Quality in group service encounters: A theoretical exploration of the concept of a simultaneous multi‐customer co‐creation process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of service quality for settings where several customers are involved in the joint creation and consumption of a service. The approach is to provide first insights into the implications of a simultaneous multi‐customer integration on service quality. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper undertakes a thorough review of the relevant literature before developing a conceptual model regarding service co‐creation and service quality in customer groups. Findings Group service encounters must be set up carefully to account for the dynamics (social activity) in a customer group and skill set and capabilities (task activity) of each of the individual participants involved in a group service experience. Research limitations/implications Future research should undertake empirical studies to validate and/or modify the suggested model presented in this contribution. Practical implications Managers of service firms should be made aware of the implications and the underlying factors of group services in order to create and manage a group experience successfully. Particular attention should be given to those factors that can be influenced by service providers in managing encounters with multiple customers. Originality/value This article introduces a new conceptual approach for service encounters with groups of customers in a proposed service quality model. In particular, the paper focuses on integrating the impact of customers' co‐creation activities on service quality in a multiple‐actor model.

Defective co-creation: Developing a typology of consumer dysfunction in professional services

Purpose This study aims to explore the scope of consumers’ defective co-creation behaviour in professional service encounters. One of the founding premises of service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008) is that consumers co-create the value they derive from service encounters. In practice, however, dysfunctional consumer behaviour can obstruct value co-creation. Extant research has not yet investigated consumers’ defective co-creation behaviour in highly relational services, such as professional services, that are heavily reliant on co-creation. Design/methodology/approach To investigate defective co-creation in professional services, 164 critical incidents were collected from 38 health-care and financial service providers using the critical incident technique within semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Thematic coding was used to identify emergent themes and patterns of consumer behaviour. Findings Thematic coding resulted in a comprehensive typology of consumers’ defective co-creation behaviour that both confirms the prevalence of previously identified dysfunctional behaviours (e.g. verbal abuse and physical aggression) and identifies two new forms of consumer misbehaviour: underparticipation and overparticipation. Further, these behaviours can vary, escalate and co-occur during service encounters. Originality/value Both underparticipation and overparticipation are newly identified forms of defective co-creation that need to be examined within the broader framework of service-dominant logic (SDL).

Creation and copyright law: The case of 3D printing

The Australian Law Reform Commission is conducting an inquiry into copyright law and the digital economy in 2012 and 2013.The President, Rosalind Croucher, stated: “While the Copyright Act has been amended on occasion over the past 12 years to account for digital developments, these changes occurred before the digital economy took off. The Australian Law Reform Commission will need to find reforms that are responsive to this new environment, and to future scenarios that are still in the realm of the imagination. It is a complex and important area of law and we are looking forward to some robust debate and discussion during the course of this very important Inquiry.”

Interpersonal coordination tendencies supporting the creation/prevention of goal scoring opportunities in futsal

Research on 1vs1 sub-phases in team sports has shown how one player coordinates his/her actions with his/her opponent and the location of a target/goal to attain performance objectives. In this study, we extended this approach to analysis of 5vs5 competitive performance in the team sport of futsal to provide a performance analysis framework that explains how players coordinate their actions to create/prevent opportunities to score goals. For this purpose, we recorded all 10 futsal matches of the 2009 Lusophony Games held in Lisbon. We analysed the displacement trajectories of a shooting attacker and marking defender in plays ending in a goal, a goalkeeper's save, and a defender's interception, at four specific moments during performance: (1) assisting attacker's ball reception; (2) moment of passing; (3) shooter's ball reception, and; (4) shot on goal. Statistical analysis showed that when a goal was scored, the defender's angle to the goal and to the attacker tended to decrease, the attacker was able to move to the same distance to the goal alongside the defender, and the attacker was closer to the defender and moving at the same velocity (at least) as the defender. This study identified emergent patterns of coordination between attackers and defenders under key competitive task constraints, such as the location of the goal, which supported successful performance in futsal.

Musicalising theatre, theatricalising music: Writing and performing intermediality in composed theatre

This investigation combined musicality and theatricality in the creation of four shows: Bear with Me, The Empty City, Gentlemen Songsters and Warmwaters. Led by creative practice, the research identified four polyvalences that characterise Composed Theatre, a transformational artistic domain which offers distinct challenges for performance makers. These include tensions and resolutions between compositional and theatrical thinking; music and words; setlist and script; and finally persona and character. The research finds that these interplays not only lend Composed Theatre its distinct qualities, but offer a potential set of balances to strike for writers, performers, composers and musicians who mix music and theatre in intermedial performance.

Design-driven digital futures: The role of design-led innovation in the creation of online connected communities for new mobility solutions

Online communities have fundamentally changed how humans connected and are now so common they are fundamental to the human experience. As the Internet developed for Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the functionality of these communities has far exceeded initial expectations. These communities have shifted from simply places to share information to ways to access products and services that bridge the online and offline worlds. This shift has led to the disruption of many industries with the transportation industry being one such sector. Both private transport providers and public transport systems face competition from online communities who are able to link services providers and customers more effectively and innovatively. These types of communities fall under what has been popularised as collaborative consumption or the sharing economy. The aim of this study is to explore the role of Design-led Innovation in the creation of digital futures, specifically online connected communities for successful new mobility solutions. To explore this proposition multiple data collection methods are proposed;Content Analysis, ii) A Comparative Qualitative Study consisting of Qualitative Interviews and Focus Groups / Design Workshops and iii) An Action Research Cycle of Embedded Practice. The multidisciplinary nature of this study grounds this research in a novel position contributing to new knowledge in both the field of design, and also a deeper understanding of the larger fast-growing online community phenomena.

