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Snyder, H., L. Witell, A. Gustafsson, P. Fombelle and P. Kristensson (2016): Identifying categories of service innovation: A review and synthesis of the literature, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2401-2408
Service innovation acts as society’s engine of renewal and provides the necessary catalyst for the service sector’s economic growth. Despite service innovation’s importance, the concept remains fuzzy and poorly defined. Building on an extensive and systematic review of 1046 academic articles, this research investigates and explores how service innovation is defined and used in research. Results identify four unique service innovation categorizations emphasizing the following traits: (1) degree of change, (2) type of change, (3) newness, and (4) means of provision. The results show that most research focuses inward and views service innovation as something (only) new to the firm. Interestingly, service innovation categorizations appear to neglect both customer value and financial performance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.009
Ommen, N. O., M. Blut, C. Backhaus and D. M. Woisetschläger (2016): Toward a better understanding of stakeholder participation in the service innovation process: More than one path to success, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2409-2416
Acknowledging the positive effects of stakeholder participation in new service development projects, the present research examines factors contributing to well-designed stakeholder participation processes. Data come from 220 franchisees engaged in innovation projects. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) assesses the interplay of six participation quality dimensions: (1) task-related resources, (2) early involvement, (3) degree of influence, (4) transparency of processes, (5) incentive mechanisms, and (6) voluntariness of participation. Results show that successful stakeholder participation is characterized by a complex interplay of these participation quality dimensions. While some firms are excellent in all six dimensions, other firms successfully integrate stakeholders by focusing on selected participation quality dimensions. Uncovering these complex interrelationships helps managers to better design participatory processes in new service development projects.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.010
Paluch, S. and N. V. Wünderlich (2016): Contrasting risk perceptions of technology-based service innovations in inter-organizational settings, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2424-2431
Despite the rapid growth and potential of technology-based services, managers’ greatest challenges are gaining customer acceptance and increasing usage of these new innovative services. In the B2C field, studies of self-service technology show that perceived risk is an important factor influencing the use of service technology. Though prior research explores different risk types that emerge in consumer settings, risk perception in the B2B setting lacks a detailed examination of different risk types influencing technology-based service adoption. Data from 49 qualitative interviews with providers and customers in two different B2B industries inform this study. The findings emphasize the importance of functional and financial risks in a B2B context and show that business customers’ personal and psychological fears hinder their use of technology-based services. Results highlight differences in risk perception and evaluation between customers and providers.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.012
Laukkanen, T. (2016): Consumer adoption versus rejection decisions in seemingly similar service innovations: The case of the Internet and mobile banking, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2432-2439
This study posits that all innovations meet consumer resistance, and overcoming this opposition must occur prior to product adoption. Factors driving service innovation resistance remain unclear. To better understand this behavior, the present study examines how five theory-driven adoption barriers—usage, value, risk, tradition, and image – as well as three consumer demographics—gender, age, and income—influence consumer adoption versus rejection decisions in Internet and mobile banking. Data from two large nationwide surveys conducted in Finland (n = 1736 consumers) test hypotheses using binary logit models comparing mobile banking adopters versus non-adopters, mobile banking postponers versus rejecters, and Internet banking postponers versus rejecters. Study results find that the value barrier is the strongest inhibitor of Internet and mobile banking adoption. In addition, the image barrier slows mobile banking adoption, and the tradition barrier explains the rejection of Internet banking. Gender and age significantly predict adoption and rejection decisions. The results demonstrate notable differences between these seemingly similar service innovations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.013
Rosenbaum, M. S., M. Cheng and I. A. Wong (2016): Retail knockoffs: Consumer acceptance and rejection of inauthentic retailers, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2448-2455
This study extends the counterfeit product paradigm by examining an unexplored area in services – namely, the existence of inauthentic retail establishments, or so-called retail knockoffs. These fake establishments mimic the service and product offerings of genuine establishments, such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, 7-Eleven, Apple, and others, prevailing across Southeast Asia, primarily in China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. By employing grounded theory methodology, this study offers an original framework that illustrates why consumers accept and patronize both authentic and inauthentic retail establishments. The model shows that many consumers are satisfied with counterfeit servicescapes and that some fake retail and service establishments are ironically building a loyal customer following. Thus, service organizations should respond to these inauthentic companies by viewing them as potential partners for innovation and expansion, rather than as future adversaries for costly litigation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.015
