Bijoylaxmi Sarmah

Examining branding co-creation in brand communities on social media: Applying the paradigm of Stimulus-Organism-Response

Abstract This paper examines the antecedents of branding co-creation that include social networking sites’(SNSs) participation motivations,customer participation, brand trust and brand loyalty in social media brand communities by applying the “Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm”. The survey method was used to gather data from 407 social media users. Data were analysed using structural equation modeling techniques. The findings reveal that SNSs’ participation motivations positively influence customer participation, which in turn significantly affects brand trust and brand loyalty. Consequently, both brand trust and brand loyalty positively influence branding co-creation in brand communities on social media. Furthermore, brand trust contributes as a mediator between customer participation and brand loyalty on social media brand communities. Although studies on relationships examined through the lens of the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm are popular, to the authors’ surprise there is scant literature examining the relationships between SNSs’ participation motivations, customer participation in social media brand communities, brand trust, brand loyalty and branding co-creation.

Co-creation in hotel service innovation using smart phone apps: an empirical study

Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend and revise the basic technology-based service (TBS) adoption model in luxury hotels in India using smart phone apps, and to analyse the impact of the guests’ innovativeness, willingness to co-create, need for interaction and involvement on their adoption intention towards co-creatively developed new services. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through online and field surveys from luxury hotel guests, resulting into 229 valid responses. A data analysis was done by applying the confirmatory factor analysis along with structure equation modelling. Findings The findings of this study indicate that both guests’ innovativeness and need for interaction with service staff significantly affect their involvement. A guest’s willingness to co-create acts as a partial mediator between his/her innovativeness and intention to adopt co-creatively developed new services. Research limitations/implications Use of smart phone apps by hotel guests to co-create new services and their intentions to adopt such services have been examined in the context of luxury hotels in India only and thereby limits generalization of results to other industry and country contexts. Practical implications The findings of this study would look to guide policy planners and hotel managers for implementing technology application in the co-creative hotel service innovation. Originality/value The need for interaction and customer involvement have been added as two supportive variables to the basic TBS model to analyse the adoption intention of luxury hotel guests. This is a new addition to existing literature, as majority of empirical studies in this field are from industries other than hospitality and with differing contexts.

Construction and validation of the customer social participation in brand communities scale

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to construct and validate customer social participation (CSP) scale in the context of brand communities on social media. Design/methodology/approach In this study, various tests for reliability and validity have been performed to confirm scale structure. Data were collected using survey method from the student and non-student sample. Findings The results confirm a multi-dimensional scale with nine items for measuring customer participation in social media brand communities. Research limitations/implications The results of this study present several implications for online brand communities managers and are likely to support future research in the context of social media brand communities. Originality/value This paper is the first to develop a multi-dimensional scale of customer participation in social media brand communities. This is a new addition to existing literature, as the majority of empirical studies in this field are from participation other than CSP, and contexts different from social media brand communities.

Customer co-creation and adoption intention towards newly developed services: an empirical study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework to empirically examine and explain the antecedent factors of consumers’ adoption intention toward co-creatively developed new travel services using smart phone apps. The antecedents include consumer innovativeness, trust, degree of co-creation that results in positive adoption intention. In this study, tourists’ degree of co-creation acts as a mediator between trust and adoption intention. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through online surveys from tourists that resulted into a total of 152 valid responses. An analysis of data was done by applying the confirmatory factor analysis along with structural equation modeling. Findings The findings of this study indicate that both consumer innovativeness and trust significantly affect adoption intention directly and indirectly via degree of co-creation among tourists and e-travel service providers. Degree of co-creation acts as a mediator between the above-mentioned relationships. Research limitations/implications Use of smart phone apps by tourists’ and e-travel companies to co-create new services and tourists’ adoption intention have been examined in context of co-created service innovation that limits the generalizability of the results to other industries. A few other limitations are also discussed. Practical implications The findings of this study guides the policy planners and e-travel company managers toward application of mobile technology in consumer co-creation in context of service innovation. Originality/value Tourists’ trust in the e-travel companies and their innovativeness were found to influence their degree of co-creation, which are instrumental in developing adoption intention toward co-creative new service innovation using smart phone apps in India. This is a significant addition to the existing literature, as studies on co-creation activities aiming to co-develop new services by tourists and e-travel companies in India are scant in number. In addition to this, the newly developed conceptual model also highlights the role of degree of co-creation as a mediator between two antecedents (trust and innovativeness) and outcome (tourists’ adoption intention), which are considered as new additions to the co-creative service innovation literature.

Transforming Jewellery Designing: Empowering Customers through Crowdsourcing in India

Dynamic business environment demands ‘value’ to be co-created with larger group of stakeholders and especially with customers as partners for development and growth. With this goal in mind, MNCs are engaging in value creation with the customers by largely seeking customer engagement in designing features of products and services that foster customer action and instil a sense of pride and confidence in them. The focus of this study is to investigate crowdsourcing as a tool for customer co-creation in ideation stages of new product development (NPD) through an engagement platform called ‘My Expression’. Case study methodology is applied, and secondary data are collected online mostly from firm website. Thus, this is an attempt to highlight present and future avenues of co-creation in Indian MNCs with distinct cultural and social aspects.

