Presenting the SCL model: adding value to business strategy through UCD principles

This paper presents the Sustainable Consumption Leveraging (SCL) Model and its toolkit, which was developed to help businesses examine their potential for enabling sustainable consumption whilst identifying areas of opportunity to improve their business model and value proposition. The paper begins by establishing the contribution of business towards sustainable consumption and sets out user-centred design (UCD) principles as a valuable approach to leverage sustainable consumption. The relationship between UCD principles and sustainable consumption in a business context was studied through qualitative research. The findings of in-depth interviews with experts, a focus group and a document analysis led to the construction of a theoretical framework, which was used to develop the SCL Model and its toolkit

Impact of the perceived importance of a hotels's corporate responsibility on tourists' complaints behaviour

This work is centred on the study of the Corporate Responsibility (CR) of hotel firms and its influence on tourists’ complaints behaviour. The methodology of the empirical study, carried out among 629 customers lodging in hotels in the city of Seville, is based on structural equations modelling (PLS). The results obtained show that there is a significant relation between the perceived importance of CR and the tendency to complain. The latter also significantly affects the number of complaints a person files. Likewise, a significant and negative effect of the tourists’ satisfaction on the complaints filed is noted. The main contributions stem from a better knowledge about the antecedents of complaints behav - iour. This comes from having incorporated the variable of the importance of CR, which has not been studied before. On the other hand, the work means to offer a contribution to the field of CR research as, despite the growing interest in the topic, the effects of this construct on customers still remain little known

Design and radical innovation: a strategic perspective based upon a comparative case study between emergent and traditional industries in Portugal

The survival challenge faced by the Portuguese companies nowadays has promoted Innovation as the main management strategy to be applied. This research reveals the importance and the role of Design as the basic and integrative tool for the success of this strategy, focused on Radical or Breakthrough Innovation. The main contribution of this paper is the proposal of a conceptual model developed from a comparative case study research, made among Portuguese companies from the emergent sectors connected to new technologies and Portuguese companies from the traditional sectors. That work allowed the definition of the Success Critical Factors to consider for the development of radical new products: integrating new technologies (Science Knowledge), market sensibility (Marketing Knowledge), forecasting new needs or user interfaces and disruptive creativity (Design Knowledge)

The role of values in collaborative consumption: insights from a product-service system for lending and borrowing in the UK

Collaborative consumption is an emerging socio-economic model based on sharing, renting, gifting, bartering, swapping, lending and borrowing. Made possible through community interaction and, increasingly, use of network technologies, these alternative and more sustainable ways of consuming have attracted growing attention for their potential to prevent new purchases, intensify the use of idle assets and promote reuse of possessions that are no longer wanted. Nonetheless, the uptake of Product- Service Systems (PSSs) that enable collaborative consumption is still very limited. This paper investigates how consumers' values can influence the acceptance, adoption and diffusion of collaborative consumption. It reviews two theoretical frameworks used to understand pro-environmental behaviour, social psychological models of behaviour and social practice theory. Coming from contrasting disciplinary perspectives, these approaches conceptualise values differently. The paper evaluates the possibility of resolving these differences through a mixed methods study. It examines values empirically through a case study of Ecomodo, a UK-based online marketplace where people can lend and borrow each other's objects, spaces and skills, and present the results of a quantitative study which identified and measured value priorities among Ecomodo users through Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire. It concludes with a discussion of the role of values in relation to the introduction and scaling up of PSSs that enable collaborative consumption

The assessment of usability of electronic shopping: A heuristic evaluation

Today there are thousands of electronic shops accessible via the Web. Some provide user-friendly features whilst others seem not to consider usability factors at all. Yet, it is critical that the electronic shopping interface is user-friendly so as to help users to obtain their desired results. This study applied heuristic evaluation to examine the usability of current electronic shopping. In particular, it focused on four UK-based supermarkets offering electronic services: including ASDA, Iceland, Sainsbury, and Tesco. The evaluation consists of two stages: a free-flow inspection and a task-based inspection. The results indicate that the most significant and common usability problems have been found to lie within the areas of ‘User Control and Freedom’ and ‘Help and Documentation’. The findings of this study are applied to develop a set of usability guidelines to support the future design of effective interfaces for electronic shopping

Mobile Value Added Services: A Business Growth Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs

Examines the potential for mobile value-added services adoption by women entrepreneurs in Egypt, Nigeria, and Indonesia in expanding their micro businesses; challenges, such as access to digital channels; and the need for services tailored to women

Co-creative pricing (CCP) : a conceptual development of consumers’ participation in pricing practicing in services

