Abstract

Business-to-business (B2B) suppliers need to develop specific capabilities to successfully manage digitalized touchpoints in B2B customer journeys. As digitalization leads to shifts in touchpoints, new demands arise regarding a supplier’s ability to manage these touchpoints. Developing capabilities for managing digitalized touchpoints is becoming a key aspect for suppliers in designing and managing attractive B2B customer journeys. Although extant research has highlighted the importance of managing touchpoints in the form of capabilities, this area has received surprisingly little research attention. Similarly, the B2B context in customer journeys remains under-researched. The present study investigates supplier capabilities for the management of digitalized touchpoints in B2B customer journeys. Through an exploratory in-depth case study, this research identifies seven key supplier capabilities for the management of digitalized touchpoints in B2B customer journeys: preparing customer resources, integrating customer resources, enabling collective actions, supporting customer actions, balancing activation levels, hybridizing environments, and merging digital environments. These capabilities are structured around a theoretically derived conceptualization of touchpoints as consisting of resources, actions, and environments. From a capability perspective, this study also demonstrates the key role of touchpoint control, as well as approaching touchpoints as sequences to ensure consistency across, and seamlessness between transitions of, touchpoints.

Introduction

The concept of customer journeys is increasingly recognized as a central element in marketing ( Homburg & Tischer, 2023 ; Steward, Narus, Roehm, & Ritz, 2019 ; Witell et al., 2020 ). A key building block in a customer journey is the notion of touchpoints, considered here as the interactions, or engagements, between a supplier and a customer ( Homburg, Jozić, & Kuehnl, 2017 ; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016 ). Because touchpoints are pivotal for, and embedded in, customer journeys, it becomes important for a supplier to be able to manage these ( Durmusoglu, McNally, & Chen, 2022 ; Hodgkinson, Jackson, & West, 2021 ). Poorly managed touchpoints can, for example, lead to excessive resource usage as well as bad customer experiences. A supplier’s ability to manage touchpoints becomes especially challenging in business-to-business (B2B) contexts, where customer journeys are characterized by greater complexity, a broader array of stakeholders and touchpoints, as well as longer engagement timelines ( Meyer & Schwager, 2007 ; Witell et al., 2020 ; Zolkiewski et al., 2017 ). These characteristics put added demands on the management of touchpoints but also highlight the need for further insights into B2B customer journeys ( Purmonen, Jaakkola, & Terho, 2023 ; Rusthollkarhu, Toukola, Aarikka-Stenroos, & Mahlamäki, 2022 ).

While existing research underscores the significance of touchpoints within the customer journey, and the competitive edge that can be gained through their effective management in the form of capabilities (e.g., Aichner & Gruber, 2017 ; Dhebar, 2013 ; Gao, Fan, Li, & Wang, 2021 ; Homburg et al., 2017 ), there is a notable lack of studies delving into the specific supplier-oriented capabilities necessary for managing these touchpoints ( Homburg & Tischer, 2023 ; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016 ; Maechler, Sahni, & van Oostrum, 2016 ). This is especially so in the face of advancing digitalization. Digitalization, describing the process by which digital technologies are influencing business processes (see, e.g., Li, Kannan, Viswanathan, & Pani, 2016 ), not only introduces new opportunities but also compounds the complexity of managing touchpoints ( Marino & Lo Presti, 2018 ; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2015 ). For example, both the diversity and number of touchpoints in a customer journey typically tend to increase as firms introduce digital technologies ( De Keyser, Verleye, Lemon, Keiningham, & Klaus, 2020 ; Larivière et al., 2017 ). This leads to an additional emphasis on understanding suppliers’ touchpoint management capabilities related to a new digital reality ( Ritter & Pedersen, 2020 ; Volberda, Khanagha, Baden-Fuller, Mihalache, & Birkinshaw, 2021 ).

Implications and future research

This study provides insights into the management of digitalized touchpoints in B2B customer journeys by operationalizing it as a set of capabilities. We add to existing literature by taking a supplier perspective on touchpoints, identifying seven capabilities to manage digitalized resources, actions, and environments, which together frame the management of digitalized touchpoints. We also provide guidance as to future research in the field of B2B customer journeys as well as for B2B managers in strategizing for customer journeys.

Abstract

Due to the industrial revolution and, thereby with, the emergence of Industry 4.0, there has been an impact on the marketing of business firms, enabling them to digitally transform and adopt Marketing 4.0 practices supported by smart technologies. One of these is Big Data Analytics (BDA), which enables a firm to improve its marketing practices. The main objective of this study is to evaluate how integrating big data technology improves the marketing strategies of Indian FMCG companies operating in a dynamic and highly competitive market distinguished by its size and diversity, constantly changing consumer behaviour, and Marketing 4.0 trends. This study adopts a systematic approach to coding an interview with seasoned Indian FMCG professionals to explain the capabilities of Big Data in molding marketing practices. A framework is constructed based on the same. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed to visualize its applicability in business. Further, the Resource-based View (RBV) theory is discussed for describing the insights into the role and adoption of Big Data by Indian FMCG firms for enhancing performance and achieving competitiveness, along with demonstrating its benefits for decision-making, customer loyalty and internal capability assessment.

