Anna Essén, Sara Winterstorm Värlander and Karina T. Liljedal
Many scholars have urged firms to empower consumers to become co-producers, arguing that this empowerment leads to a win-win situation that benefits consumers and providers alike…
Abstract
Purpose
Many scholars have urged firms to empower consumers to become co-producers, arguing that this empowerment leads to a win-win situation that benefits consumers and providers alike. However, critical voices have emphasised that co-production is a way to exploit rather than empower consumers and hence represents a win–lose idea that benefits providers only. Regrettably, these polarised positions remain disconnected and lack empirical investigation. The aim of the present study is to move the debate beyond this stalemate by integrating these perspectives using an empirical study to explore enabling and constraining implications of the attempts to “empower” consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a qualitative empirical study of an internationally unique example of a long-term co-production process in rheumatology care. Data were collected using both focused interviews and observations.
Findings
The study indicates that both the optimistic and the critical perspectives of co-production are valid and the implications of “empowering” consumers are two-edged.
Research Limitations/implications
The study highlights the need to zoom in and analyse how empowering and disempowering mechanisms relate to specific aspects of particular co-production processes rather than to co-production as a general phenomenon.
Practical Implications
The empirical data illustrate the feasibility of employing patients in everyday healthcare production through simple means while raising numerous issues related to, for example, traditional healthcare roles and process design.
Originality/value
The present study of a unique, long-term co-production illustrates how both perspectives of co-production are valid.
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Sara Korlén, Anna Essén, Peter Lindgren, Isis Amer-Wahlin and Ulrica von Thiele Schwarz
Policy makers are applying market-inspired competition and financial incentives to drive efficiency in healthcare. However, a lack of knowledge exists about the process whereby…
Abstract
Purpose
Policy makers are applying market-inspired competition and financial incentives to drive efficiency in healthcare. However, a lack of knowledge exists about the process whereby incentives are filtered through organizations to influence staff motivation, and the key role of managers is often overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategies managers use as intermediaries between financial incentives and the individual motivation of staff. The authors use empirical data from a local case in Swedish specialized care.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory qualitative case study of a patient-choice reform, including financial incentives, in specialized orthopedics in Sweden. In total, 17 interviews were conducted with professionals in managerial positions, representing six healthcare providers. A hypo-deductive, thematic approach was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results show that managers applied alignment strategies to make the incentive model motivating for staff. The managers’ strategies are characterized by attempts to align external rewards with professional values based on their contextual and practical knowledge. Managers occasionally overruled the financial logic of the model to safeguard patient needs and expressed an interest in having a closer dialogue with policy makers about improvements.
Originality/value
Externally imposed incentives do not automatically motivate healthcare staff. Managers in healthcare play key roles as intermediaries by aligning external rewards with professional values. Managers’ multiple perspectives on healthcare practices and professional culture can also be utilized to improve policy and as a source of knowledge in partnership with policy makers.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for studying the process of technology‐based service system innovation from a broad perspective using an approach that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for studying the process of technology‐based service system innovation from a broad perspective using an approach that elucidates the non‐linear facets of this process. The framework draws on Lévy‐Strauss's concept of bricolage, which implies that individuals' “making do with resources at hand,” as opposed to managerial visions, can trigger innovation. This concept is combined with the notion of technological drift and with a model of emergentism.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses case study data from the Swedish elderly homecare setting.
Findings
The findings illustrate how the emergence of technology‐based care services can be triggered by an injection of energy in terms of a new technological resource being made available in an organization, proceeding as a continuous interaction between personnel repurposing and recombining resources at hand, positive and negative feedback dynamics, institutional regulations and culture‐related stabilizing mechanisms.
Research limitations/implications
New services can arise as a result of a number of efforts and events that, in isolation, might appear insignificant. Taken together, and interacting with enabling and constraining forces that promote the emergence of certain new services and prevent others, such acts and events generate unpredictable outcomes. The result may be incremental but by no means trivial innovations.
