Driving Factors for the Success of the Green Innovation Market: A Relationship System Proposal

This study aims to map out the relationships that make up green innovation initiatives in Brazilian industry. The sample comprised 100 managers at manufacturing companies, most of them operating in the business of farm machinery and equipment (45 managers) and steel structures (14 managers). To develop this study, Medeiros et al. (J Clean Prod 65:76–86, 2014) study, mapping critical factors that drive the success of green product innovation and the paradigm of complexity, was used as a reference study. Based on the results, it was possible to identify that the operational dynamic of the factors and variables that affect market success do not happen in an isolated or fragmented way; they occur systematically with different contingencies and structured basic and intermediate skills in order to meet the expectations of consumers, laws, and environmental legislation. Initially, the technological expertise factor was noted as very important for sustaining green product innovation. Furthermore, since proactive leaders are an important factor for successfully developing environmentally sustainable products, it must be added to technological expertise as the foundation for developing green innovation. After defining the basis for green product innovation, the intermediary conditions necessary for using the available technology appropriately were mapped out. In this sense, variables such as “elimination of cultural barriers,” “capacity for critical reflective analysis,” and “experimentation” are also very important. In addition, some of the variables of the cross-functional collaboration and market knowledge factors were a part of the structure that organizations need to transform potential into developing green products, which is the basis for the third level of the model. The fourth level of the model has the “meeting consumer expectations” and “following law and legislation” factors, which make up the main goals for developing environmentally sustainable products according to a number of surveys that were conducted.     

Consumer Decision Making Regarding a “Green” Everyday Product

One of the techniques marketers use to convert low‐involvement products into high‐involvement ones is adding an important product feature. A case in point is the common practice of adding a “green” or environmentally friendly product feature to an everyday product, something which is often assumed to elevate consumer involvement in the choice of the product. However, there is a lack of research investigating whether adding such a “green” product attribute actually makes any difference to how consumers make choices. Does the way in which consumers make decisions about groceries change when both “green” and conventional alternatives are available? Does it make them deliberate more or do they just develop another, simple choice heuristic? Based on observation and follow‐up interviews of consumers at the milk counter in two supermarkets which stock both organic (a “green” attribute) and conventional milk, it is concluded that, rather than changing the way consumers make decisions when buying this type of product, the availability of a “green” alternative seems to make “green” consumers develop a new, simple choice heuristic that allows them to do their shopping as effortless and time‐efficient as consumers buying conventional products.     

逆比较优势进口高技术含量中间品与生产技术革新

科学刻画逆比较优势进口高技术含量中间品对生产技术革新的影响效应能为制定科学进口国外中间品和提升生产技术革新速度方面的政策提供有益参考,以剖析上述效应为目标的多维细致检验结果表明：首先,制造型和服务型中间品进口技术含量逆比较优势指数对生产技术革新的影响效应呈现倒U型,进口约2.5倍于自身比较优势水平技术含量的中间品能最大化中间品进口的生产技术革新功能,这一结论在多层面检验中均稳健成立。其次,中国中间品进口技术含量逆比较优势指数处于倒U型顶点的左侧正效应区间。对于动态比较优势持续提升的中国而言,在处理好“卡脖子”风险的基础上,可适度提升中间品进口技术含量,以更好地发挥中间品进口的生产技术革新功能。最后,倒U型效应具有非常强的稳定性,多维外部冲击均无法撼动倒U型效应。为此,倒U型效应可谓协调中间品进口和生产技术革新间关系的“铁律”。     

The role of consumers' construal level in art-infusion-type effect on retail product evaluation

What cognitive characteristic of consumers directs the art-infusion-type effect? This study inspected the impact of art-infusion type on product attitude through aesthetic judgment under different construal levels. This study was underpinned by “construal level theory” and “the model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments.” The data were collected from a pretest (N = 280) and an experiment (N = 388). A moderated-mediation analysis displayed that to low-construal consumers, infusing figurative (vs. abstract) artwork into retail products elicits greater aesthetic judgment, leading to more favorable product attitudes. However, to high-construal consumers, such an effect did not occur. These results broaden the past art-infusion research by corroborating the existence of art-infusion-type effect and presenting the construal level as its new boundary condition. Furthermore, our results offer practical insights into utilizing artworks in product promotion.     