Holmlund, M., C. Kowalkowski and S. Biggemann (2016): Organizational behavior in innovation, marketing, and purchasing in business service contexts—An agenda for academic inquiry, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2457-2462
Many businesses today recognize the increased significance of service and the transition toward service orientation. Nonetheless, organizational practitioners frequently encounter problems managing this shift and seizing service-related business opportunities. This practical relevance, together with many still-unanswered service research questions, has inspired the preparation of this special section that advances the extant literatures on business services. We finish by providing a research agenda. First, more research is needed on the buyer perspective. Second, researchers need to keep in mind financial issues related to business services. Third, more researchers could tap into management, leadership, and decision-making in business service companies. Finally, sustainability, social responsibility, and environmental considerations are important topics for further exploration.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.014
Geiger, S. and J. Finch (2016): Making incremental innovation tradable in industrial service settings, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2463-2470
In many knowledge-intensive business-to-business settings the locus of interaction has shifted from stable, discrete, and articulated products and services to the exchange of somewhat nebulous capacities of problem-solving, innovation and R&D services. In these exchanges, tensions and conflicts between actors can arise in seeking clarity as to what is being exchanged while attempting to keep the interaction open for future adjustments to the scope and content of the exchange. We combine a longitudinal case study of a chemical services firm with Galison’s (1999) concept of a trading zone to assess how actors offer, value and exchange incremental innovation. Focusing on the contentious nature of innovation processes, examine how incremental innovation is formatted as a tradable service and argue that trading zones complement relational processes and contractual arrangements by allowing actors to preserve their own logics and expertise pertaining to innovation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.015
Nguyen, B., X. Yu, T. C. Melewar and S. Gupta (2016): Critical brand innovation factors (CBIF): Understanding innovation and market performance in the Chinese high-tech service industry, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2471-2479
Brand innovation sweeps aside established practices and disrupts the status quo, resulting in the transformation of markets. The present study develops and tests a model of critical brand innovation factors (CBIF) by examining key factors influencing firm-level brands’ innovation and increased market performance. Adapting both organizational elements and market response characteristics, the model integrates four key variables in China’s industrial service markets: innovation, internationalization, market orientation, and organizational learning. Findings provide a foundation for understanding how firms improve their innovation and subsequent market performance in an emerging and dynamic market. The study demonstrates that when brands are more innovative, their performance increases: Brand innovation plays a fully mediating role on the effects of market orientation and organizational learning to market performance, but has no mediating effect on internationalization and market performance. A lack of innovation reduces market performance even when internationalization, market orientation, and organizational learning are present.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.016
Nordin, F. and A. Ravald (2016): Managing relationship gaps: A practitioner perspective, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2490-2497
Prior research has failed to explain how practitioners manage relationship gaps, i.e., situations where the interests of the parties in the relationship no longer match. By adopting a practice-based research approach to explain empirical findings drawn from industrial (B2B) service contexts, this study contributes an explanatory framework of how practitioners handle relationship gaps in practice and what factors guide and shape their behaviors. This analysis is based on work life stories from practitioners at six different industrial companies and shows that relationship gaps are managed through four alternative gap management practices, each characterized by a specific set of activities. The practitioner’s perception of the validity and feasibility of the available options guides the scope of action within which different sets of activities are enacted.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.018
Kohtamäki, M. and J. Partanen (2016): Co-creating value from knowledge-intensive business services in manufacturing firms: The moderating role of relationship learning in supplier–customer interactions, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2498-2506
This study seeks evidence for a positive moderating role of relationship learning in the relation between manufacturing firms’ knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), i.e., product-related services for developing customized solutions, and firms’ customer-specific sales performance. Our findings from a survey of 91 supplier–customer relationships indicate that KIBS offerings do not generate performance per se; instead, supplier–customer relationships must be characterized by relationship learning to co-create value from the supplier’s KIBS offerings. Our findings extend the literature on industrial service businesses by shedding a more nuanced light on the core activities that enable value co-creation and value appropriation in the KIBS context.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.019
Shi, X., F. Li and A. Z. Bigdeli (2016): An examination of NPD models in the context of business models, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2541-2550
