Yuri Seo, Carol Kelleher and Roderick J. Brodie
While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer lives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intersubjective hermeneutic framework that bridges the socially constructed as well as the individualised meanings of brand engagement in the context of service research.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper adopts a theory-building approach based on recent developments in the service-centric marketing literature.
Findings
The authors offer a novel theoretical perspective that recognises the intersubjective and phenomenological nature of individual and collective consumer brand experiences, and show how such experiences emerge from socially constructed brand engagement practices using the co-constituting lens of value-in-use.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed conceptual framework invites further empirical and contextual investigations of intersubjective brand engagement in both online and offline contexts.
Originality/value
The contribution of this framework is twofold. First, the authors draw on the intersubjective orientation and hermeneutic framework to provide conceptual clarity in relation to the nature of brand engagement practices, brand experiences, and value-in-use, and discuss their interrelationships. Second, the authors address the nature of meaning ascribed to engagement beyond customer-firm-brand relationships, and discuss why any given consumer’s experience of brand engagement reflects a complex dialectic between socially constructed and individualised brand meanings. In doing so, the integrative framework recognises the interplay between the intersubjective and phenomenological natures of consumer brand experiences, and offers insights as to how these experiences are framed by broader socially constructed engagement practices.
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Johanna Katariina Gummerus, Deirdre Mary O’Loughlin, Carol Kelleher and Catharina von Koskull
Following an interpretivist approach, the authors draw on semi-structured interviews with parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Abstract
Purpose
Following an interpretivist approach, the authors draw on semi-structured interviews with parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Design/methodology/approach
Responding to limited academic advancement, particularly in the context of consumers experiencing vulnerability, the aim is to deepen marketing scholars’ understanding of value co-destruction (VCD) and its under-explored relationship with consumer ill-being.
Findings
Three forms of systemic VCD mechanisms emerged: obscuring, gaslighting and siloing. Ill-being comprised material, physical, psychological and social harms, which consumers experienced individually, relationally and collectively due to VCD. Family members’ experiences of ill-being and vulnerability were deepened by service systems’ inability to recognise the individuality of their needs and provide appropriate support.
Research limitations/implications
In line with the interpretivist paradigm, the focus on families of children with ASD, while illuminating, delimits the generalisability of the findings. The authors call for further research on consumer ill-being, VCD and vulnerability in other service and marketing contexts.
Practical implications
The findings highlight the need for service system adaptability to recognise and address unstandardised needs.
Social implications
Several systemic failures of (public) service systems which manifested as VCD mechanisms are identified.
Originality/value
The overall contribution is the development of a contextually driven characterisation of both VCD and ill-being and a deeper understanding of how these are interrelated. First, VCD revealed itself as a systemic failure to access, provide or integrate resources to meet actors’ needs as manifested by the three mechanisms. Second, the authors characterise ill-being as comprising material, physical, psychological and social harms due to VCD, which are experienced individually, relationally and collectively. Finally, the authors illuminate the nature of vulnerability and delineate the entanglements between vulnerability and ill-being in a collective (e.g. family) context.
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Carol Kelleher, Andrew Whalley and Anu Helkkula
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore the orientations of consumer and company participants who participate in online crowd-sourced communities.Methodology/Approach…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore the orientations of consumer and company participants who participate in online crowd-sourced communities.
Methodology/Approach – Using a netnographic approach, we analysed the Nokia Design by Community (NDbC) crowd-sourced information contest, which was organised by Nokia in order to co-create a vision of the community's ‘dream’ Nokia device.
Findings – The findings reveal that community members' social orientations were dramatically different from the host organisation's narrow commercial focus, which led to unresolved tensions and as we posit, the ultimate failure of the initiative.
Research implications – The contemporary discourse on collaborative value co-creation potentially overemphasises the commercial objectives of organisations by failing to acknowledge the need for organisations to address the complex communal objectives and motivations of members of crowd-sourced communities.
