Capturing the Benefits of Digitalization and Service Innovation: A Business Network Perspective

A core challenge for broad adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to ensure that its benefits are captured by a wide range of stakeholders. Taking a business network perspective, this study: i) examines the benefit potential of widespread IoT-based digitalization and service innovation; ii) identifies key barriers to capturing these benefits; iii) develops recommendations to overcome these barriers. A three-stage qualitative methodology (based on interviews, a focus group and Delphi-based inquiry) examines the case of an emergent IoT-based digital business network in the UK road transport industry. The research reveals the critical importance of managers involved in digitalization initiatives balancing their interests with those of the wider business network, if the potential benefits are to be captured. It provides fresh insights into: i) IoT-based digitalization as a business network phenomenon; ii) the interplay between digitalization and innovation in the sphere of service business models; iii) digitalization’s disruptive impact on ‘traditional’ industries and the implications for future management research

Disruptive New Firms in the Sharing Economy: A Process View of Corporate Reputations

This thesis addresses the formation of corporate reputations for digital platform-based disruptive new firms (DNFs) in the sharing economy. I provide one of the first empirical studies to examine the process by which reputations unfold over time, taken from a socially constructed view. I offer a nuanced understanding into the formation of both market and character reputations. I conduct a longitudinal qualitative analysis of a typical case of DNFs in the sharing economy, Uber Technologies Inc. The findings highlight that DNFs develop rapid market reputations and may sustain it in light of misconduct and wrongdoing. The impact of enduring misconduct, places a negative pressure on DNFs’ character reputations, however limited. I evaluate stakeholder sensemaking in two marketplaces: the marketplace of goods and services and the marketplace of ideas (Mahon & Wartick, 2003). In the former, DNFs are subject to rapid market responses by primary stakeholders, investors, who by rewarding firms on meeting economic imperatives, incite the adoption of precarious practices. In the marketplace of ideas, misconduct and wrongdoing evoke more significant tensions between economic and social values. The nature of DNFs wrongdoing often resides in a grey zone, which drives contested understandings in the marketplace of ideas. Enduring and positive market signals of DNFs’ market reputations also interfere with stakeholder sensemaking. As a result, character reputations take time to form and place limited pressure on market reputations. I also highlight that the embeddedness of a CEO-founder and the firm is a critical mechanism by which DNFs may ward off damage to character reputations

Putting the Communication Value Circle to the test: A multistage exploratory study of the framework’s practical applicability

This study explores the practical applicability of the Communication Value Circle (Zerfass & Viertmann, 2017), a recent theoretical framework that describes value creation through communication in 12 dimensions drawn from four generic corporate goals. The research objective is to evaluate whether key claims from the CVC hold up in practice. Hence, a multistage research design comprising two rounds of interviews and restructuring work by the researcher enabled to assert the meanings that three chief communication officers (CCO) ascribe to the framework. The outcome of this process confirms the CVC’s general applicability and highlights some of its most relevant functions. Moreover, the study shows that organisational factors can make the framework difficult to implement or unsuitable. In addition, the findings add an important dimension to the field of communication management: it is suggested that the degree to which practitioners are appealed by theoretical frameworks such as the CVC varies, mostly as a result of distinct types of reasoning. While CCOs who think in systems are likely attracted by the CVC, it may prove less helpful to those prioritising a judgment of communication based on human empathy. Consequently, the study pleads for a greater emphasis on types of managers. Furthermore, in its deliberate choice to evaluate an existing contribution, rather than to propose a novel one, the study hopes to pave the way towards similar efforts which will create a more consistent understanding of communication value

Stakeholder-driven design and appraisal in hydroelectric projects: a participatory gaming approach

Hydropower is an important source of renewable energy, but large hydropower multipurpose river basin projects can displace communities and have serious adverse effects on the local environment and livelihoods. The Sardar Sarovar Dam in India and other similar projects have provoked local and international protest culminating in the temporary withdrawal of the World Bank from large hydropower project finance. It would appear to be a better option for powerful stakeholders to engage seriously with weaker ones. As well as ethical concerns, economic theory would suggest that there is a flawed basis for costbenefit analysis which omits input from local stakeholders, particularly that of indigenous peoples who also have a role to play in project design. It is argued that the Kaldor-Hicks criterion should be abandoned and that decisions should be made based on a multi-criteria analysis of which cost-benefit analysis is but one component. It is suggested that full stakeholder engagement could best be conducted through participatory role-playing games which are being increasingly found in use as a means of exploring and resolving stakeholder conflicts. Such use is still relatively recent and safeguards such as a neutral moderator, advocates and ethical gaming rules are required to protect weaker and non-expert stakeholders