Most prior new product diffusion (NPD) models do not specifically consider the role of the business model in the process. However, the context of NPD in today’s market has been changed dramatically by the introduction of new business models. Through reinterpretation and extension, this paper empirically examines the feasibility of applying Bass-type NPD models to products that are commercialized by different business models. More specifically, the results and analysis of this study consider the subscription business model for service products, the freemium business model for digital products, and a pre-paid and post-paid business model that is widely used by mobile network providers. The paper offers new insights derived from implementing the models in real-life cases. It also highlights three themes for future research.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.087
Dellande, S., M. C. Gilly and J. L. Graham (2016): Managing consumer debt: Culture, compliance, and completion, Journal of Business Research, 69(7), pp. 2594-2602
We examine the cultural dimensions of participation in a debt management program (DMP). Archival data from Consumer Credit Counseling Service provide insights into the behavior of consumers in a DMP. Latino clients differ from Anglo clients, and are ultimately less successful in resolving debt problems. A key difference appears to be the expected monthly payment established for clients. While only debt level determines Latinos’ expected payment, Anglos appear to better negotiate an expected payment from creditors, increasing their success. Importantly, homophily increases compliance for Latino debtor–counselor dyads. Overall, this study contributes to the transformative service research (TSR) literature by suggesting ways culture influences adherence to and completion of a DMP, leading to financial freedom for consumers in distress.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.140
Abecassis-Moedas, C., F. Sguera and J. E. Ettlie (2016): Observe, innovate, succeed: A learning perspective on innovation and the performance of entrepreneurial chefs, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2840-2848
Literature on the role of observational or vicarious learning is extensive, but little research has focused on learning for entrepreneurs in a demanding, competitive context. This article investigates how different competent models influence the innovation behavior of entrepreneurs in the context of haute cuisine. Further, we evaluate how much these innovative choices influence the performance of the restaurants. A total of 55 gourmet restaurant chefs were sampled using two Gourmet Magazine rankings of the top 50 US restaurants. Multiple sources of archival data were coded: chefs’ profiles for the observation of competent models; press articles for innovation (as novelty, product, process and service innovation); and the restaurant’s position in the Gourmet ranking for performance. This paper makes two unique contributions: (1) Entrepreneurs learn to innovate vicariously through observing competent models (parents and mentors but not academic models); and (2) Innovation mediates the relationship between the observation of models and the performance. (Portuguese)
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.053
Witell, L., H. Snyder, A. Gustafsson, P. Fombelle and P. Kristensson (2016): Defining service innovation: A review and synthesis, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2863-2872
Research on service innovation appears in several research disciplines, with important contributions in marketing, management, and operations research. Although the concept is widely used, few research papers have explicitly defined service innovation. This dearth of research is the motivation for the present study. Through a systematic review of 1301 articles on service innovation appearing in academic journals between 1979 and 2014, this article examines research defining service innovation. The study identifies the key characteristics within 84 definitions of service innovation in different perspectives (assimilation, demarcation and synthesis) and shows how the meaning of the concept is changing. The review suggests that the large variety in definitions limits and hinders knowledge development of service innovation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.055
Martin-Rios, C. and E. Parga-Dans (2016): Service response to economic decline: Innovation actions for achieving strategic renewal, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2890-2900
This paper develops process theory on how service firms deal with persistent economic decline and the practices they adopt to overcome it. It examines how a knowledge-based service activity — commercial archeology — attempts to overcome environmental constraints of increasing complexity and economic downturn, as it unfolded over an 8-year period. This longitudinal, multimethod field study illustrates how confronting an external crisis may actually lead surviving firms to attempt innovation actions, a critical factor in achieving organizational renewal. Findings suggest that the renewal ability of highly dynamic services hinges on which innovation activities firms select and adopt, whether they implement them effectively, and the consequences of such implementations. This article contributes to the development of theory about the role of organizational innovation in service adaptation by offering insight into the link between strategic renewal and innovation activities.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.058
Hsiao, Y.-H., L.-F. Chen, C.-C. Chang and F.-H. Chiu (2016): Configurational path to customer satisfaction and stickiness for a restaurant chain using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2939-2949
