Understanding value-creating practices in social media-based brand communities

For service providers hosting social media-based brand communities, understanding the use of value-creating practices enables them to enhance their customers’ brand community experiences and facilitate value. Yet, extant social media-based brand community research neglects to examine the uses of practices in commonly occurring, direct service provider customer interactions that may be value co-creative. Thus, for a more holistic view of value creation, and informed by service logic, this study applies netnography to observe participants’ uses of practices in two social media-based cause brand communities, in both direct and indirect interactions. The findings reveal that participants predominantly employ practices in direct interactions and act as value co-creators. The findings extend empirical evidence into value-creating practices in social media-based brand communities. They also highlight how cause organisations should plan their uses of practices to facilitate the types of value-creating interactions they seek (i.e. direct and value co-creating, or indirect and independently value creating).     

Consumer Acceptance of mHealth Services: A Comparison of Behavioral Intention Models

Recent appropriation of mobile devices to deliver health services is transforming the health care landscape, offering reduced costs and increased access for service providers and consumers. This article examines factors influencing consumers' decisions to adopt mobile health (mHealth) services through a comparison of three behavioral intention models. A national web-based survey of 482 French adults indicates that the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB) more fully, though less parsimoniously, explains consumers' acceptance of mHealth services. This research provides insight into the usefulness of the MGB in improving understanding of the determinants of behavior situated at the intersection of health, service, and technology.     

Consumer switching costs: A typology,antecedents, and consequences

The management of customer switching costs has been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive typology for conceptualizing, categorizing, and measuring consumers' perceptions of these costs. This research develops a switching cost typology that identifies three types of switching costs: (1) procedural switching costs, primarily involving the loss of time and effort; (2) financial switching costs, involving the loss of financially quantifiable resources; and (3) relational switching costs, involving psychological or emotional discomfort due to the loss of identity and the breaking of bonds. The research then examines the antecedents and consequences of switching costs. The results suggest that consumers' perceptions of product complexity and provider heterogeneity, their breadth of product use, and their alternative provider and switching experience drive the switching costs they perceive. Furthermore, all three switching cost types significantly influence consumers' intentions to stay with their current service provider, explaining more variance than does satisfaction. In view of the potential importance of switching costs, the impact of all strategic moves on switching costs should be considered Michael Porter (1980:122). Thomas A. Burnham (Tburnham@scu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. His research investigates the strategic management of consumer switching costs and the use of customer suggestions in product improvement. Prior to obtaining his doctorate, he developed strategic reports and budgets for MCI Telecommunications and consulted with the management of a cooperative in Paraguay as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Judy K. Frels (Jfrels@rhsmith.umd.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on the marketing of high-technology products, innovation adoption, and consumer switching costs. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D., she spent 10 years developing operating systems and compilers, as well as managing and marketing software and hardware products at IBM and at Tymlabs Corporation. She has consulted with firms including SAIC, Imation, Input-Output, Inc., and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Vijay Mahajan (Vmahajan@mail.utexas.edu) is John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. He is currently serving as dean of the Indian school of Management, Hyderabad, India. He has published extensively on innovation diffusion, new product development, and strategic marketing.     

The incidence of documented standards for research in departments of accounting at US institutions

Evidence suggests that standards for research in accounting are vague to junior faculty at the same time business schools are placing more emphasis on scholarship when evaluating faculty for tenure and promotion (T&P). In response, we investigate the incidence of accounting-specific documented standards for research in T&P decisions based on an email survey of accounting department administrators at US institutions. In addition, we report respondent data about the use of documented and informal journal lists. Our findings suggest that few accounting departments, regardless of accreditation status, utilize department-specific written scholarship standards or journal lists, supporting faculty perceptions that scholarship requirements for T&P are vague. As part of our analysis we review implications of the Final Report of the AACSB International Impact of Research Task Force (AACSB International, 2008) on the use of journal lists for tenure and promotion decisions. We summarize by advocating for specific accounting department-level policies for T&P, including consideration of explicit journal lists.     

