Healthcare professionals' innovative work behavior (IWB) plays a key role in the development and implementation of innovative solutions in hospitals. However, relevant antecedents of IWB have not ...been fully captured to date. This study empirically examines the relationships between proactive personality, collaborative competence, innovation climate, and IWB. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 442 chief physicians from 380 German hospitals. The results indicate a positive and significant influence of proactive personality, collaborative competence, and innovation climate on IWB, with collaborative competence having a stronger influence on IWB than innovation climate. Managers should note that important resources for IWB are accessible through a variety of actors and relationships. To leverage these resources and thus promote IWB, more emphasis should be placed on an employee's network.
•Middle range theories link empirical findings and general theories.•The Sport Value Framework is a general theory to explain value creation in sport.•The Sport Cluster Concept explains value ...creation in localised sport industries.•The Sport Clusters Concept is a middle range theory using a network approach.•Sport management research should use more holistic network approaches.
The Sport Value Framework provides a new logic for value creation in sport based on the Service-dominant logic. The Sport Value Framework is a general theory with high level of abstraction, and there is no middle-range theory yet to link it to empirical data. The purpose of this research is to provide one middle-range theory connecting empirical findings to the Sport Value Framework. The authors used a case study approach of a geographical localised sport industry. Primary data collection in the Auckland sailing industry included 27 interviews and observations at events. Secondary data include 13 documents of organisational information and archival data. Data were analysed with NVivo. The results suggest that the Sport Value Framework explains value creation within a localised sport industry. The middle-range theory between the authors’ data and the Sport Value Framework is the Sport Cluster Concept. Eight of the ten foundational premises of the Sport Value Framework are relevant to the case. The results confirm the Sport Cluster Concept as a middle-range theory to explain value creation in localised sport industries through the lenses of the Service-dominant logic. This research helps sport management practitioners to better understand value creation in localised sport industries. It suggests that sport management and marketing scholars should focus more on networks of actors and related inclusive empirical research designs rather than focusing on isolated elements and single actors of sport industries.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend existing engagement research in two directions: first, it operationalizes the dynamic nature of the engagement process within a customer-brand dyad and, ...second, it tests the interrelationships with other network actors in a triadic network setting.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2×2 experimental design models the iterative nature of the engagement process based on repeated measures at three points in time, considering the contextual effects of connections with other customers and crowding-in effects based on monetary incentives.
Findings
This research demonstrates that in a utilitarian service setting, customer engagement does not emerge per se in the dyadic interaction between the customer and the brand. For high levels of engagement behavior to occur, incentives and ties to other network actors are essential. Further, the findings suggest a non-linear relationship between engagement behavior and its antecedents and consequences: engagement behavior must overcome a certain intensity threshold to unfold its effect.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is needed to explore the dynamic nature of the engagement process in experiential and interactive service settings, and more complex network settings that may involve more actors and more complex relationships.
Practical implications
By facilitating connections between customers and compensating for low intrinsic interest, managers can facilitate actual engagement behavior even in utilitarian service contexts. Once engagement behavior has been triggered, an increased engagement disposition, higher satisfaction, higher involvement and higher loyalty follow.
Originality/value
This study empirically tests the dynamic nature of the engagement process within and beyond the dyad, and has revealed a non-linear pattern of customer engagement behavior within its nomological network.
Consumer–brand identification has received considerable attraction among scholars and practitioners in recent years. We contribute to previous research by proposing an integrative model that includes ...consumer–brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image to investigate the interrelationships among these constructs as well as their effects on brand loyalty and positive word of mouth. To provide general results, we empirically test the model using a sample of 1443 respondents from a representative consumer panel and 10 service/product brands. The results demonstrate that identification, satisfaction, and price image significantly influence both loyalty and word of mouth. Moreover, we find significant interrelationships among the constructs: Identification positively influences both satisfaction and price image, which also increases satisfaction. By disclosing the relative importance of three separate ways of gaining and retaining customers, this study helps managers more appropriately choose the right mix of branding, pricing, and relationship marketing. From an academic point of view, our research is the first to explicitly examine the effects of the concept of identification for price management and to integrate variables from the fields of branding, relationship marketing, and behavioral pricing, which have separately been identified as particularly important determinants of marketing outcomes.