NEDFi: Transforming Lives through Shared Value Creation

This case is about a public limited company that transformed the lives of poor village artisans living in the remotest part of north-east India. While the public and private limited companies face constant criticism and increasing cynicism about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable livelihood creation initiatives; NEDFi, a public limited company and an arm of the Ministry of Development of the north-eastern region of India undertook an initiative to transform the lives of many underprivileged rural artisans, especially women through its CSR and sustainability initiatives. NEDFi’s water hyacinth craft project, undertaken initially as a CSR initiative was able to meet both the economic and social values of the firm and community, respectively. Thus, the CSR/sustainability initiatives of the company were potentially transformed into creation of ‘shared value’ at the later stages of the programme that achieved roaring success by uplifting the rural poor through economic empowerment and unleashing the potential of women artisans.

Customer co-creation in hotel service innovation: An interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC analysis approach

Purpose With increased competition in service sector due to dynamic nature of customers’ taste and preferences, service providers have realized the importance of co-creating with customers across various stages of new service development. Co-creating with customers require a focused attention on the psychological variables that influence customers to participate in developing a new service. However, availability of scant literature creates difficulty in comprehending co-creative hotel service innovation practices, especially in developing country like India. The purpose of this paper is to explore the inter-relationships among the customer participation in hotel service innovation variables with the help of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. Design/methodology/approach ISM approach is used to determine the direction of customer participation and categorization of psychological variables with their driving and dependence power. Identification of related variables was done through a review of literature initially and arrived at a common consensus through brainstorming sessions with academicians and hotel industry experts. Findings The results indicate that a few variables possess higher driving power that include: consumer innovativeness, customer participative behavior, customer socialization, willingness to co-create, role clarity, customer ability and their interlinking. Thus, the research contributes in the development of relationship among various identified variables of customer participation in service innovation (CPSI) using ISM. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that hoteliers should co-create with customers to develop new services by understanding their psychological variables that play a crucial role determining their active participation in new hotel service offerings. Practical implications This study suggests that hoteliers should co-create with customers to develop new services by understanding the enablers of customer participation in co-creative hotel service innovation. Hoteliers can have hierarchical map of their customers for co-creating at different stages of service innovation or can segregate the variables as per their driving and dependence power for enhanced applicability of the variables. Further, the observed inter-relationships among the CPSI variables can guide the managers in planning and implementing identified relationships for successful implementation of co-creative service innovation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge this study is the first to provide an integrated model using ISM and Matrix Impact Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification (MICMAC) analysis with a goal to identify and classify various key enablers of customer participation in co-creative hotel service innovation in India. The authors believe that this study will enhance the understanding of the psychological factors influencing customer-firm co-creative service innovation activities and help the academicians and industry practitioners to select right enablers for customer participation in co-creative hotel service innovation. Thus, this study will be the foundation for studying co-creative service innovation using the ISM and MICMAC approaches.

Antecedents of e-business adoption intention: an empirical study

Purpose Recent advances in information and communication technologies has driven emergence and expansion of the internet with decreased computing and communication costs and paved the way for exploring, creating and delivering value to the stakeholders through e-business adoption by the hotel service providers. Keeping this context in mind, this study aims to develop a conceptual model to investigate the antecedent factors of e-business adoption intention among the owners/managers of Indian micro, small and medium hotel enterprises and empirically validates it. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from micro, small and medium hotel owners/managers with the help online survey method that resulted into 116 usable questionnaires. Structural equation modeling technique was applied to examine the appropriateness of the hypotheses. Findings Findings reveal that attitude toward e-business, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control positively influences e-business adoption intention among the owners/managers of micro, small and medium hotel enterprises in India. Research limitations/implications The context of this study is micro, small and medium hotel enterprises in India only and thereby limits the generalizability of results to other industry and country context. Practical implications This study offers theoretical and managerial implications to be applied by academicians and micro, small and medium enterprise owners/managers for e-business adoption in Indian hotel industry. Originality value This study can be considered as an extension of the study of Crespo and del Bosque (2008) in which they applied the theory of planned behavior to understand the psychological factors that determine e-business adoption among the managers and, thereby, contribute the existing literature, as empirical studies on e-business adoption intention by micro, small and medium hotel enterprises are scantly available.

‘Mangaldeep’: Spreading Fragrance in India

This case highlights Indian Tobacco Corporation (ITC)’s journey from being a pure leaf tobacco selling company to a reputed conglomerate with popular brands in diversified areas. ITC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability activities taking a turning point with the company taking an immense interest in integrating societal problems in its company’s policies and strategies. These transformations can be seen in almost all the business divisions of ITC. Mangaldeep division, an incense stick division is not an exception to this change. However, the authors are trying to analyze the activities of ITC–Mangaldeep Business unit from different perspectives such as CSR, sustainability and shared value initiatives. Considering the resource constraint and the demand to meet the societal needs, it will be quite interesting to know how both these two challenges are met by a conglomerate like ITC simultaneously in the days to come. The case uses both primary and secondary sources of information to develop this teaching case.