Web-based social movements contesting marketing strategy: Mobilization of multiple actors and rhetorical strategies

Previous studies suggest that marketing strategy is developed and used to mobilise and configure the actions of firm actors, creating a set of stabilising activities focused on the firm–customer dyad. Destabilising forces precipitated by the Internet and associated digital technologies involving contention and disruption by multiple actors are much less prevalent in the marketing literature. The central point we advance is that rather than marketing strategy being a controlled and stabilising force for firms in their relationships with customers, it can often lead to socially produced spaces where consumers and, importantly, other multiple actors form a social movement to actively attempt to destabilise it and contest its legitimacy. Using an innovative research approach, the findings of this study show how social movements proactively enrol and mobilise a wide range of relevant actors into a network of influence. Critical to this are rhetorical strategies, acting as important levers in attempts to destabilise and delegitimise a dominant firm's marketing strategy.

Inscribing value on business model innovations: Insights from industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital innovations

In this paper we seek to show how marketing activities inscribe value on business model innovation, representative of an act, or sequence of socially interconnecting acts. Theoretically we ask two interlinked questions: (1) how can value inscriptions contribute to business model innovations? (2) how can marketing activities support the inscription of value on business model innovations? Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the thirty-seven members from across four industrial projects commercializing disruptive digital innovations. Various individuals from a diverse range of firms are shown to cast relevant components of their agency and knowledge on business model innovations through negotiation as an ongoing social process. Value inscription is mutually constituted from the marketing activities, interactions and negotiations of multiple project members across firms and functions to counter destabilizing forces and tensions arising from the commercialization of disruptive digital innovations. This contributes to recent conceptual thinking in the industrial marketing literature, which views business models as situated within dynamic business networks and a context-led evolutionary process. A contribution is also made to debate in the marketing literature around marketing's boundary-spanning role, with marketing activities shown to span and navigate across functions and firms in supporting value inscriptions on business model innovations.

Textbook (non-) adoption motives, legitimizing strategies and academic field configuration

Textbooks are an integral part of structured syllabus coverage in higher education. The argument advanced in this article is that textbooks are not simply products of inscription and embodied scholarly labour for pedagogical purposes, but embedded institutional artefacts that configure entire academic subject fields. Empirically, this article shows the various ways that motives of the (non-) adoption of textbooks have field institutional configuration effects. The research contribution of our study is threefold. First, we re-theorise the textbook as an artefact that is part of the institutional work and epistemic culture of academia. Second, we empirically show that the vocabularies of motive of textbook (non-) adoption and rhetorical strategies form the basis for social action and configuration across micro, meso and macro field levels. Our final contribution is a conceptualization of the ways that textbook (non-) adoption motives ascribe meaning to the legitimating processes in the configuration of whole subject fields.

Digital loyalty card 'Big Data' and small business marketing: Formal versus informal or complementary?

This article proposes that a complementary relationship exists between the formalised nature of digital loyalty card data, and the informal nature of small business market orientation. A longitudinal, case-based research approach analysed this relationship in small firms given access to Tesco Clubcard data. The findings reveal a new-found structure and precision in small firm marketing planning from data exposure; this complemented rather than conflicted with an intuitive feel for markets. In addition, small firm owners were encouraged to include employees in marketing planning.

An exploration of business model development in the commercialization of technology innovations

Research on business model development has focused on the relationships between elements of value conceptualization and organization having a linear sequence in which business models are first designed and then implemented. Another stream of research points to business model development with these elements interacting in a cyclical manner. There is a need to improve our understanding of the connective mechanisms and dynamics involved in business model development, particularly from the challenging perspective of commercializing innovations. The aim of this paper was to explore business model development during the commercialization of innovations through a case-based qualitative study. This study found from four case studies that specific elements of business model development, representative of the conceptualization of value and organizing for value creation, integrate in a dynamic and cyclical process in the commercialization of technology innovations. The study provides empirical evidence that adds new insights to literature on sequential and more interactive processes of business model development. It also contributes to literature on business model development and particularly how it relates to the commercialization of innovations.

Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus lugdunensis Cause Pyogenic Osteomyelitis in an Intramedullary Nail Model in Rabbits

Propionibacterium acnes and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are opportunistic pathogens implicated in prosthetic joint and fracture fixation device-related infections. The purpose of this study was to determine whether P. acnes and the CoNS species Staphylococcus lugdunensis, isolated from an "aseptically failed" prosthetic hip joint and a united intramedullary nail-fixed tibial fracture, respectively, could cause osteomyelitis in an established implant-related osteomyelitis model in rabbits in the absence of wear debris from the implant material. The histological features of P. acnes infection in the in vivo rabbit model were consistent with localized pyogenic osteomyelitis, and a biofilm was present on all explanted intramedullary (IM) nails. The animals displayed no outward signs of infection, such as swelling, lameness, weight loss, or elevated white blood cell count. In contrast, infection with S. lugdunensis resulted in histological features consistent with both pyogenic osteomyelitis and septic arthritis, and all S. lugdunensis-infected animals displayed weight loss and an elevated white blood cell count despite biofilm detection in only two out of six rabbits. The differences in the histological and bacteriological profiles of the two species in this rabbit model of infection are reflective of their different clinical presentations: low-grade infection in the case of P. acnes and acute infection for S. lugdunensis. These results are especially important in light of the growing recognition of chronic P. acnes biofilm infections in prosthetic joint failure and nonunion of fracture fixations, which may be currently reported as "aseptic" failure. Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.