Criteria for selecting actors for the value co-creation in startups

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the main criteria for selecting actors to compose these business platforms and addressing the co-creation of value and improve the performance of startups. Design/methodology/approach The methodology is based on the search for key factors for the selection of actors and the understanding of co-creation of value and the concept of startups. The content of this paper is substantiated on an extensive review of the literature related to the subjects’ value-cocreation and new startups, and the review is based on the articles found in the databases of Ebsco, Emerald, Science Direct, Scopus, Village and Web of Science. Findings This paper identifies the main key-factors found in the literature for selecting actors to co-create value in startups and organizes the findings in five categories: value creation, interaction, actor behavior, client and partnership. It also presents the possibility of future research that will be able to put the study in practice. Research limitations/implications The results of this research have not been tested empirically, which opens the door for future studies that can prove the effectiveness of the findings. It is also important to mention that there are few articles in the literature that directly address this topic, and some definitions of actor/co-creation of value/business model may also change. Practical implications The selection criteria of the actors listed are useful for service entrepreneurs and managers to assist in decision-making at the stage of choosing their partners for value co-creation in startups. Furthermore, it involves mitigating waste in startups and maximizing the economic gains of partners through value co-creation in startups. Originality/value This study is one of the first attempts to recognize the key factors for selecting actors to co-create value in startups, aiming at their success in the market.

Voice assistants in hospitality: using artificial intelligence for customer service

Purpose Voice assistants (VAs) empower human–computer interactions by recognising human speech and implementing commands pronounced by users. This paper aims to investigate VA-enabled interactions between hotels and guests in the hospitality context. The research positions VAs within the artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) context, disrupting old practices and processes. Smart hospitality uses VAs to support effortless value cocreation for guests cost-effectively. The research examines consumer perceptions and expectations of hospitality VAs and explores VA capabilities through expert technology providers. Design/methodology/approach This empirical paper investigates the current use and future implications of VAs for hotel environments. It uses qualitative, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 7 expert hospitality VA technology providers and 21 hotel guests who have VA experience. The research adopts a demand and supply approach, addressing the VAs in hospitality holistically. Findings The findings illustrate the requirements from both end-users’ sides, hotels and guests, exploring VA advantages and challenges. The analysis demonstrates that VAs increasingly become digital assistants. VA technology helps hotels to improve customer service, expand operational capability and reduce costs. Although in its infancy, VA technology has made progress towards optimising hotel operations and upgrading customer service. The study proposes a speech-enabled interactions model. Research limitations/implications This research stimulates the transformation of hospitality services by using VAs and the development of smart hospitality and tourism ecosystems. The study can benefit from further research with hotel managers, to reflect hoteliers’ points of view and investigate their perception of VAs. Further research can also explore different aspects of consumer–VA interaction in different contexts. Practical implications The paper makes a significant contribution to hospitality management and human–computer interaction best practices. It supports technology providers to reconsider how to develop suitable technology solutions towards improving their strategic competitiveness. It also explains how to use VAs cost-effectively and profitably while adding value to travellers’ experience. Originality/value VA studies are often focussed on the technology in private households, rather than in commercial or hotel spaces. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on AI and IoT in smart hospitality and explores the acceptance and operationalisation of VAs. The research contributes to the conceptualisation of VA-enabled hotel services and explores positive and negative features, as well as future prospects.

Influence of Multiple Interactions in Value Cocreation on Sports Spectators’ Perceived Value of Sports Events

This study analyzed the effects of multiple interactions in value cocreation activities involving sports spectators. Interaction activities for value cocreation at sports events comprise spectator-athlete and spectator-staff interactions. A survey of spectators at the 2017 Wuhan Open revealed that spectator-athlete and spectator-staff interactions increased spectator perceived value, which in turn increased spectator satisfaction and loyalty. Spectator-staff interactions had a greater effect on spectator sports event value than did spectator-athlete interactions. Therefore, organizers of sports events should effectively manage multiple value cocreation interactions to improve spectator satisfaction and loyalty. The present study’s consideration of the effect of multiple interactions in value cocreation extends value cocreation theory.

Microfoundations for Macromarketing: A Metatheoretical Lens for Bridging the Micro-Macro Divide

Macromarketing is often contrasted with micro-views of dyadic relationships, such as firm/customer interactions and transactional exchange. However, developing solutions for “wicked” social problems that are often viewed through a macro lens requires an approach that considers multiple perspectives at aggregated levels of interaction. We propose a framework for bridging the micro-macro divide by applying a metatheoretical lens, based on service-dominant logic and its service-ecosystems view. This approach highlights the importance of studying value cocreation practices as a microfoundation of macrostructures and highlights the need for studying institutions and institutional arrangements at varying levels of granularity. We argue for consideration of a meso-level, which is conceptually nested between micro-actions and macro-structures and allows researchers to investigate the emergence of markets as institutionalized, and potentially sustainable solutions. Exploring multiple levels of interaction can aid researchers and practitioners in understanding the complexity of wicked problems and cocreating solutions for major societal challenges faced in the world today.

