Olga Dziubaniuk and Leena Aarikka-Stenroos
The purpose of this empirical study is to apply the industrial marketing and purchasing approach to explore ethical value co-creation and business ethics in the circular economy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this empirical study is to apply the industrial marketing and purchasing approach to explore ethical value co-creation and business ethics in the circular economy (CE) ecosystem (CEE) of the Finnish textile industry. A CEE involves a variety of business and institutional actors with shared business or societal targets. Ethical principles may become embedded in their first social interaction and can play an important supportive role in economic, environmental and social value co-creation, especially when the actors have sustainability goals.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative single-case study of a CEE in the Finnish textile industry where diverse actors seek to create value from circularity. The analysed data represent a set of interviews with business and institutional actors directly involved in managerial activities in the CEE of textile industry in Finland.
Findings
This study provides a conceptual framework of actors’ interactions and ethical value co-creation aimed at meeting CE and sustainability goals at the levels of actors, the network and the ecosystem. The findings emphasise the value of proactive collaboration among business and institutional actors seeking innovations, knowledge-sharing and business development in fostering more circular operations in the textile industry and thereby effecting the CE transition. Efficient interactions for value co-creation among actors can be grounded on ethical values such as trust, transparency, shared sustainability goals and the power to positively influence and motivate actors and even consumers to transition to CE principles.
Originality/value
An original research framework of ethical value co-creation is proposed in this study based on the combined concept of ethical embeddedness and ecosystem orchestration mechanisms to achieve sustainability and CE goals. This study contributes to the limited business ethics studies in circular business and CEE research and empirically examines business interactions among actors within a CE ecosystem. The managerial and policymaking implications of this study highlight the strategic importance of various actors’ interactions in implementing circularity in business processes.
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Jouni Lyly-Yrjänäinen, Leena Aarikka-Stenroos and Teemu Laine
This paper aims to propose an approach to broaden the focus of a low-fidelity prototype (i.e. mock-up) to enable user experimentation in a real environment at the early stages of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose an approach to broaden the focus of a low-fidelity prototype (i.e. mock-up) to enable user experimentation in a real environment at the early stages of the product development process. The functionality approaching a real solution enables customers to experience the key functionality, and therefore, the perceived customer value of the new product idea before major investments in the development.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on an interventionist case study in a manufacturing company. The researchers were involved in the development of two new products and analysing the potential process and cost implications.
Findings
Mock-ups enable the preliminary measurement of cost and value implications of a new product at the early stages of the development process. This holds significant potential for advancing development practices and reducing the uncertainties present in such processes. Thus, the business case at the early stage of the development process can be argued with “user-experienced” cost information and, therefore, also “perceived” customer value.
Practical implications
The use of mock-ups to gain customer feedback is well aligned with the fail-fast mentality emphasised in the contemporary start-up scene, but this study also encourages developers/practitioners from mature industries to use mock-ups to assess perceived customer value.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper lies in broadening the focus of mock-ups to enable user experimentation in a real environment at the early stages of the development process.
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Anil Engez and Leena Aarikka-Stenroos
Successful commercialization is crucial to innovative firms, but further investigation is needed on how diverse stakeholders can contribute to the commercialization of a radical…
Abstract
Purpose
Successful commercialization is crucial to innovative firms, but further investigation is needed on how diverse stakeholders can contribute to the commercialization of a radical innovation that requires particular market creation support. This paper aims to, therefore, analyze the key stakeholders and their contributive activities in commercialization and market creation, particularly in the case of radical innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on qualitative research design including interviews with key stakeholders, such as regulators, scientists, experts, licensing partners, core company representatives and extensive secondary data. This single-case study concerns a functional food product, which is a radical innovation requiring the development of a novel product category positioned between the food and medicine categories in global market settings. Since its market launch in 1995, the involvement of multiple stakeholders was needed for its successful commercialization in over 30 countries.
Findings
Results uncover the contributions of diverse stakeholders to commercialization and market creation, particularly of radical innovation. Stakeholders performed market creation activities such as regulating the marketing and labeling of food products, conducting safety assessments, revealing and validating the positive health effects of the novelty and raising awareness of healthy living and cardiovascular health. The commercialization activities included distributing the products overseas, applying the ingredient to different food products and making the products available for users.