Introduction

With technological advancements, industries now utilize innovative technologies that bolster a range of corporate activities and procedures, profoundly influencing the internal operations of these firms. (Cammarano et al., 2023, Singh et al., 2022b). The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, which is driving this technological change for business firms, serves as a bridge between intelligent products and adaptive processes and has a significant impact on both business models and production processes (Rosário & Dias, 2022; Salkin et al., 2018). Industry 4.0 enables the digital transformation of firms, which is further impacted by different internal and external factors related to the firm. The digital transformation is required to improve customer experiences and retain customers (Kitsios et al., 2021). Despite their implementation challenges and hazards, these advancements increase market analytics, cost, channel management, client connections, professional skills, and organizational procedures (Pascucci et al., 2023). With Industry 4.0, there is a steady trend towards understanding the consumers, which includes their needs, behaviours, storytelling, and anticipation (Lampropoulos, 2023; White & Pathak, 2023). These are the core components of marketing techniques that have evolved into marketing 4.0 (Yakut, 2022). As an outcome of the emergence of trends like Big Data (BD), social media, corporate social responsibility, and e-commerce, the shift to Marketing 4.0 is accelerating (Guven, 2020). Marketing 4.0 is driven by the convergence of offline and online marketing strategies and incorporates technical advancements to provide better flexibility (Rathod et al., 2020; Kotler et al., 2017). The improvement of the consumer experience, the induction of repurchase intention, and brand promotion are some of the significant achievements of Marketing 4.0 (Dash et al., 2023). Consumer usage patterns of social media, online platforms, search engines, contextual interactions, and community influences are some of the areas the companies are looking into. Companies use the information mainly for promotional and consumer engagement activities. The consumers are seen to be transformed into advocates through marketing 4.0, where a sense of community building takes place, resulting in a meaningful engagement of the marketers and consumers (Gau, 2019).

Conclusion

This study discusses and examines the role of BD and how an FMCG firm can adopt BD to improve its overall performance and attain a competitive position in the market. This research is the first of its kind to explore the implications of BD in the Indian FMCG sector. The relationship among BD, marketing practices and FMCG from in Indian perspective is a unique contribution to this paper. In addition to its usefulness, the study explores the crucial roles that automation and decision science play. This study discusses the benefits the firm achieves for accepting BD in the business. The study reveals some of how BD helps in decision-making for FMCG firms. For Indian FMCG firms, BD is crucial to value creation and achieving business operations’ scalability. FMCG organizations are using BD and analytics solutions more and more since they help create value, scale corporate operations, and increase output in today’s competitive market. BD makes it possible to analyze consumer preferences and behaviour at each transaction stage with a business. FMCG companies may now provide personalized experiences through targeted messaging, unique offers, and channel-specific communication optimization. BD also offers in-the-moment customer insights via sentiment, preference, and behaviour research, which aids FMCG companies in creating goods that enhance customer experiences and provide them with the necessary competitive edge.

Additionally, BD facilitates effective market campaigns through real-time predictions, data processing, and analysis. BD can also be strategically used through automation, new business model innovation, decision science, and risk management. Furthermore, customer segmentation based on BD makes marketing techniques more effective, and real-time customer insights, like sentiment analysis and tracking of consumer preferences and behavior, help organizations respond quickly to market changes.

Abstract

Purpose
This study proposes and tests the effectiveness of an integrated approach to community-based internal branding (CBIB) in a business-to-business setting. It integrates classical and contemporary views on internal branding, integrating community-building activities into the proposed internal branding framework ensuring a holistic model of co-creation of a corporate brand identity. It also examines the moderation effect of employee’s personal, job, and community-related characteristics on the relationships in the proposed model.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a detailed narrative review to propose a conceptual model and uses a quantitative research design to test a set of hypotheses using structural equation modeling on 400 responses collected through a survey.

Findings
This study finds that integrated CBIB is a viable approach for implementing internal branding. The effectiveness of building employee brand commitment is demonstrated through the testing of the model. We also find that employee’s age, gender, organizational tenure, membership duration (in the brand community), education level, customer interaction, leadership status, and participation in brand fests moderate the proposed relationships in the CBIB model.

Research limitations/implications
One key limitation of this paper is that it lacks the multi-cultural and multi-industry perspective, which, given promising results in the current context, may be investigated in future studies.

Practical implications
The paper proposes a community mode of implementing internal branding in a B2B setting and suggests a way to create brand champions across the organization.

Originality/value
As per the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first quantitative investigation of integrated community-based internal branding.

Introduction

A brand must deliver its promise (Burmann & Zeplin, 2005) or the effort that goes into market research, positioning, and creation of brand identity is likely to be lost (Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010). No doubt, the internal branding philosophy of a firm directly influences its brand image (Mäläskä, Saraniemi, & Tähtinen, 2011). In business-to-business (B2B) and service firms, front-line sales employees, and support staff are key to delivering brand experience to the customer. Further, large B2B firms, due to their extensive employee base, complex structure, and multi-national spread, are at a greater risk of presenting mixed brand messages (Lee, 2021; Martin, 2021).

Research in the areas of internal branding, and organizational behavior reveals that a strong brand identity may be built by treating employees as internal customers (Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010; Berry, Hensel, & Burke, 1976; Grönroos, 1985, Grönroos, 1997). Despite this assertion, when it comes to the implementation of internal branding in the B2B context, the classical view of internal branding recommends a top-down approach (Iglesias, Landgraf, Ind, Markovic, & Koporcic, 2020). The brand identity is fixed and strongly controlled by the firm, and is unidirectionally communicated to external stakeholders (Iglesias et al., 2020; Kapferer, 2012). On the other hand, the contemporary school of thought is shaped by the proliferation of digitalization and the internet, and it highlights the limited efficacy of a control-driven, top-down internal branding in the current B2B landscape (Iglesias et al., 2020; Iglesias, Ind, & Schultz, 2022; Saraniemi, 2022). At the core of this school of thought is the idea that brand identity is fluid, and is constantly co-created and developed through active conversation with all stakeholder groups across corporate brand interfaces (Iglesias et al., 2020; Iglesias et al., 2022).

Results

4.1. Measurement model
Assessment of the conceptual model (Fig. 2) includes testing the measurement model, structural model, mediation, and moderation analyses, all of which are undertaken using SPSS AMOS 26. All fit indices for the measurement model, viz., χ2/df = 2.160, CFI = 0.950, TLI = 0.942, and RMSEA = 0.054 are acceptable (Hair et al., 2010). We also performed the equivalence testing of the measurement model recommended by Marcoulides and Yuan (2016) by calculating the T-size RMSEA and CFI values. The T-size calculates the minimum population CFI and maximum size of misspecification (T-size RMSEA). We find that T-size RMSEA and CFI in equivalence testing are 0.059 and 0.935 respectively (against the conventionally reported value of 0.054 and 0.950). The cut-offs for T-size for the RMSEA and CFI based on the degrees of freedom (349), sample size (400) and number of observed variables (29) are:

Abstract
This paper examines the relation between bank profit performance and business models, using a machine learning–based approach. The analysis contributes to the literature on this relation by considering the bank portfolio’s ability to yield profits as the identification criterion of strategic profiles and by including all the components of the business model simultaneously in the identification process. Our research strategy is applied to the European Union banking system from 1997 to 2021. The paper’s primary finding indicates that specialization seems to be a strategy that results in banks adopting business profiles with better profit performance, particularly if the banks specialize in the standard retail-oriented model.

