Annukka Jyrämä

Knowledge sharing through virtual teams across borders and boundaries

This study focuses on a challenge faced by multinational corporations: how to enhance knowledge sharing across geographical and functional boundaries given the multifaceted nature of knowledge. The article demonstrates how a multinational company can create the means and spaces necessary to achieve effective knowledge sharing and learning by highlighting a viable information system that supports social networking. It also offers a virtual team structure that draws upon and strengthens employees’ social ties, which can boost organization-wide management of fine-grained knowledge. This combined approach mitigates the negative effects of physical and organizational distance on the availability of support and information. The present study contributes to organizational learning and knowledge-sharing discussions by shedding light on how virtual teams that function as knowledge activists can enhance internal knowledge sharing in globally dispersed organizations.

Marketing contemporary visual art

Purpose – The paper seeks to focus on the management of art galleries in the context of contemporary visual art markets, viewed from the institutional and industrial network approaches. The aim is to understand the shaping of management practices. The characteristics of the visual art market, the immaterial value of products and the key role of relationships and networks, make the contemporary visual art market an insightful context to study the management practices.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research method was chosen – altogether 80 interviews were conducted in European markets.Findings – The contemporary art market can be seen as a network structure consisting of actors who participate in creation and change of the practices. The management practices of galleries were created and changed by imitations and through isomorphic forces. It is proposed that major changes in management practices originate mainly from financial reasons, where the driving force is to survive economically. The s...

Rethinking value proposition tools for living labs

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual analysis on value proposition tools to be used in future empirical research and in building managerial insight. The conceptual analysis focusses on a living lab framework and recent theoretical developments around the concept of value that are reflected in the context of three managerial tools for creating value propositions.,Using abductive reasoning, the descriptions of the tools were analysed as cultural texts, as language-in-use in a social context.,In the context of the living labs approach, the Value Proposition Builder™ (VPB) seems to conflict with the ideas and premises of user-centric innovation processes. In the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC), the co-creation aspect is rather vague, as the enterprise and its offerings are presented as creators of value for the customer. Thus, this tool somewhat contradicts the living lab approach. The People Value Canvas (PVC) is aligned with the service-dominant logic and the premises of living labs. However, all three tools largely neglect a deeper acknowledgement of the role of the wider context, the service ecosystem, and the role of networked actors as resource integrators. Moreover, none of the tools explicitly point out the role of enterprises as intermediaries in constructing invitations for value co-creation.,The paper contributes to the SDL and living labs literature by conceptual analysis on different value proposition tools; the VPB™, the PVC, and the VPC which are relevant for academics as well as practitioners creating new understanding and insights on the connectedness of the living labs framework and SDL as well as their relationship to managerial tools. By identifying the absent elements of S-D logic from managerial value proposition tools, the paper contributes to current discussions by giving attention from scholars towards investigating managerial tools and by providing a new conceptual analysis for future empirical research. The critical analysis of the managerial tools contributes to managerial practice by emphasising the need to consciously evaluate the benefits and failures of tools for developing their organisations.

Arts Organizations and Branding: Creating a New Joint Brand for Three Arts Organizations

This article investigates brand architecture by analyzing stakeholder perceptions of brand images when a new joint brand is created for the existing brands of three arts organizations. The theoretical framework is based on previous literature on brand architecture and brand image. The empirical study is based on a quantitative, 418-respondent survey among stakeholders of these three arts organizations. The study makes two major theoretical contributions. First, the results show that the new joint brand can be endorsed by the existing sub-brands, contrary to brand-architecture literature. Second, even in the case of a new brand, stakeholders perceive the functional attributes as important.

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility and Contributions to Local Communities on Brand Identification, Corporate Reputation and Brand Loyalty

Identifying how corporate social responsibility (CSR) effects consumer behavior and marketing performance is a key issue in marketing-based CSR research (e.g. He et al., 2012; Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006; Marin et al., 2008). There are several studies showing that CSR activities lead to increased identification and loyalty with a company (Alcaniz et al., 2010; Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004; Curras-Perez et al., 2009; Rego et al., 2009). In recent literature, brand loyalty is strongly linked with CSR (e.g. Marin et al., 2008; Marin & Ruiz, 2006; Vallester et al., 2012), and CSR is perceived as a driver of brand value (Melo & Galan, 2011).