Search results

Much has been written about the manifestations and managerial implications of customer co-production in service offerings. However, there have been relatively few references to issues of co-production in international service environments. Co-production is very relevant in international environments because of the requirements for interaction between producers and consumers, which interaction spans international borders and national cultures. The purpose of this paper is to apply an established theory of co-production, the Unified Service Theory (UST), to the international service context. This provides the authors with structured models for conceptualizing the co-productive nature of international service offerings and assessing-related managerial implications.

The UST provides a model of co-productive service delivery. Extending that model, the authors develop a taxonomy of international service based on the “four modes of service supply” provided in the General Agreement on Trade and Services instituted by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Then, using data from the WTO and World Bank, the authors propose and test six hypotheses for predicting service exporting focus corresponding to the co-production taxonomy.

Based on the analysis of empirical data, the authors find more service exporting focus in small, growing, high-wage economies that have a significant service base and focus in merchandise exporting. The strength of these effects differs for different modes of service supply.

The authors also discuss cultural issues of international service, but the empirical analysis of culture effects is thus far inconclusive. Also, the analysis is limited to modeling and studying dyadic relationships, i.e., service providers in one country involved in an interchange with customers in another country. A natural extension would be to consider triads and more complex networks of co-productive service offerings.

This research shows how managerial implication of the UST can be extended to international service contexts. The authors review managerial implications pertaining to meeting variable demand, describing service characteristics, and pricing.

Co-production research is well-established in service management literature. This paper extends that research to international contexts by describing the WTO taxonomy in terms of the UST. This allows the authors to apply various insights of co-production to international service offerings.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a categorization of sharing practices from a structured interdisciplinary literature review on the Sharing Economy. Instead of striving for a new definition, the authors distinguish nine types of sharing practices and provide an overview of prior investigations on sharing practices across three levels of analysis and 15 research areas. The structured analysis is translated into opportunities for future research on the Sharing Economy.

The study follows a structured literature review approach to uncover practices related to the Sharing Economy and similar phenomena. The authors analyze 210 articles from a broad number of disciplines, and develop a categorizing framework for Sharing Economy practices.

The paper identifies nine different types of sharing practices and provides a structured way for analyzing, comparing and positioning research on the Sharing Economy and related phenomena.

The categorization of sharing practices and the embedded interdisciplinary overview of studies on the Sharing Economy help to explain potentially contradictory research results and uncovers opportunities for future research in the topic area.

Given the variety of disciplines dealing with the Sharing Economy and the plenitude of definitions and related concepts, the categorization and research overview provides a consolidated view of the knowledge in the topic area and an effective tool for identifying paths for future research.

Currently, China’s economy is in the critical phase of transforming economic development patterns and replacing old growth drivers with new ones. Whether it can successfully overcome the “middle-income trap” has become a significant issue attracting wide attention.

Driven by underlying digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and big data, the fourth industrial revolution featuring the booming digital economy has provided significant opportunities for China’s economy to “overtake” and overcome the “middle-income trap”. The transformation of economic development pattern, the optimization of industrial structure, and the change of growth drivers, brought by the deep integration of digital and real economies are the keys to leaping over the “middle-income trap”.

From the supply side, the digital economy can improve the quality and efficiency of the supply side and promote the supply-side structural reform and economic growth from the following three aspects: First, promote the quality, efficiency and diversification of the supply system; second, promote networking, opening-up and synergy in the innovation system and third, promote the socialization, modularization and flexibility of production pattern. From the demand side, the digital economy can boost the new drivers of the “troika” of economic growth consisting of consumption, exports and investment by changing the market investment direction, promoting consumption upgrade and fostering export strengths. However, once these two attributes interact with each other, especially when data is combined with capital, the most adhesive factor in the market economy, a series of new social relations will then be produced based on the technical attribute, resulting in significant adjustments in social relations, involving both positive and negative externalities.

