Abstract This study examines emerging service markets1 and creates a model to capture both the service provider’s activities within market development and the interplay between different market actors. This work aims to identify the key elements behind sustainable market development, specifically examining 1) market activities, 2) the role of innovation and 3) the necessary evolutionary factors, where a market consists of multiple buyers and sellers and comparable market offerings. The empirical part of the study is conducted in the form of a qualitative case study, which is used to analyse the dynamic nature of emerging market development. The study uses a multi-method approach to data collection to capture the market’s evolution and relationships between market actors. The study follows emerging energy saving market development taking the perspective of an Energy Service Company in Dubai. As the main outcome of the study, it is argued that the service provider needs to direct its activities to build those relationships necessary to gain market acceptance and a coherent market offering before it can truly exploit market opportunities. As a characteristic of an emerging market, different interpretations of an innovation increase market dynamics, which slows market acceptance. Therefore, the service provider’s innovation process needs to serve market needs first; later, when the market has evolved, the innovation process is divided into co-innovation and structured innovation. From the evolutionary point of view, many service markets need to be fostered by market actors, as well as needing government-built regulatory and market support mechanisms. This need is especially valid for services that have other societal goals beyond pure financial interests. For a new service provider, an understanding of emerging markets is essential to appropriately set expectations and to accurately plan for the timing and effort needed for market entry. 1 An emerging market in this study represents the market development phase that occurs when a market has been created. Markets are emerging everywhere regardless of country or other geographical area and should not be confused with developing country-related emerging markets. / Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja tutkii uusien markkinoiden kehittymistä erityisesti palveluliiketoiminnan ympärille, ja luo mallin, jolla voidaan tarkastella tällaisia markkinoita ja niiden kehittymistä. Mallissa huomioidaan palvelun tarjoajan aktiviteetit markkinoilla sekä vuorovaikutus muiden toimijoiden kanssa. Tutkimuksessa tunnistetaan keskeiset kehitysvaiheessa olevien markkinoiden elementit: 1) markkina-aktiviteetit, 2) innovaatio ja 3) kehittymisen edistämiseen liittyvät tekijät. Mallin mukaan nämä ovat edellytyksenä sille, että markkinoille muodostuu riittävä määrä sekä myyjiä että ostajia, jotta palvelutarjonnasta muodostuisi vertailukelpoista. Tämän tutkimuksen empiirinen osa on suoritettu laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena, jossa analysoidaan markkinoiden kehittymisen dynamiikkaa. Jotta markkinan kehittymistä ja markkinatoimijoiden välistä vuorovaikutusta voidaan tarkastella samanaikaisesti, on tutkimuksessa kerätty sekä haastattelu- että havainnointiaineistoa. Tutkimuksessa on seurattu kehityksen alkuvaiheessa olevan energiansäästömarkkinan kehittymistä ns. ESCO-palvelun tarjoajan näkökulmasta Dubaissa. Tutkimus osoittaa, että markkinoiden kehittymiseksi palvelun tarjoajan täytyy ensin keskittyä luomaan suhteet muihin markkinatoimijoihin, jotta yhdessä voidaan saavuttaa markkinoiden luottamus ja luoda yhteneväinen tarjonta, ennen kuin kilpaillaan markkinaosuuksista. Eri toimijoiden erilaiset tulkinnat markkinainnovaatiosta lisäävät dynamiikkaa ja vaikeuttaa markkinan yleistä hyväksymistä, jotka yhdessä siten hidastuttavat markkinan kehittymistä. Näistä syistä palveluntarjoajan tulisi kohdistaa innovaatioprosessinsa palvelemaan markkinan kehitystarpeita ensin ja vasta myöhemmin se voi keskittyä hyödyntämään mahdollisuuksia yhteiseen ja sisäiseen innovaatioon. Monet palvelumarkkinat vaativat kehittyäkseen toimijoita joiden tehtävä on pelkästään keskittyä edistämään markkinan kehitystä luomalla yhteisiä sääntely- ja tukimekanismeja. Nämä toimija ovat usein valtiollisia, erityisesti silloin kun markkinalla on myös yhteiskunnallisia tavoitteita, taloudellisten tavoitteiden rinnalla. Kehittyvät markkinat ja niiden mahdollisuuksien hyödyntäminen uudelle palveluntarjoajalle on haasteellinen konteksti ja menestyminen edellyttää sekä odotusten että panostusten asettamista realistisesti, jotta kehittyvillä markkinoilla voidaan ylipäätään toimia.

This study addresses the issue of consumers’ wish to shop more sustainable fashion butinstead turning to fast fashion (Islam et al., 2021; Silva et al. 2020; Wang et al., 2022). With that said, this study discusses and examines how marketing benefits the second-hand clothes market in Sweden. Entrenched in market studies of market-shaping, market devices and actor network theory (ANT) (Nenonen et al., 2019; Muniesa et al., 2007; Sayes, 2013), this study depicts the use of market devices in the process of shaping the second-hand clothes market in Sweden. The methodology of the thesis consists of online and offline observations throughout Arkivet’s four market devices: in-store, digital media, website and e-commerce. The results show that Arkivet’s market devices reframe the market, the products within it and the interactions between buyers and sellers, which ties in with the factors necessary for market-shaping (discovering value potential and mobilizing resources) (Nenonen et al. 2019). Based on previous market studies and the observations conducted, this study assembles a newly created model representing the role market devices assume in the process of shaping an existing market.

In this empirical research, the author focuses on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market. Based on a contingent perspective of how markets emerge and can be shaped, the author asks the research question of whether the emergence of the ERP market was a necessary, strong, or weak consequence of the product innovation of Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing (SAP), which was the pioneer innovator in this specific market. This question is answered with a graph theoretical model of contingency and causality in order to measure the causality between events occurring over historical time. In this sense, the research article provides an application of the method proposed by Lehmann-Waffenschmidt. The author finds that the emergence of the ERP software market is contingent and was not predetermined; path dependencies play a big role in the way how this market segment emerged. With respect to both entrepreneurial and economic factors of relevance, the case of the SAP is far from a predetermined success story. The results are relevant for a number of reasons. First, the results indicate that instead of talking about success stories, a new perspective in market shaping can highlight a more realistic way of the contingent nature of entrepreneurial activity and product innovations. Second, the results aim to bridge the gap between marketing and the emergence of markets, as it was indicated as a research gap by recent contributions in marketing science. Third, the introduction of counterfactual events in the business history of SAP indicate a methodological innovation that has not yet been considered by marketing and entrepreneurship scholars, which may be helpful regarding recognizing patterns from the past and also regarding contingent planning for the future.