Social media and value co-creation in multi-stakeholder systems: A resource integration approach

This paper provides a theoretical framework of multi-stakeholder systems to explain value co-creation through the contextual means of actor-to-actor (A2A) interactions. In applying the A2A model, we explicate the resources provided by three actors in particular – customer, firm and social media platform in co-creating value via resource integration. The resources afforded by social media platforms positions these actors as “systems resource integrators” in both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) contexts. The role of social media platforms as systems resource integrators is to provide a technological platform that exposes its modular resources to facilitate higher order resource formations through the active participation of non-intermediary actors (i.e. customers and firms); which otherwise limits the ability of firms and customers to realize their optimal value co-creation potential.Six propositions are derived from the conceptual framework provided in this paper. Through the higher order resource formation analogy underpinning the discussion in this paper, we argue the significance of understanding the qualities of social media resources for managers to facilitate more efficient resource configurations in the creation, transformation and renewal of resources via resource integration in actor interactions. The paper concludes with the strategic implications of the conceptual framework provided and future research directions.     

Sustainable value co-creation in business networks

Even though the Service Dominant Logic (SDL) paradigm has contributed to the conceptualization of “value co-creation”, no academic study has further investigated the role played by sustainability in business-to-business (BtoB) value co-creation.Using case studies, we examine how BtoB companies embrace the concept of sustainability to co-create value. We determine that such a co-creation of value entails a two-stage process: first, suppliers co-create value with their customer's customers or end users by analyzing or co-creating sustainability awareness. Second, by integrating this behavioral knowledge, suppliers co-create with their direct customers, either a sustainable hybrid offering (a service bundled with a product) or an extended sustainable service. Such a service proposition enables suppliers' direct customers to increase performance (sustainability is at the core of value creation) or to integrate sustainability into their supply chain (sustainability is an incremental element of value creation).Our research enriches the SDL paradigm by demonstrating the role of sustainability in reinforcing or extending the service proposition in a value co-creation process that links the supplier and customer networks.     

Conflicts and value co-creation in project networks

The present study aims to (i) extend knowledge of the nature of conflicts and of their influence on value co-creation in project networks and (ii) contribute to the management of conflicts to enable value co-creation.This work is based on an action research methodology conducted during a five-year case study of a firm operating in the Information and Communication (IT) industry. Three dimensions of conflicts are identified: (i) types, (ii) timing and (iii) effects. An understanding of these dimensions facilitates the management of conflicts. Two levels of intervention are isolated: (i) the strategic level and (ii) the operational level. The paper offers a new understanding of conflicts that should precede their management, which is crucial to enabling project network value.     

Transcending the pyramid: opportunity co-creation for social innovation

There is a lack of understanding of how social enterprises with their partners co-create opportunities to concurrently generate both social and economic value across the pyramid. Drawing on evidence from multiple case-studies, this paper addresses this gap to further our understanding of opportunity co-creation by social enterprises. We find that social enterprises co-create opportunities to simultaneously generate social and economic value with both the top of the pyramid (TOP) and bottom of the pyramid (BOP) partners; we thus call them Transcending Pyramid Social Enterprises (TPSEs). Opportunity co-creation comprises commercialising the social opportunity characteristics of prevalence, relevance, and accessibility to create both the demand and supply sides of a market. Supply side opportunity co-creation involves fulfilling institutional voids, developing relational capital with the BOP, and meeting the needs of the BOP. Demand side opportunity co-creation involves generating market access to the TOP, raising awareness of value generated by TPSEs, and fulfilling the needs of TOP customers. Co-created opportunities are thus capable of both addressing the economic and social and/or environmental issues of the BOP and meeting the altruistic and consumption needs of the TOP. The implications for social enterprises, their partners, and policy makers are discussed.     

Towards an integrated framework for managing the process of innovation

Innovation has become a major driving force for business growth and success. However, successful and sustained innovation represents challenges rooted in technological uncertainties, ambiguous market signals and embryonic competitive structures. Notably, in the management of innovation, many challenges still remain in both theory and practice, which demand improved managerial approaches. In this context, the development of a practical and explicit management framework for the process of innovation could be beneficial. This research sets out to develop the concept of ‘Innovation Readiness Levels’ (IRL), an explicit model for managing the process of incremental innovation. Basically, IRL is a framework depicting the development of an innovation over its lifecycle. Within the emerging framework proposed in this paper, five key aspects that determine the effective implementation of innovation are identified. The lifecycle of innovation is then divided into six phases, and for each phase, associated assessment aspects and criteria are identified. By providing better monitoring and control, IRL is intended to help implement innovation over the lifecycle more effectively. It is also expected to apply as a management tool, for which guidance of use is suggested.     

