Sustainability project partnerships in times of crisis: conceptual framework and implications for stakeholder integration

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Grunwald ◽  
Jürgen Schwill ◽  
Anne-Marie Sassenberg
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Early Integration ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Stakeholder Integration ◽  
Design Options

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the requirements for stakeholder integration in sustainability project partnerships in times of sustainability crisis. Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic as a sustainability crisis that has sensitized consumers and other stakeholders to corporate responsibility for social and sustainability issues, a conceptual framework for stakeholder integration is developed from which implications for designing the potential, process and result quality are derived.Design/methodology/approachIn this conceptual paper, design options for stakeholder integration are derived from open innovation and service management research. Specific crisis-related determinants of stakeholder integration are derived from current corporate social responsibility (CSR) and crisis research taking into account the opportunities and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design options and crisis-related determinants are then combined to a conceptual framework for stakeholder integration in sustainability project partnerships in times of crisis. Based on this framework, research propositions are derived that provide insights into the design of the potential, process and result quality of stakeholder integration.FindingsThis paper shows that the COVID-19 pandemic can be viewed as a sustainability crisis, which places special entrepreneurial demands on stakeholder integration in sustainability project partnerships. The pandemic offers potential for integrating a large number of stakeholders and has emphasized the need for integrating a broad range of stakeholders. Higher skepticism of stakeholders toward companies' CSR engagement in the pandemic has raised stakeholder demands for early integration. Higher skepticism and CSR involvement have rendered active forms of integration even more relevant, which, however, should still be adapted to the respective stakeholder prerequisites. The pandemic has increased the need for constant and comprehensive exchange of data on project results between stakeholders and the project leading organization. Measurement of target achievement can be promoted by establishing stakeholder commitment with regard to the target measures on the collective and relationship levels of the partnership. Finally, the pandemic has reinforced the need for more dialogical forms of communicating sustainability project results.Originality/valueSolving problems and exploiting opportunities in times of crisis require a high degree of entrepreneurship and creative leadership in order to gain new ideas and overcome resource deficits. Sustainability project partnerships in which various stakeholders contribute resources and knowledge to collaborate on idea development and finding solutions to sustainability issues are suitable for this. However, previous approaches to stakeholder integration in open innovation and service management research largely neglect the crisis context and only a few are related to sustainability. In CSR and crisis research, stakeholder-related approaches to coping with crises tend to be underrepresented, and the comprehensive concept of stakeholder integration has so far hardly been considered as an approach to crisis management. By taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic as a sustainability crisis, this paper provides new impulses for the integration of stakeholders in sustainability project partnerships in times of crisis. Recommendations for the design of the potential, process and result quality are derived, which provide insights for project leaders and stakeholders alike. In addition, implications for public policymakers are derived, who are assigned an increasingly active role in the pandemic and who can contribute to the success of sustainability project partnerships by setting suitable framework conditions. The developed concept can be expanded to include further company-related determinants and offers a starting point for empirical analysis in the still underexplored research fields of sustainability-oriented relationship marketing and sustainability crises.

scholarly journals Toward a public service management: past, present, and future directions

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 998-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Hodgkinson ◽  
Claire Hannibal ◽  
Byron W. Keating ◽  
Rosamund Chester Buxton ◽  
Nicola Bateman
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public

Purpose In providing a fine-grained analysis of public service management, the purpose of this paper is to make an important contribution to furthering research in service management, a body of literature that has tended to regard public services as homogenous or to neglect the context altogether. Design/methodology/approach Integrating public management and service management literatures, the past and present of public service management are discussed. Future directions for the field are outlined drawing on a service-dominant approach that has the potential to transform public services. Invited commentaries augment the review. Findings The review presents the Public Service Network Framework to capture the public value network in its abstraction and conceptualizes how value is created in public services. The study identifies current shortcomings in the field and offers a series of directions for future research where service management theory can contribute greatly. Research limitations/implications The review encourages service management research to examine the dynamic, diverse, and complex nature of public services and to recognize the importance of this context. The review calls for an interdisciplinary public service management community to develop, and to assist public managers in leveraging service logic. Originality/value The review positions service research in the public sector, makes explicit the role of complex networks in value creation, argues for wider engagement with public service management, and offers future research directions to advance public service management research.