Practical implications – Organisations need to acknowledge and address the complex and dynamic communal and commercial tensions that inherently emerge in online crowd-sourced communities. They need to adopt a tribal marketing approach and respectfully engage with community members if the diverse objectives of community members and the host organisations are to be satisfactorily met.
Originality/Value – Organisations and researchers need to recognise and acknowledge that crowdsourcing both begets communal conflict and fosters collaborative behaviour due to contested commercial and social orientations. While mindful of their commercial objectives, organisations will succeed in implementing online crowd-sourcing initiatives if they make a sincere effort to understand and respect the diversity, culture and social norms of the particular crowd-sourced online community concerned.
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Anu Helkkula, Carol Kelleher and Minna Pihlström
The purpose of this paper is to distinguish experiences from practices and relate this distinction to current developments in value research within service‐dominant (S‐D) logic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to distinguish experiences from practices and relate this distinction to current developments in value research within service‐dominant (S‐D) logic and the broader service domain.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a conceptual overview of how experiences and practices have been characterized in the literature to date, how they differ from each other, and if and where they intersect. Following this, the epistemological and methodological differences between practices and experiences are illustrated using narrated experiences and practical observations of car‐washing.
Findings
While practices are primarily routinized patterns of behaviour, experiences focus more on individuals' value determinations in different contexts. Thus, different types of methodology are needed to observe customers' behaviour in value‐creating practices and interpret customers' sense making of value experiences.
Research limitations/implications
Both phenomenological value experiences and value co‐creation practices contribute to value research: while practices are the shared possession of the collective, internal and individual differentiation is included in practices. Practices may change or evolve over time, possibly resulting in improved value outcomes or experiences. Opportunities and challenges should be considered by value researchers including the temporal nature of practices and experiences, evidence about value, and the intersubjectivity of social relations.
Practical implications
To better facilitate individual experiences and collective practices, service providers need to understand both experiences and practices in order to co‐create value with individuals and their networks.
Originality/value
This study is the first systematic attempt in service research to present an analysis of the distinction between experiences and practices, and to analyze the relevance of this distinction for value research.
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Retirement is a phenomenon unique to modern industrial societies. It is only within the last century, through technological and scientific advances, that industrial nations have…
Abstract
Retirement is a phenomenon unique to modern industrial societies. It is only within the last century, through technological and scientific advances, that industrial nations have been able to produce significant surpluses of food and goods, while simultaneously diminishing the effects of disease and raising the overall standard of living. These advances, combined with the demographic shift which accompanies a declining birth rate (a proportional increase in number of old people to total population), the development of large national bureaucracies, and sudden shifts in the industrial market, have left significant numbers of older workers with obsolete skills and have led to the evolution of a major “retired” segment of the population.
Yuri Seo, Angela Gracia B. Cruz and Kim-Shyan Fam
– The purpose of this paper is to identify a need to incorporate Asian perspectives in theories of food consumption and marketing.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify a need to incorporate Asian perspectives in theories of food consumption and marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
This editorial discusses the mutually recursive relationship between food and culture in Asian markets, offers an integrative summary of the special issue and develops several key themes for future research.
Findings
Food consumption plays a central role within Asian cultures and markets. Thus, understanding Asian perspectives and contexts provides an important complement and contrast to current theories of food consumption and marketing that have been primarily sited in North American and European contexts. In particular, the complex multiplicity of Asian consumer cultures creates dynamic heterogeneity within Asian food markets.
Research limitations/implications
Although food consumption plays a central role in Asian consumer cultures, extant theory regarding Asian food consumption and marketing is still in its infancy. We highlight important developments in this area that suggest a path for future work.
Originality/value
The authors make three contributions to the literature on food consumption and marketing. First, while engaging with these questions, this issue points to the importance of Asian cultural perspectives into the marketing literature on food consumption. Second, through the articles of this special issue, we trace the relationships between food consumption practices, marketing practices and cultural multiplicity in Asian contexts. Finally, we draw the threads together to provide directions for future research in this area.