Leveraging micro‐ and macro‐structures of embeddedness in alliance networks for exploratory innovation in biotechnology

Researchers agree that alliance networks can be an important instrument in a firm's innovation process, but there is limited empirical evidence on actually how they facilitate the creation of new knowledge for exploratory innovation. The research question is what alliance network configuration is optimal for exploratory innovation. The present study investigated the interaction between a firm's alliance portfolio structure (the micro‐level) and the industry alliance network structure (the macro‐level), and it empirically tested how their interaction may be affecting the exploratory innovation outcome of network participating firms in the biotechnology industry. The paper uses data from exploratory patents filed by 455 dedicated biotechnology firms in 1986–1999 and an overall network comprising 2,933 technological alliances over the same period. The results indicate that, in the case of biotechnology, firms with high exploratory innovation output have short path indirect access to many other firms (micro‐level), and operate in dense industry alliance networks centralized around a few key firms (macro‐level), and that these effects are curvilinear.     

Beating competitors to international markets: The value of geographically balanced networks for innovation

Being able to launch new products internationally is critical for technology‐based ventures to recoup the high costs of R&D and to exploit their innovations fully. Despite the widely recognized importance of networks within the innovation development process, there appear to be contrasting viewpoints as to whether local or foreign network partners contribute more in the race to internationalize. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of comparative advantage, we propose and empirically confirm that ventures pursuing a balance of local and foreign network connections for the development of an innovation are able to bring the product more rapidly into the international marketplace. Furthermore, both innovation complexity and industry clockspeed heighten the importance of geographic network balance to the speed of product internationalization. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Zooming in VS zooming out on value co-creation: Consequences for BtoB research

The concept of value co-creation is now taken for granted in the marketing community. It is the result of what we consider as a premature closure of this concept. The aim of this article is to prevent this premature closure by confronting what this discipline has produced thus far in order to highlight the breadth of situations that this concept presumes to encompass. To achieve this, we analyze a selection of articles published in special issues of marketing journals that were dedicated to value co-creation and/or service dominant logic. This sample enables us to point to the risks of being locked into a zoom-out approach to economic exchange: an arbitrary reduction of the vast heterogeneity of exchange phenomena and an inability to account for the complexity of these phenomena. Because value co-creation is a conception that is in conflict with the zoom-in approach to exchange phenomena, our intent is to conduct a healthy rebalancing of perspectives on economic exchange and thereby keep the controversy alive.     

Platform configurations for local and private 5G networks in complex industrial multi-stakeholder ecosystems

Data and connectivity platforms play a crucial role in the digitalization of different sectors of our society. In complex industrial multi-stakeholder ecosystem contexts connectivity and data platforms are increasingly becoming converged, and private, vertical-specific local 5G networks are emerging. For this context, we depict and analyze alternative configurations for converging connectivity and data platforms and propose appropriate management actions for combining these platforms and achieving legitimacy. We examine a complex industrial multi-stakeholder ecosystem of a port and observe that in the considered case study, the convergence of connectivity and data platforms enhances digitalization and helps to create shared local information between stakeholders. The research identifies a set of regulatory challenges for local 5G networks in complex industrial multi-stakeholder ecosystems where the telecommunication and information technology-related regulations meet with vertical-specific regulations, leading to a complex environment in which to operate. As highly country-specific, these regulations can open new business opportunities or significantly slow down or even prevent a market opening to local private 5G networks for vertical-specific use.     

Leveraging internal resources and external business networks for new product success: A dynamic capabilities perspective

Internal resources such as technological and human capital, together with a firm's business network, are vital sources of knowledge for new product development. Previous studies largely assume that a firm's internal resources and its external resources embedded in a business network are complementary in new product development. This study draws on the dynamic capabilities perspective to take the existing literature one step further. Our hypotheses were tested using a sample of 130 Chinese manufacturing firms in high-technology industries. Interestingly, the findings reveal a more complex picture of resource interplay between internal resources and external resources embedded in a firm's business network. More specifically, the findings show that a firm's power in its business network influences the effect of its internal resources on its ability to sense and seize opportunities, a vital dynamic capability. More importantly, the findings suggest that such dynamic capability plays a pivotal role in translating the benefits of resource-interplay into new product success.     

