Competitive advantage as a legitimacy-creating process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how small firms in the tattooing industry actively shape institutional expectations of value for consumers in a changing industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon interviews with key actors in the firms under study to explore their experiences with consumers and other constituents in determining how competitive advantage is constructed in this environment. These data are complemented data with interviews with governmental representatives and material from secondary sources. Findings – The results reveal efforts of firms to construct and increase organizational legitimacy through the prominence of discourses of professionalism based on artistry and medicine/public health. These bases of competitive differentiation are not the clear result of exogenous pressure, rather they arise through the active efforts of the firm to construct value guidelines for consumers and other constituents. Practical implications – Strategic management in small firms is a complex and dynamic process that does not necessarily mirror that of large organizations. Constructing competitive advantage is an interacting process between key actors of small firms and various constituents. Originality/value – The paper extends the application of institutional theory in strategic management by illuminating the active role that firms play in creating industry norms, especially in industries where norms are not well established or no longer entrenched. Moreover, exploring an alternative site of study offers a means through which to see well-studied issues in new ways

The Perfect Fit? Relationships Between Recreationist-Environment Fit, Benefit Attainment, and Place Attachment

Management efficacy in parks and protected areas can be assessed and improved with knowledge about park visitors’ compatibility with the setting, their ability to attain desired visitation or recreational benefits, and the development of place-based connections. Additionally, the relationships between compatibility (i.e., recreationist-environment fit), the attainment of benefits, and place-based connections such as place attachment have been perennial interests to a suite of disciplines, including landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, environmental psychology, conservation social sciences, and human-dimensions of natural resource management. Therefore, this study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey research design to determine the degree that the attainment of specific benefits derived from protected area visitation mediates the relationship between recreationist-environment fit and place attachment. This study also explored the moderating effect of visitation frequency on the relationship between benefit attainment and place attachment. Data analysis was conducted in SPSS and R-lavaan software and included confirmatory factor, structural regression modeling, and a series of moderation and mediation models. The results reflect significant increases in place identity, place dependence, and place social bonding as recreationist-environment fit increases. However, the results did not display an indirect effect of mental and physical health benefit attainment on the relationship between recreationist-environment fit and place dependence nor did the results indicate a moderating effect of visitation frequency on the relationship between benefit attainment and place attachment

Supporting user interaction and social relationship formation in a collaborative online shopping context

The combination of online shopping and social media allow people with similar shopping interests and experiences to share, comment, and discuss about shopping from anywhere and at any time, which also leads to the emergence of online shopping communities. Today, more people turn to online platforms to share their opinions about products, solicit various opinions from their friends, family members, and other customers, and have fun through interactions with others with similar interests. This dissertation explores how collaborative online shopping presents itself as a context and platform for users\u27 interpersonal interactions and social relationship formation through a series of studies. First, a qualitative interview study shows that online shoppers believe that shopping-related interactions have a positive impact on their social bonds. However, there is uncertainty around the appropriateness of discussing shopping in online marketplaces, forums, and social networking sites between strangers and friends. These uncertainties act as strong deterrents that limit further interactions between users with shared shopping interests. Next, a mix of lab experiments and focus groups demonstrate how informational support and social support affect user participation and relationships, the impact of social structure on interpersonal relationship formation between community members, and the development of desire to be socially connected with others through real-time text conversations on shopping topics. Moreover, a combination of interviews, focus groups, and online survey identify four types of personas to help illustrate the complex nature of user participation and behaviors in online shopping communities: Opportunists, Contributors, Explorers, and Followers. Finally, an online experiment study with 50 participants implements problem-solving tasks to examine users’ relationship building in computer-mediated online shopping groups and the effects of interpersonal relationships on user behaviors in collaborative online shopping contexts. The results suggest that users may develop desire to be socially connected after working on implemented collaborative problem-solving tasks within the group, and the perceived social connectedness may encourage user engagement and contribution behaviors in online shopping groups and communities. The results also show that such help-giving, collaborative tasks lead to developing social capital and facilitating social support that have more significant impacts on user behaviors over the long term