Introduction

      What characteristics of bank business models enhance profitability? The search for answers has been among supervisory authorities’ priorities since the end of the Great Recession and is likely to maintain its relevance in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons for such interest lie in the fact that the relation between business models and profitability can reveal the viability of banks’ strategic plans and, hence, the viability of banks themselves. In this regard, the Anon (2016) links poorly adapted business models to low bank profitability in advanced economies, identifying the former as an eroding agent of bank resilience over time. However, concern about the profitability of banks’ business profiles has been especially strong in the European Union (EU), as reflected by the fact that the European Central Bank launched a thematic review in 2016 to assess the relation between profitability and business models (European Central Bank, 2018).

      Banking research has examined this relation in two broad and different ways, using regression analysis to explore the effects of the characteristics of the bank business profile on profitability or grouping banks into business models by means of clustering techniques.

Conclusion

     The ability of business models to generate profits is an ongoing concern for banking authorities, especially in the EU. Closely related to this concern, we propose a new methodological strategy to identify business models and to assess their relation to profit performance. Previous works on business models have assumed the business models as a given or have identified them using similarities in balance sheet components. In either of these cases, profit performance is a byproduct of the business model. By contrast, in our identification strategy, profitability is at the core of the definitions of banks’ strategic choices. In particular, business models are obtained using the contributions of the bank portfolio components to profitability as the instruments of clustering analysis.

      The empirical exercise focuses on the EU banking system in 1997–2021. According to the classification of business profiles based on their overall contributions to profit performance, the best profile is a standard retail-oriented model, the second-best one is a standard wholesale model, and the worst profile, which has only equity as a characteristic component, does not match any standard model. Therefore, specialization seems to be a strategy that results in banks adopting business profiles that perform better in terms of their contributions to profitability, particularly if the banks specialize in the standard retail-oriented model.

Abstract

     This paper develops an ordonomic approach to the governance of sustainable business model innovation (SBMI). We clarify the distinctive roles of optimization and governance for the management of sustainable value networks and develop a sustainability cube as a new management tool for the governance of SBMI. Our cube helps management to identify and overcome social dilemmas within value networks, i.e. to form and reform relevant business relationships, thus creating and tapping second-order win-win-win potentials. Furthermore, our cube encourages management to interpret negative externality problems as “missing markets”, i.e. as an entrepreneurial challenge and as a business opportunity to serve as yet unmet needs. Finally, our cube offers an avenue to develop and strengthen the specific management competencies that foster a successful governance of SBMI.

Introduction

     After having promoted the sustainability concept of a “triple bottom line” (TBL) for 25 years, Elkington (2018) is rather disillusioned and (self-)critical of what, in effect, has become an accounting concept. Looking back, he clarifies his initial goal—and identifies what went wrong (para. 8, emphasis in original): “[T]he original idea was wider still, encouraging businesses to track and manage economic (not just financial), social, and environmental value added—or destroyed. … [T]he TBL wasn’t designed to be just an accounting tool. It was supposed to provoke deeper thinking about capitalism and its future, but many early adopters understood the concept as a balancing act, adopting a trade-off mentality.” He further elaborates (para. 13, emphasis in original): “TBL’s stated goal from the outset was system change—pushing toward the transformation of capitalism. … It was originally intended as a genetic code, a triple helix of change for tomorrow’s capitalism, with a focus … on breakthrough change, disruption, asymmetric growth (with unsustainable sectors actively sidelined), and the scaling of next-generation market solutions.” Looking ahead, he states (para. 16 f.): “[W]e need a new wave of TBL innovation and deployment. … Hence the need for a ‘recall.’ I hope that in another 25 years we can look back and point to this as the moment [we] started working toward a triple helix for value creation, a genetic code for tomorrow’s capitalism, spurring the regeneration of our economies, societies, and biosphere.”

Conclusion and outlook

     This paper develops an ordonomic approach to the governance of SBMI. We clarify the distinctive roles of optimization and governance for the management of sustainable value networks and develop a sustainability cube as a new management tool for the governance of SBMI. Our cube helps management to identify and overcome social dilemmas within value networks, i.e. to form and reform relevant business relationships, thus creating and tapping second-order win-win-win potentials. Furthermore, our cube encourages management to interpret negative externality problems as “missing markets”, i.e. as an entrepreneurial challenge and as a business opportunity to serve as yet unmet needs. Finally, our cube helps management to develop and strengthen the specific competencies that foster a successful governance of SBMI.

     As an outlook, we would like to emphasize several limitations of our contribution in this paper, which may stimulate further research.

     First, we deliberately skipped an important aspect. Since we wanted to concentrate on sustainability opportunities beyond the organizational boundaries of the firm, we edited out the ordonomic strategy of individual self-commitments. We therefore concentrate on perceiving the organization and its interior structures as a monolithic block. On the one hand, this assumption needs to be highlighted as a serious limitation of our tool, but on the other hand it provides a vital starting point for complementary further research on intra-organizational challenges such as culture, mind-set, etc. (see e.g., Evans et al., 2017; Geissdoerfer et al., 2018) and tensions’ management in SBMI (see e.g., Schultz, 2022a). Hence, managers using the cube must be constantly aware of this blind spot. Further research could explore the possible interplay between the three commitment strategies (external relations management) embodied in the cube and the one we left out (internal relations management). For the latter, we would like to hint to an initial ordonomic contribution along those lines cf. Will and Pies (2018).