Patrick Murray (Ed.), Reflections on Commercial Life: An Anthology of Classic Texts from Plato to the Present

Teaching Business Ethics -     

Decision rules used by male and female business students in making ethical value judgments: Another look

This study was conducted to corroborate findings that females invoke a decision rule that is significantly different from that of their male counterparts when making ethical value judgements. In addition, the study examines whether the same decision rule is used by men and women for all types of ethical situations. The results show that males and females use different decision rules when making ethical evaluations, although there are types of situations where there are no significant differences in decision rules used by men and women. The results do not suggest that any one particular decision rule is used by the majority of either males or females in different types of ethical judgements. There is a greater diversity in decision rules used by females than by males.Sharon Galbraith, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University, Seattle, Washington. She teaches Marketing and does research in the areas of consumer information processing, pedagogy, and business ethics.Harriet Stephenson, Ph.D., Professor of Management in the Albers School of Business and Economics, is Director of The Entrepreneurship Center at Seattle University. She teaches Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management and Business Policy and Organization and does research in areas of business ethics and entrepreneurship, and marketing for small business.This study deals only with the decision processes used in evaluating acceptability or unacceptability of certain actions. This is a sample question from the questionnaire.     

Organizational dependence and the likelihood of complying with organizational pressures to behave unethically

This paper reports the results of a survey completed by 565 human resource professionals in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The major result suggests that individuals who are more dependent on their employing organizations are more likely to comply with organizational pressures to behave unethically. Factor analysis of our dependent measure of ethical organizational behavior suggested that two distinct constructs were being tapped; furthermore, different variables were found to predict each. The potential for conceptualizing unethical organizational behavior as multidimensional is discussed.The author is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She has recently obtained her Ph.D. in Organizational Analysis.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN THE CO-OPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT

This paper examines the relationship between the Chief Executive of a CO-operative retail society and his Board of Directors. It takes for its starting point three critical activities of the Chief Executive, i.e. the achievement of society objectives; the maintenance of the internal stability of the society and the adaptation of the society to the external environment. Two factors which influence the performance of these activities are the Chief Executive's orientation to society performance and his relationship with his Board. The Chief Executive will tend to be inward-outward in orientation. Factors affecting this will be his previous task experience and organisational experience of which two aspects are important (a) time—the length of service a t lower and middle management level and (b) structure—the degree of delegation. These will affect the Chief Executive Officer's ability to deal with uncertainty in the environment, A third influential factor will be the attitudes and expectations of his Board which will be structured by their perception of democratic control. Finally the nature of the environment will affect the Chief Executive's orientation and his flexibility. In dealing with the problems which face him the Chief Executive is influenced by his reference points, i.e. by the degree of internalisation of co-operative values, and by his beliefs about the rightness of previous decisions. His decision-making is influenced by the interaction of his beliefs and those of his Board and by the depth to which they are held. These beliefs may be seen in two parts, first, relating to the nature of co-operative enterprise and secondly, to the method by which the co-operative enterprise is controlled. Contributing to the depth of internalisation of co-operative beliefs would appear to be their social and political backgrounds. Additional factors for the Chief Executive Officer include length of service in the co-operative movement, non-co-operative experience and his commitment to :managerial values'. On the basis of the differing orientations of the persons concerned, it is possible to hypothesise the development of certain decision-making situations.     

A perspective on franchising: The design of an effective relationship

Franchise relationships are based on the potential for greater gains through groin membership; the very nature of this relationship raises questions concerning latitude for independent action and constraints on decision authority. Key issues concern the degree of autonomy the franchisee should have, the nature of the franchise contract, and the management of conflict. The authors conclude that there is little or no virtue in a high degree of franchisee autonomy; that the inherent dangers of power concentration can be minimized via appropriate contract design; and that one critical aspect of the channel administrator's task is intelligent handling of conflict, particularly situations that can impair efficiency.