Originality/value
The paper suggests an approach to innovation that complements conventional thinking in the new service development literature. The proposed framework can help to explain how and why certain new services emerge and why others do not in unexpected and unpredictable ways.
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Anna Essén and Solveig Wikström
This paper aims to explore the role of emotions in consumers' evaluations of service quality.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the role of emotions in consumers' evaluations of service quality.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses empirical qualitative data from in‐depth interviews with 26 senior citizens who are consumers of long‐term residential care services in a Swedish rural community. The empirical findings are analysed inductively in terms of dimensions derived from the literature on the role of emotions in consumers' evaluations of service quality.
Findings
When explaining their overall evaluations of service quality, the respondents referred exclusively to service dimensions that had evoked emotional reactions. However, although these service dimensions were the only ones to influence the consumers' perceptions of service quality, respondents tended to reflect about these dimensions in a cognitive manner. The remaining service dimensions, which did not evoke any emotional memories, did not influence the respondents' perceptions of the overall quality of services rendered.
Research limitations/implications
Emotional reactions can direct the attention of consumers to certain service dimensions, and subsequently trigger cognitive evaluations of these dimensions. The emotional and cognitive responses of consumers to services are thus interrelated. More research is needed into the mechanism of this interaction.
Practical implications
Service providers should recognise that consumers' emotional and cognitive reactions are intertwined. For providers of aged‐care services, this study suggests certain service dimensions that are worthy of further attention in seeking positive evaluations of services from users.
Originality/value
Previous research has tended to distinguish between emotional and cognitive evaluations of services. This study challenges this distinction by demonstrating that dimensions that have traditionally been viewed as “non‐emotional” can be influenced by “emotional” reactions. Thus, the study shows that “emotional bias” can lead to some dimensions having a disproportionate influence on overall evaluations of service.
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Reviews the Essen Schweissen und Schneiden cutting and welding trade show, assesses the latest developments in remote laser welding technology, identifies mounting trend for…
Abstract
Reviews the Essen Schweissen und Schneiden cutting and welding trade show, assesses the latest developments in remote laser welding technology, identifies mounting trend for electric servo guns to replace pneumatic welding guns, reports on growing interest in aluminium welding and outlines the different solutions proposed.
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Reviews the Essen Schweissen und Schneiden cutting and welding trade show, identifies mounting trend for electric servo guns to replace pneumatic welding guns, reports on growing…
Abstract
Reviews the Essen Schweissen und Schneiden cutting and welding trade show, identifies mounting trend for electric servo guns to replace pneumatic welding guns, reports on growing interest in aluminium welding and outlines the different solutions proposed, assesses the latest developments in remote laser welding technology.
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Annette McKeown, Gemma Ramshaw, Anna Smith, Sarah Atkinson and Patrick John Kennedy
The SECURE STAIRS framework for integrated care is a trauma-informed approach to supporting staff and young people within the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate (CYPSE) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The SECURE STAIRS framework for integrated care is a trauma-informed approach to supporting staff and young people within the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate (CYPSE) in the UK. Within secure settings, therapeutic climate is a concept that encapsulates an individual’s perception of safety, connectedness with others and level of support within the environment. To support evaluation of the SECURE STAIRS framework, a Secure Children’s Home (SCH) within the North East of England examined therapeutic climate for staff and young people annually using the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES) over a three-year period. This paper aims to present the findings.
Design/methodology/approach
Over the three years, a total of 71 young people and 214 staff EssenCES questionnaires were administered. Between 2020 and 2021, the setting also experienced significant changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers of young people also decreased within the setting over the three-year period.
Findings
Results indicated a positive trend for therapeutic climate sub-scores. For example, Experienced Safety for young people significantly increased from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, therapeutic hold for staff was significantly higher in 2020 and 2021 in comparison to 2018.
Originality/value
Findings are discussed in relation to implementation of the SECURE STAIRS framework and providing trauma-informed care for vulnerable young people within secure settings. Implications for practice are explored.