This study integrates consumer-brand identification and customer satisfaction as core relationship drivers to study their interrelationships as well as the effects on customer loyalty and ...word-of-mouth communication. Considering multiple interacting targets of identification in brand communities, the empirical study unfolds the multifaceted, context-specific relevance of identification and satisfaction: While the effect of identification on brand loyalty is mediated by customer satisfaction, satisfaction has no significant effect on community loyalty. Moreover, brand communities are particularly useful for gaining new customers, whereas no increase in brand loyalty could be found. Managers are generally advised to specify constructs of interest related to different relevant targets of identification.
•We propose branded communities as an alternative concept to brand communities.•We study a branded community relating to football operated by a telephone company.•Interest in the topic/community and ...high community quality lead to community loyalty.•The sponsoring/operating brand benefits from an increase in brand loyalty.•Sport offers a perfect context for deploying branded communities.
Brand communities have become an important aspect for brand management in social media. However, many brands have failed to establish a successful online brand community. In this study, we introduce branded communities as an alternative concept to brand communities. In contrast to brand communities, a branded community does not revolve around a specific (sport) brand, but around any interest or need. However, a specific brand makes use of the community for marketing purposes by sponsoring or operating the community. We emphasize the suitability of sport as an interest around which branded communities can be built as well as links of branded communities to sport sponsorship. We empirically studied the factors which influence the success of this phenomenon and the effects of operating or sponsoring such a community for a brand by using an online survey (N=501) of members of a branded online community relating to football. The results demonstrate the relevance of topic interest (i.e., identification and involvement with football) and the quality of the community as determinants of interest in and loyalty towards a branded community. The brand owner benefits from an increase in brand loyalty for those community members who are aware of the brand as the operator of the community, whereby awareness of this sponsorship does not decrease loyalty towards the community. Our research contributes to previous knowledge by proving that branded communities are both an effective means for companies to deploy sponsorship and branding strategies in social media and provide a promising opportunity for sport managers to generate value.
In light of the recent developments in marketing theory, namely service-dominant logic and value co-creation, the development of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty deserves reconsideration to ...broaden the mostly firm-centric earlier approaches. We propose a framework that includes the contributions of co-creating actors and identification with the firm as antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty. This framework can be adapted to a context by defining a context-specific set of actors and their unique reciprocal relationships. Two quantitative studies conducted in the professional German soccer leagues demonstrate that multiple actors (event organizer, teams, and fans) roughly show the same effect on customer satisfaction. Moreover, identification has both direct and indirect (i.e. via customer satisfaction and perceived social actors' contributions) influence on customer loyalty. The results imply firm activities have limited influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, managers must identify strategies to facilitate value co-creation among all relevant actors.
Research question: Sports economic theory and management models have frequently been criticised for not sufficiently explaining phenomena in sport management. This article addresses this gap by ...proposing a conceptual framework that can be used to understand sport management problems and derive appropriate strategies. Research methods: The framework proposed in this conceptual article has been developed through a critical review of existing literature on sport management and theoretical considerations based on the service-dominant logic. Results and findings: The sport value framework (SVF) provides 10 foundational premises on value co-creation in sport management and suggests three levels for its analysis. The main contribution is a new and better theoretical basis for explaining phenomena in sport management compared with traditional sport economic thinking. Moreover, the SVF provides guidance in structuring research in sport management. Implications: The framework encourages researchers and practitioners to rethink their strategies by applying a different logic that captures the complexity of sport management.
Understanding customer needs is key for fashion retailers to stay competitive and innovative. Surprisingly, however, extant literature mainly explores customer needs in terms of a garment and its ...attributes rather than viewing shopping as a problem-solving process to meet customer needs. Moreover, these studies fail to address how customers meet their needs in-store (ISFR) and online fashion retailing (OFR). To fill this research gap, we empirically investigate customers' personal and social needs and how they can be met through the jobs-to-be-done theory. Findings reveal that, beyond the purchase of a garment, customer needs can be fulfilled through different ways, such as smart technology or a person's high interaction with social others in ISFR and the online shop experience or a social linkage without social interaction in OFR. Additionally, our findings offer potential service innovations for fashion retailing managers.
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