Sara Sandström, Bo Edvardsson, Per Kristensson and Peter Magnusson
The aim of this article is to propose a framework for a new perspective on the total service experience, which dimensions influence it, and how a service experience is linked to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to propose a framework for a new perspective on the total service experience, which dimensions influence it, and how a service experience is linked to value in use.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is conceptual and suggests a new theoretical frame of reference describing value in use through service experience in technology‐based services.
Findings
According to this article, a service experience is the total functional and emotional value of a consumed service. The service experience is unique to every individual customer and the service consumption situation. Value in use is the cognitive evaluation of the service experience.
Research limitations/implications
The framework is discussed in the context of technology‐based services and will provide a basis for future research. Empirical studies are called for concerning service experiences in different kinds of service contexts.
Originality/value
This article contributes a new framework, illustrating the service experience, which dimensions influence the service experience, and how it is linked to value. The framework is placed in a context of technology‐based services. Unique to these kinds of services is a lack of personal interaction between the service producer and the customer.
Details
Keywords
Sara Sandström, Peter Magnusson and Per Kristensson
The purpose of this paper is to bring better understanding to how involving users in the development process of new mobile phone services can increase understanding of the overall…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bring better understanding to how involving users in the development process of new mobile phone services can increase understanding of the overall service experience in a technology‐based service setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an experimental setting which aims to emulate the involvement of users in a service development process in order to provide information regarding the overall service experience. This is done by letting users evaluate both user‐ and company‐created services.
Findings
Users are found to be an important information source when it comes to understanding the overall service experience of technology‐based services. The paper shows that users are to some extent better at coming up with services regarding value in use. The findings show that some of the most important experience outcomes that are demanded, functionally related outcomes, are better met by user‐created services.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of a user perspective when it comes to understanding both the functional and emotional parts of the overall technology‐based service experience. The result of this paper implies a more advanced user focus during service development in order to be able to know what it is that creates value for technology‐based service users. Just how technology‐based services are functionally and emotionally experienced by their users is a fairly new research area and more empirical studies regarding this subject will be called for in the future.
Originality/value
This paper provides evidence of the importance of a user perspective when creating value propositions for technology‐based service users. From a managerial point of view, it is of interest to see whether it will be possible to learn more about the users' service experience of technology‐based services by involving them in the development process.
Details
Keywords
The objective of this research is to have an up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of the current knowledge regarding the variables that encourage the individuals, within the…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this research is to have an up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of the current knowledge regarding the variables that encourage the individuals, within the academic community, to get involved in knowledge exploitation activities. It is influenced by the observation that there is a need for more systematic scrutiny of micro-level processes to deepen our understanding of academic entrepreneurship (Balven et al., 2018; Wright and Phan, 2018). The study proposes to answer to ‘What are the drivers of academic entrepreneurial intentions?’ and ‘What are the emerging topics for future research?’
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a Systematic Literature Review process (Tranfield et al., 2003) and adopts a four-step process format from previous literature reviews within the entrepreneurship context (Miller et al., 2018). From the results within Scopus and Web of Science databases, this research selected, evaluated, summarised and synthesised 66 relevant papers.
Findings
This study provides a factor-listed representation of the individual, organisational and institutional variables that should be considered in the strategies defined by the university. Moreover, the study concludes that the push factors behind the intentions are multiple, context-dependent, hierarchy-dependent, heterogeneous and, at the same time, dependent on each other and against each other. Lastly, the study contributes to academic entrepreneurship literature, especially entrepreneurial intention literature, which has recently received more researchers' attention.
Originality/value
The study corroborates that the individual factors, directly and indirectly via Theory of Planned Behaviour, strongly impact the academics' intentions. While the focus of the papers under review was an in-depth analysis of a selected group of factors, this SLR sought to compile the factors that were identified and provide a broader picture of all those factors to be considered by the university management. It contributes to the identification and clustering of the drivers that encourage academics to engage in knowledge valorisation activities, differentiating them by activity. For the practitioners, this list can be used by university managers, TTOs and department managers, and policymakers to guide questionnaires or interviews to analyse their academics' intentions and adequately support its academic engagement strategy. Lastly, this study also suggests worthwhile avenues for future research.
