Digital transformation, the Holy Grail, and the disruption of business models: An interview with Michael Nilles

In this Executive Focus, Andreas Hinterhuber interviews Michael Nillesdchief digital information officer of Henkel AG & Co.dand discusses the game-changing opportunities that digital transformation presents to companies that embed a digital core into their business models. Nilles sees digital transformation as the Holy Grail: a force that is not easy to find, not easy to capture, and has the potential to dramatically improve the customer experience

What every manager should know about pricing

Pricin

Pricing as a driver of profitable growth: An agenda for CEOs and senior executives

Most CEOs take a narrow, tactical view of pricing and delegate pricing to lower levels of the organization. This myopic approach is costly, as it prevents companies from realizing their potential. In the hands of the best-run companies, pricing is not a battlefield tactic to win a particular competitive skirmish but a transformative long-term strategy for sustained competitive advantage. We present an agenda of six specific action items that defines how to unlock the power of pricing. CEOs and senior executives, our research suggests, should not set prices, but instead, they should create the context, the capabilities, the behaviors, the infrastructure, and the aspirations that enable their organization to excel in pricing

From Viewers to Buyers: Drivers of Customer Engagement in E-Commerce Livestreaming

This study investigates the drivers of customer engagement in e-commerce livestreaming, examining the roles of livestreamer attributes and of community support. With data from 532 Chinese livestreaming customers, we examine the effects of livestreamer credibility and attractiveness, together with informational and emotional support from the community, on customer engagement. Findings reveal that livestreamer credibility is the only positive driver of customer engagement. Emotional support from the community reduces engagement. Livestreamer attractiveness and credibility enhance emotional and informational support within the community, respectively, but neither type of support positively influences customer engagement. These results challenge assumptions about the uniformly beneficial nature of community interactions and underscore the pivotal role of livestreamer credibility in driving engagement. The study contributes to theoretical frameworks on customer engagement and on source credibility models offering actionable insights for e-commerce livestreaming platforms

Continuous learning at work: the power of gamification

PurposeThis literature review explores the potential of gamification in workplace learning beyond formal training. The study also highlights research gaps and opportunities for scholars to develop new theories and methodologies to enhance the understanding and application of gamification in workplace learning. It provides guidance for managers to use gamification to enhance learning and engagement. Ultimately, this review presents gamification as a promising field of study to increase individual and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review of 6625 papers in the timeframe 1990-2020, with an update to include papers published in 2023.FindingsThis article examines the impact of gamification beyond formal learning and its potential to enhance employee productivity and well-being in the workplace. While there has been extensive research on gamification in formal learning contexts, little is known about its impact on informal learning. The study argues that the context of gamification is crucial to extending its effects and discusses the role, antecedents and consequences of game design elements in the workplace. The article also explores how the learning context relates to employee learning during work. Further research is necessary to investigate the impact of individual characteristics on work experience and performance.Research limitations/implicationsIntended contribution of the present study is the development of a theoretical framework exploring the benefits of gamification in a work context.Practical implicationsFor practicing managers, this paper shows how to use gamification to increase workplace learning and employee engagement, not just in the context of formal learning-as some companies already do today-but also systematically, in the context of informal learning.Originality/valueThis study explores the impact of gamification on informal workplace learning and emphasizes the significance of the context of gamification in extending its effects to improve individual and organizational performance

Antecedents and Consequences of Procurement Managers’ Willingness to Pay for Sustainability: A Multi-Level Perspective

WTP sustainability, B2

Personality traits and willingness to pay for sustainability in supply chains

Supply chain and procurement professionals may play a crucial role in implementing sustainability across the supply chain. However, the role or influence of these professionals, specifically from psychological and behavioural perspectives, is not yet well-explored. We assess how the personality traits of procurement professionals influence willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainability. By using a dataset already employed for a related study, we test hypotheses drawn from the Five-Factor Model with a sample of 465 procurement professionals based in European countries through partial least squares structural equation modelling. We find that agreeableness and openness are significantly associated with WTP, which underscores the influence of these traits in actualizing sustainable procurement. To bolster sustainability in supply chains, companies should actively attract and cultivate individuals who exhibit high levels of agreeableness and openness, with an emphasis on fostering a sense of community and innovation, respectively. For managers, we advance our understanding of how individual-managerial factors contribute to fostering sustainability within companies. For theory, we contribute to the literature on micro-foundations and document that WTP is the result of both cognitive and behavioural-affective components of personality

The role of willingness to pay for sustainable procurement in improving organizational performance

Research Question – Sustainable procurement is important to realize sustainable industrial development. However, most companies have not yet adopted sustainable procurement due to various reasons. Scholars argue that companies would be more enthusiastic to adopt sustainable practices if their customers would be willing to pay a premium price for sustainable products or services. A plethora of studies have examined the willingness to pay for sustainable products in the business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts, but more research is needed on this topic in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. We thus explored what individual and organizational factors shape willingness to pay and whether sustainable procurement adoption is worthwhile for companies. Method And Data – We developed a multi-level framework to examine the willingness to pay for sustainable procurement. We tested this framework with 372 procurement managers using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Summary of Findings – We found that the individual values of procurement managers and perceived institutional pressures shape their willingness to pay for sustainability. Furthermore, the confluence of this willingness to pay, past pay behavior, and institutional pressures lead to sustainable procurement adoption which consequently improves the operational performance of their companies. Statement of Key Contributions – The role of procurement managers is crucial for ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chain. Whether or not they are willing to pay for sustainable products or services is an important question. We, therefore, examined the antecedents and consequences of their willingness to pay. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first large-scale empirical study that has examined willingness to pay for sustainable procurement in a business-to-business (B2B) context. Globally, most companies remain reluctant to invest in sustainability, but our findings specifically on the improvement of performance may motivate them to consider investing and adopting sustainable procurement

What drives sustainable procurement? Insights from the theory of planned behavior

A fundamental research question is what leads some organizations, but not others, to be sustainable in their procurement operations. Extant theoretical frameworks, while valuable, do not fully reflect the nuances of decision-making in procurement operations. We aim to illuminate the role of individual attitudes, capabilities, and behavioral intentions in actualizing sustainable procurement. We find that sustainable purchasing behavior is predominantly shaped by behavioral intention, that is, willingness to pay for sustainability. This behavioral intention is significantly influenced by individual attitudes and capabilities in addition to awareness of consequences and perceived corporate social responsibility engagement but, interestingly, not by individual subjective norms