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Beata Agnieszka Żukowska, Olga Anna Martyniuk and Robert Zajkowski
Survivability capital is a unique resource resulting from the “familiness” constituting an inherent feature of family firms. Familiness represents the ability of family members to…
Abstract
Purpose
Survivability capital is a unique resource resulting from the “familiness” constituting an inherent feature of family firms. Familiness represents the ability of family members to reinforce the financial and non-financial resources of businesses facing threats to their economic existence. This work proposes and examines various dimensions of the survivability capital construct, verifying whether family firms expecting deterioration of their economic situation or problems with survival due to the COVID-19 crisis can mobilise sufficient capital to survive.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides empirical evidence based on a cross-sectional online survey of 167 Polish family firms, conducted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The method (scale) of survivability capital measurement was elaborated and validated using principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Next, the mobilisation of the different dimensions of survivability capital was examined using PLS-SEM modelling.
Findings
The survivability capital of family firms is composed of two dimensions: internal (based on directly involved family members) and external (based on not directly involved family members). Family firms facing crisis-induced deterioration of the economic situation engage its internal component. Subsequently, family firms forecasting decreasing probability of survival during a crisis try to engage both the internal and the external components of survivability capital. Such behaviour is in line with the resource-based view as well as with the sustainable family business theory.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine analytically the survivability capital construct. While previous studies mentioned the existence of survivability capital, this study attempts to introduce its various dimensions and test the mobilisation of survivability capital during the COVID-19 crisis.
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Marc Eulerich, Anna Eulerich and Benjamin Fligge
This study examines the strategy–performance relationship within publicly traded German firms. Strategic management literature provides several strategic frameworks that offer…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the strategy–performance relationship within publicly traded German firms. Strategic management literature provides several strategic frameworks that offer guidance on promising strategies. However, given major changes, such as globalization, managers wonder whether strategic frameworks are still applicable.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ principal component analysis (PCA) to measure competitive strategy and analyze a sample of 6,037 firm-years among 651 firms between 2000 and 2019.
Findings
While the authors find evidence for the existence of efficiency-based strategies, differentiation-based strategies and mixed strategies, only differentiation-based strategies are positively related to performance.
Originality/value
The study’s results contribute to the discourse on the strategy–performance relationship, as they provide insights into promising strategies that are of interest to researchers and practitioners. Further, the authors introduce a new measure of competitive strategy based on PCA.
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Carolin Siepmann, Lisa Carola Holthoff and Pascal Kowalczuk
As luxury goods are losing their importance for demonstrating status, wealth or power to others, individuals are searching for alternative status symbols. Recently, individuals…
Abstract
Purpose
As luxury goods are losing their importance for demonstrating status, wealth or power to others, individuals are searching for alternative status symbols. Recently, individuals have increasingly used conspicuous consumption and displays of experiences on social media to obtain affirmation. This study aims to analyze the effects of luxury and nonluxury experiences, as well as traditional luxury goods on status- and nonstatus-related dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
After presenting the theoretical foundation, the authors conduct a study with 599 participants to compare status perceptions elicited by the conspicuous consumption of luxury goods, luxury experiences and nonluxury experiences. The authors investigate whether experiences that are visibly consumed on Instagram are replacing traditional luxury goods as the most important status symbols. Furthermore, the authors examine the effects of the content shown on nonstatus-related dimensions and analyze whether status perceptions differ between female and male social media communicators. Finally, the authors analyze how personal characteristics (self-esteem, self-actualization and materialism) influence the status perceptions of others on social media.
Findings
The results show that luxury goods are still the most important means of displaying status. However, especially for women, luxury experiences are also associated with a high level of social status. Thus, the results imply important gender differences in the perceptions of status- and nonstatus-related dimensions. Furthermore, the findings indicate that, in particular, the individual characteristics of self-actualization and materialism affect status perceptions depending on the posted content.
Originality/value
While the research has already considered some alternative forms of conspicuous consumption, little attention has been given to experiences as status symbols. However, with their growing importance as substitutes for luxury goods and the rise of social media, the desire to conspicuously consume experiences is increasing. The authors address this gap in the literature by focusing on the conspicuous display of luxury and nonluxury experiences on social media.