KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER, ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY, AND INTERFIRM RELATIONSHIPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NEW PRODUCTS AND INNOVATION

This dissertation investigated the topics of innovation and interfirm relationship. The first essay discusses the relationship between supplier and customer involvement on a firm's innovation outcomes at various new product development stages. We found that supplier and customer involvement have different impacts at various new product development stages. Further, the environment uncertainties have moderating effects on the relationships.The second essay explores the relationship between universities' involvement on a firm's innovation outcomes. We used two different data sets to examine experimental tests. We found that universities' involvement positively affects a firm's innovation performance. Additionally, this relationship is moderated by a firm's absorptive capacity.Finally, the third essay investigates the hidden aspects of network effects. We develop six different types of network configurations to examine the effects of six configurations on a firm's breakthrough innovation. We found that six configurations have different impact on a firm's breakthrough innovation. Further, a firm's absorptive capacity has positive moderating effect on the relationships. Overall, the three essays in this dissertation 1) provide a more refined view of the relationship between external involvement/networks and a firm's innovation outcomes, 2) explain internal and external contingency effects to influence the relationships, and 3) discuss the strategic behavior to set up marketing strategy for the firm

Innovative digital marketing management in B2B markets

This special issue of Industrial Marketing Management aims to develop useful knowledge and generate new insights into and applications of digital marketing in B2B markets. This special edition features 11 articles that cover topics related to digital marketing in a B2B context. This introductory paper briefly summarizes the themes of the special issue, introduces each of the eleven articles on innovative digital marketing management in B2B, and provides a rationale for the inclusion of each article

Fashion ceWebrity involvement in new product development: Scale development and an empirical study

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. Driven by the hype around fashion cewebrities and their involvement in new product development, this study explores how customer purchase intention toward new fashion products may be heightened by involving fashion “cewebrities” in the new product development process. Based on survey data collected from China, this study accordingly develops and validates a scale to measure the key attributes of fashion cewebrities. The results show that fashion cewebrities possess five key attributes: attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, interactivity, and intimacy. These attributes are found to exert varying impacts on product design, production, and commercialization, thereby influencing purchase intention differently

The importance of an innovative product design on customer behavior: Development and validation of a scale

The importance of innovative product design (IPD) has increased in recent years because customers\u27 decision-making factors have changed from product price to product design. However, a definition and measurement of IPD have not been developed adequately. Building on the customer perspective, this study defines IPD and develops its standard measurement with three product design attributes: aesthetics, features, and ergonomics. Results of the empirical test indicate strong evidence for the reliability and validity of the measurement. Overall, this study shows that our measurement captures unique customer perceptions on product innovativeness from the product design. Additionally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed

The effect of network tie position on a firm’s innovation performance

This paper investigates the unexplored aspects of network effects considering the position of strong and weak ties, in particular, whether these are adjacent or non-adjacent to a focal firm in a triad network. To examine the effects of a network on a firm’s breakthrough innovation, we develop six configurations of strong and weak ties to explore a theoretical framework how such a network may affect a firm’s breakthrough innovation in terms of knowledge redundancy and relational risks. Further, we found that a firm’s absorptive capacity may significantly moderate such a relationship. Among the implications for network theory is whether a firm’s breakthrough innovation depends on the position and characteristics of networks in a triad relationship

Collaboration with higher education institutions for successful firm innovation

Firms need to open up their boundaries to attain valuable knowledge from external partners because external partners can support their innovation activities by providing knowledge and resources. In this context, higher education institutions (HEIs) are an important source of innovation. Yet, despite the importance of universities, this topic has received scant academic attention. Thus, this research examines the effect of specific activities supported by universities on the innovation outcomes of firms. The study also investigates the moderating role of a firm\u27s absorptive capacity in the relationship between universities\u27 involvement and firm innovation outcomes. The findings show that specific types of HEI activities positively affect a firm\u27s innovation performance, while absorptive capacity has differential effects on the relationships between HEI activities and firm innovation outcomes

The influence of parasocial relationship in fashion web on customer equity

With the global rise of the internet economy, firms are increasingly involved in marketing processes with social networking sites (SNSs) as the carrier. In this context, it is important for firms to use parasocial relationships as a promotional tool. This research examines the role that parasocial relationships can play as a strategic tool. It seeks to reveal which attributes possessed by fashion web celebrity endorsers impact parasocial relationship. The work also explores how customer equity is affected by parasocial relationship. The study also investigates the moderating role of brand love in the relationship between fashion web celebrity endorser attributes and parasocial relationship. The findings show that fashion web celebrity endorser attributes of popularity, fashionable and affinity positively affect parasocial relationship. Also, a positive association is found between parasocial relationships and customer equity. The relationships between fashion web celebrity endorser attributes and parasocial relationship are affected differently by brand love

The influence of flow experience in the augmented reality context on psychological ownership

Augmented Reality (AR) technology shows great potential for marketers and simultaneously puts forward a challenge for established marketing practice. This paper explores the driving factors of flow experience in the AR shopping environment, and how this relationship affects consumers’ psychological ownership. The research also examines the moderating role of brand attachment in the relationship between flow experience and its antecedents. A Likert-type survey was used to explore 527 customers’ experiences of using a virtual try-on AR application in Zara’s physical stores in Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Changsha, and Guangzhou. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the hypothesized relationships among all variables. The results illustrate that perceived informativeness, perceived aesthetics, perceived novelty, and parasocial relationship positively affect consumers’ flow experience, which in turn positively influences psychological ownership. Flow experience partially mediates the relationships between consumer perceptions and psychological ownership. Brand attachment acts as a moderator on the relationships between consumer perceptions and flow experience. Moreover, brand attachment is proposed to interact with customer perceptions and psychological ownership through the mediation of flow experience

Study on the influencing of B2B parasocial relationship on repeat purchase intention in the online purchasing environment: An empirical study of B2B E-commerce platform

With the meteoric progress of digital technology and the advent of network economy, there has been increasing interest in the business model of purchasing with B2B network among B2B e-commerce platforms and customer firms. Based on the perspective of parasocial relationship and dual-process theory, this study constructs a model of cognitive and emotional influences on customer firms\u27 behavior, and analyzes the influence of features of entrepreneur endorser and online purchasing platform on B2B parasocial relationship, and how this relationship can affect repeat purchase intention. Furthermore, this paper examines the moderating effect of trust in the relationship between B2B parasocial relationship and repeat purchase intention. Findings indicate that perceived interactivity and trustworthiness of entrepreneur endorser and the service and product quality of online purchasing platform have a positive impact on B2B parasocial relationship. B2B parasocial relationship has a significant and positive impact on repeat purchase intention, while trust moderates the relationship between B2B parasocial relationship and repeat purchase intention