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An overview of the success/failure literature in new product development points to a long list of critical success factors (CSF), which define what should be done to enhance new product success rates but not how to do it. The net result is failure rates which are marginal improvements on previous decades. The basic tenet of this paper is that the effective use of market information throughout the new product development process (NPD) can enhance the success rates of new products. We examine the contingencies affecting the perceived utility and use of market information in the NPD process and develop propositions describing these contingencies. The outcome of our discussion is a conceptual framework, which can aid research in this critical area of organisational activity.

From a service ecosystem perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine students’ evaluation surveys as a tool used by most higher education (HE) institutions worldwide to measure teaching quality with consequences for tenure and promotion.

This study is based on the service-dominant (S-D) logic and specifically on the service ecosystem approach. Through an in-depth literature review and analysis the authors explore the effect of student evaluation surveys on the value co-creation process, describe the role they play in the HE ecosystem and critically evaluate their efficacy. The research is based on empirical data from the literature and previous studies findings.

The literature review highlights the detrimental consequences of the use of students’ evaluation surveys for teachers and students and for the rest of actors of this service. The authors argue that institutions should embrace a service ecosystem perspective based on S-D logic. The authors highlight the role of institutions as moderators of the interactions between actors and, finally, the authors have introduced the concept of “service ecosystem pollution” which the authors define as the presence or introduction of disruptive elements in the service ecosystem adversely affecting the nature of value co-creation.

This study emphasizes the importance for HE institutions to embrace a service ecosystem approach so as to foster and preserve the value co-creation processes taking place within the interactions among the HE actors. Conclusions drawn from this paper suggest that HE institutions should focus on strategies such as investing in improving students’ and teachers’ operant resources rather than polluting the HE service ecosystem with the use of students’ evaluation surveys.

Hitherto there are no studies analyzing the tools HE institutions use to measure teaching quality from a service ecosystem perspective. The study is especially valuable due to the consequences and the use of these measures entails for teachers, students and society.

This paper aims to look back at Michael Thomas' 1999 thesis regarding the impact on marketing of the information age. In his view, the information revolution of “e‐commerce” and computer‐mediated markets removes distance as a barrier between buyer and sellers, which could empower or exclude consumers. This paper re‐considers Thomas' assessment and explores how the IT revolution has transformed, or not, relations between consumers and other “actors” in the marketplace.

This is conceptual paper that draws on literature and secondary sources to explore and evaluate the topic.

The dynamic and intertwined effects of any technology are notoriously difficult to determine and therefore the goal of this paper is to identify the empowering or exclusionary effects of IT on marketing is shown to be an ambitious one. On the basis of this review, we can conclude however that Thomas was correct in anticipating in 1999 that more and more of marketing interactions would become computer‐based. Its precise effects however are less clear. On the one hand, there are both elements of empowerment as well as exclusionary effects that have followed, but on the other hand, neither the direction of the trend, nor the precise nature of the effects, is clear as yet.

One implication relates to research on internet communications which has highlighted the potential freedom of access and social anonymity that the internet provides. For example, some researchers have emphasised potential of cyberspace and identity‐play as escape routes from the physical, social and cultural constrictions of gender. However, other research indicates that, as with other technologies, the internet is embedded in social structures and cultural processes that can never be neutral.

This paper provides a review of relevant literature and empirical research. It identifies and evaluates four types of effects that IT has on marketing and consumers and considers the extent to which these have been empowering or exclusionary.

A day rarely passes without there being discussion of the major changes which organizations in both the public and private sectors, are undergoing to become more effective. The case for change is often said to be driven by the imperatives of an increasingly demanding marketplace; and this case is often expressed in a seductive rhetoric which utilizes maxims and metaphors drawn from the ideological resource of the marketing concept. The authors believe that the current penchant for couching change initiatives in the language of marketing exposes some of the limitations of the marketing concept. Discusses these limitations and addresses the problems which constrain the use of the marketing concept as an ideological resource.

There is widespread acceptance that information technology (IT) is a central component of business operations and extensively used in marketing. Aligned to this is the belief that marketing is experiencing radical and dynamic changes, many of which are IT driven. Reports a study of 204 Irish firms, which seeks to discover the level of transformation in the marketing function as a result of IT. Reviews whether marketers’ use of IT has progressed from simply automating existing marketing systems to actually using IT to transform their marketing capabilities. Aims to ascertain if marketing is achieving significant benefits from IT.

An organization's ability to enjoy long‐term competitive advantage is closely related to its capacity for knowledge creation, dissemination and use. From a practical point‐of‐view the value of this statement could be increased if suggestions could be made to managers as to what kind of knowledge to seek for their organization, where and how to look for it. This article provides tentative answers to these questions from a relationship marketing perspective. In doing so the scope, processes and technologies of relationship marketing are discussed and their knowledge content and potential outlined. Finally, a conceptual framework for knowledge generation and dialogue in relationship marketing is proposed and directions for further research, alongside their practical implications for contemporary firms, delineated.

As the thoughts and actions of marketers focus on the philosophy of relationship marketing (RM), the purpose of this paper is to broaden our understanding of the concept for its effect on ethical behaviour in organisations. Whilst there is evidence of strong ethical inputs in the theory formation of RM, there is also a need to separate rhetoric from reality. In this paper we argue that despite the evidence that RM is inherently a concept with strong ethical roots, there is a gap between the theory of RM and its actual practice. Indeed, major changes in values and ethics may be required if RM is to be truly adopted. Otherwise there is a danger of allowing RM’s ethical inputs (commitment, trust, etc.) to become axiomatic without being subjected to sufficient critical scrutiny at the practical level. We believe that the RM philosophy is capable not only of contributing genuinely to the strategic discourse of contemporary organisations, but also of playing the role of the social advocate by fostering mechanisms which will generate ethical introspection and promote ethical decision making.