The use of procedural fairness in electronic reverse auctions to enhance relationship quality

In this study, the use of procedural fairness by a buying organization in an electronic reverse auction (ERA) is examined. Drawing on the literature, a conceptual model is developed that relates procedural fairness to two key ERA outcomes: relationship quality and quality of the offering. The hypothesized relationships between procedural fairness and quality outcomes are empirically tested through a global field study with 179 procurement professionals in multinational companies, and explored through a supporting field study with 31 sales professionals from supplier firms. The results show that the use of procedural fairness by a buying organization is positively related to relationship quality and quality of the offering, without jeopardizing price savings. In addition, the positive association between procedural fairness and relationship quality is found to increase in the case of a repeat auction. This study contributes to the relationship marketing literature by examining how procedural fairness can mitigate relationship quality concerns in ERA use by buying organizations. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Virtual Meetings during the Pandemic: Boon or Bane for Gender Inequality

Prior research has revealed gender inequalities in (pre-pandemic) face-to-face meetings in terms of the inclusivity of meeting participant composition and the difficulty of participants to speak up during meetings. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of meetings have been held virtually. The virtual nature of meetings offers flexibility in terms of including participants and it neutralizes some physical cues related to power dynamics. However, gender inequalities have also been identified related to the lockdown and work-from-home measures. Therefore, we set out to explore how the sudden switch to virtual meetings impacted gender inequalities in workplace meetings, in terms of the number of meetings participated in and difficulty to speak up, while controlling for hierarchical rank. Based on survey responses of 542 academic researchers, our exploratory findings indicate that virtual meetings mirror organizational gender inequalities and that these inequalities have exacerbated since the pandemic

Digital Probes as Opening Possibilities of Generativity

The information systems research on generativity promises unprompted, innovative inputs from uncoordinated audiences, whose participation with heterogeneous technological resources generates diverse outputs and opens new possibilities. The question is how to perpetuate the openness on which the outputs of generativity rely. We advance, as a potential mechanism of generativity, the concept of digital probes, which leverage human and technological resources in hybrid digital and physical environments. The aesthetically rich probes challenge values, identities, and practices, cultivating emotional tensions that can reveal previously unexplored and unimagined possibilities, resulting in novel ideas, thoughts, and expressions. The new possibilities reveal what is hidden; reconfigure practices; cross-appropriate technological and social resources; and thereby further expand what can be experienced, viewed, and imagined. Further, the new possibilities draw new actors that again view things differently and seek different experiences, thus fueling emotional tensions that in turn open new possibilities, without settling them. We illustrate digital probes and their effects at Formula E. Formula E is a new motorsports venture that leveraged eSports, social media, crowdsourcing, and driverless cars in digital probes to reveal and examine previously unimagined possibilities of what the world of motorsport could be in the digital era. We end by exploring future research directions

Hybrid Sport Configurations: The Intertwining of the Physical and the Digital

The motivation for this research follows from our observation of the increasing influence of digitalization on sporting activities and the emergence of physical-digital hybrid sport. While traditional, physical sport gradually embraces digital elements and experiences to the game, born-digital eSport increasingly involves physical elements in its setting (e.g., offline tournaments). In this paper, we investigate various physical-digital hybrid configurations of existing and emerging sporting activities and their implications for the fusing of the digital and physical worlds. Based on an inductive approach and drawing from existing literature on physical-digital hybridity, we conceptualize four sport clusters (digitally supported sport, digitally augmented sport, digitally replicated sport, and digitally translated sport) along three dimensions: the sporting activities (especially in terms of the relationship between the digital and physical components), the sporting arena, and actors’ influence. Based on our conceptualization and observations, we discuss implications for both the information systems and sport management domains

Digital innovation in the Belgian insurance market

The insurance industry is changing, due to technology, market, and regulatory factors. Insurance products, processes, and business models are reshaped by rapid technological advances in big data, cloud computing, and Internet of Things. At the same time, consumers have become accustomed to the convenience, personalization, simplicity, and speed of interacting digitally via social media services and mobile applications offered by players such as Amazon, Airbnb, Facebook, Google and Uber. As a result, consumers increasingly expect insurance companies to offer digital services with compelling user interfaces and experiences. As to regulation, the financial services industry is preparing for the implementation of the General Data protection Regulation (GDPR; Effective in May 2018), which gives consumers the right to request their personal data to be made portable or completely and securily deleted. In response, leading insurance companies have started deploying an ecosystem perspective, partnering with firms in and out-side the insurance industry.Accen

Digitization in B2B Buying and Selling

Business-to-business transactions include several processes that can be digitized by buyers and suppliers. While prior studies have examined the performance impacts of using digital technologies, they have not investigated the alignment of such digitization between transacting parties. In this paper, we empirically examine the use of different market-based digital technologies by buyers and suppliers for these processes, and analyze the extent to which the digitization of different processes is aligned between transacting buyers and suppliers. Our field study is based on surveys of transacting agents in 174 buyer-supplier dyads about their use of digital technologies. The results indicate that there are misalignments for some processes in both the specific digital technologies buyers and suppliers use, and in the extent to which each of them uses digital technologies. By addressing these misalignments, buyers and suppliers could potentially realize greater benefits from digitized transaction processes