To overcome the “middle-income trap”, it is necessary to adapt to the laws of economic evolution and promote a fundamental change in economic growth drivers; boost the high-quality development of the digital economy by strengthening the support role of data in the digital economy; and accelerate digital industrialization and industrial digitalization to realize the integration of digital and real economies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Are we now entering the era of a new type of economy, with new rules? What we perceive is more than just an addition to today’s economics. By removing the effects of distance, and giving more equal access across nations and classes, networks will effectively reengineer our basic economic equations. Electronic networks can provide access to skills, work and commerce at much lower cost, via electronic markets in jobs, products, services and education. At the same time, they introduce new economic behaviour, as a large enough quantitative change becomes a qualitative change. Electronics and optics enable the networking of human capital, expanding its application and accelerating its enrichment via education. So knowledge‐based operations may slowly replace traditional capital‐based assets. Consequently, the conventional process for the creation of wealth with its prerequisites for capital investment is revised:economic value in traditional fixed assets is replaced by “electronic assets”. At the same time, the network effect pushes the market mechanism to its limits, through a step‐change in breadth of access, reduced costs of entry and pace of trading. National differences and national markets, all the trappings and devices of commercial locality, are challenged. In this first of two articles, the initial conditions and the evidence for change are examined and the emergence of a new form of economy, or “tele‐economy”, is reviewed. Following from this, a view of the form of capitalism driving the economic environment – “electronic capitalism” – is put forward. The second article, to be published in a forthcoming issue of foresight, examines the consequences and conclusions on assets, wealth accumulation, national players and the benefits and dangers of a tele‐economy.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the development of digital trade can provide new development prospects to China's foreign trade under the background of the gradual expansion of China's digital economy and the further release of policy dividends.

Using the methods of literature collection and induction, combined with traditional trade theory, this paper analyzes the characteristics and challenges of digital trade under the background of the digital economy.

The findings reveal that China's digital trade development still faces some risks, such as the containment of China's core technology, digital security and unbalanced development among regions. Considering these risks, China should break through core technical problem, participate in the formulation of international rules to ensure data security, give priority to the development of service trade and improve the unbalanced development of digital trade.

By analyzing the development status and characteristics of the digital economy and digital trade, this paper summarizes the challenges and comparative advantages faced by China's digital trade, and puts forward corresponding suggestions. These suggestions will allow China to take advantage of its rapid digital economy development and occupy a leading position in global digital trade.

This paper creatively expounds on the new development direction of digital trade from the perspective of comparative advantage and risks, and provides some suggestions to expedite China's digital trade development.

This study aims to examine the Lumpkin and Dess (1996) conceptualization of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in an emerging economy, focusing on India. It ascertains the dimensions of EO that are valuable in securing superior firm performance in emerging economies, which might differ from a developed market setting. It further examines the difference in the significance of dimensions between the manufacturing and services industry.

A novel primary data set consisting of responses from 228 new ventures incorporated in India was created through an online questionnaire survey following the tailored design method principles. A disaggregated approach was adopted and the data were analyzed using multiple regression in SPSS 21.

Among the dimensions of EO, competitive aggressiveness positively affected new venture performance, whereas proactiveness did not show any effect. Autonomy also exhibited a positive impact, except for new venture growth in manufacturing firms. Innovativeness exhibited partial support, only for the effectiveness of service firms. Risking-taking exhibited a negative effect on performance, particularly for manufacturing firms.

The findings guide entrepreneurs and managers operating their new ventures in emerging economies by suggesting the dimensions that are most likely to benefit firm performance and those that might be detrimental.

This study empirically validates the multidimensional conceptualization of EO in India and extends previous studies, which have typically focused on an aggregated EO scale. This study’s findings attest that the manifestation of EO in emerging economies might be different compared to mature economies. The contrast between the manufacturing and service sectors is also shown.

This study aims to identify the influence of perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) on consumer brand commitment in ridesharing services.

PCSR is a second-order construct reflecting three dimensions – economic, environment and ethics. A total of 423 useable responses were collected through an online survey. To test the hypotheses, structural equation modelling was used via AMOS 22.0.

Findings reveal that PCSR has a significant influence on consumer brand trust and brand identification. However, no direct relationship is observed between PCSR and brand commitment. The effect of PCSR and brand commitment is significantly mediated by brand trust and brand identification.

The investment of resources in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities has many advantages because it increases trust and identification towards the brand. Ridesharing business firms are growing in size, so they should harness CSR activities by investing money into them that benefits society.

Sharing economy services have the potential to assist the global and local economy towards environmental friendliness. Yet, there is a lack of research on how the sharing economy model works the social responsibility aspects of the model and its impact on consumer response. This study assesses the dimensions of PCSR and its influence on brand commitment via a brand trust and brand identification towards ridesharing services.

We are currently witnessing a new wave of the digital economy. A prime example is the sharing economy where an organization operates a platform for its online community, the sum of individuals who interact to exchange goods and services. The sharing economy blurs several boundaries of economic life – a fact that extant theory on platform organizing has yet paid little attention. We argue to consider two aspects of the sharing economy and revisit related theory to address this lacuna. First, we revive the concept of hybrid community to denote a variant of an online community that mirrors the boundary-blurring nature of the sharing economy. In a hybrid community, individuals interact both online and offline (instead of only online) and consume as well as produce. Second, we revisit the range of strategic responses suggested by extant literature to minimize the dependence of a platform organization on its hybrid community and show that the sharing economy requires management research to adapt and potentially recast existing claims.