Abstract

This research draws on social identity theory and social role theory of gender stereotypes to investigate the role of brand gender personality (masculine and feminine) on generating brand warmth and competence, and how consumers’ agentic and communal values condition the effects of brand stereotypes on consumer–brand identification. The theoretical model is tested via two different studies. In the first study (N = 490), 21 brands across different product categories are used to test the theoretical model. Then, a second study (N = 469) corroborates the previously identified relationships and further shows that the effect of brand stereotypes on consumer–brand identification is moderated by agentic and communal motivations. The present study contributes to research on brand stereotyping while providing managerial insights that can be used to enhance the relationship between brands and consumers.

Introduction

A multitude of reports published by Deloitte, Havas Group, McKinsey & Company and Consumer Brands Association underscore a growing expectation gap in consumer-brand relationships. Consumers increasingly perceive that promises made by brands are unfulfilled, leading to a sense of distrust. In their pursuit of competency, transparency and honesty they perceive that brands are falling short (McKinsey & Company, 2021). Additionally, the global survey Meaningful Brands (2021) by Havas Media1 reveals that brand meaningfulness has reached an all-time low, contributing to the escalating mistrust in brands.

In response to this heightened disaffection and rising scepticism, brand management has been promoted under the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (BIAF). This framework claims that consumers’ impressions of brand warmth (worthy intentions) and competence (ability) are crucial in shaping interactions with brands (Kervyn et al., 2022). Building on the work of Diamantopoulos et al., 2021, Xue et al., 2020, Kervyn et al., 2012, and Kolbl et al. (2020), it is evident that both warmth and competence significantly influence brand admiration, emotions, value perceptions, and purchase intentions. Given the intensified scrutiny on brands, understanding the formation of these brand stereotypes (warmth and competence) and their role in building robust bonds with consumers has become imperative (Rather et al., 2022).

While antecedents of brand warmth and competence, along with their consequences, have been identified in previous research within the BIAF (see Appendix A for a summary), three major gaps persist. This study aims to address them by integrating insights from Social Role Theory and Social Identification Theory to enrich the BIAF.

General discussion and implications

While previous research has extensively explored the antecedents and consequences of brand warmth and competence stereotypes (see Appendix A), our study is the first to empirically examine how these stereotypes are influenced by gendered brand personality and how consumers’ agentic and communal values serve as a boundary condition in the link between brand stereotypes and consumer-brand identification.

6.1. Theoretical contributions
In line with social role theory of gender stereotypes, our study contributes to branding literature by establishing masculine and feminine brand personality as antecedents of brands stereotypes. This relationship is demonstrated for both real (Study 1) and fictitious brands (Study 2). This focus on gendered brand personality adds theoretical value by addressing gaps in current knowledge related to the impact of consumer gender (Eagly and Wood, 2012, Fiske et al., 2007) and gendered brand cues (Hess & Melnyk, 2016) on stereotypes. Our findings reveal the asymmetrical importance of the two gendered personalities in influencing brand stereotypes, aligning with prior research that evidences that masculine traits are more diagnostically relevant than femininity traits (see Hess and Melnyk, 2016, Vacas de Carvalho et al., 2020). Notably, our results show that gendered brand personality effects hold over and above the perceived hedonic and utilitarian product properties, which have previously been linked to brand warmth and competence (Peter & Ponzi, 2018).

Abstract

Live streaming has been increasingly integrated into e-commerce platforms to sell tourism offerings, yet its value-adding mechanism for enhancing customer shopping experiences remains underexplored. From a value co-creation perspective, this study investigates how customers can co-create value by leveraging the interactive potential in tourism live shopping, and how such customer co-creation behavior can be fostered through the attributes and actions of tourism live streamers, drawing on source credibility and social presence theories. The empirical findings indicate that the credibility traits of tourism live streamers, characterized by trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness, are instrumental in fostering customer co-creation behaviors, which can in turn elevate customer perceived value of their tourism live shopping experiences. Additionally, the study reveals that the level of social presence during tourism live shopping sessions may positively moderate the influence of streamer credibility traits on customer co-creation behaviors.

Introduction

Live-streamed shopping, or live shopping, merges live broadcasting with e-commerce, offering a more dynamic and interactive alternative to traditional TV and web-based online shopping (Wongkitrungrueng & Assarut, 2020). This approach features live streamers who actively demonstrate products and communicate with potential customers in a real-time manner to facilitate sales (Chen & Zhang, 2023). By integrating socialization, entertainment, and instant purchasing, live-streamed shopping provides a superior shopping experience, making it a significant experiential marketing channel across diverse product categories (Bai et al., 2024).

The same trend has also been witnessed in the hospitality and tourism industry. Numerous tourism sectors, including hotels, restaurants, attractions, and destination marketing organizations, now adopt live streaming for communication, promotion, and direct sales (Lin et al., 2022). In such tourism live shopping events, tourism organizations collaborate with live streamers, including travel influencers, celebrities, and professional sellers, to promote and sell tourism offerings (Xu et al., 2021). Streaming viewers, namely those potential travelers, can engage directly with the streamers, participating in real-time interactions and making on-the-spot purchases as needed (Xu et al., 2021). Extant research has underscored the potential economic, emotional, social, and knowledge-based benefits of tourism live e-commerce, highlighting its role as a promising digital tourism marketing channel (Wang and Guo, 2024, Xie et al., 2022).

Results

4.1. Sample profile
Table 2 outlines the demographic profile of the survey respondents. The predominant group consisted of female young adults, aged between 18 and 35 years. A large portion of these respondents were single and held a college degree. Over half of the participants reported an annual income below 10,000 RMB (around 1,500 EUR). In terms of preferred platforms for tourism live shopping, Douyin emerged as the most popular, followed by Taobao and Flyzoo, both Alibaba affiliates, and then Ctrip. As for the types of tourism offerings purchased through live shopping, hotels were the most common choice, succeeded by restaurants and tourist attractions. Purchases of event tickets, tour packages, and transportation services via live shopping were less frequent.