Leveraging ties: the contingent value of entrepreneurial teams' external advice networks on Indian software venture performance

This study investigates the impact of entrepreneurial teams' external networks on their ventures' performance. We first argue that ventures whose entrepreneurial teams span many structural holes in their external advice networks experience higher performance. We then propose that network ties are not uniform in their effect, but rather are contingent on two distinct features of entrepreneurial teams: (i) their strategic consensus—extent of agreement on key goals and strategies within the team—and (ii) internal cohesion—extent of interpersonal friendships within the team. Finally, we propose that team demographics and team networks complement (rather than substitute) each other. Data from Indian software ventures provide support for these arguments. We extend entrepreneurship research by highlighting how venture teams' internal processes and external networks jointly shape performance outcomes. We also add to the literature on team networks by drawing attention to the role of strategic consensus as a distinct pathway through which teams can leverage their external networks.     

Value co-creation through social innovation: A study of sustainable strategic alliance in telecommunication and financial services sectors in Bangladesh

The formulation of strategic alliance by commercial, social and government organizations has potential to simultaneously achieve market related success and develop solution to social problems. Social innovation that leads to positive changes in society by providing solutions to social and environmental challenges may also require strategic collaboration by multiple organizations. Despite recent scholarly interest in social innovation, there is scant empirical evidence on the underlying drivers of network-based sustainable strategic relationships that co-create value. Moreover, further academic research on multi-stakeholder engagement to develop collaborative and strategic alliance-led social innovation can advance relevant scholarships. This study addresses these issues by analysing value co-creation through sustainable strategic alliance amongst commercial and not-for-profit organizations in Bangladesh. The research adopts qualitative method in the form of in-depth interviews from thirty-four senior management of commercial and not-for-profit organizations and industry experts in Bangladesh. Findings highlight the underlying drivers of strategic alliance that lead to value co-creation for concerned parties. The findings also suggest that strategic alliance constitutes service-ecosystem that facilitates emergence, engagement and evolution of social innovation that eventually drives value co-creation through sustained and successful social innovation. As such, the paper contributes to relevant literature and offers useful insights for practitioners and policy makers.     

Leveraging open innovation to improve society: past achievements and future trajectories

Open innovation (OI) is an approach which describes a purposive attempt to draw together knowledge from different contributors to develop and exploit innovation. It has become clear that OI directly benefits organisations' economic performance and resilience, but researchers, practitioners, and policy makers became also convinced that OI might be the way forward to tackle the world’s most pressing societal challenges, representing unresolved Grand Challenges, which can only be weathered by diverse sets of collaborative partners that join forces. Although anecdotal evidence points at how OI practices can be employed to achieve societal impact not only in private firms but also in public organisations, very little understanding exists ‐beyond anecdotal‐ to link OI to societal impact. This special issue has the ambition to start the discussion and establish a framework as the stepping stone to tackle this complex research gap.     

A service science framework to enhance value creation in service innovation projects. An RFID case study

This paper describes an IT-driven service innovation with an in-depth case study. The case study shows the different stages of RFID implementation in the jewellery supply chain of a retailer including all stakeholders. Based on a review of the literature on service engineering, information systems and management, we propose a framework to enhance IT-driven service innovation. Service science lacks procedures, methods and tools for developing new services. The main contributions of this paper lie in proposing a framework that supports service innovation in an IT-driven case. We illustrate our framework with an in-depth case study and infer lessons that can be useful to managers who wish to duplicate IT-driven service innovation for RFID technology. This framework includes both strategic and operational dimensions to help managers anticipate key challenges and pitfalls in service innovation projects.     

A conceptual and analytical framework for business process reengineering

BPR has become a hot buzzword in management and information systems disciplines. However, there is a lacuna in recognizing the characteristics and the way of performing BPR. In this paper, we categorize the reasons for BPR failure as the lack of understanding of and the inability to perform BPR, and we reviewed BPR based on the four key concepts: fundamental, radical, dramatic, and process. We argue that SSM can be applied in performing BPR in the following ways:

1. (1) SSM can be a general methodology for BPR,

2. (2) SSM can be an analytical framework for BPR, and

3. (3) SSM is able to deal with the ill-defined and complex business situation in a BPR effort.

To illustrate the applicability of SSM in the context of BPR, we describe a live case of a BPR effort in developing and implementing an image processing system for hospital ward ordering. Finally, in order to demonstrate the power of SSM, by extending SSM considerations of What/How, we elaborate further on the What's and How's conceptual framework of an analysis and redesign effort. Based on this framework, we review the roles of information technologies in BPR.     

