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Gillette’s historically successful “razor and blade” business model (RBM) has been a promising benchmark for multiple businesses across diverse industries worldwide in the past several decades. The extant literature deals with very few nuances of this business model notwithstanding the fact that there are several variants of this business model being put to practical use by firms in diverse industries in grossly metaphorically equivalent situations.

This study adopts the 2 × 2 truth table framework from the domains of mathematical logic and combinatorics in fleshing out all possible (four logical possibilities) variants of the razor and blade business model for further analysis. This application presents four mutually exclusive yet collectively exhaustive possibilities on any chosen dimension. Two major dimensions (viz., provision of subsidy and intra- or extra-firm involvement in the making of razors or blades or both) form part of the discussion in this paper. In addition, this study synthesizes and streamlines entrepreneurial wisdom from multiple intra-industry and inter-industry benchmarks in terms of real-time firms explicitly or implicitly adopting several variants of the RBM that suit their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of evolution in situations that are grossly reflective of the metaphorically equivalent scenario of razor and recurrent blades. Inductive method of research is carried out with real-time cases from diverse industries with a pivotally common pattern of razor and blade model in some form or the other.

Several new variants of the razor and blade model (much beyond what the extant literature explicitly projects) have been discovered from the multiple metaphorically equivalent cases of RBM across industries. All of these expand the portfolio of options that relevant entrepreneurial firms can explore and exploit the best possible option chosen from them, given their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of growth.

This study has enriched the literature by presenting and analyzing a more inclusive or perhaps comprehensive palette of explicit choices in the form of several variants of the RBM for the relevant entrepreneurial firms to choose from. Future research can undertake the task of comparing these variants of RBM with those of upcoming servitization business models such as guaranteed availability, subscription and performance-based contracting and exploring the prospects of diverse combinations.

Smart entrepreneurial firms identify and adopt inspiring benchmarks (like razor and blade model whenever appropriate) duly tweaked and blended into a gestalt benchmark for optimal profits and attractive market shares. They target diverse market segments for tied-goods with different variants or combinations of the relevant benchmarks in the form of variegated customer value propositions (CVPs) that have unique and enticing appeal to the respective market segments.

Value-sensitive customers on the rise globally choose the option that best suits them from among multiple alternatives offered by competing firms in the market. As long as the ratio of utility to price of such an offer is among the highest, even a no-frills CVP may be most appealing to one market segment while a plush CVP may be tempting to yet another market segment simultaneously. While professional business firms embrace resource leverage practices consciously, amateur customers do so subconsciously. Each party subliminally desires to have the maximum bang-to-buck ratio as the optimal return on investment, given their priorities ceteris paribus.

Prior studies on the RBM have explicitly captured only a few variants of the razor and blade model. This study is perhaps the first of its kind that ferrets out many other variants (more than ten) of the razor and blade model with due simplification and exemplification, justification and demystification.

Extant research shows collaboration among supply chain (SC) partners can address the significant environmental impacts of industrial food systems, but can be risky and resource-intensive. Past studies have predominantly treated buyer–supplier sustainability collaborations as a single aggregate concept missing the theoretical richness. This study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of these collaborations for jointly improving sustainable food supply networks.

A multiple case study was conducted covering 8 SCs in the Dutch food processing industry, using data from 27 interviewees and extensive secondary material.

By applying the dynamic relational view, this study identifies three types of buyer–supplier collaboration, reflecting three paths of sustainable value creation: (1) the bilateral path, featuring equal participation and extensive collaboration, yielding substantial environmental and economic benefits; (2) the buyer-driven path, where the buyer leads the collaboration to address sustainability issues that are raised by stakeholders, relying on supplier expertise to improve SC traceability and sustainability reputation, albeit at higher costs; (3) the supplier-driven path, where the supplier leads the collaboration for incremental environmental and economic improvements.

The taxonomy results provide practical guidelines to assist managers in selecting the most suitable collaboration type for their specific sustainability goals and more effectively address sustainability challenges.

The three identified types of collaboration form a novel taxonomy for improving sustainability in food supply networks, representing different paths for SC partners to achieve progressively more substantial sustainability improvements. This taxonomy challenges the perspective that adopting sustainability invariably leads to increased costs by providing evidence of simultaneous economic and environmental improvements.

As opposed to conventional promotional methods, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) communication, especially when negative, significantly shapes customers’ repurchase decisions and preferences. Therefore, this study aims to examine the interplay between negative WOM and bank service failures, with a focus on the mediating role of customer switching intentions and the moderating role of switching costs in this relationship.

