Karim Sidaoui, Matti Jaakkola and Jamie Burton
While customer experience (CE) is recognized as a critical determinant of business success, both academics and managers are yet to find a means to gain a comprehensive…
Abstract
Purpose
While customer experience (CE) is recognized as a critical determinant of business success, both academics and managers are yet to find a means to gain a comprehensive understanding of CE cost-effectively. The authors argue that the application of relevant AI technology could help address this challenge. Employing interactively prompted narrative storytelling, and the authors investigate the effectiveness of sentiment analysis (SA) on extracting valuable CE insights from primary qualitative data generated via chatbot interviews.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a granular and semantically clear framework for studying CE feelings, an artificial intelligence (AI) augmented chatbot was designed. The chatbot interviewed a crowdsourced sample of consumers about their recalled service experience feelings. By combining free-text and closed-ended questions, the authors were able to compare extracted sentiment polarities against established measurement scales and empirically validate our novel approach.
Findings
The authors demonstrate that SA can effectively extract CE feelings from primary chatbot data. This findings also suggest that further enhancement in accuracy can be achieved via improvements in the interplay between the chatbot interviewer and SA extraction algorithms.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed customer-centric approach can help service companies to study and better understand CE feelings in a cost-effective and scalable manner. The AI-augmented chatbots can also help companies to foster immersive and engaging relationships with customers. This study focuses on feelings, warranting further research on AI's value in studying other CE elements.
Originality/value
The unique inquisitive role of AI-infused chatbots in conducting interviews and analyzing data in realtime, offers considerable potential for studying CE and other subjective constructs.
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Juho-Petteri Huhtala, Antti Sihvonen, Johanna Frösén, Matti Jaakkola and Henrikki Tikkanen
– The paper aims to examine the role of market orientation (MO) and innovation capability in determining business performance during an economic upturn and downturn.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine the role of market orientation (MO) and innovation capability in determining business performance during an economic upturn and downturn.
Design/methodology/approach
The data comprise two national-level surveys conducted in Finland in 2008, representing an economic boom, and in 2010 when the global economic crisis had hit the Finnish market. Partial least square path analysis is used to test the potential mediating effect of innovation capability on the relationship between MO and business performance during economic boom and bust.
Findings
The results show that innovation capability fully mediates the performance effects of a MO during an economic upturn, whereas the mediation is only partial during a downturn. Innovation capability also mediates the relationship between a customer orientation and business performance during an upturn, whereas the mediating effect culminates in a competitor orientation during a downturn. Thus, the role of innovation capability as a mediator between the individual market-orientation components varies along the business cycle.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first studies that empirically examine the impact of the economic cycle on the relationship between strategic marketing concepts, such as MO or innovation capability, and the firm's business performance.
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Johanna Frösén, Henrikki Tikkanen, Matti Jaakkola and Antti Vassinen
This study provides empirical evidence for the contextuality of marketing performance assessment (MPA) systems. It aims to introduce a taxonomical classification of MPA profiles…
Abstract
Purpose
This study provides empirical evidence for the contextuality of marketing performance assessment (MPA) systems. It aims to introduce a taxonomical classification of MPA profiles based on the relative emphasis placed on different dimensions of marketing performance in different companies and business contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used in this study (n=1,157) were collected using a web‐based questionnaire, targeted to top managers in Finnish companies. Two multivariate data analysis techniques were used to address the research questions. First, dimensions of marketing performance underlying the current MPA systems were identified through factor analysis. Second, a taxonomy of different profiles of marketing performance measurement was created by clustering respondents based on the relative emphasis placed on the dimensions and characterizing them vis‐á‐vis contextual factors.
Findings
The study identifies nine broad dimensions of marketing performance that underlie the MPA systems in use and five MPA profiles typical of companies of varying sizes in varying industries, market life cycle stages, and competitive positions associated with varying levels of market orientation and business performance. The findings support the previously conceptual notion of contextuality in MPA and provide empirical evidence for the factors that affect MPA systems in practice.
Originality/value
The paper presents the first field study of current MPA systems focusing on combinations of metrics in use. The findings of the study provide empirical support for the contextuality of MPA and form a classification of existing contextual systems suitable for benchmarking purposes. Limited evidence for performance differences between MPA profiles is also provided.
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Matti Haverila, Kai Christian Haverila and Caitlin McLaughlin
This paper aims to use a unique statistical analysis tool to examine the importance and performance of critical brand community constructs and indicators to make concrete…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use a unique statistical analysis tool to examine the importance and performance of critical brand community constructs and indicators to make concrete recommendations for brand community managers going forward.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was used to gather 501 responses from North American members of the Qualtrics panel. The data was analyzed with partial least squares (PLS) modeling software SmartPLS and neural networks available in statistical software JMP by SAS.
Findings
Using the brand community motives by Madupy and Cooley (2010), the results of this paper indicated that there was significant room for improvement in customer engagement. Based on further analysis, entertainment and identification with the brand community were the most important constructs in driving community engagement so that the identification construct received a “do better” ruling meaning that the improvement of the indentification construct score would enhance significantly the score of the target construct engagement score.
Originality/value
For brand community managers, it is important to know the true importance of the critical brand community constructs and indicators, along with an assessment of current performance. This helps to increase satisfaction and relationship quality among brand community members. The current study uses unique statistical analysis tools to make such concrete recommendations.
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Anna Karhu, Elina Pelto and Lauri-Matti Palmunen
Retailing has developed from independent merchants to multinational giants operating through global value chains, which has profoundly shaped consumption patterns in Western…
Abstract
Retailing has developed from independent merchants to multinational giants operating through global value chains, which has profoundly shaped consumption patterns in Western economies. This constant development currently consists of three global-scale change trajectories – climate change, online consumption, and technological development – that affect the retail industry. Based on this, this chapter concentrates on connecting the development paths of consumption and retailing and identifies various factors that affect the future of international retailing. The authors analyze the changes in institutional logics of international retailing by mapping the past, present, and future of the retail industry and consumption using content analysis of secondary data. The authors pay special attention to the effect of the current Covid-19 crisis on the future development of the retail industry. In the findings of this chapter, the authors recognize institutional logics changes in organizing the position of retailing as a connector of customers and producers, and the authors suggest blockchain to be an emerging new institutional order.
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Xiaohua Xin, Xiaoming Miao, Qian Chen and Tiantian Shang
Despite the fact that user participation (UP) has been highlighted as an important aspect in innovation, previous findings on its relationship with service innovation performance…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the fact that user participation (UP) has been highlighted as an important aspect in innovation, previous findings on its relationship with service innovation performance (SIP) are inconsistent. This study aims to investigate the relationships among UP, knowledge management capability (KMC) and SIP, especially in the digital age, inspired by the theories of knowledge-based and absorptive capacity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a sample of 252 Chinese e-commerce enterprises, this study adopts a hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap method to test the theoretical framework and research hypotheses.
Findings
UP and KMC have positive effects on SIP, respectively. KMC plays a mediating role in the effect of UP on SIP. Furthermore, the intermediary role of KMC varies in different sub-paths between UP and SIP.
Originality/value
First, this study provides some explanations for inconsistent arguments on the relationship between UP and service innovation. Second, with the consideration of specific dimensions of UP and SIP, the mediation role of KMC varies in different sub-paths has been recognized, which provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between UP and SIP. Third, this study opens the discussion about how to realize SIP more effectively in the digital age, advancing theoretical and practical developments on service innovation.