Effective Surveillance Management during Service Encounters

2017 ◽  
pp. 118-139
Author(s):  
Angelo Bonfanti
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Service Oriented

This chapter aims to theoretically examine effective surveillance management (ESM) during service encounters within the servicescape and provide a conceptual framework for the study of this topic in a service management perspective. It analyses antecedents, dimensions and effects of ESM. This study especially proposes as antecedents both improving customer service experience along with meeting customers' need for security and implementing a surveillance service-oriented strategy that includes secure and safe servicescape design, deterrent communication, and trained and motivated security staff. This chapter suggests also that the dimensions of ESM (customer-physical service environment encounters, customer-technological surveillance systems encounters, and customer-security staff encounters) contribute to enhancing service quality, experience quality, and staff productivity. The integration of these dimensions, antecedents, and effects create a theoretically grounded framework that can serve as a starting point for future studies about this topic in the field of service management.

scholarly journals The influence of social distancing on employee well-being: a conceptual framework and research agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Tuzovic ◽  
Sertan Kabadayi
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Service Continuity ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe ongoing pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus has severely influenced lives and livelihoods. As service organizations either face hibernation or continuity of their business operations, the impact of social distancing measures raises major concerns for the well-being of service employees. In this paper, the authors develop a conceptual framework to examine how different social distancing practices impact an organization's service continuity or service hibernation, which in turn affects different dimensions of their employee subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on macroeconomic data and industrial reports, linking them to theoretical concepts to develop a conceptual framework and a research agenda to serve as a starting point to fully understand the impact of this pandemic on employee well-being.FindingsThis article develops an overarching framework and research agenda to investigate the impact of social distancing practices on employee well-being.Originality/valueThe authors propose two opposing business concepts – service continuity and service hibernation – as possible responses to social distancing measures. By bridging different theoretical domains, the authors suggeste that there is a need to holistically examine macro-, meso- and micro-level factors to fully understand the impact of social distancing–related measures on employee well-being.

Digitalization challenging institutional logics

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Holmlund ◽  
Tore Strandvik ◽  
Ilkka Lähteenmäki
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Retail Banking ◽  
Customer Relationships ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Executive Team ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Business Challenges

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the mental models of top executive team members in a selected retail bank. The focus is on how each executive team member makes sense of the market situation and changes with regard to customers and customer-bank interactions in the current situation where earlier bank practices are at risk of becoming obsolete. Design/methodology/approach All members in the executive team were interviewed individually in August 2014 on how they reason about challenges in the service business. The study uses an abductive research approach. Findings The mental models were largely dominated by internal bank issues, and adjusting the services to changing customer preferences was considered a main challenge. The research analysis showed that the executive team members identified the same business challenges, but their interpretations of the meanings and implications of the challenges were different. Mental models tend to be hidden and stable and are seldom explicitly elaborated. There was a distinct spread in mental models in terms of content. Limited focus was on customers as the starting point for business development and renewal. Research limitations/implications The study was conducted in the retail banking setting, which is currently affected by many changes. The study, however, was limited to executive members in one bank. Practical implications The foremost implications of this study relate to sensitising executive members and teams to their mental models and exposing different core challenges related to customers and customer relationships in the retail banking sector. Originality/value The value of the study is it sheds light on top executives’ prospective sensemaking of current business challenges by addressing individual mental models. The study represents a novel approach in the strategic service management literature.

Ready for the unexpected: theoretical framework and empirical findings on communication consulting

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Hoffjann ◽  
Karina Hoffstedde ◽  
Franziska Jaworek
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Other ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Process Consulting ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

