Emma Oljans, Tecklah Usai, Doroth Chinofunga and Martin Mickelsson
The paper aims to explore how values and knowledge are expressed in student’s discussions about food and health.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore how values and knowledge are expressed in student’s discussions about food and health.
Design/methodology/approach
Food practices present a complex phenomenon extending beyond biomedical descriptions, including social dynamics of food in families and communities. Contextual conditions of social groups and settings have significant impacts on food choices and practices. Although values constitute a central part of educational goals, deliberate values education remains an often-neglected area, with a tendency in both curricula and educational practice to focus on knowledge and overlook how values intersect with knowledge. The paper utilises group interviews supported by participant observations to study the food and health practices as expressed in students' discussions.
Findings
The paper’s findings show how values are expressed together with knowledge as value-knowledges around food and health within the social contexts of family, cultural identities and peer relationships. While moving through their lives, students draw on and utilise biomedical, social-cultural and sensory value-knowledges, simultaneously considering the nutrition and taste of foods, the value of connecting with family and peers in cultural settings as well as getting enough food to feel satiated.
Originality/value
The paper presents an original approach around the necessity to consider and integrate cultural identities in discussions and education about food and health to empower students and their communities in a way that is socially just and equitable. This involves shifting discussions of health education away from students as (ir)rational obstacles but rather as partners in co-creating knowledge for sustainable food and health equity.
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Jacob Mickelsson, Joep J.G.M. van Haren and Jos G.A.M. Lemmink
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important issue for service brands in fast fashion retailing, as consumers' negative impressions about retailers' CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important issue for service brands in fast fashion retailing, as consumers' negative impressions about retailers' CSR activities influence brand experience. Consumers' impressions of CSR efforts arise based on agendas communicated through many channels from different sources. The paper unravels the ‘wrinkles’, i.e. possible mismatches in CSR communication around service brands by studying differences between the three main sources of fast fashion brand-related CSR agendas: Autonomous company communication, news media and social media postings by consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use structural topic modeling (STM) to analyze a corpus of texts focusing on the CSR efforts of three major fast fashion service brands over three years. The texts included 89 items of company communication (CSR reports and press releases), 5,351 news media articles about the brands' CSR efforts and 57,377 consumer generated tweets about the brands.
Findings
The STM analysis extracted 26 different CRS-related topics from the texts. Results showed differences in how much the three sources emphasized topics. The brands' own communication puts emphasis on environmental responsibility. News media tended to report on economic issues, treatment of employees and specific CSR-related events. Twitter showed more activity in discussing incident-based and emotionally charged topics.
Research limitations/implications
The results feed into the ongoing discussion about how companies' CSR communication relates to communication in the press and among consumers. The authors highlight themes in the individual topics that are emphasized by the three sources, and discuss how CSR themes emerge in the overall transformative agenda.
Practical implications
The paper highlights how fast fashion service brands can identify and understand different CSR agendas arising around their brand. Insight into such agendas can be used to tailor the brands' communication strategies.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the understanding of the factors behind fashion service brands' CSR reputation, highlighting how the three main sources of CSR reputation (company reports, news and social media) emphasize different types of agendas.
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What is it about academia anyway? We profess to hate it, spend endless amounts of time complaining about it, and yet we in academia will do practically anything to stay. The pay…
Abstract
What is it about academia anyway? We profess to hate it, spend endless amounts of time complaining about it, and yet we in academia will do practically anything to stay. The pay may be low, job security elusive, and in the end, it's not the glamorous work we envisioned it would be. Yet, it still holds fascination and interest for us. This is an article about American academic fiction. By academic fiction, I mean novels whosemain characters are professors, college students, and those individuals associated with academia. These works reveal many truths about the higher education experience not readily available elsewhere. We learn about ourselves and the university community in which we work.
Johanna Gummerus, Catharina von Koskull and Christian Kowalkowski
In a time when relationships have been recognized as an integral part of contemporary marketing theory and practice, what role can the sub-discipline of relationship marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
In a time when relationships have been recognized as an integral part of contemporary marketing theory and practice, what role can the sub-discipline of relationship marketing play? The aim with this special issue is to critically assess the state of relationship marketing and call for new ideas to take the field forward.
Design/methodology/approach
The editors had an open call for papers with an original perspective and advanced thinking on relationship marketing, resulting in 50 originally submitted manuscripts that were subjected to double-blind review. Of these, this issue presents five articles. In addition, the editors invited well-renowned thought leaders who have contributed to theory development within relationship marketing. This issue starts with their four thoughtful, forward-orientated contributions.