Research limitations/implications
This single-case study provides an overview of the positive stakeholder activities with contributions to market creation and commercialization of functional food innovations. Although the user perspective was not included in the empirical part of this study because of our focus on B2B actors, users of the innovation can contribute to R&D activities to a great extent.
Originality/value
The developed framework of stakeholders’ contributive activities in radical innovation commercialization and market creation contributes to literature discussing market creation as well as commercialization within the marketing and innovation management research fields. This work also generates practical advice for managers who commercialize (radical) innovations.
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Sami Rusthollkarhu, Pia Hautamaki and Leena Aarikka-Stenroos
Digital ecosystemic business environments challenge dyadic approaches to value creation and particularly to business-to-business (B2B) sales. This paper aims to offer a novel…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital ecosystemic business environments challenge dyadic approaches to value creation and particularly to business-to-business (B2B) sales. This paper aims to offer a novel conceptualization of the connection between value creation and B2B sales, which indicates practical implications and builds an agenda for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper integrates theoretical insights on service-dominant logic, service ecosystems, interactional value co-creation and B2B sales. This paper uses anecdotal evidence from the field of B2B sales to illustrate theoretical concepts developed in the paper.
Findings
The paper develops the concept of value idea emergence (VIE), the process through which B2B entities become aware of a pursuable benefit. The paper further proposes that value (co-)creation in ecosystems happens through VIE’s intertwinement with the process of value proposition creation, a process, which includes all activities needed to bring a value proposition to a customer. The paper then discusses the role of B2B in these processes and proposes an agenda for future research.
Practical implications
The novel conceptualizations of value (co-)creation can help B2B sales managers to understand the ecosystemic nature of the interactions that affect sales and value creation in the current business environment.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on B2B sales and value creation by proposing a novel concept of VIE, introducing a conceptual model of interactive value (co-)creation in ecosystems and reformulating the role of B2B sales in value creation. These theory-developing insights can be used to guide both academic and managerial attention to interactions happening in the ecosystem outside of the buyer-seller dyad.
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Lise Aaboen and Leena Aarikka-Stenroos
The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of how start-ups initiate business relationships and to identify the subprocesses that characterise business-relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of how start-ups initiate business relationships and to identify the subprocesses that characterise business-relationship initiations in a start-up context.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper builds on business-relationship initiation models, develops a theoretical framework of relationship initiation and its subprocesses and, in a multiple-case study, applies this framework to seven relationship initiations by start-ups.
Findings
The key findings of this study describe the process of business-relationship initiation by start-ups, which comprise six subprocesses. The authors’ detailed and structured initiation-process analyses show how the initiation process occurs in a start-up context and how start-ups develop their relationships. The authors’ analyses also reveal typical patterns and critical issues, such as asymmetry, that characterise start-ups’ business-relationship initiations, particularly with bigger players.
Research limitations/implications
This paper develops a model of the relationship-initiation process, uses it in a start-up context and identifies the critical characteristics, including asymmetry, of start-up initiations; these contributions address both the literature on start-ups and the literature on relationship initiation and development.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to focus on how start-ups initiate business relationships; previous studies of business-relationship initiation have focussed on mature firms. Using the industrial marketing and purchasing approach, the paper contributes to shifting the focus from interactions between resource entities to relationship-initiation processes in the context of start-ups.
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Kaarle Setälä, Leena Aarikka-Stenroos, Stephen J. Wright and Mika Grundström
The purpose of this study is to explore stakeholder responses to an airline’s sustainability signaling act. Responding stakeholders, their interpretations and feedback to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore stakeholder responses to an airline’s sustainability signaling act. Responding stakeholders, their interpretations and feedback to the signal are studied in light of signaling theory and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted using the social media analytics approach. A total of 7,002 publications in the public domain were collected from the internet’s news services, blogs and major social media websites. These posts were subjected to content, sentiment and reach analyses.
Findings
Diverse stakeholder groups, ranging from industry professionals to societal influencers, responded via social media to a CSR-related press release, the main types being general influencers of society and those working in the aviation or tourism industry. The themes of responses ranged from sustainability, technical development and the future of transport to green transition policies. Hence, the press release as a signal was linked to other discussions prevalent in society. Sentiments of the publications were mainly neutral or positive, with very few negative responses from stakeholders. Many responses were supportive, and the critical responses did not contain accusations of greenwashing.