Using an online semi-structured questionnaire survey, a dataset comprising 411 responses was gathered from retail bank customers in China. This dataset was subsequently analyzed using SPSS PROCESS.

Consistent with the social exchange theory, our study revealed a significant relationship between service failure and both bank customers’ intention to switch and negative WOM communication. Additionally, we observed that switching intentions significantly influence negative WOM communications, acting as a mediator between service failures and negative WOM. Furthermore, our findings indicated that switching costs moderate the direct effect of service failures on negative WOM and moderate the indirect effect of service failures on negative WOM through switching intentions.

This study provides significant policy implications aimed at minimizing bank service failures and subsequent negative WOM communications among bank customers.

This study empirically investigates the role of service failures in promoting negative WOM communication, demonstrating a partial mediation effect of switching intentions in this relationship. Moreover, the study highlights that switching costs moderate service failures’ impact on customers’ switching intentions.

Global brands have become increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions that have negative spillover effects on consumers, business and brands. This research area has recently garnered interest post-pandemic yet remains fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the most impactful exogenous brand crisis (EBC) and its affective and behavioural impact on consumers.

In Study 1, we applied repertory grid technique (RGT), photo elicitation method and ANOVA comparisons, to identify the most significant EBC, in terms of repercussions on consumer purchases. In Study 2, we performed collage construction and content analysis to ascertain the impact of the identified significant crisis (from Study 1) on consumer behaviour in terms of affective and behavioural changes.

Study 1 results reveal Spread-of-diseases and Natural disaster to be the most impactful EBC based on consumer’s purchase decisions. Study 2 findings uncover three distinct themes, namely, deviant demand, emotional upheaval and community bonding that throws light on the affective and behavioural changes in consumer behaviour during the two significant EBC events.

The collated results of the two studies draw insights towards understanding the largely unexplored conceptualisation of EBC from a multi-level (micro-meso-macro) perspective. The integrated framework drawn, highlight the roles and influences of different players in exogenous brand crisis management and suggests future research agendas based on theoretical underpinnings.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which identifies the most important EBC and explicates its profound impact on consumer purchase behaviour, providing critical insights to brand managers and practitioners to take an inclusive approach towards exogenous crises.

The expected learning outcomes are to understand the complexities involved in the integration of two carriers with different business strategies and approaches, the merger of two brands with distinct personas and identities and the confluence of two different cultures; figure out the strategic options in front of the Tata Group and how it can deal with various macro- and micro-level business challenges, defy the financial hiccups and manoeuvre the operational complexities to accomplish mission Vihaan.AI; and develop a pragmatic approach to macro and micro business environmental scanning for making strategic business decisions.

In November 2022, Tata Group, the salt to software conglomerate, announced the merger of Air India (AI) and Vistara. This would lead to the formation of the full-service airline under the brand name “Air India”. The obvious reason behind this was the higher recognition, salience and recall of the brand AI as compared with Vistara in the global market. The Tata Group envisaged the brand AI to be a significant international aviation player with the heritage, persona and ethos of the brand Vistara in the renewed manifestation of AI. To realise these goals, Tata Group laid down an ambitious plan called “Vihaan.AI”, which was aimed at capturing a domestic market share of 30% by 2027.

This case study can be taught as part of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level management programmes.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Servitization is a business transformation that increases service provision in manufacturers. This study aims to empirically examine how a manufacturer's global supply chain dependence and its power positions affect its servitization output.

This study employs secondary longitudinal datasets and econometric specifications to test the relationship between global supply chain dependence and servitization. It further examines the moderating roles of the firm's market power and the degree of being principal customers and principal suppliers. Heterogeneity analyses are performed to verify the robustness of the results.

The findings indicate that fewer global suppliers and more global customers contribute to a higher level of servitization. The negative effect of global supplier dependence is mitigated when manufacturers have less market power and are the principal customers for most of their suppliers. The positive effect of global customer dependence is stronger when manufacturers have less market power and their customers are less dependent on the manufacturers.

Data mixing manufacturing and service inputs and data on public US manufacturers may restrict the generalizability of the findings. Nonetheless, the study urges future research to focus more on other countries/markets.

This study encourages manufacturers who servitize their businesses to connect with more global customers and fewer global suppliers and manage powers among stakeholders. Other recommendations for policymakers and industry associations are also proposed.

This study is the first to explore the impacts of the global supply chain dependence on servitization. Multiple-level findings offer important implications for researchers and practitioners.