Details
Keywords
This chapter highlights how implementing circular economy principles can help companies working with sustainability to move from a reductionist and waste management approach to…
Abstract
This chapter highlights how implementing circular economy principles can help companies working with sustainability to move from a reductionist and waste management approach to marketing competitive circular value propositions that intentionally design out waste (e.g. emissions and pollution) by rethinking, reinventing and redesigning the value chain. Schijvens, a Dutch family-owned corporate fashion textile company, acts as a case for exemplifying successful implementation of circular economy principles as a marketing strategy in a sector that struggles with finding solutions to the ethical challenges of producing and marketing textile fashion. The textile industry has, for many years, been accused of production that is based on environmentally harmful processes and conditions that are not socially fair. Circular economy principles provide a range of suggestions to address the ethical challenges occurring from covering the human needs of having clothes to wear. Yet, implementing circular economy principles is not a panacea. It is not only a question of delivering a technological quick fix but also a question of managing the new processes and human mindset guiding the actions in the value chain. This chapter, therefore, outlines reasons for a different perspective on the traditional linear value chain and related implications managers face when undertaking a journey from sustainability based on a reductionist approach to a closed-loop approach. It is argued that implementing circular economy principles by pro-actively managing the value chain processes based on eco-centric dynamic capabilities can provide even more radical changes than the incremental reductionist approach often associated with being a green sustainable company.
Details
Keywords
Jennifer Yurchisin and Mary Lynn Damhorst
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship that exists, if any, between employee appearance and organizational identification in the context of apparel retail…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship that exists, if any, between employee appearance and organizational identification in the context of apparel retail stores.
Design/methodology/approach
Salespeople from a variety of apparel retail stores were interviewed using a semi‐structured technique.
Findings
Salespeople's level of identification was related to the congruency they perceived to exist between their identity and store's identity. Those who identified with their employment organization felt uncomfortable when the apparel items they wore to work were inconsistent with the store's identity. Additionally, those who identified with their employment organization did not feel uncomfortable wearing apparel items from that store to engage in activities outside of work.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the body of literature on employee‐organization identification by providing evidence of a relationship between appearance and identification. Future research is needed to examine the relationship with a random sample of employees from additional employment contexts.
Practical implications
Participants indicated that their level of identification was positively related to their level of job satisfaction, which in turn was negatively related to their intention to leave. Apparel retail store managers may be able to use appearance‐related factors to select employment candidates who will most likely experience identification with the apparel retail store. Furthermore, potential apparel retail salespeople should be encouraged to consider image congruency when applying for employment.
Originality/value
In this study, a first effort was made to investigate the previously hypothesized relationship between employee appearance and employee‐organization identification.
Details
Keywords
Liza Howe-Walsh, Victoria Pagan and Susan Kirk
In this chapter, we examine the role that business school accreditation agencies play in influencing attitudes to gender, exploring the documentation of the Association to Advance…
Abstract
In this chapter, we examine the role that business school accreditation agencies play in influencing attitudes to gender, exploring the documentation of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB); Association of MBAs (AMBA) and European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) to develop an understanding of their stake in promoting greater gender equality or inadvertently encouraging gender washing. These agencies are powerful stakeholders who, arguably, set the recognized global standards. We focus on the organizational rhetoric espoused by them and have found that they are using practices we have defined as genderspinning: presenting a favorable impression to stakeholders; and moving in endless circles.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to describe the way participants in the hobby of gourmet cooking in the USA manage culinary information in their homes.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the way participants in the hobby of gourmet cooking in the USA manage culinary information in their homes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilizes domain analysis and serious leisure as a conceptual framework and employs an ethnographic approach. In total 20 gourmet cooks in the USA were interviewed at home and then their culinary information collections were documented through a guided tour and photographic inventory. The resulting ethnographic record was analyzed using grounded theory and NVivo software.
Findings
The findings introduce the personal culinary library (PCL): a constellation of cooking‐related information resources and information structures in the home of the gourmet cook, and an associated set of upkeep activities that increase with the collection's size. PCLs are shown to vary in content, scale, distribution in space, and their role in the hobby. The personal libraries are characterized as small, medium or large and case studies of each extreme are presented. Larger PCLs are cast as a bibliographic pyramid distributed throughout the home in the form of a mother lode, zone, recipe collection, and binder.
Practical implications
Insights are provided into three areas: scientific ethnography as a methodology; a theory of documents in the hobby; and the changing role of information professionals given the increasing prevalence of home‐based information collections.
Originality/value
This project provides an original conceptual framework and research method for the study of information in personal spaces such as the home, and describes information phenomena in a popular, serious leisure, hobby setting.