4.2. Measurement validity
Before hypotheses testing, we conducted preliminary analyses to assess measurement validity. First, in our analysis, we employed the Maximum Likelihood with Robust Standard Errors (MLR) method, a parameter estimation that does not require strict multivariate normality (Mueller & Hancock, 2008). Second, to address common method bias, we implemented both procedural and statistical controls. Procedurally, we made the online survey anonymous, clearly stated the study’s purpose in the introduction, kept the survey questions brief and included attention-check questions. Statistically, Harmon’s single-factor test showed that the largest factor accounted for 36.3 % of the total variance, below the 50 % threshold suggested by Podsakoff (2003). Also, the Common Latent Factor (CLF) test indicated that the differences in standardized regression weights for all items in models with and without a CLF were smaller than 0.2, in line with the guidelines by MacKenzie and Podsakoff (2012). Hence, common method bias was not deemed a serious concern.

Abstract

The upper echelons theory postulates that the cognitive frameworks of top executives shape organizational decisions and behaviors. Based on this theory, this study contributes to the literature by analyzing the effects of the chief executive officer’s (CEO) political ideology and political climate on variations in the market value of tourism firms resulting from their innovation activities. An empirical application was conducted on major U.S. hotel companies that have traded on the stock market for the last 25 years (1998–2022) and made innovation-related announcements. This application shows that, although the implementation of innovative activities positively affects a firm’s market value, both the CEO’s political ideology and the political climate influence the degree of change in the said market value. This study has fundamental theoretical implications for upper echelons theory by improving the understanding of how cognitive diversity derived from political ideology influences decision-making and its outcomes.

Introduction

Do the values of chief executive officers (CEOs) of publicly traded tourism companies influence their behavior? To what extent can these personal beliefs influence the effect of innovation on the market value of the companies they lead? Does the national political climate affect stock profitability when tourism organizations undertake innovative actions?

Innovation has been widely recognized as a critical element for tourism and hospitality companies and emerges as an indispensable strategic factor for their long-term success and growth (Gao & Zhang, 2023; Martínez-Ros & Orfila-Sintes, 2009; Pikkemaat et al., 2019; Sundbo et al., 2007; Vu & Hartley, 2022). Tourism literature has highlighted multiple benefits associated with innovation: it enables the tourism sector to be more resilient, productive, and adaptable (Zenker & Kock, 2020); it helps cope with an increasingly competitive and uncertain environment (Gao & Zhang, 2023; Martínez-Ros & Orfila-Sintes, 2009; Vu & Hartley, 2022); it facilitates the creation of new products and tourist experiences (or improves the quality and efficiency of existing processes and services) that contribute to stimulating demand and increasing business performance (Hall & Williams, 2019; Hjalager, 2010; Nicolau & Santa-María, 2013a, 2013b; Raad et al., 2023; Sharma et al., 2021; Zach et al., 2020); and it helps tourism companies grow (Love et al., 2011) and remain competitive (Aldebert et al., 2011; Martín-Rios & Ciobanu, 2019; Pikkemaat et al., 2019). In the context of hotel management, Chen (2011) states that “innovation appears to be the only means for an organization to convert change into opportunities and thus succeed [in the market]” (p. 64).

Conclusions

This study has assessed the potential effects of a CEO’s political ideology on the abnormal returns resulting from hotels’ innovations investments. In particular, the empirical application looks into the major U.S. hotel companies that have traded on the stock market for the last 25 years (1998–2022) and made innovation-related announcements. The results show that, although the implementation of innovation activities positively affects the market value of hotels, a CEO’s political ideology affects the level of reaction on the part of shareholders. Specifically, the implementation of innovation activities by hotel companies led by liberal CEOs (compared with those led by conservative CEOs) results in low abnormal returns. Moreover, when a liberal party has greater control over the governing bodies than a conservative party, the implementation of innovation activities leads to high positive effects on a hotel’s market value.

These results have relevant theoretical implications. First, this study represents a significant advancement in the literature related to tourism innovation, as it strengthens the connection between the hospitality industry and political ideology. While existing literature has highlighted that political decisions profoundly impact the development of tourism activities (including innovation), this study goes a step further by revealing that hotels must consider the ideology of their CEOs as a critical factor when evaluating and implementing tourism innovations. The political beliefs of these top executives significantly influence the ability of hotels to generate positive abnormal returns through the announcement of any innovative initiative. This approach not only optimizes the positive impact associated with innovations in the stock market but also provides a pathway for companies in the sector to increase their market value in an increasingly dynamic and complex competitive environment.

Abstract

To reduce food waste, motivating consumers to purchase suboptimal (imperfect) products seems a promising strategy. Yet, two recent literature reviews show that it is challenging to motivate consumers to purchase suboptimal products. Moreover, the effects of the most promising marketing strategies thus far – pricing and communication strategies − have hardly been directly compared. Our research addresses these issues by 1) presenting two novel strategies that can increase purchase intentions for suboptimal products, and 2) comparing the effects of pricing strategies, communication strategies, and the two novel strategies. In a survey and an experiment, consumer responses to pricing (discounts or multi-item promotions), communication (concerning products’ naturalness or sustainability), and experience strategies (providing tasting or a show) were compared, revealing varying effects on product perceptions and purchase intentions. Consumers’ value orientations influenced consumer responses to marketing strategies. These findings provide valuable suggestions for future research on minimizing suboptimal food waste.

Introduction

Humans’ use of natural resources exceeds the planet’s possibilities (UN, 2022). Especially food production requires extensive use of natural resources, and is responsible for about one third of all greenhouse gas emissions (Garnett, 2011). Yet, one third to one half of the produced food is wasted (FAO, 2019). The reduction of food waste, defined as “…any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed” (FUSIONS, 2014, p. 6), is therefore one of the necessary actions for a more sustainable future (UN, 2022).

