Eva Heiskanen, Kaarina Hyvönen, Mari Niva, Mika Pantzar, Päivi Timonen and Johanna Varjonen
Consumers are sometimes unexpectedly resistant toward radically innovative product concepts, and it is often argued that this is due to their difficulties in understanding the…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers are sometimes unexpectedly resistant toward radically innovative product concepts, and it is often argued that this is due to their difficulties in understanding the novel products. Thus, marketing research has focused on new ways to make consumers familiar with new product concepts. The purpose of this study is to present the argument that educating consumers may not solve all problems, and may sometimes even address the wrong question.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' previous research on consumer responses to new product concepts for the purchasing and consumption of food is drawn upon to explore the reasons for consumers' acceptance of and resistance to radical product innovations.
Findings
Ignorance about radical product concepts is not the sole reason for consumers' resistance to novelties. In many cases, consumers understand the product concepts fairly well. Their lack of enthusiasm stems from other reasons, including the innovation's instrumentalism, its impact on consumers' autonomy, as well as its organizational complexity and systemic effects.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that companies introducing new product innovations may need to take consumers' resistance more seriously. They might need to reconsider the acceptability of new product innovations, and integrate these considerations at earlier stages of the innovation cycle. A more open‐ended approach to concept testing is suggested, encouraging users to evaluate concepts more critically. Concept testing should not be used as a pass/fail screen, but as an opportunity to learn more about potential impacts of the innovation on everyday life and society.
Originality/value
The paper reconsiders resistance to innovations, and demonstrates the value of consumer research for product development.
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Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma and Mika Pantzar
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how back-office service staff cope with the intricacies of administrative work.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how back-office service staff cope with the intricacies of administrative work.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies the research approach of “at-home ethnography” in a university back-office. The primary method of data collection was participant listening in the field, either in formal interviews or casual conversations. Photography helped the authors to zoom the conversation in to specific artefacts in administrative offices.
Findings
The study identifies both forward- and backward-looking recipes as essential administrative tools that back-office staff develop and use to handle intricacies that emerge in their daily work. Forward-looking recipes are based on anticipatory cognitive representations, whereas backward-looking recipes are based on experiential wisdom. The study elaborates on the different kinds of modelling practices that back-office service staff engage in while building and applying these two different kinds of recipes.
Practical implications
The recipes support administrators in knowledge replication and thus help avoid interruptions, reduce uncertainty, and produce consistency in administrative processes.
Originality/value
In contrast to existing studies of formal bureaucracies, the study provides a unique empirical account to show how back-office service staff cope with the multiple intricacies existing in current office environments. The study shows how recipes as models contribute to stabilizing or even routinizing work processes in complex administrative situations.
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Andrea Sestino, Adham Kahlawi and Andrea De Mauro
The data economy, emerging from the current hyper-technological landscape, is a global digital ecosystem where data is gathered, organized and exchanged to create economic value…
Abstract
Purpose
The data economy, emerging from the current hyper-technological landscape, is a global digital ecosystem where data is gathered, organized and exchanged to create economic value. This paper aims to shed light on the interplay of the different topics involved in the data economy, as found in the literature. The study research provides a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities, challenges and implications of the data economy for businesses, governments, individuals and society at large, while investigating its impact on business value creation, knowledge and digital business transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a literature review that generated a conceptual map of the data economy by analyzing a corpus of research papers through a combination of machine learning algorithms, text mining techniques and a qualitative research approach.
Findings
The study findings revealed eight topics that collectively represent the essential features of data economy in the current literature, namely (1) Data Security, (2) Technology Enablers, (3) Business Implications, (4) Social Implications, (5) Political Framework, (6) Legal Enablers, (7) Privacy Concerns and (8) Data Marketplace. The study resulting model may help researchers and practitioners to develop the concept of data economy in a structured way and provide a subset of specific areas that require further research exploration.
Practical implications
Practically, this paper offers managers and marketers valuable insights to comprehend how to manage the opportunities deriving from a constantly changing competitive arena whose value is today also generated by the data economy.
Social implications
Socially, the authors also reveal insights explaining how the data economy features may be exploited to build a better society.
Originality/value
This is the first paper exploring the data economy opportunity for business value creation from a critical perspective.