Examining reviews on hotels' measures about COVID-19 from a value cocreation and value codestruction perspective

PurposeIn the research, posts that tourists accommodated in the hotels during COVID-19 pandemic shared on TripAdvisor website about pandemic measures taken by establishments, have been analyzed within the context of value cocreation and codestruction. In addition, the study also aims to evaluate effects of posts by tourists on scores they give to the hotel, perceiving the hotel as safe, recommending and their intention to revisits.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 1,119 reviews over TripAdvisor about 109 hotel establishments, which have safe hotel management certificate in Alanya, were examined, and they were coded in SPSS program with binary coding for positive and negative situations separately. For the analysis of associations between reviews about pandemic measures and the scores that tourists give to the hotel and their behavioral intentions, multiple linear regression analyses with dummy variables and Chi-square tests were utilized.FindingsThe study revealed that perceptions of tourists about pandemic measures have a significant effect on the scores they give to hotels, and this effect is asymmetrical in positive and negative situations. Negative perceptions cause much greater impact in terms of value codestruction than positive ones within the context of hotel evaluation and value cocreation. It has been observed that behavioral intentions of the tourist are formed and differentiated according to the characteristics of reviews.Research limitations/implicationsApart from contributions to the theory and managerial implications, this study has some limitations. The biggest limitation of the research is that both value cocreation and codestruction are evaluated from the perspective of tourists. On the other hand, touristic service producers and suppliers are the one of the most important components in value cocreation and codestruction. Therefore, it is important to examine the value cocreation and codestruction initiatives of touristic service producers and suppliers in future research studies in order to offer a holistic perspective to the pandemic process. In this context, it is important to examine the pandemic measures implemented by food beverages, tour operators, travel agencies, car rentals, entertainment business and so on in future research. In addition, responsibilities of employees and customers, which are important components in the management of the pandemic process, should be evaluated in future research studies.Practical implicationsIn the research, it has been established that tourists perform value cocreation and codestruction through their posts. In tourism establishments, formation of attitudes and behaviors of tourists for value creation on social communicational networks is possible through detection, amelioration and/or removal of factors causing value codestruction. Therefore, it is obvious that if hotel establishments concentrate on initiations about pandemic measures and compliance to measures, value cocreation attitudes and behaviors of tourists on social communicational networks will thus improve. Value cocreation attitudes and behaviors of tourists on social communicational networks are likely to have a function as an important strategical tool for supporting competitiveness and survival of the accommodation establishments.Originality/valueThe number of studies analyzing how value cocreation and codestruction occur on social communicational networks and the effects of these processes upon behavioral intentions of tourists is limited. With this aspect, this study is considered to fill this gap in tourism literature.

Supply Chain Decision Analysis of Community E-Commerce Platform under Different Power Structures: Considering the Influence of Value Cocreation

In order to explore the impact of different decision-making methods on the profits of various entities in the supply chain of the community e-commerce platform, this paper adopts the method of the Stackelberg game. For the community e-commerce platform supply chain composed of suppliers, community e-commerce platforms, and grid station service providers, considering the degree of supplier value cocreation efforts, this paper studies the optimal decisions under centralized decision-making, supplier-led decentralized decision-making, and community e-commerce platform-led decentralized decision-making, respectively. The results show that the supply chain obtains the highest profit in centralized decision-making; under decentralized decision-making, the dominant party will get higher profits; and the supplier value cocreation sensitivity coefficient is positively correlated with sales price, value cocreation effort level, and total supply chain value. The results are helpful to improve the competitiveness of the community e-commerce platform supply chain in the market and are of great significance to the long-term development of the community e-commerce industry.

Power in Value Cocreation Process: The Emergence of a New Dimension

There are different scales to measure value cocreation, but it still has no consensus about its uses. In this way, the aims to validate a multidimensional scale with seven factors related to individual characteristics and consumer behaviour included a new emerging dimension inside individual characteristics that are relevant to analyse value cocreation: power importance. The measurement instrument was developed, validated and tested using 1,300 Colombian and Vietnam consumers. For the final analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis was used, resulting in an adjusted and reliable multidimensional model. The results suggest seven dimensions (personal interaction, feedback, helping, tolerance, learning, personalization and power importance). Regarding the power importance that includes items that are related to the way in which consumers develop emotions at the moment of influencing others (authority, social recognized, wellness and monetary retribution). Finally, the present study contributes to the literature on value cocreation through the identification of a key aspect in the interaction between the company and the consumer. This term has recently attracted the attention of scholars and that has been little explored in the field of consumer behaviour.

Exploring a circular business model: Insights from the institutional theory perspective and the business model lens

Circular entrepreneurship is becoming a new, promising reality, in the manner of needed radical paradigmatic change in the era of Anthropocene. Circular entrepreneurs intend to create social and environmental value while they build financially viable businesses. They are embedded in multiple institutionalised value systems that they are expected to adhere to. Those institutionalised systems provide circular entrepreneurs with different, in many cases, contradictory norms, values and guiding principles. Substantial amount of research has been done to date to examine the impact of institutions on entrepreneurial endeavours. And yet, research lacks sufficient insights into how circular entrepreneurs engage with the institutional structures in designing business models on a financially feasible ground while creating social and environmental value. To address this, this paper investigates how circular entrepreneurs respond to the value systems of surrounding institutions in business modelling and how two fundamental aspects of embeddedness, namely resource integration and value cocreation, are achieved within a circular business model that is coherent in itself and with the entrepreneur's ambitions. Both the institutional context and the institutional logics surrounding entrepreneurs are examined to comprehend the surrounding institutional systems more in-depth and extensively. By analysing a longitudinal in-depth case study, this article aims to develop better insights into circular business modelling and underlying mechanisms of embeddedness. The case is a born-circular small cidermaker in Cornwall (UK), namely Wasted Apple. The findings show that the circular entrepreneur is surrounded by dominant normative institutions forming the principles of business model design. circular entrepreneurs mark fidelity to the institutional norms to obtain a range of microcompetencies and to manage integrated hybrid tensions within the value creation system. And therefore, a circular business model is a more holistic and inclusive structure as compared to a typical conventional linear business model. And yet, paradoxically embeddedness facilitates business survival but hinders strategic business planning as well as business profitability and growth.