One prominent preventable source of food waste is the waste of suboptimal products. Suboptimal products, also called abnormally-shaped (Pfeiffer, Sundar, & Deval, 2021), imperfect (De Hooge, 2022), or ugly products (Hartmann, Jahnke, & Hamm, 2021), deviate on the basis of appearance, date-labelling, or packaging. When focusing on appearance deviations only (e.g. bent cucumbers), suboptimal products are products that diverge from perfect products solely on aesthetics such as weight, size, or shape (De Hooge et al., 2017, De Hooge, 2022). The deviation concerns extrinsic product cues, making suboptimal products equal to optimal products on intrinsic product quality and safety (De Hooge et al., 2017). Such products have difficulties moving through the supply chain, and consumers appear unwilling to purchase them (Hartmann et al., 2021, Varese et al., 2022). Consequently, retailers are unmotivated to sell suboptimal products (De Hooge, Van Dulm, & Van Trijp, 2018). Motivating consumers to purchase suboptimal products is therefore essential.

General discussion

The present findings provide useful additions to the research on suboptimal food waste reduction strategies. When deciding which strategy to apply, comparisons between different strategies is useful, especially when strategies affect multiple responses simultaneously. For instance, we reveal that pricing strategies are most promising to increase purchase intentions for suboptimal products, but they reduce the perceived value of products in general (Grewal, Krishnan, Baker, & Borin, 1998), and have no positive effect consumers’ suboptimal product perceptions. Consequently, such strategies may transfer food waste from supply chains to consumer households, as consumers may be less tempted to consume ‘lower-valued’ suboptimal products (although Giordano, Alboni, Cicatiello, and Falasconi (2019) did not find an effect of discounts on household food waste). Naturalness and show strategies instead increase both purchase intentions and product perceptions. This may positively affect suboptimal product consumption. Indeed, some studies have found naturalness (authenticity) communication to increase consumers’ consumption intentions (De Hooge et al., 2022, Van Giesen and De Hooge, 2019). Thus, comparing different marketing strategies on multiple relevant responses is valuable for future research.

Abstract

Brand activism (BA) has attracted substantial attention due to consumers’ rising expectations for brands to address social and political issues. However, empirical research on consumers’ understanding of activist brands (i.e., brands that engage in brand activism) remains limited, mainly due to the absence of a valid measurement tool. To fill this gap, the authors introduce a two-dimensional consumer Activist Brand Perception (ABP) scale with eight items. Drawing from extensive literature analysis, relevant manifestations of BA are identified as the foundation for the scale. Through a rigorous scale development process involving qualitative and quantitative assessment, the (ABP) scale emerges as a reliable instrument to capture consumer perceptions of activist brands, enabling researchers to comprehend how consumers view activist brands.

Introduction

Consumer demand for companies to take a stand and publicly express their views on a variety of controversial social, environmental, economic, or political topics is growing (Edelman, , 2021, Manfredi-Sánchez, 2019). Given such expectations, an increasing number of brands have recently begun expressing their opinions on a range of diverse issues, spanning from racial discrimination to COVID lockdowns and environmental problems (Bhagwat et al., 2020, Korschun et al., 2020, Shortall, 2019). Prominent brands, including Hobby Lobby and Ben & Jerry’s, are known for their Brand Activism (BA) and increasingly align with pivotal social movements such as LGBTQ + rights and Black Lives Matter (Eyada, 2020). Nike is actively engaging in activism around social issues, such as racial injustice and police brutality (Eyada, 2020), while Patagonia is well-known for its environmental activism (Peters and Silverman, 2016). However, despite the growing popularity, engaging in BA is no guarantee for business success, as some consumers are skeptical (Edelman, 2019; The Conversation, 2018) and view BA as a marketing ploy (Bhagwat et al., 2020, Manfredi-Sánchez, 2019; The Conversation, 2018). While BA strategies can showcase a brand’s stand on divisive issues, they also risk polarizing consumers given the controversial nature of these movements (Sarkar & Kotler, 2021).

Despite being a relatively novel and underexplored phenomenon (Bhagwat et al., 2020; The Conversation, 2018), BA is now gaining increasing research attention (e.g. Mukherjee and Althuizen, 2020, Parcha and Westerman, 2020, Hydock et al., 2020). However, while prior studies on BA provide valuable foundations on which to build, unresolved issues remain. First, there are some inconsistencies in how the existing body of literature defines BA and its domain (e.g., Appels et al. 2022; Dodd and Supa, 2015, Eilert and Nappier Cherup, 2020; Olkkonen and Morsing, 2022). Second, previous studies often rely on brand-related constructs, such as brand image and brand perception, to capture different aspects of BA (e.g., Bhagwat et al., 2020, Klostermann et al., 2022). While these studies have advanced knowledge on BA, they do not provide a broad, non-context-specific operationalization of the construct and, consequently, only offer a fragmented picture regarding manifestations of BA. Third, the perception of BA differs substantially across consumer segments (Mukherjee and Althuizen, 2020), and the importance consumers attach to specific controversial issues differs by country (Schlegelmilch and Saracevic, 2022). In turn, this impacts on the motivation and frequency with which brands engage in BA.

Discussion

BA has emerged as an increasingly popular phenomenon in recent years (Bhagwat et al., 2020, Korschun et al., 2020, Shortall, 2019), and it has attracted a promising stream of research (e.g., Bhagwat et al., 2020, Hydock et al., 2020, Mukherjee and Althuizen, 2020, Parcha and Westerman, 2020). Our contribution to the literature on BA is threefold. First, we develop a context-free measurement instrument to capture consumer perceptions of activist brands. Second, we provide psychometric evidence on the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the ABP scale and suggest that the construct consists of two distinct dimensions that can be employed in substantive research on consumer perceptions of activist brands. While the authenticity dimension addresses consumers’ perceptions of genuineness, reliability, and authenticity of brand activist engagement, the public commitment dimension pertains to the publicity of a brands’ commitment to its stance on and engagement around a controversial issue. Building on the extant literature on BA and fresh qualitative data, we identify a number of distinct key manifestations of BA and show that the brand-related constructs used to measure BA in previous studies only partially capture the construct. Finally, we confirm previous studies (e.g., Hambrick and Wowak, 2021, Jones et al., 2014) on the positive effect of BA on brand attitude, brand reputation, and brand trust and propose a nomological network that relates the ABP construct with other brand-related constructs.