Strategic corporate responsibility orientation for sustainable global health governance: pharmaceutical value co-protection in transitioning economies

siirretty Doriast

Social media in marketing research : Theoretical bases, methodological aspects, and thematic focus

The widespread use of social media as a marketing tool during the last decade has been responsible for attracting a significant volume of academic research, which, however, can be described as highly fragmented to yield clear directions and insights. We systematically synthesize and critically evaluate extant knowledge of social media marketing extracted from 418 articles published during the period 2009–2021. In doing so, we use an organizing framework focusing on five key areas of social media marketing research, namely, social media as a promotion and selling outlet, social media as a communication and branding channel, social media as a monitoring and intelligence source, social media as a customer relationship management and value cocreation platform, and social media as a general marketing and strategic tool. Within each of these areas, we provide important theoretical, methodological, and thematic insights, as well as future research directions. We also offer useful managerial implications derived from the articles reviewed.© 2022 The Authors. Psychology & Marketing published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Establishing cyber situational awareness in industrial control systems

The cyber threat to industrial control systems is an acknowledged security issue, but a qualified dataset to quantify the risk remains largely unavailable. Senior executives of facilities that operate these systems face competing requirements for investment budgets, but without an understanding of the nature of the threat cyber security may not be a high priority. Operational managers and cyber incident responders at these facilities face a similarly complex situation. They must plan for the defence of critical systems, often unfamiliar to IT security professionals, from potentially capable, adaptable and covert antagonists who will actively attempt to evade detection. The scope of the challenge requires a coherent, enterprise-level awareness of the threat, such that organisations can assess their operational priorities, plan their defensive posture, and rehearse their responses prior to such an attack. This thesis proposes a novel combination of concepts found in risk assessment, intrusion detection, education, exercising, safety and process models, fused with experiential learning through serious games. It progressively builds a common set of shared mental models across an ICS operation to frame the nature of the adversary and establish enterprise situational awareness that permeates through all levels of teams involved in addressing the threat. This is underpinned by a set of coping strategies that identifies probable targets for advanced threat actors, proactively determining antagonistic courses of actions to derive an appropriate response strategy

Managing the Influence of Stakeholders on the Scope of Major Construction Projects to Prevent Scope Creep in the BIM Era

The present PhD thesis is centred on investigating the challenge of scope creep within construction projects, denoting the phenomenon of an uncontrolled enlargement of project scope without essential adaptations. Stakeholders are identified as a major source of uncertainty and requests for changes in scope, which can result in risky events. Therefore, an overarching framework is needed to effectively resolve the problem of scope creep caused by stakeholder influence. The adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is suggested as an effective methodology for the streamlined management of information in construction projects, thus enabling project managers to develop an appropriate solution for the identified problem. To develop this framework, a meta-analysis approach and case study strategy is employed to analyse and synthesise secondary data collected from the PMBOK GUIDE’S (PMI, 2017) project management processes, BIM-related standards, and six case study projects. The objective is to identify essential processes and activities, their sequence and interdependencies, problematic issues, and best practices. The outcome of the research is the creation of a Process Framework designed to address the problem of scope creep triggered by stakeholder influence. The elements and concepts of this framework are verified by undertaking semi-structured interviews with five practitioners from the construction and infrastructure industry. The Process Framework functions as a unifying mechanism that combines project management and BIM processes, thereby ensuring coordination and integration towards the overarching objective of managing stakeholder influence on project scope and mitigating scope creep. Additionally, this research contributes to the understanding of the relationship between BIM documents and project management processes. The study explores how BIM fits within project management processes and identifies the benefits of BIM for the resolution of issues in construction projects, including end product visualization, clash detection, and efficient information sharing. This study provides an extensive and meticulous analysis of scope creep within construction projects and presents a pragmatic framework for dealing with this issue