Practical implications
Environmental CSR communications are strategically important to companies operating in carbon-intensive industries. The public may view breakthroughs in technology as an efficient way of emissions reductions cascaded with improvements in processes and practices. Utilizing new technology also affects several stakeholders and creates new opportunities for them. Knowledge on the subject may influence the tone of discussion.
Originality/value
This study views a press release as sustainability-related signaling and examines stakeholder responses in social media, contributing to CSR and signaling research in the context of the airline industry by observing the signaling process over time along with the behavior of the actors involved.
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Elina Jaakkola, Anu Helkkula and Leena Aarikka-Stenroos
The collective, interactive aspects of service experience are increasingly evident in contemporary research and practice, but no integrative analysis of this phenomenon has been…
Abstract
Purpose
The collective, interactive aspects of service experience are increasingly evident in contemporary research and practice, but no integrative analysis of this phenomenon has been conducted until now. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize service experience co-creation and examines its implications for research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
To map the multi-approach research area of service experience co-creation, the study draws on literature in the fields of service management, service-dominant logic and service logic, consumer culture theory, and service innovation and design, together with invited commentaries by prominent scholars.
Findings
A conceptualization is developed for “service experience co-creation,” and multiple dimensions of the concept are identified. It is postulated that service experience co-creation has wider marketing implications, in terms of understanding experiential value creation and foundational sociality in contemporary markets, as well as in the renewal of marketing methods and measures.
Research limitations/implications
The authors call for cross-field research on service experience, extending current contextual and methodological reach. Researchers are urged to study the implications of increasing social interaction for service experience co-creation, and to assist managers in coping with and leveraging the phenomenon.
Practical implications
For practitioners, this analysis demonstrates the complexity of service experience co-creation and provides insights on the aspects they should monitor and facilitate.
Originality/value
As the first integrative analysis and conceptualization of service experience co-creation, this paper advances current understanding on the topic, argues for its wider relevance, and paves the way for its future development.
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Leena Aarikka-Stenroos and Hannu Sakari Makkonen
The aim of this paper is to provide understanding on how the buyer can mobilize experience-based information scattered around the business network, by means of customer…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to provide understanding on how the buyer can mobilize experience-based information scattered around the business network, by means of customer references, word-of-mouth and reputation, and how this facilitates the buying process.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative study scrutinizes eight cases comprising buyers of knowledge intensive services and technology innovations. The paper draws on the literature on buying and purchasing, customer references, word-of-mouth and reputational information.
Findings
The findings identify the different roles of references, word-of-mouth, collegial advice networks, and reputation, and suggest that experience-based information provides information on offerings, suppliers and the problem solving situation in complex buying per se.
Research limitations/implications
The article's contribution is to provide a framework depicting the employment of experience-based information in complex buying, which ensues through focal and continuous buying processes. Insights from this research are broadly applicable to the contexts of knowledge intensive, innovation and solutions business. Further qualitative research should aim to form constructs and define their interrelations to be tested in subsequent quantitative research.
Originality/value
This study generates new understanding on how buyers gather and use experience-based information to solve complex problems in buying. It contributes by merging references, word-of-mouth, collegial social networks, and reputation as sources of experience-based information, identifying information embedded in those means, and exploring how the information and means are used throughout the complex buying situation.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine customers’ use experiences in a smartphone application (app) context. Apps have emerged as popular tools among marketing practitioners. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine customers’ use experiences in a smartphone application (app) context. Apps have emerged as popular tools among marketing practitioners. In service research, however, smartphone apps, and their customers’ use experiences, have received limited attention.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a conceptual overview and draws on an empirical two-phase study comprising diary narratives of using a specific app and semi-structured interviews on the use of multiple apps by app users.
Findings
Results show that indirect use experiences play an important role in the holistic service experience. Compared with direct experiences, indirect use experiences do not require the actual use of apps or direct contact with the user. Also the context, such as the time and location of app use, is important for both direct and indirect use experience.
Research limitations/implications
This paper highlights indirect use experiences as a vital component of service experiences and encourages researchers not to restrict use experiences to direct use only. Indirect use experiences enable managers to gain deep insights into the everyday use experiences of current and potential customers.
Originality/value
First, previous research on service experience has mainly focused on direct use experiences. This study highlights that indirect use experiences are an important part of the service experience. Second, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first attempt to investigate the use experiences of smartphone apps in a service marketing context.