PurposeAlthough the market for communication consultancies has been booming worldwide for many years now, there are still only a handful of theoretical concepts and empirical findings pertaining to communication consulting. This is the fundamental starting point for this paper, which sets out to answer the following research questions: What is the function of communication consulting? What are the differences between consultants' expectations of consulting and those of clients? How do consultants and clients deal with the contradiction between proximity and distance? What are the potential threats to the autonomy of consulting?Design/methodology/approachThe paper combines a theoretical framework of communication consulting with a survey of German communication consultants and clients.FindingsFirst, a theoretical framework is developed in which communication consulting is defined as follows: First, it opens up decision-related contingency and thus produces additional options for managing communicative relationships with internal and external target groups, before helping to close decision-related contingency. The results of the survey show that the expectations of clients and consultants for communication consulting are largely similar. In the closing dimension especially, most clients share the active role of self-conception of most consultants. On the other hand, in some opening activities, clients wish for more critical, independent and courageous consulting.Research limitations/implicationsThe scope of the empirical material is limited to communication consultants and clients in Germany and may therefore not be valid in other cultural contexts.Originality/valueThe paper closes a gap in both theory building and empirical research in communication consulting. The theory presented conceives of communication consulting as a hybrid of management consulting and process consulting and, in addition to the opening dimension, also takes the closing dimension of consulting into consideration for the first time. The study reveals a certain schizophrenia in clients: on the one hand, clients demand more critical consultants and thus call for more distance; on the other hand, clients prefer to be close to their consultants, particularly if they wish to work with them for the long-term.

Using inquiry-based learning in executive education programmes

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 599-613
Author(s):  
Debananda Misra
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Executive Education ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Managerial Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This study aims to examine managers’ considerations for leveraging management research for their work and the implications of such considerations on using inquiry-based learning (IBL) in customised executive education programmes (CEEPs) offered by business schools (b-schools). Design/methodology/approach The study proposes a conceptual framework that is validated using a single case study analysis. For the case study, semi-structured interviews were carried out with the top leadership of an organisation. Using the findings of the interviews, a survey was designed and administered to the managers of the organisation to further validate the findings. Findings This study identifies four considerations of the managers for leveraging management research. It analyses how faculty members can use IBL to design CEEPs to meet these considerations and link management research with managerial work. Research limitations/implications The single organisational context in which the study was carried out and the small sample size of the survey can be seen as a limitation of this article to produce generalisable considerations of managers. Practical implications The findings in this study have practical implications on the design and teaching practices of using IBL in CEEPs. Originality/value The main contribution of this study is the conceptual framework for deciding the teaching practices of IBL in CEEPs. Another contribution is its analysis at the level of individual managers, which provides novel insights about the relationship between management research and managerial work.

Action research: alternative paths for the transformation of management academic research to practice

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingwang Li ◽  
Jingwei Zhang ◽  
Zhigang Li ◽  
Feng Gao ◽  
Cheng Yu
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Management ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Research To Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Application Prospects

Purpose This study aims to let researchers sort out the past, look to the future and boost further management research. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes the exploration of the application of AR in the field of management research as the starting point. Through the combing and induction of AR literature to accurately grasp the essential characteristics of AR, this paper analyzes the application prospects and possible difficulties of AR in the field of management research in China, puts forward specific suggestions and explores the specific path of the transformation of management academic research to practice from the perspective of research methods. Findings In research methods, empirical research and case studies have become the mainstream research methods, but there is a passive research limitation of “study what happens.” Action research is different from the standpoint of empirical research that is independent of the research object. It no longer simply treats managers as the “object of information acquisition,” but as the subject of participating in the research. Management should be oriented towards the transformation of practice, and action research (AR) that can organically integrate researchers and practitioners is just a “bridge” to break the gap between academia and business circles to establish a cooperative relationship. Originality/value This paper takes the exploration of the application of AR in the field of management research as the starting point. Through the combing and induction of AR literature to accurately grasp the essential characteristics of AR, this paper analyzes the application prospects and possible difficulties of AR in the field of management research in China, puts forward specific suggestions and explores the specific path of the transformation of management academic research to practice from the perspective of research methods.