Uso del pronombre personal sujeto de la primera persona del singular en español y portugués hablados: factores semánticos y pragmáticos

Tutkimuksen aihe on subjektipronominin ei-pakollinen käyttö finiittisten verbimuotojen yhteydessä espanjan ja portugalin kielessä. Tutkimuskohteena ovat yksikön ensimmäisen persoonan verbimuodot Espanjassa ja Portugalissa kerätyissä puhekielen korpuksissa. Tutkimuksen tarkoitus on selvittää, mitkä semanttiset ja pragmaattiset tekijät vaikuttavat subjektipronominin ei-pakollisen käytön yleisyyteen ja mitä systemaattisia eroja subjektipronominin käytössä on espanjan ja portugalin välillä. Tutkimus kuuluu korpuslingvistiikan alaan ja ensisijaisena tutkimusmetodina on kvantitatiivinen vertailu. Tutkimus osoittaa, että yksikön ensimmäisen persoonan subjektipronominin ei-pakollinen käyttö on käytännössä kaikissa konteksteissa yleisempää portugalissa kuin espanjassa. Tätä eroa voidaan selittää kielten konstituenttirakenteen typologisella erilaisuudella. Subjektin semanttinen rooli on tutkimuksen perusteella sidoksissa subjektipronominin käyttöön enemmän espanjassa kuin portugalissa, mutta kummassakaan kielessä subjektipronominin käyttöä ei voida selittää pelkästään subjektin semanttisella roolilla. Molemmissa kielissä samanviitteisyys edellisen subjektin kanssa vähentää subjektipronominin käyttöä, kun taas subjektipronominin ei-referentiaalinen käyttö ja toisaalta verbin ilmaiseman toiminnan irreaalisuus lisäävät sitä. Tutkimustulokset antavat aihetta lisätutkimukseen pronominien ja verbien ei-referentiaalisesta ja irreaalisesta käytöstä espanjassa ja portugalissa sekä typologi-seen tutkimukseen subjektipronominien käyttöön vaikuttavista tekijöistä eri kielissä.

Social media for social good: Value creation in social media based cause brand communities

This thesis presents a case study of value creation in the social media based brand communities of two Australian cause organisations. It improves understanding of how value is created in this increasingly important environment by examining participants' posts and practices, organisational strategies and supporters' perceptions of value creation. The thesis shows that while value creation is complex, value is generated for supporters and organisations alike, and positively influences the outcomes for recipients of the vital services provided by the cause organisations. Value creation in this context thus manifests social good for supporters, service recipients and society at large.

Social marketers playing to win? Experiential value creation in social marketing mobile games

The rapid change of technological trends in the marketplace has increased the difficulty for social marketers to reach consumers using traditional marketing channels (Della et al., 2008). Traditionally, social marketing interventions have typically used more conventional supporting products and services such as water counters for water conservation or condoms for sex safety. However, recently social marketers are witnessing the diminishing effectiveness of more traditional social products and services in encouraging the uptake and maintenance of behaviour. In light of the technological trends in the marketplace and diminishing effect of previous social products and services (Lefebvre, 2009), social marketers have been encouraged to look to alternate means of delivering valuable offerings...

Synthetic studies towards bioactive frondosins: rapid framework access and diversity creation

A very concise and diversity-oriented approach to rapidly access frondosin-related frameworks from commercially available building blocks is outlined.

Disclosures of social value creation and managing legitimacy: A case study of three global social enterprises

This study seeks to fill the gap in the existing literature by examining at how and whether disclosure of social value creation becomes a part of legitimation strategies of social enterprises. By using Suchman’s (1995) moral dimension of legitimacy theory this study sets out that three global social organizations, Grameen Bank, Charity Water, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, disclose social value creation as if they conform to expectations of the broader community. The study finds that there is an apparent disconnection between disclosure and actions by social enterprises. With references to few incidents highlighted in this study, social enterprises, use disclosures as their managerial efforts, rather than creating moral legitimacy. The notion of apparent disconnection between disclosure and real action by the case social enterprises is common with the notion of the motivation behind disclosure practices by corporations as captured in extant disclosure literature. The finding suggest that when an organisation (whether it is a corporation or a social enterprise) face legitimacy crisis, it appears to disclose good news than bad news questioning organizational moral legitimacy.

Becoming to Know: Essays on Extended Epistemology of Knowledge Creation

This qualitative, explorative study, which comprises four essays, focuses on knowledge management (KM). It seeks to answer the question: How can the knowledge creation theory of KM benefit from social learning theories? While studying the five development phases of knowledge creation theory of KM through 1995-2008 and applying some social learning theories in essays, the concepts of knowing, learning and becoming have emerged. Drawing on these three concepts and on becoming ontology and extended epistemology as research philosophies the study suggests the ‘becoming epistemology’ concept and develops the ‘becoming to know’ framework. The framework proposes becoming as phronesis of dialectic interactions between learning and knowing. It shows how becoming to know evolves as an interplay between concrete experience and logical thinking in the present and in a living context. The proposed framework could be considered a contribution to the current development phase of the knowledge creation theory of KM because it illustrates how ontological and epistemological knowledge spirals come together, which is the essence of the knowledge creation theory of KM.