The Contributing Factors towards Employees’ Loyalty

The commitment and loyalty occupy considerable of the similar theoretical concepts. However, loyalty spread out further than the basic philosophies of commitment in two ways, first, the personal choice paradigm adopts the literature of commitment and an employee considers rational analysis alternatives to commit or not to commit to an institution. On the other hand, loyalty brings together a normative component into the association as it is generally described as a responsibility. Researchers concern themselves with measuring the extent to which employees feels commitment toward their institutions. Loyalty, however, suggests mutuality, while commitment is generally conceptually situated inside the individual, loyalty exist in further at the connection of a relationship. Individuals must accept a fluid approach, in the workplace, to evaluating the demands of loyalty as background and associations alteration. It is difficult if not impossible, without addressing this fluidity, to predict attitudinal or behavioral outcomes of individuals’ perceptions that others have been disloyal or loyal. The loyalty has received considerable attention from philosophers; it is, of course, not simply a philosophical abstraction. It is also a cognition held by a person to characterize his or her relationship with another person. Keywords: Loyalty, Empowerment, Participation, Socialization, Employee

Optimal user esperience in social commerce: the role of emotions, flow and user-generated information

This doctoral dissertation aims to understand how to optimize online customer experience in the highly interactive environment of social commerce. In an attempt to go beyond online commercial transactions and to support a consumer-centered and social-oriented perspective, social commerce offers users the necessary tools (e.g., recommendations, referrals, ratings and forums) for fostering social interactions during the online purchasing process. User-generated content, the fruit of these social interactions, can affect and help users in their decision-making process. Hence, the main objective of this dissertation aims to understand online consumer behavior to optimize the customer experience in social commerce. This doctoral dissertation is organized into four studies.Study 1 aims to investigate the customer engagement behavior literature in depth, analyzing the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process in social commerce and the role of emotions within that process. This study proposes a model of the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of the engagement generation process. The model analyzes how interactivity, social presence and enjoyment affect sPassion and result in positive sWOM. The results confirm empirically that cognitive experience and emotional feelings derived from the process boost user participation. At the core of the process, sPassion positively affects the spread of sWOM. Study 2 has the objective of reaching a wider understanding of optimal user experience in social commerce and its mediating effect between emotions and behavior. Accordingly, the study is divided into two parts: first, to analyze the dimensionality, structure and measurement of the state of flow; and second, to test how websites can improve user experience to boost positive sWOM while avoiding negative sWOM. The empirical results confirm the three-dimensional nature of the concept and support its second-order reflective structure, thereby helping to establish the basis for measuring state of flow, its structure and factors; and it confirms that passionate users are likely to experience a state of flow and, as a consequence, to share positive sWOM. Study 3 investigates how user-generated versus company-generated information contributes to trust in the social commerce site, at the same time analyzing how user-generational cohorts behave (Generations X, Y and Z). Social commerce websites offer content created by the company itself and by its users, and this content is accessible without time and space constraints; therefore, everyone, regardless of age, can access social commerce information. The mission of social commerce is to boost tradeoffs while offering users the chance to share their own experiences and to obtain information from the experiences of others. Hence, trust transferred in this part of the purchasing decision process will be influenced by trust in the type of information available. Thus, Study 3 analyzes how user-generated and company-generated information contribute to trust in social commerce. The younger the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in user-generated information; the older the generation, the more trust in social commerce is transferred from trust in company-generated information. Study 3 confirms that users cannot be considered as a single group and must be segmented into generational cohorts.Study 4 investigates user experience across cultures, analyzing the effect of hedonic and utilitarian antecedents on optimal user experience and its consequences on user intention. Taking into account the salience of emotions within experiences of digital technologies, this study has a twofold purpose. First, it analyzes how emotions such as sPassion compared with flow state affected by usability, resulting in a positive impact on emotional and behavioral loyalty. Second, as the main focus of the study, cultural background is tested as a moderating effect.This dissertation allows us to draw a number of main conclusions regarding the study of online consumer experience in social commerce. First, on the basis of the importance of emotion in customer experience, this dissertation supports the primary role of emotions in shaping optimal user experience in social commerce. Second, once users are engaged and have reached an optimal experience (state of flow), this situation drives positive changes in their behavior, positively affecting their decision-making process. Third, it is necessary to take into account the fact that generational cohorts behave differently, since they trust information in different ways. Last, but not least, despite the fact that culture influences decision-making processes, the internationalization of markets and multiculturalism is making users more and more similar.<br /

Assessing Perceptions of the Integrative Justice Model Propositions: A Critical Step Toward Operationalizing a Macro Model

Propositions underlying the theoretical tenets of the Integrative Justice Model (IJM), a normative, ethical framework for engaging in impoverished markets, are investigated for reliability in application. Santos and Laczniak provide numerous decision principles to help the marketer to evaluate fairness in the marketplace exchange, yet which are most reflective of the core tenets and most useful in application? Managerial perceptions of the extent to which the propositions reflect the core tenets of the IJM are evaluated in this critical step toward operationalizing the model. Factor analysis is implemented with a relatively small sample, a challenge particularly common in research with the impoverished or marginalized, to evaluate the decision principles most reflective of the core tenets, from the perspective of the marketer/manager. Normality is not considered a critical assumption of factor analysis where groups of like variables are clustered into underlying constructs. This work articulates a critical step in macromarketing research methods, exemplifying an approach resilient to micro samples under macro frameworks

Online sport consumption : influence of consumers’ motivations and concerns on their actual behavior and future purchase intentions.