Moderating effects of marketing communication and financial consideration on customer attitude and intention to purchase Islamic banking products

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Enamul Hoque ◽  
Nik Mohd Hazrul Nik Hashim ◽  
Mohammad Hafizi Bin Azmi
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Islamic Banking ◽  
Marketing Communication ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Intention To Purchase ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Customer Attitude ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Financial Consideration

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework that can facilitate investigations concerning the impact of marketing communication and financial consideration on the relationship between customer attitude and purchase intention of Islamic banking products and services. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper is structured based on the extant literature; it provides a review of theoretical perspectives, highlights the gap and illustrates the significance for developing a framework. Findings The authors identify notable patterns and limitations in previous empirical studies. Specifically, despite increasing interest in Islamic banking customer behavior, prior research has not given much attention to explore moderating effects on the customer attitude–intention link. This has left researchers and bank managers with very limited information to explain the conditions that enhance customers’ attitude and intentions toward Islamic banking products. Based on this backdrop, the paper displays a viable research model with propositions that assess potential moderating effects on the domain relationship. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to Islamic banking and management literature because prior research has predominantly focused on variables that directly influence customers’ behavior. This novel conceptual framework enables managers to better understand their customers and has implications for emerging themes, such as formulating strategies for specific customer groups and internationalization process. In addition, this paper provides a starting point to empirically examine whether and how the proposed moderators affect the link between customer attitude and behavioral intentions to purchase Islamic banking products. Originality/value To the best of knowledge, this is the first attempt to introduce relevant moderating variables for investigating the attitude and intention nexus in an Islamic banking context. Furthermore, the authors propose a new measure, namely, profit-loss sharing proportions which could enhance customers’ intention to purchase Islamic banking products.

Inside-out: the forgotten side of ICT-enabled open innovation

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Aloini ◽  
Valentina Lazzarotti ◽  
Luisa Pellegrini ◽  
Pierluigi Zerbino
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Ict Tools ◽  
Definition Of

Purpose The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digital platforms in enabling connectivity and collaboration among actors is neglected when dealing with outbound open innovation (OI). Moreover, the outbound OI process is not currently defined in a univocal way. Thus, this paper aims to outline the outbound OI phases and to explore role and capabilities of ICTs in supporting it. Design/methodology/approach Through a literature review approach, the authors specified the outbound OI process. Hence, the authors leveraged the similarities between the knowledge management process phases and the outbound OI phases for developing a conceptual framework that could match the outbound OI phases with acknowledged categories of ICT tools. Findings Through a process-view, the authors outlined outbound OI as a three-phase process. The authors developed a matrix-shaped framework in which the columns represent the three outbound OI process phases, while the rows are three ICT categories that could be suitable for supporting the outbound OI process. Practical implications The framework is designed to guide a deep understanding of how ICTs could support specific phases of the outbound OI process. In so doing, it could be useful for software developers interested in the preliminary design of an ICT platform for outbound OI. Originality/value The conceptual framework proposal as follows: specifies a detailed, process-oriented definition of the outbound OI; allows to identify the main ICT categories supporting the phases of the outbound OI process; and provides guidance for further exploration about the role of ICT in outbound OI.

scholarly journals Situational appropriation of information

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 492-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isto Huvila
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Work ◽  
Information And Knowledge Management

Purpose – In contrast to the interest of describing and managing the social processes of knowing, information science and information and knowledge management research have put less emphasis on discussing how particular information becomes usable and how it is used in different contexts and situations. The purpose of this paper is to address this major gap, and introduce and discuss the applicability of the notion of situational appropriation of information for shedding light on this particular process in the context of daily information work practices of professionals. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on the analysis of 25 qualitative interviews of archives, library and museum professionals conducted in two Nordic countries. Findings – The study presents examples of how individuals appropriate different tangible and intangible assets as information on the basis of the situation in hand. Research limitations/implications – The study proposes a new conceptual tool for articulating and conducting research on the process how information becomes useful in the situation in hand. Practical implications – The situational appropriation of information perspective redefines the role of information management to incorporate a comprehensive awareness of the situations when information is useful and is being used. A better understanding how information becomes useful in diverse situations helps to discern the active role of contextual and situational effects and to exploit and take them into account as a part of the management of information and knowledge processes. Originality/value – In contrast to orthodoxies of information science and information and knowledge management research, the notion of situational appropriation of information represents an alternative approach to the conceptualisation of information utilisation. It helps to frame particular types of instances of information use that are not necessarily addressed within the objectivistic, information seeker or learning oriented paradigms of information and knowledge management.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document