different types of users.

Following the recent surge in research on carsharing, the paper synthesizes this growing literature to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of research and to identify directions for future work. Specifically, this study details implications for service theory and practice.

Systematic selection and analysis of 279 papers from the existing literature, published between 1996 and 2020.

The literature review identified four key themes: business models, drivers and barriers, customer behavior, and vehicle balancing.

For managers, the study illuminates the importance of collaboration among stakeholders within the automotive sector for purposes of widening their customer base and maximizing utilization and profits. For policy makers, their important role in supporting carsharing take-off is highlighted with emphasis on balancing support rendered to different mobility services to promote mutual success.

This is the first systematic multi-disciplinary literature review of carsharing. It integrates insights from transportation, environmental, and business studies, identifying gaps in the existing research and specifically suggesting implications for service research.

This paper aims to present a review of extant literature representing attempts to define perceived quality and to propose a new definition. Perceived quality (PQ) is a well-researched, yet vaguely defined subject. Despite a plethora of PQ definitions suggested by various scholars, there is no consensus among researchers on what it really is. The main purpose of this study is to offer a conceptualization of PQ that different researchers and practitioners would agree upon.

This study adopted Garvin's five approaches to defining quality as a frame of reference. The paper utilizes a continuum of approaches to underscore the fact that PQ is neither totally subjective nor wholly objective. After a comprehensive analysis of available conceptualizations, the paper then proposes a new definition that captures the intricate nature of PQ and aligns its various perspectives.

The paper proposes a new definition of PQ as an impression of quality. Such a conceptualization of PQ aligns the various researcher perspectives of it. It also highlights the fact that PQ relies on quality cues under conditions of limited product knowledge by the consumer, a situation known as information asymmetry.

The study contributes to the understanding of the elusive concept of PQ by suggesting a new definition of PQ.

This is a case study of an employment strategy for adults with learning disabilities developed in a local authority in a rural area in the South West of England. It describes a structured approach to work‐based training modelled on principles and practices associated with supported employment. It argues that this represents a more effective route into employment than day‐centre training or unstructured work experience. It provides a detailed account of the experience of one service user, based on interviews. It places this development in the context of the authority's strategic response to Valuing People.