Mestrado em Gestão do DesportoO objetivo deste estudo foi examinar o papel das motivações e preocupações dos consumidores online, de produtos e serviços desportivos, nos seus comportamentos atuais e como isso afeta as intenções futuras de compra. Com base no modelo SMOS, cinco tipos de motivação (i.e., a conveniência, informação, diversão, socialização e económica) e quatro tipos de preocupações (i.e., segurança e privacidade, entrega, qualidade do produto e serviço ao cliente) foram examinados para entender a sua influência no comportamento de consumo atual e ainda, sobre as futuras intenções de compra. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um inquérito enviado por correio eletrónico com um retorno de novecentas e quarenta respostas (n = 940). Um modelo de equações estruturais em duas etapas foi realizado e os resultados mostraram que o fator de motivação mais forte para a compra de produtos ou serviços de desporto é "económico", enquanto o tipo de preocupação "qualidade do produto" foi considerado menos preponderante para o consumo online. Os resultados também indicaram que a importância da frequência de compra online se sobrepõe à importância do valor gasto.ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to examine the role of online sport consumer’s motivations and concerns on their actual behaviors and how it affects future purchase intentions. Based on the SMOS model, five types of motivation (i.e., convenience, information, diversion, socialization and economic) and four types of concerns (i.e., security and privacy, delivery, product quality, and customer service) were examined to understand their influence on actual behavior and on future behavioral intentions. Data were collected through an email survey with a return of nine hundred and forty responses (N = 940). A two-step structural equation model was conducted and the results showed that the strongest motivation for buying sport products or services is ‘economic’, while the concern ‘product quality’ was considered less preponderant for the online consumption. The results also indicated that the importance of purchase’s frequency supersedes the importance of the purchase’s amount spent

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM VILLAGES

The description of the role of social workers is considered important because the initiator of the formation of a village tourism program in Sukaratu Village is the social worker itself, so that if the role can be fully described it is not impossible the role of social workers. In the village of Sukaratu can be adopted by other communities in different regions that have the same commitment to community development. These findings indicate that the role of community social workers at the identification stage is more facilitative and educative. At the socialization stage, the role of social workers is more dominant in practicing the role of representation and education. Subsequent roles in the social worker planning stage play a more facilitative role and in the implementation stages of social workers practice more training (educational) skills. Then at the evaluation stage the social worker does not perform a representational role, but rather performs a facilitation role to facilitate the evaluation procedure and the various aspects that must be in the evaluation process. While the barriers experienced by social workers in implementing the community development process in Sukaratu Village is in increasing the number of people involved in the implementation of representational roles.The description of the role of social workers is considered important because the initiator of the formation of a village tourism program in Sukaratu Village is the social worker itself, so that if the role can be fully described it is not impossible the role of social workers. In the village of Sukaratu can be adopted by other communities in different regions that have the same commitment to community development. These findings indicate that the role of community social workers at the identification stage is more facilitative and educative. At the socialization stage, the role of social workers is more dominant in practicing the role of representation and education. Subsequent roles in the social worker planning stage play a more facilitative role and in the implementation stages of social workers practice more training (educational) skills. Then at the evaluation stage the social worker does not perform a representational role, but rather performs a facilitation role to facilitate the evaluation procedure and the various aspects that must be in the evaluation process. While the barriers experienced by social workers in implementing the community development process in Sukaratu Village is in increasing the number of people involved in the implementation of representational roles

Real Commerce in Virtual Worlds

This teaching case considers the challenges and opportunities faced by an entrepreneur in Second Life, one of the more popular virtual world environments. Second Life provides the economic and technological platform required for immersion, social interaction and the potential of private enterprise. Many entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the various business opportunities offered in Second Life and a number have earned significant real dollars through their in-world creations and services. Stuart O\u27Brian, the CEO and founder of VirtualCircle, was one of the early pioneers of virtual commerce. Over the last three years, his organization faced multiple business and technology challenges while negotiating the hypercompetitive and turbulent environment within Second Life. However, he now questions the sustainability of the ever-changing and agile business model that enabled the success of VirtualCircle. Stuart also faces questions regarding avenues of future growth and is grappling with issues concerning interoperability and the replication of his prior success in other virtual environments - and the real world