The customer wants service: Why technology is no longer enough

In today's marketplace, the customer is presented with a myriad of products and services of greater variety and value than ever before. As competition becomes more intense, product and service providers are increasingly turning towards “service” or “service quality” as a means of achieving competitive advantage. Even in industries such as telecommunications, where significant technological advances have characterized the industry, companies are realizing that the best product no longer guarantees an advantage over the competition. The key ingredient in the formulation of a competitive service strategy is the proper measurement of service quality dimensions, as defined by the customer, and the continual monitoring of company performance along those dimensions. This article describes the process of identifying service quality dimensions as applied in two telecommunications network providers, one in Canada and one in Ireland. Results are compared and contrasted between the two countries.     

Naming strategies as a tool for communication: application to movie titles

Abstract

Product naming is regarded as one of the most important communication decisions for firms to deliver information on their new products, particularly in the case of products with unobservable attributes, such as motion pictures, music, books, and games. Despite its importance, there has been little research on “how to name a product” as a communication decision. Hence, we propose a conceptual framework to describe naming decisions as two-stage strategic decisions. The first-stage decision involves “what kind of information to be communicated via product names,” which we call the “information choice” strategy. The second-stage decision is how to express this information through product names, which we call the “expression” strategy. We applied a two-level hierarchical Bayesian model to a data set consisting of opening weekend box-office sales, names, and release dates for 393 movies released in seven countries. Our empirical study provides useful findings on movie naming. First, the information choice for movie titles significantly impacts movies’ viewership. Second, the effects of “what to choose” depend on “how to express”. Third, significant interaction effects occur between information choice strategies and product characteristics, which implies that naming strategies depend on the product’s characteristics. One particularly noteworthy finding in this study is that although it is common sense to avoid negative wording in product names in most industries, negative content in movie titles positively impacts box-office sales.     

服务模块化对金融企业创新绩效的影响：组织模块化的调节作用

本文通过数据样本证实服务模块化对金融企业创新绩效存在正向影响。在此基础上,进一步发现组织模块化对服务产品模块化－创新绩效之间的关系有正向的调节作用,但对服务流程模块化－创新绩效之间的关系的正向调节作用未予证实。加入到“镜面假设”的新近对话中,有助于探明产品模块化、流程模块化和组织模块化三个维度之间的关系,从而把握技术型创新与管理型创新之间的紧密联系。     

The economics of professional services: lemon markets, credence goods, and C2C information sharing

We discuss how professional service markets are plagued by asymmetric information, by looking jointly at the literature stemming from the seminal work of Akerlof on the “market of lemons”, and at the definition of “credence good” which has been developed especially within the field of health economics. Since consumers cannot evaluate ex post the quality of purchased professional services when these are “credence goods”, they cannot rely with 100 % confidence on other consumers’ and experts’ signals about service providers’ quality. Hence, questions arise on the effectiveness of traditional market features highlighted in literature as market-enhancing when information asymmetry is an issue, namely: advertising, certification, reputation, and liability. Our analysis specifically focuses on consumer-provided knowledge by looking at recent development of Web-based rating and reviewing services. Results point to the fact that consumers in the U.S. heavily rely on such services, and they do so roughly in proportion to their consumption of each professional sector. Therefore, future research on professional services should include a “C2C search technology” when modeling consumer behaviors that allows to define how much each professional service is to be considered as pure or hybrid “credence good.”     

Consumers as innovators in the electricity sector? Consumer perceptions on smart grid services

This article assesses the possibilities of using consumer innovation in the electricity sector, which is slow‐moving, yet faced with huge challenges and opportunities to become “smart” and “low carbon.” We study the benefits of engaging innovative consumers (“lead users”) in product, service, and business innovation in terms of (a) the capacity of lead user‐consumers to innovate in the highly regulated electricity market, (b) the attractiveness of such lead‐user generated ideas for mainstream consumers, (c) the usefulness of lead‐user engagement for companies in the energy industry, and (d) the usefulness of lead user engagement for the necessary broader societal transition processes. We conclude that consumers can stimulate industry‐wide innovation even in challenging contexts like “smart” and “low‐carbon” solutions and the highly regulated energy industry. Lead user‐consumers can also articulate societal and social responsibility concerns that are relevant for the entire market.     

How a “China-made” label influences Chinese Youth's product evaluation: The priming effect of patriotic and nationalistic news

This study is to verify whether and how a “China-made” label can influence online consumers' product evaluation as adding labels to highlight products' attributes has become an acquainted measure online by e-tailers/firms to attract online consumers' attentions. For this purpose, we conduct a 2 (label of “China-made” vs. no label) x 3 (patriotism priming vs. nationalism priming vs. no priming) between-subject factorial design to verify hypotheses. The results reveal that when consumers' nationalism is primed, the label significantly enhances the product evaluation by increasing the perceived social value of the product. Priming consumers’ patriotism, on the other hand, does not play a moderating role for this effect. A follow-up study confirms such effects for both low involvement and high involvement products. Therefore, e-tailers/firms that own China-made brands/products are advised to signal the “Chinese identity” of their products to online consumers under the current circumstance when nationalism and domestic brands are rising in China. The results also indicate that although products produced in a developing country are marked with a negative country of origin effect, marketers can turn it into a strength in marketing in certain conditions.     