Abstract

Start-up firms play a major role in the economy, with B2B start-ups often developing new technologies and offerings to business customers that incumbent firms do not provide. However, little is known about the cost-effectiveness of start-up firms’ investments in marketing. We integrate insights from managerial interviews with signaling theory to posit how conducting systematic marketing affects start-up firm valuation, and how the combination of the firm’s primary customer-type (B2B versus B2C) and development stage (early versus late) moderates that effect. Our empirical analysis reveals that marketing investments affect firm valuation positively for some start-ups and negatively for others depending on the noted moderators. In particular, we find that investments in systematic marketing by early-stage B2B start-ups increase firm valuation, yet more than half of early-stage B2B start-up firms choose not to invest in systematic marketing, apparently believing such investments will not pay off.

Introduction

Business-to-business (B2B) start-up firms are major drivers of economic growth as they produce new technologies and offerings that incumbent firms cannot or are reluctant to provide (Dörner, Flötotto, Henz, & Strålin, 2021). In aggregate, start-up firms are responsible for 10% of all worldwide job growth between 2017 and 2021(Wijngaarde, 2021), while B2B focused start-ups make up 71% of reported start-up sales in the US Census Bureau’s 2015 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). However, despite the importance of start-up firms, it is difficult for either B2B or business-to-consumer (B2C) start-up firms to succeed: only about 50% of start-up firms survive for five or more years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016).

Allocating resources to marketing could potentially help a start-up increase its likelihood to succeed since focusing on marketing reduces ambiguity about the firm, its value proposition, and its offerings (e.g., Acar, Dahl, Fuchs, & Schreier, 2021). Further, a start-up that allocates significant resources to marketing is signaling to investors that the firm is focusing on its customers and is creating and delivering value to them (Halberstadt et al., 2021). Yet, start-up firms are 60 times more likely to report being resource constrained than to report possessing sufficient resources for their development (Evans & Jovanovic, 1989; Wasserman, 2012). That resource constraint limits what functions start-ups can allocate scarce resources (O’Toole & McGrath, 2018), which, in turn, impacts start-up firms’ actions (Fernhaber & Patel, 2012) and ultimately their survival and performance (Dencker & Gruber, 2015).

Consequently, for start-up firms, to conduct systematic marketing — that is, following Moorman and Day’s (2016) definition of a systematic marketing organization based on four “C’s”, e.g., capabilities, configuration, (human) capital, and culture, operating on an on-going basis — often requires directing scarce resources from other aspects of their business. As a result, as confirmed through our multi-method approach that involved interviews, secondary data, and a follow-up survey, many start-ups do not report conducting systematic marketing, but instead report either not conducting any marketing or only conducting marketing on an ad hoc and opportunistic basis.1 One (typical) interview response about marketing’s role was “Marketing?? We don’t do any real marketing…we have much more important issues than marketing to focus on.” A 2015 Capital One survey of small business owners supports this observation, reporting that 76% of owners face marketing challenges, 64% feel they are unable to effectively market their businesses, and 39% report that their firms have not executed any marketing initiatives in the past six months (Capital One, 2015).

Discussion

This research investigates whether and when conducting systematic marketing benefits start-up firms, an important topic that has been rarely addressed in the marketing literature. We develop a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of conducting systematic marketing that includes the interactions of two firm characteristics – type of customer and stage of development– to determine when conducting systematic marketing should be more or less beneficial to startup firms. We test our conceptual model using a rich dataset on start-up firms provided by Equidam, an online start-up firm valuator, through a wide range of robustness tests, and with an analysis of an independent survey of start-up firms. In each of these analyses, we find strong support for our conceptual model and associated hypotheses. One key finding challenges current practice: while we find that conducting systematic is more beneficial to early-stage B2B start-up firms than to any other category of firm, such firms are the least likely to conduct systematic marketing.

Abstract

Most of the companies’ sustainability and growth depend on how well its employees perform. However, the measurement of employees’ performance until now is inconclusive and inexhaustive. To accurately assess and predict an employee’s performance, numerous external factors (physical/environmental, social, and economic) related to an employee’s life have been taken into account in this work. The purpose of this research is to explore an unbiased AI algorithmic solution to predict future employee performance considering physical, social, and economic environmental factors that affect employee performance. We collected data of 1109 employees from the ‘For-Profit Organization’ in Bangladesh from both employers and employees to cover all the factors that justified the unbiased outcome. We utilized a few machine learning tools in this study including the Logistic Regression classifier, the Gaussian Naive Bayes, the Decision Tree classifier, the K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN), the SVM classification, etc., in order to predict the employee performance evaluation. Then, we compared the effectiveness of those machine learning models by analyzing their precisions, recall, F1-score, and accuracy. This work can be utilized to obtain bias-free employee performance reviews. This fair employee performance assessment can aid decision-makers in making moral choices regarding employee promotions, career advancement, and training needs, among other things. The study also describes notes for future researchers.

Introduction

Performance evaluation, which includes assessing current performance, identifying good and poor performers, and providing feedback to staff, is one of the most challenging components of Human Resource Management (HRM) (Cherian et al., 2021, Fogoroș et al., 2020, Stone et al., 2015). Employee performance evaluations are not practiced systematically by numerous organizations. As a result, the evaluation method becomes erratic and ineffective. A systematic approach should be adopted in order to evaluate employees at the planning stage on a regular basis (Ahmed et al., 2013). Employees with these attributes—skills, dedication, attitudes, and knowledge—are valued as assets by the company (Al-Tit et al., 2022, Li et al., 2008, Yang and Lin, 2009). By creating new knowledge at firms’ level, an organization’s human resources can the firms to innovate (Terán-Bustamante et al., 2021). The accurate assessment of the employees’ performance contributes to the mission of the company with the maximum satisfaction of the employees (Pap et al., 2022). Since company progress depends on employee advancement, numerous executives search for efficient ways to improve performance drastically (Abbas and Yaqoob, 2009, Salam, 2021). To boost performance, employers first need to know the performance condition of the employee in any organization. An article in the Harvard Business Review (Antonio, 2018) claims that essential functions of the organizations, such as prediction, upselling, cross-selling, and performance management can be remarkably influenced by AI technologies (Ledro et al., 2023). In the future, businesses, communities, and nations will be significantly impacted by big data, automation, and machine learning (Lada et al., 2023, Tao et al., 2023). In this regard, AI has started to play a role in business, particularly in HRM, concerning the prediction and decision-making (Nilashi et al., 2023, Qureshi et al., 2023).

