Per Skålén

Co-creation and co-destruction: A practice-theory based study of interactive value formation

Drawing on an empirical study of public transport, this paper studies interactive value formation at the provider—customer interface, from a practice—theory perspective. In contrast to the bulk of previous research, it argues that interactive value formation is not only associated with value co-creation but also with value co-destruction. In addition, the paper also identifies five interaction value practices — informing, greeting, delivering, charging, and helping — and theorizes how interactive value formation takes place as well as how value is intersubjectively assessed by actors at the provider—customer interface. Furthermore, the paper also distinguishes between four types of interactive value formation praxis corresponding with four subject positions which practitioners step into when engaging in interactive value formation.

Adoption of corporate social responsibility – incorporating a stakeholder perspective

Purpose – The aim of the present paper is to study what effect CSR has had on the practice of organizations. Design/methodology/approach – Since the effects of CSR on practice are an understudied topic the paper adopts a single case study design and studies Swedbank. Theoretically the paper approaches the problematic from the perspective of neo institutional theory and stakeholder theory. Findings – If CSR approaches colonize organisational practice, a fundamental shift from a shareholder strategy, to a social harmony strategy may be experienced, i.e. that the current focus on shareholder needs in contemporary organizations is balanced with the needs of other stakeholders. CSR adoption is surprisingly high at Swedbank and the paper thus argues that CSR might change the practice of organizations toward social harmony. Research limitations/implications – The case study design does not make possible empirical generalizations. Therefore, further research should focus on generalizing the findings. Further research might also conduct case studies by using the adoption framework in other empirical settings. Originality/value – The paper offers new insight on of the adoption of CSR in organizations and connects this issue to stakeholder theory. Additionally, framing the adoption of CSR from an institutional perspective is also novel.

New public management reform and the construction of organizational identities

An underlying and fundamental aim of the new public management (NPM) reform program is to transform the organizational identity of public organizations into a business‐like identity. In this paper the construction of organizational identity as an effect of NPM initiatives is analyzed from a sensemaking perspective. The study draws on data from a two‐and‐a‐half‐year study of the introduction of NPM at the public health care authority in the region of Varmland in Sweden. It is concluded that NPM creates heterogeneous, conflicting and fluid organizational identities rather than the uniform and stable business identity it is supposed to.

The effect of service guarantees on service recovery

Service guarantees have been attributed the benefit of improving the overall service of a service provider. However, little research has been carried out within the area. This article focuses on one aspect of the service guarantee, the effects that service guarantees may have on service recovery. Critical incident data were collected using the critical incident interview technique with customers of RadissonSAS, a worldwide hotel chain using a service guarantee. One contribution of this article is that the interviews convey that the implicit guarantee may serve as a risk reducer, which contradicts and adds to previous research. Previous research states that only the explicit guarantee has these benefits. In this case, the guarantee does not reduce risk in the purchase or consumption stage, but after the consumption when the service has failed, as the customer finds out about the guarantee in the recovery situation. Another contribution of this article is that service guarantees are found to influence the outcome of service recovery as they affect how employees behave to recover the customer.

Marketing Discourse : A Critical Perspective

Introduction 1. Previous Research and Analytical Framework 2. Method 3. The Chronology of Marketing Discourse 4. Early Marketing Thought (c. 1900-1960) 5. Marketing Management (c. 1950-1985) 6. Service Management 7. Discussion: Customer Orientation, Depth and Self-Regulation

Conflicts at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Profitability, Poverty Alleviation, and Neoliberal Governmentality

This article adopts the concept of neoliberal governmentality to critically analyze public policy failures in a bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) marketing initiative. This research shows that e-Choupal, an Indian BOP initiative, is hampered by a divide between poverty alleviation and profit seeking, which is inadequately reconciled by the neoliberal government policies that dominate contemporary India. The initiative sounds good, even noble, but becomes mired in divergent discourses and practices that ultimately fail to help the poor whom it targets. This research helps explicate the problems with BOP policy interventions that encourage profit seeking as a way to alleviate poverty.

E-GOVERNMENT AND SERVICE ORIENTATION: GAPS BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review selected literature on e-government service orientation and highlight differences between academic theory and empirical findings. To date, there has ...

Service Systems as a Foundation for Resource Integration and Value Co-creation

Purpose – The aim is to introduce a sociological perspective on resource integration and value co-creation into service research using a service systems approach. n nMethodology/approach – Conceptual and a case study of the service system a Telecom Equipment and Service Provider is embedded in is reported. n nFindings – The service practice of the service system is framed by social structures of signification, legitimation, and domination. However, the practice is also independent of the structures since it is embedded in and shapes the structural realm. n nResearch implications and limitations – Drawing on structuration and practice theory, the chapter offers a new framework describing how social and service structures and practices can inform and reveal mechanisms of service system dynamics. Based on the framework, three propositions are developed focusing on the mechanisms of resource integration and value co-creation. The implications need to be generalized in future research by studying other empirical contexts. n nPractical implications – The chapter provides some tentative guidelines on how organizations can design service systems that enable and support customers and other actors in their resource integration and value co-creation processes by paying attention to social structures and forces and not only resources as such. n nOriginality – The chapter explicates how social structures have implications for value co-creation and resource integration in service system. It makes systematic use of structuration and practice theory to understand the social dimensions of service systems. A distinction between intended and realized resource integration is made.

Service Marketing and Subjectivity : The shaping of customer-oriented employees

The present paper focuses on how and to what extent service marketing practices contribute toward customer-orienting employee subjectivity. It reports a case study of a service firm – the FI – which has been drawing on service marketing practices in order to manage the organisation. By analysing the case of the FI, based on Foucaults notions of disciplinary and pastoral power, the paper suggests that service marketing practices contribute toward making the subjectivity of front-line employees (FLEs) more proactive. More specifically, the paper suggests that the disciplinary power of service marketing practices generates knowledge of the FLEs – in the present case, that they are reactive but need to be proactive – and that the pastoral power of service marketing practices draw on that knowledge, making the subjectivity of the FLEs more proactive. The paper concludes that service marketing practices are translated when they encounter organisational practice. Based on this conclusion, the ideal that marketing research is able, and meant, to formulate general managerial practices, which organisations should strive to mirror, is found to be unachievable.

Collective–conflictual value co-creation: A strategic action field approach

Drawing on the theory of strategic action fields, this article explores a collective–conflictual perspective on value co-creation. Following recent developments and calls for research with a holistic outlook, we review streams of research that discuss both collective and discordant elements in social relations and subsequently relate this to value co-creation. We outline a conceptual framework for value co-creation, focusing on collective action that includes various actors, interactions, practices, and outcomes. This article pioneers the underdeveloped collective–conflictual perspective on value co-creation. Our framework enables empirical research in value co-creation that accounts for multiple actors nested in fields of collective action.