Customer stickiness and satisfaction are both essential for a restaurant to occupy market share and earn profits in the face of fierce competition. This study applied fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine how environmental characteristics regarding restaurant location and individual characteristics of customers influenced customers’ emotional responses to service attitudes, and how these emotions, in turn, influenced customer satisfaction and stickiness. A sample of 182 customers from a fusion café chain restaurant was collected and investigated. The results show that store characteristics and customer individual characteristics had a pronounced effect on customer emotional responses to the service attitudes of the restaurant, and that these emotional experiences served as critical antecedents to customer satisfaction and stickiness. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed for the restaurant chain to understand its weaknesses and to develop proper operational strategies and marketing polices for improving customer satisfaction and stickiness.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.063
Lusch, R. F., S. L. Vargo and A. Gustafsson (2016): Fostering a trans-disciplinary perspectives of service ecosystems, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2957-2963
This article provides a brief introduction and comments on the articles in this special issue on transdisciplinary perspectives of service-dominant logic. Insights are provided that draw on economics, ecosystems theory, philosophy, service science, sociology, strategic management and systems science. Collectively these articles enhance service-dominant logic as well as foster more transdisciplinary research. We also integrate some of the ideas presented and share some observations and suggestions on resource integration, value co-creation, institutions, and service ecosystems.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.028
Koskela-Huotari, K., B. Edvardsson, J. M. Jonas, D. Sörhammar and L. Witell (2016): Innovation in service ecosystems—Breaking, making, and maintaining institutionalized rules of resource integration, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2964-2971
Drawing on service-dominant logic and institutional theory, this paper examines innovation as a process that unfolds through changes in the institutional arrangements that govern resource integration practices in service ecosystems. Four cases are used to illustrate the interdependent patterns of breaking, making and maintaining the institutionalized rules of resource integration occurring on multiple levels of institutional context. Such institutional work allows actors to cocreate value in novel and useful ways by a) including new actors, b) redefining roles of involved actors and c) reframing resources within service ecosystems. Our findings show that while the efforts of breaking and making the institutionalized rules are required for such changes to occur, at the same time, institutional maintenance is also important for these changes to institutionalize, that is, to become an integral part of the institutional structure coordinating value cocreation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.029
Taillard, M., L. D. Peters, J. Pels and C. Mele (2016): The role of shared intentions in the emergence of service ecosystems, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2972-2980
With the increased prevalence of ecosystems across sectors, understanding what conditions enable their formation is important for both researchers and managers. Service-dominant logic (S-D logic) focuses on service ecosystems, in which actors are interdependent, and characterizes them as layered and nested within three levels (micro, meso, and macro). To understand their formation, this study draws from work in philosophy and the social sciences to introduce the concept of shared intentionality, an aspect of collective agency whose specific conditions result from and foster interdependence among actors, and to acknowledge the mediating role of the meso level in emergence. With these concepts, this study addresses a research question on how service ecosystems are formed and what role individual and collective agency play in this process. This study contributes to S-D logic research by offering a new understanding of service ecosystem formation as a process of emergence in which the development of shared intentions enables collective agency. To synthesize the contribution, this study uses a case to illustrate a conceptual framework in which the sharing of intentions among interdependent actors drives service ecosystem emergence step-by-step across distinct dynamic levels.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.030
Meynhardt, T., J. D. Chandler and P. Strathoff (2016): Systemic principles of value co-creation: Synergetics of value and service ecosystems, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2981-2989
While most investigations of value and value co-creation empirically focus on either the individual micro-level or the collective macro-level, a systemic perspective asserts that investigations at one level, in isolation from the other, are incomplete. Based on synergetics and its core principles of emergence and enslavement (consensualization), we argue that value is a systemic property (i.e. an order parameter) that emerges from micro–macro links in service ecosystems. We propose a framework that begins to unravel the complexity of value co-creation and the dynamics of service ecosystem evolution. We introduce nine systemic principles of value co-creation: critical distance, stability, amplification, internal determination, nonlinearity and feedback, phase transitions, symmetry-breaking, limited predictability, and historical dependence. Based on these, we outline future research opportunities in three areas: the moralization of markets, an acceleration of societal dynamics, and the increasing embeddedness of service in society.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.031
Banoun, A., L. Dufour and M. Andiappan (2016): Evolution of a service ecosystem: Longitudinal evidence from multiple shared services centers based on the economies of worth framework, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2990-2998
This article proposes a theoretical model of the evolution of a service ecosystem by relying on the longitudinal analysis of the relationships between five shared services centers (SSCs) and their internal clients. Based on the economies of worth framework (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006), we find that after the introduction of a service platform, service ecosystems evolve and alternate between phases of tensions and phases of solutions where each new agreement between the actors of the service ecosystem becomes increasingly stable. Throughout these phases, the actors of the service ecosystem switch from a goods-dominant logic to a transitional logic and finally to a service-dominant logic. The actors of the service ecosystem are initially oriented towards dyadic-dominant relationships, but later move to triadic-dominant relationships, until all the actors of the complex network directly or indirectly interact with one another.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.032