Findings
Several thought-provoking reflections and research findings are presented that urge relationship marketing researchers to explore novel avenues for the future of this area. A prominent way forward may be looking for a common ground in relationship marketing thinking, assessing the extent to which the different literature streams add to marketing research and when they do not and testing/deploying the learnings in new settings.
Research limitations/implications
The special issue does not address all areas of relationship marketing research. Potential areas for future relationship marketing research are identified.
Originality/value
To assess existent knowledge of relationship marketing is needed to take the field forward.
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Danilo Brozovic, Fredrik Nordin and Daniel Kindström
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the subject-specific literature on service and flexibility and derive a conceptualization of the linkages between provider flexibility and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the subject-specific literature on service and flexibility and derive a conceptualization of the linkages between provider flexibility and customers’ value creation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyze existing perspectives on service and flexibility and propose linkages between provider flexibility and customer value creation.
Findings
Drawing on the service logic literature, and utilizing real-world examples, this paper advances propositions and a conceptual model of how flexibility can contribute to value creation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper establishes the basis for a practical and applicable flexibility perspective on value creation. It is particularly important for service-oriented providers and other firms operating in dynamic contexts.
Practical implications
The propositions and conceptual model offer suggestions on the manner in which provider flexibility contributes to customer value creation. Contextual influences that moderate provider flexibility in value creation are also included.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a novel perspective on service, which may serve as the starting point for the development of a more formal flexibility perspective on value creation.
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Luisa Gonçalves, Lia Patrício, Jorge Grenha Teixeira and Nancy V. Wünderlich
This article provides an in-depth understanding of customer experience with smart services, examines customer perceptual responses to smart and connected service environments and…
Abstract
Purpose
This article provides an in-depth understanding of customer experience with smart services, examines customer perceptual responses to smart and connected service environments and enriches this understanding by outlining how contextual factors (in terms of goals, activities, actors and artifacts) influence the customer experience.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a qualitative approach in order to understand customer experience in the smart energy service setting. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 31 participants forming three groups of energy service customers: advanced smart energy (ASE) customers, electric mobility (EM) customers and high-consumption (HC) customers.
Findings
The findings show that customer experience with smart services involves a multidimensional set of perceptual responses, comprising specific smart service dimensions (e.g. controllability, visibility, autonomy); relationship dimensions (relationships with the service provider and with the community); and traditional technology-enabled service dimensions (e.g. ease of use, accessibility). The analysis of contextual factors such as goals, activities, actors and artifacts shows that smart services enable a more autonomous experience, wherein customers can integrate a myriad of actors and artifacts and expect the main service provider to support them in taking the lead.
Originality/value
Smart technologies have profoundly changed the service environment, but research on customer experience with smart services is scarce. This study characterizes smart services, provides an in-depth understanding of customer experience in this new context, and discusses relevant implications for management and service research.
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Mikèle Landry and Olivier Furrer
Following the continued development of transformative service research and the prevalence of the service-dominant logic in services marketing literature, increased scholarly…
Abstract
Purpose
Following the continued development of transformative service research and the prevalence of the service-dominant logic in services marketing literature, increased scholarly interest centers on the co-creation of service actors’ well-being. In light of this significant evolution in service research, this study aims to provide a systematic review and synthesis of the growing, fragmented body of literature on well-being co-creation in services.
Design/methodology/approach
The hybrid systematic review approach combines bibliometric and framework-based literature reviews to analyze a sample of 160 article obtained from the Web of Science database. To examine the conceptual structure of the research domain, VOSviewer is used for conducting a bibliometric coupling analysis and a keyword co-occurrence analysis. Next, a content analysis is used to explore how the extant literature addresses the key concepts of service actors’ participation in co-creation, their resource integration and well-being outcomes across the micro-, meso- and macro levels of service ecosystems.
Findings
Service actors’ participation and resource integration are key theoretical concepts for understanding well-being co-creation. Yet, a comprehensive overview of well-being co-creation across the different levels of service ecosystems is lacking due to the presence of various application contexts, levels of aggregation, theoretical backgrounds and methodological perspectives. A conceptual framework of well-being co-creation in service ecosystems is developed, highlighting the participation of multilevel service actors and suggesting priorities for further research.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper represents a first effort to systematically review and organize growing literature on well-being co-creation in service ecosystems.