Keskustelu yhteisestä arvonluonnista on saavuttanut yhä laajempaa huomiota niin nykypäivän tieteellisteoreettisessa markkinointikirjallisuudessa kuin käytännössä. Suosiosta huolimatta keskustelusta on jäänyt miltei tyystin huomioimatta arvokäsitteen eräs varsin oleellinen ulottuvuus: hinta. Siitä syystä on ensiarvoisen tärkeää tutkia hinnan merkitys arvokäsitteen, yhdessä tuottamisen ja hinnan muodostamassa suhteiden kolmiossa, sillä vaihdannassa hinta on yksi arvonmuodostuksen tärkeimmistä osatekijöistä. Toissijaisia tutkimusmenetelmiä käyttäen, tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus on pyrkiä käsitteellistämään yhteinen hinnanluonti arvon lisääjänä. Niinikään tutkimus tarjoaa mallinnuksen niistä vallitsevista olosuhteista, jotka ovat arvon muodostuksessa välttämättömiä. Esitetty malli perustaa juurensa palvelumarkkinoinnin Service-Dominant Logic -ajattelusta, muodostaen fuusion yhdessä ARA-mallin ja markkinointikeskustelussa vallalla olevan elämysmarkkinointiajattelun kanssa. Tutkimus edistää yhteisen arvonluonnin tieteellistä keskustelua syventämällä jo olemassa olevaa tietoa arvon muodostuksesta. Lisäksi, tutkimus edistää käytännön tietämystä esittämällä eksploratiivisen avauksen hinnoittelun dynaamisesta yhteisajattelusta haastamalla markkinoijia ajattelemaan myös hinnoittelua uudesta innovatiivisesta yhteiseen arvonluontiin perustuvasta näkökulmasta. Nykyajan asiakkaat ovat yhä halukkaampia, pystyvämpiä sekä resursseiltaan rikkaampia osallistumaan hinnoittelupäätöksiin kuin aikaisemmin. Yhdessä tuotettu arvo hinnoittelun kautta tarjoaa vaihtoehtoisen ajattelutavan pitkään vallinneelle yritysten sisäänpäin suuntautuneelle hinnoitteluajattelulle ja esittää, että kääntämällä katse asiakkaan suuntaan, saavutetaan todellinen arvo, sellaisena kuin asiakas sen määrittelee. Tutkimuksessa esiin tuotu ajattelutapa tarjoaa uusia mahdollisuuksia vaihtoehtoisille hinnoittelumenetelmille sekä palveluinnovaatioille.Co-creation debate has increasingly become a key topic in the contemporary services marketing theory and practice. Domains of co-creation and value have thus far attracted plenty of academic interest, however, there is an evident deficiency of one essential dimension of value: price. In the triangular relation of co-creation, value and price, it is of high importance to research the role of price, as it is one of the prime components contributing to the formation of value in an exchange. Using secondary research methods, this research works towards a conceptualization of CCP and offers a model of the conditions that need to be in place for value through CCP to occur. The model builds its foundations on Service-Dominant Logic debate. Combined together with the ARA model, and the prevalent thinking of experiential marketing, the work contributes to the academic co-creation literature by adding to the knowledge of value creation. Further, it presents an explorative opening of dynamic pricing thinking for practitioners by challenging the marketers to think their pricing from an innovative co-creation based view. Co-created pricing offers an alternative logic to inwardly focused value creation of the firm and suggests that by turning the focus on the customer, the true value, as perceived by the customer, is captured. Today’s customers are increasingly willing, capable and rich in their resources to participate in pricing decisions, thereby offering an opportunity for alternative pricing methods and service innovations

Does B2C online logistics service quality impact urban logistics?

This paper reports on an in-progress research study regarding the impact of business to consumer (B2C) online logistics service quality (OLSQ) for shopper satisfaction and loyalty on urban logistics across the UK, France and Germany to also investigate country-specific differences of consumer online shopping behaviour and channel strategies. A two-stage approach is adopted consisting of firstly of qualitative research conducted with managers at the producer/retailer interface and secondly a quantitative survey stage targeting consumers as online shoppers to determine how their expectations of OLSQ and associated activities influence their satisfaction and ongoing loyalty. This study should contribute theoretically by considering a B2C setting for OLSQ, which is the final aspect of point-of-origin to point-of-consumption, as most general literature on these topics has been dominated by business to business (B2B) logistical designs, and also identify any discrepancies between consumer expectations or behaviour as it may affect urban logistics solutions. Further, this study should contribute practically by providing managers with an understanding of the components of OLSQ considered critical by consumers