Details
Keywords
Iftakar Hassan Abdulla Haji, Alessandro M. Peluso and Ad de Jong
This study aims to integrate and extend existing approaches from self-identity literature by examining the underexplored aspects of online private self-disclosure. The study first…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to integrate and extend existing approaches from self-identity literature by examining the underexplored aspects of online private self-disclosure. The study first explores the experiential value co-created when consumers voluntarily self-disclose on public platforms. Second, it sheds light on what motivates such consumers to disclose private self-images and experiences, thus giving up some degree of privacy on an unrestricted platform.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted 65 laddering interviews and observed the profiles of ten consumers, who actively posted self-images on Instagram, through a netnographic study. Then, this study implemented a means-ends chain analysis on interview data.
Findings
This study found that online private self-disclosure can involve a co-created experiential value that consists of consumers’ self-affirmation, affective belief and emotional connection. These value components derive from three higher-order psychological consequences – empowerment, buffering offline inadequacy of self-worth and engagement – and four functional consequences – opportunity to learn, online control, self-brand authenticity and impression management.
Implications
Operationally, this study proposes that Instagram could be configured and synched with other social networking sites to provide a more complete representation of the online self. Using algorithms that simultaneously pull from other social networking sites can emotionally connect consumers to a more relevant and gratifying personalized experience. Additionally, managers could leverage the findings to tailor supporting tools to transfer consumers’ private self-disclosure skills learned during online communication into their offline settings.
Originality
This research contributes to the extant marketing literature by providing insights into how consumers can use private self-disclosure to co-create experiential value, an emerging concept in modern marketing that is key to attaining satisfied and loyal consumers. This study shows that, even in anonymous online settings, consumers are willing to self-disclose and progress to stable intimate exchanges of disclosure by breaking their inner repression and becoming more comfortable with releasing their desires in an emotional exchange.
Details
Keywords
Soha Abutaleb, Noha El-Bassiouny and Sara Hamed
The current study is exploring factors affecting social and sharing behavioral intentions. The paper proposes a new theory, the consumer social behavior theory, which aids in…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study is exploring factors affecting social and sharing behavioral intentions. The paper proposes a new theory, the consumer social behavior theory, which aids in understanding social behaviors. This is through the convergence of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and norm activation theory (NAT) to foster the understanding of sharing and social behaviors. Religiosity, as a cultural and psychological factor, along with five major predictors of sharing practices are also incorporated. These predictors are economic benefits, sustainability, enjoyment, trust and difficulties in sharing practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study takes a new route through proposing a new theoretical contribution and developing a new theory termed consumer social behavior theory (CSBT) to be commonly used in social behavioral contexts.
Findings
The CSBT is an output of integrating two prominent theories in pro-social and pro-environmental contexts. It is found that integrating both theories help in thoroughly examining behavioral intentions. Religiosity is found to significantly impact intentions towards social behaviors, yet no study examined its role in sharing and social behaviors contexts.
Originality/value
This study is contributing to and enriching the sharing economy research domain through new theoretical developments. A theory adaptation for TPB and NAT was conducted to advance a thorough understanding of sharing and social behavioral intentions. This work is considered the first of its kind to develop an integrated view for sharing and social behaviors.
Details
Keywords
Soha Abutaleb, Noha M. El-Bassiouny and Sara Hamed
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of religiosity in online collaborative consumption contexts. It analyzes the impact of religiosity in influencing consumer life…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of religiosity in online collaborative consumption contexts. It analyzes the impact of religiosity in influencing consumer life decisions and behaviors. The proposed framework is based on the norm activation theory (NAT) with religiosity added to it based on the extant literature. The paper aims to provide implications for marketing researchers and practitioners derived from its analysis and propositions.
Design/methodology/approach
The current paper proposes a model for marketing researchers to consider the role of religiosity as a cultural and psychological factor in influencing online collaborative consumption. The NAT is adopted as the base of the conceptual model. The model posits research propositions on the potential interaction of religiosity with existing relationships in the theory to predict online collaborative consumption behavior.
Findings
The NAT is considered a prominent model in studying pro-environmental behaviors and it was adopted in various studies. Some researchers adopted the theory to study collaborative consumption as a pro-environmental behavior. Religiosity was found to significantly impact pro-environmental behaviors, but no research was found regarding its impact on collaborative consumption. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and implications to marketing practitioners about the role of religiosity in influencing collaborative consumption behavior.
Originality/value
Although there were few research studies that exist in discussing the role of religiosity in explaining consumer behavior, it could be argued that this paper is the first of its kind, according to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that discusses the role of religiosity in online collaborative consumption contexts through the use of NAT.