Advertiser Expectations of Agency Creative Product

ABSTRACT

The study reports the development and empirical testing of measures of advertiser expectations of agency produced creative product. This “applied creative,” professional, business-to-business service incorporates extensive process elements. Hence, two measurement models are developed: a traditional “unitary” model, and a dualistic model incorporating elements of process and outcome. The study demonstrates firstly that client expectations of this highly intangible, “applied creative” professional service can be empirically modelled, and secondly, that such measurement does exhibit dimensions of both outcome and process. This paves the way for subsequent modelling of consumer satisfaction or quality evaluation processes within this little explored service category.     

Consuming the Self: New Age Spirituality as “Social Product” in Consumer Society

In the late twentieth century there has been a proliferation, diversification and popularisation of New Age spiritual discourses and practices in Western industrialised nations. New Age spiritual thinkers such a Deepak Chopra, Ken Wilber, Gary Zukav and Shakti Gawain, have modified discourse and practices from Eastern and Western traditional religious beliefs, Western science and psychotherapy, to develop their own discourse and practices designed to assist individuals “transform” themselves. This article discusses the “commodified production of self‐actualisation” in consumer society and discusses how the discourses and practices in selected texts from four New Age spiritual thinkers take the form of an ever‐changing “social product”. The analysis shows how the discourse and practices of New Age spiritual thinkers align themselves with consumptive behaviour by secularising, homogenising and over‐simplifying scientific, social scientific and traditional religious discourse and practices into “social products” for consumption. The analysis also reveals that New Age spiritual thinkers are engaged in a process that could be described as the “consumption of the self”. The implications of the “consumption of the self” will be discussed in terms of the way consumer society requires New Age “technologies of the self” to be continually redefined, restructured and repackaged in new and different forms.     

Measurement of the Standard Proximity of Adapted Standard Business Software

In order to optimize the economical use of SAP software systems and to increase the cost effectiveness of the SAP investment, the available SAP standard system should be implemented in the best possible way. While standard functionality has no negative effects on maintenance and operating cost, modification of the standard has the potential to drive costs (Markus et al. 2000). An integrated methodology and an efficient instrument for the operational and strategic evaluation of this topic are crucial for an efficient application of SAP standard software. This article describes a new technical measurement methodology based on key performance indicators. This measurement methodology allows for measuring the standard proximity (i. e. proximity of used functionality to standard functionality) in SAP systems thereby creating transparency regarding the use of the available standard and non-standard functions. The methodology is evaluated in the context of a case study within the BMW Group. From the results of the measurement, actions are derived which foster the standard utilization and thus the efficiency of an SAP system.

Are ICT,Workplace Organization,and Human Capital Relevant for Innovation? A Comparative Swiss/Greek Study

This paper investigates and compares the relationships for Swiss and Greek firms between indicators for the intensity of use of modern information and communications technologies (ICT), several forms of workplace organization, and human capital, on the one hand, and several measures of innovation performance at firm level, on the other hand. For the Swiss firms, we find that ICT contribute to innovation activities (a) as enablers of process innovation (but not of product innovation) and (b) as means for increasing the efficiency of the R&D process. The organizational variables for “work design” and “employee voice” show significant positive correlations for most innovation indicators. Human capital matters primarily for R&D activities. The findings for the Greek firms indicate positive correlations of ICT with product and process innovation and of new “work design” with product innovation and R&D. No correlation of human capital with innovation could be found. No complementarities for the three factors with respect to innovation performance could be detected in either country.     

Separate or Integrate? Assessing the Impact of Separation Between Product and Service Business on Service Performance in Product Manufacturing Firms

Purpose: Investigating how the separation of the product and service business mediates the effect of management's commitment to the service strategy on service performance in product manufacturing firms.

Methodology: The authors surveyed 216 European manufacturers in the high-value durable equipment industry moving into the service business. After assessing adequacy of measurement scales, the authors tested statistically for mediation. Their results hold when replicating the study using a structural equation modeling approach and while testing for common method biases.