Managerial perceptions of service-infused IORs in China & India: A discursive view of value co-creation

This paper explores the managerial challenges facing firms seeking to build relationships with other network actors while doing business in foreign markets. By taking a critical perspective on an area of increasing importance in both manufacturing and service sectors, that of value co-creation, the paper explores how managers in different cultural contexts make sense of the notion of ‘value’ in inter-organizational B2B relationships between New Zealand service and service-infused supplier firms and buyers in China and India. From an analysis of the interview-based accounts on both sides of the buyer–seller dyad marked differences emerge regarding value-creation within managers' discourse around partnerships, collaboration and cooperation. Our findings suggest that the Indian manager's discursive use of ‘partnership’ draws on service-dominant logic in viewing this type of interaction as a means for co-creating value; they and their New Zealand suppliers are jointly involved in co-creating value within a service system, creating value-in-use. In contrast, the predominant perspective seen in the discourse of Chinese managers is the use of cooperation as a means of making transactions more cost-effective, or to fill gaps in their supply chains, resulting in the creation of transaction-based, co-production of value, which suggests a value-in-exchange orientation. In both cases, there is repeated reference to more peripheral actors whose efforts result in what we interpret as network value creation, based on their interactions with actors within the buyer–seller dyad.     

Value co-creation in knowledge intensive business services: A dyadic perspective on the joint problem solving process

This paper examines the collaborative process of value co-creation in the context of knowledge intensive business services. Through 120 qualitative interviews with suppliers and buyers of knowledge intensive services, the extensive exploratory study analyzes the activities, roles and resources of buyers and suppliers in the reciprocal value co-creation process, and their implications for the resulting value-in-use. The paper draws on the literature on value creation, solutions and professional services marketing, and service-dominant logic. It provides a framework depicting value co-creation that occurs through a dyadic problem solving process, comprising activities such as diagnosing needs, designing and producing solutions, organizing the process and resources, managing value conflicts, and implementing the solution. The framework serves as a managerial tool to determine critical resources and roles for suppliers and customers, facilitate joint activities, and optimize resource utilization. Insights from this research are broadly applicable to the contexts of knowledge intensive and solutions business.     

Indirect networks: an intangible resource for biotechnology innovation

In the context of the emergence of new modular organizational forms, especially in high-tech sectors such as the biotechnology sector, this article proposes that while a firm observes benefits from direct alliances, it also benefits from indirect linkages. First, a theoretical framework revolving around indirect ties is built on the basis of social network and innovation management literature. It ends with the proposition of two research hypotheses linking the indirect network position of a firm to its innovation capacities. To test those hypotheses, data on strategic partnerships and collaborations were collected through 40 interviews with biotech firms from the nutrition sector in the biotech clusters of Quebec (Canada). Using network analysis, centrality measures and hierarchical regressions, results of this study indicate that by occupying a central position in a network of indirect ties, a firm is more likely to access useful knowledge from its direct partners and increase innovation. We suggest, as a conclusion, that indirect network position could be considered as an intangible strategic resource for biotech firms.     

A multi-dimension framework for value creation through big data

Big Data represents a promising area for value creation and frontier research. The potential to extract actionable insights from Big Data has gained increasing attention of both academics and practitioners operating in several industries. Marketing domain has become from the start a field for experiments with Big Data approaches, even if the adoption of Big Data solutions does not always generate effective value for the adopters. Therefore, the gap existing between the potential of value creation embedded in the Big Data paradigm and the current limited exploitation of this value represents an area of investigation that this paper aims to explore. In particular, by following a systematic literature review, this study aims at presenting a framework that outlines the multiple value directions that the Big Data paradigm can generate for the adopting organizations. Eleven distinct value directions have been identified and then grouped in five dimensions (Informational, Transactional, Transformational, Strategic, Infrastructural Value), which constitute the pillars of the proposed framework. Finally, the framework has been also preliminarily applied in three case studies conducted within three Italian based companies operating in different industries (e-commerce, fast-moving consumer goods, and banking) in the final aim to see its applicability in real business scenarios.     

How to manage innovation processes in extensive networks: A longitudinal study

In this paper, we examine the managing of the full innovation process, from visioning to commercialization, in extensive networks. By drawing on the IMP, strategic network, and innovation network literatures, we develop a comprehensive picture of the management activities when ‘mobilizing’, ‘orchestrating’, and ‘involving’ actors in working towards the innovation aim in such network settings. Through using two longitudinal case studies – the one pursuing radical and the other incremental innovation - we provide an empirically refined understanding of seven key management activities (motivating, resourcing, goal setting/refining, consolidating, coordinating, controlling, and leveraging), which are needed throughout the innovation process to turn the diversity of an innovation network into an opportunity rather than an obstacle. We demonstrate how actor diversity and the type of innovation (radical or incremental) shape the management activities, and map a dynamic actor composition that evolves alongside the innovation process. The longitudinal data highlights the consequences of the presence or lack of management activities, and the interlinkages between activities throughout the process. Our findings also provide insights for practitioners on how to cope with the increasing tendency to involve diverse stakeholders in innovation by pinpointing the critical management activities that can be employed.