Servitization as business model contestation:A practice approach

In principle, organizations know how to do servitization, but in practice, many struggle to change their business models to include service offerings. To understand this struggle, this paper examines servitization in a large multinational manufacturer within the pulp and paper industry. Utilizing practice theory, the study explicates the servitization process as a contestation of a company's parallel business models — one existing and dominant; one emerging. As business models materialize in organizational practices, and therefore have the potential to frame and organize servitization efforts, the models give rise to contestations in the practices performed by actors in the organization and the ecosystem. The elements of such contestations provide a better understanding of the ways in which practices may be disrupted to support servitization. Contestations can thus be creative instead of problematic. As a result, this paper extends the conceptualization of servitization as a bottom-up, emergent and iterative process of business model contestation

Performing a myth to make a market : The construction of the ‘magical world’ of Santa

This work was supported by an Early Career Small Grant Awarded by the Research Committee, Lancaster University (SGS21/35).If you believe in Santa, do not read this paper. Through an in-depth, qualitative, empirical study, we follow the Santa myth to a remote northern location in Lapland, Finland where, for one month a year, multiple actors come together to create a tourist market offering: the chance to visit Santa in his ‘magical world’. We explore how the myth is transformed into reality through performative, organisational speech acts, whereby felicitous conditions for the performance of visits to Santa are embedded in a complex socio-material network. We develop the performative turn (Gond et al., 2016) in organisational studies by introducing a new category of speech act, ‘translocution’, a compendium of imagining, discussing, proposing, negotiating and contracting that transforms the myth into a model of an imaginary-real world. Through translocutionary acts, actors calculate, organise the socio-material networks of the market, and manage the considerable uncertainty inherent in its operation. Details of the myth become market facts, while commercial constructs fade into the imaginary. The result, when felicitous conditions are achieved, is a ‘Merry Christmas’ of magical, performative power.PostprintPeer reviewe

Treatment of Molluscum Contagiosum with 10% Potassium Hydroxide Solution

Background: To determine the efficacy and safety of topical 10% potassium hydroxide solution in the treatment of molluscum contagiosum (MC) .Methods: An open, prospective, non-randomized study of one year duration was conducted using 10% KOH solution to treat MC. Twenty eight patients completed the study. A total of seven appointments were planned; one baseline and six follow-up visits. 10% KOH was applied to molluscum lesions daily till the lesions resolved or till 3 months had elapsed.Results: Twenty eight patients, among which 22 were children, completed the study. The mean age of patients was 10.6 years. The total lesion count in the patients varied from 5 – 94, with the mean lesion count of 22.14 SD +_ 18.32. There was complete resolution of lesions in 20 (71.4%) of patients , 4 (14.3) had a near complete, 2 (7.1%) had partial and 2 (7.1%) patients had no improvement. 82% patients tolerated the treatment well with no side effects.Conclusion:10% KOH solution is an effective and well tolerated treatment for MC. It is less painful and cost-effective as compared to many well-established therapeutic modalities. It has the advantage of ease of application at home making it an acceptable and feasible option for the treatment of MC

Kitchen concerns at the boundary between markets and consumption:agencing practice change in times of scarcity (Husmodern, Sweden 1938–1958)

This paper investigates practice dynamics in kitchens situated at the boundary between markets and consumption. The kitchen is conceptualized as a market-consumption junction, a space where multiple concerned actors in markets and consumption come to shape, and get shaped by, the practices in the kitchen. Drawing upon archival research of the Swedish household magazine Husmodern (1938–1958), this study traces two matters of concern in and around the kitchen: the scarcity of resources in food markets and the lack of time to prepare food for consumption. Findings reveal how thrifty and convenient practices became enacted, and their transformative implications for consumption, demand, and market action. The mechanisms involved in disrupting and reconnecting the dynamic elements of practices (meaning, competence, and objects) are explained through the notions of concerning, agencing, and overflows, which recursively work to redraw the boundaries between markets and consumption to establish novel practice

Performing a myth to make a market:The construction of the ‘magical world’ of Santa

If you believe in Santa, do not read this paper. Through an in-depth, qualitative, empirical study, we follow the Santa myth to a remote northern location in Lapland, Finland where, for 1 month a year, multiple actors come together to create a tourist market offering: the chance to visit Santa in his ‘magical world’. We explore how the myth is transformed into reality through performative, organisational speech acts, whereby felicitous conditions for the performance of visits to Santa are embedded in a complex socio-material network. We develop the performative turn (Gond et al., 2016) in organisational studies by introducing a new category of speech act, ‘translocution’, a compendium of imagining, discussing, proposing, negotiating, and contracting that transforms the myth into a model of an imaginary-real world. Through translocutionary acts, actors calculate, organise the socio-material networks of the market, and manage the considerable uncertainty inherent in its operation. Details of the myth become market facts, while commercial constructs fade into the imaginary. The result, when felicitous conditions are achieved, is a ‘Merry Christmas’ of magical, performative power

An organized effort to shape a nascent eHealth market:actions and artefacts

The functioning of a market has gained increasing research attention recently within the marketing discipline. Accordingly, markets are considered as constructs that are produced as a result of behaviours of multitude of actors. In the present study, we examine markets as socio-technical constructs in which a multitude of actors perform activities within relationships. We look at the healthcare sector and more specifically, the growing eHealth market. The purpose of the study is to examine how an organized effort of market actors shapes a nascent market through actions and artefacts. The paper discusses these concepts and elaborates them through an illustrative single case study encompassing a nascent eHealth market at two levels; macro (zooming out) and micro (zooming in) levels mediated by an organized effort of a multidisciplinary research project ‘Digital Health Revolution’. The challenges of organising and coordinating collective actions at these market levels are then discussed suggesting further research avenues

Interactive nature of business models:narrative approach

Business models are still much perceived as structures that describe the elements of a company’s business at single points in time rather than narratives that communicate how the business works among multiple actors across time. The aim of the current study is to elaborate the interactive nature of business models as narratives in creating, developing and bringing about change in market relationships. Despite its contributions, the extant business model research still fails to provide a solid understanding of the interactive and networked nature of business models as boundary spanning devices that are circulated and shared among multiple actors. Business models can be considered as market devices in the form of narratives incorporating past, present and future to mobilize others in business initiatives and ventures and shaping their interaction. This study is conceptual, and employs literature on business models and narratives. The study provides a more in-depth understanding into the role of business models in interacting with market actors. Business models can be used to create and communicate compelling stories to engage others into relationships