Conclusion

The performance of the company’s personnel determines a large portion of its sustainability and growth. Many external aspects (physical/environmental, social, and economic) relevant to an employee’s life have been included in this work in order to measure and anticipate an employee’s performance effectively. The goal of this project is to create an AI algorithmic-based ethical decision-making framework that takes into account the various environmental factors—physical, social, and economic – that have an impact on worker performance. Our results were impartial since we gathered information from a few “For-Profit Organizations” in Bangladesh, both objectively and subjectively. In this study, we used a variety of machine learning methods, and we were able to acquire a reasonable accuracy score. The Random Forest model obtained the highest accuracy score, and the Gaussian naïve Bayes model had the lowest. An impartial employee performance review can be obtained by using this work. Decision-makers can use this equitable employee performance evaluation to help them make moral decisions about training requirements, career advancement, and employee promotions, among other things.

Abstract

Several studies have explored firm performance in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era. However, there is not much research to find reports divulging the complex relationship dynamics between business intelligence, organizational and network learning, customer value anticipation, and creative economy-based small-medium enterprises (SMEs) performance in developing countries. This study aims to uncover the complexity of those relationships. The quantitative data were collected from 313 creative economy-based SMEs in East Java, Indonesia. Using PLS-SEM, this study disclosed that business intelligence practices could not directly impact SMEs’ performance. Business intelligence will be crucial to SMEs’ performance with the support of organizational learning as a mediator. The finding also confirmed the presence of serial mediation of organizational learning and innovation in the relationship between business intelligence and SMEs’ performance. However, the role of network learning and innovation is also important, considering their relatively large direct impact on SMEs’ performance. The theoretical implications of this research broke the boundaries of strategic management theory in resource-based view and knowledge-based view in the latest era, where creative economy-based SMEs have been able to mobilize resources to carry out business intelligence to realize innovation and high performance. Further research is suggested to explore the role of business intelligence in promoting specific performance areas, such as marketing performance, financial performance, and human resource management. In addition, it is advisable to choose more specific research subjects, including those in the culinary subsector, and pay attention to other areas, e.g., the demographics of respondents in the model as a control variable.

Introduction

The performance of small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the post-pandemic era of Covid-19 has been in the spotlight of many scientists, e.g. Ref. [1] highlighted the declining performance of 273 SMEs at the company level operating in commercial, manufacturing, service, or construction industries in certain geographical areas in Finland due to a competitive mindset contaminated by high-performance growth aspirations [2], examined the impact of identity-based entrepreneurial passion on the performance of 193 established SMEs in Ghana [3], identified the mediating role of green product innovation between green entrepreneurial orientation, green transformational leadership, and the performance of 384 manufacturing SMEs operating in Amman, Jordan [4], discussed the export performance of 329 SMEs in Vietnam and how they are developing their internal skills to face external challenges arising from the digitalization process and the COVID-19 crisis [5], analyzed the role of learning in an organization while measuring and managing the sustainable performance of 710 manufacturing sector SMEs operating in Laos [6], examined the impact of international resources on the sustainable performance of 380 Pakistani SMEs through the mediating role of green entrepreneurial orientation [7], tested the influence of organizational creativity and open innovation on the performance of 206 SMEs spread across several regions in Indonesia., and [8] explored how 247 Vietnamese SMEs can leverage information technology (IT) to overcome crises, exploit innovative opportunities, adapt to changing market conditions, and drive new competitive initiatives. This is due to the prominent role of creative economy-based SMEs as the drivers of economic growth in Indonesia and other countries [9]. East Java is no exception; one of the regions contributing 14.92% of Indonesia’s national gross domestic product (GDP) [10]. This province has much potential in the creative economy sector, which is supported by 113 startups [11,12] to face the turbulent business environment as a result of accelerating digital transformation [13] during the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of creative economy-based SMEs will continue to grow, even from the activities of homemakers who are familiar with digital literacy and the ease of doing business today [14].

Conclusion

This research has attempted to investigate the link between business intelligence, organizational learning, network learning, customer value anticipation (CVA), innovation, and creative economy-based SMEs performance in East Java of Indonesia. The findings indicate that business intelligence does not directly impact SMEs’ performance because the data generated from business intelligence practices needs to be integrated into knowledge that must be learned through organizational learning. If this is offset by CVA, it will give birth to innovations that ultimately impact SMEs’ performance. Hence, even though the impact of serial mediation network learning and innovation presence on the relationship between business intelligence and performance is not supported by field data in this study, network learning still need attention to improve SMEs’ performance. The theoretical implications of this research break the boundaries of strategic management theory resource-based view (RBV) and knowledge-based view (KBV) in the latest era, where creative economy-based SMEs in developing countries have been able to mobilize resources to carry out business intelligence, even though in a simple way, to realize Innovation and high performance.

The limitation of this research is that it has yet to explore the causes of the insignificant effect of network learning on innovation. Thus, future research can conduct qualitative studies to obtain more in-depth information regarding the relationship between network learning with Innovation. In addition, this research still uses economy creative-based SMEs as samples, while future research is recommended to involve specific samples, for example, in the culinary sector only, the sector with the highest number in East Java. Researchers can also pay attention to other provinces, such as West Java, which has the largest creative economy exports in Indonesia. Further scholars are also expected to explore the role of business intelligence in more specific performance areas, such as marketing performance, financial performance, and human resource management, and include the demographics of respondents in the model as a control variable. The data distribution in PLS-SEM analysis is only possible to assess statistical significance using the Bootstrapping technique.