Peters, L. D. (2016): Heteropathic versus homopathic resource integration and value co-creation in service ecosystems, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 2999-3007
While the notion that resource integration is central to understanding value co-creation in service ecosystems, there is currently no clear and detailed definition of resource integration. The philosophical concept of emergence makes a clear distinction between instances of resource integration based on emergent relations between resources, here termed heteropathic resource integration, and instances of resource integration based on summative relations between resources, here termed homopathic resource integration. It is the new emergent properties that result from heteropathic resource integration that become an important factor in enhancing resourceness and thus value co-creation. Using the concept of emergence, heteropathic resource integration may lead to new emergent properties in service ecosystems, properties which may help and/or hinder the viability of service ecosystems. The assessment of the value co-created by resource integrators may be related to these new emergent properties.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.033
Storbacka, K., R. J. Brodie, T. Böhmann, P. P. Maglio and S. Nenonen (2016): Actor engagement as a microfoundation for value co-creation, Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp. 3008-3017
The starting point for this research is that value co-creation is difficult to observe empirically, whereas actor engagement is observable and thus more likely to be designable and manageable. Informed by the microfoundation movement in strategic management, actor engagement is conceptualized as a microfoundation for value co-creation within the context of a service ecosystem. Using a trans-disciplinary perspective, actors are viewed not only as humans, but also as machines and various combinations of humans and machines. Actor engagement is defined as both the actor’s disposition to engage, and the activity of engaging in an interactive process of resource integration within a service ecosystem. This leads to identifying research issues for actors, engagement platforms, actor disposition, engagement properties and resource integration patterns. We conclude by drawing implications based on the identified research issues.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.034
Braun, C. and K. Hadwich (2016): Complexity of internal services: Scale development and validation, Journal of Business Research, 69(9), pp. 3508-3522
Today, internal processes and procedures are often complex to manage and coordinate. Since these internal procedures and the resulting internal services have an essential impact on a firm’s success, addressing the problem of growing complexity is important. Although scholars agree that complexity is a core feature in organizations, its impact on the internal service encounter remains largely unexplored. Since internal customers may face difficulties in judging complex internal services, they may experience lower satisfaction, which in turn negatively influences a firm’s success. Hence, to ensure internal customer satisfaction, it is important to know how to maintain internal service complexity at a moderate and thus manageable level. Therefore, an instrument for measuring internal service complexity is developed and validated. Additionally, complexity benefits and costs are analyzed. Finally, a non-linear relationship between internal service complexity and internal customer satisfaction is established. Based on these results, a three-step complexity management process is proposed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.035
Angulo-Ruiz, F., A. Pergelova, J. Cheben and E. Angulo-Altamirano (2016): A cross-country study of marketing effectiveness in high-credence services, Journal of Business Research, 69(9), pp. 3636-3644
This research seeks to examine the influence of traditional advertising, Internet marketing, and relational marketing on choice and willingness to recommend across countries with varying levels of the Inglehart–Baker cultural dimensions. In the general model, including four countries, relational, and Internet marketing have a significant and positive effect on choice. In the country-specific models, relational marketing has significant positive effects in Canada, Slovakia, and Peru; traditional advertising only in Peru; and Internet marketing only in Slovakia. None of those activities has an influence on choice in Hungary. Relational marketing and Internet marketing have indirect effects on willingness to recommend through the mediating influence of choice. The study provides evidence of comparative marketing effectiveness in the context of high-credence service across different countries.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.024
Wang, H., K. H. Kim, E. Ko and H. Liu (2016): Relationship between service quality and customer equity in traditional markets, Journal of Business Research, 69(9), pp. 3827-3834
This research is to understand how to improve traditional markets since a lot of practitioners in the retail industry conduct business in traditional markets. The research objectives are, first, to understand the relationships among service quality, customer equity drivers, and customer satisfaction in traditional markets; second, to find out how to improve the three drivers of customer equity through these variables mentioned above in traditional markets. In this study, the relationships among service quality, the drivers of customer equity, customer satisfaction, and customer lifetime value were studied based on the analysis of the data which were collected in traditional markets.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.007