Findings: The authors find evidence that the creation of a separate service organization, organized as a profit center, has a significant positive mediating effect between managerial commitment and the services' financial performance. Although separation also has a positive mediating effect between commitment and non-financial performance, organizing services as a profit center had a negative effect on the service's non-financial indicators.

Research Limitations: Research limitations include (a) a sample limited to German-speaking firms in the high-value durable equipment industry, (b) measurements based on self-reported managerial perceptions of service performance, and (c) conceptualization of service as a single strategic response.

Practical Implications: Although the complementarity between products and services is high in the market, the authors' research suggests few synergies to leverage their integration inside the organization. Accordingly, management should, at least in transition efforts similar to the ones included in this sample, look into creating a separate and distinct service organization.

Value/Contribution: This research was driven by practical concern on how to organize service operations in a manufacturing firm. Initial framing of the research through the creation of the construct of separation of product and service business was used.     

Prior Knowledge and New Product and Service Introductions by Entrepreneurial Firms: The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation

Most research on new product and service development by entrepreneurial firms takes an individual‐level, prelaunch perspective or firm‐level postlaunch perspective. Our study examines two components of the new product and service introduction process: how entrepreneurs' prior knowledge underpins (1) firm technological innovation prior to the introduction of new products and services (prelaunch) and (2) postlaunch viability of those new products and services. Our findings, based on a series of analyses of data from 158 entrepreneurial firms, show that formal technological innovation fully mediates the relation between prior knowledge and the introduction of viable new products and services.     

Advertisers' Responses to Requests for Substantiation of Product Claims: Differences by Product Category,Type of Claim and Advertising Medium

A sample of major advertisers of durable and nondurable consumer products were asked to provide substantiation of scientific and puffery product claims made in television and magazine advertising. The companies were asked to respond directly to an interested consumer and the responses were evaluated on an “average man” basis. The results indicated that many advertisers cannot or will not successfully substantiate their product claims despite the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission's advertising substantiation program. One proposed remedy is to require advertisers to substantiate claims directly to consumers, on request.     

Cutting Through the Online Review Jungle — Investigating Selective eWOM Processing

Consumers frequently rely on online reviews, a prominent form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), before making a purchase decision. However, consumers are usually confronted with hundreds of reviews for a single product or service, as well as rich information cues on online review websites (review texts, helpfulness ratings, author information, etc.). In turn, consumers face more information cues on online review websites than they can or want to process, and are likely to proceed selectively. This paper investigates selective processing of such eWOM information cues. Results of Study 1, an exploratory study using verbal protocols, confirm that consumers display selective eWOM processing patterns and are able to articulate them. Study 2 develops and applies a measurement instrument to capture these patterns. A subsequent cluster analysis on members of a large-scale online panel (N = 2,295) indicates five prominent eWOM processing types, termed “The Efficients”, “The Meticulous”, “The Quality-Evaluators”, “The Cautious Critics”, and “The Swift Pessimists”. Insights of this research can help firms to better understand consumers' eWOM processing and improve the user-friendliness of online review websites.     

Entrepreneurial growth through constellations

The “constellation” is a particular type of network, characterized by the presence of a “leading firm” able to coordinate a series of entrepreneurs who work together with the leading firm to produce and sell.Constellation-style growth is characterized by a leading firm establishing a closely linked network of external firms, all with a high degree of dependence on the leading firm. Typically, the leading firm will maintain control of certain key matters to coordinate the group, such as control of product development, image, and marketing strategy. However, it will devolve to the external firms' functions such as line production and wholesale and retail distribution.Constellations are distinguished from other firms that rely on outside production by their willingness to grow through a specific style of external growth through these external units, moving into a range of different products, and to closer links with the market.The constellation will also tend to have relatively informal (non-legal) ties between members. The non-legal character of this tie increases the flexibility of the constellation to be coordinated efficiently and effectively by the leading firm.Constellations are also characterized by a high input of technological and product innovation, as stimulated in a relatively shallow pyramid of power within the structure. This structure allows therefore the constellation to be particularly competitive in market niches where a high component of innovation in the product is essential. It also contributes to product quality and production flexibility.Constellation-style growth therefore not only allows the firm to grow with a reduction of investment risk, but adds to competitive advantage by fostering personal entrepreneuring through the use of coordinated partnerships of external firms with a leading firm.The model is particularly diffused in Italy, where entrepreneurial firms organized in this manner have been able to assume world leadership in the high-quality niches of mature market segments such as furniture and textiles. However, the organizational pattern should be seen as internationally relevant as a model for growth.This article examines the model in an effort to explain its relevance to entrepreneurial growth, and uses several case studies from modern Italian business to explain how the constellation behaves in practice.