Resource integration, as it relates to value creation, has recently been a key aspect of the discussions about service-dominant (S-D) logic. However, the majority of research pays relatively little explicit attention to the process of theorizing and the epistomological and ontological assumptions upon which the theorizing process is based. This article addresses these issues. The processes that relate to theorizing and developing strong theory are discussed. We then examine how to conceptualize ‘resources’ and ‘resource integration’ following differing ontological and epistemological assumptions that guide the theorizing process. Research recommendations to help navigate through the finer details underlying the theorizing process and to advance a general theory of resource integration are developed.

In today’s society media is ubiquitous. Through its pervasiveness it plays an inextricable role in society, impacting on culture, economy, politics, education and communication. In a postmodern society technological advances have had a profound impact on the development of media, most notably digital media. The intention of this study was to establish whether, in the context of an assumed postmodern culture, young South African adults display behaviour that manifest the tenets of postmodernism in their reactions to contemporary marketing and/or marketing communication, as apparent through their attitudes towards retail shopping and brands, together with their attitudes towards and use of digital media. In this instance digital media is limited to social media and media accessible on mobile phones. The unique properties and interactive capabilities of digital media have altered the dynamics of communication and have given rise to new applications that were not previously possible. This poses challenges for organisations in terms of marketing communication practices with one of the problem areas being that marketers do not know: <ul><li> Whether young South African adults (Generation Y) exhibit postmodern behaviour, in the context of today’s postmodern culture. </li><li> How young South African adults (Generation Y) use digital media? </li><li> How to leverage the unique properties of digital media in marketing communication efforts directed towards young South African adults (Generation Y)? </li> </ul> The main purpose of this research was to reflect on the applicability of modern marketing and/or marketing communication theories, in their current state, in the context of a postmodern society, with specific emphasis on the use of digital media. The secondary purpose of the research was to investigate the affect of postmodern variables on Generation Y and the perspective of this population towards digital media and its role in marketing communication. The study aimed to contribute to the theoretical body of knowledge as follows: <ul><li> To question the application of modern marketing and/or marketing communication theories in postmodern society. In so doing, it suggested that in any given era marketing theories should be representative of the target society, therefore inferring the need to adjust existing theories and their application or formulate new ones that are representative of the specific era. </li><li> To empirically determine whether Generation Y are exhibiting characteristics indicative of postmodern society. </li></ul> Furthermore, the study added value from a practitioner perspective by contributing to new knowledge in the study of Generation Y and digital media. It is anticipated that an improved understanding of Generation Y’s attitudes towards marketing and digital media will serve to improve knowledge of how Generation Y will react in the future as they mature and potentially provide an indication of forthcoming generations’ attitudes towards marketing. Nine research objectives emanating from the research problem were empirically tested through a cross-sectional quantitative exploratory descriptive survey research design. Items in the survey were developed on the basis of observable postmodern characteristics presented in the literature and in consultation with a panel of experts. The survey was distributed by email, which provided a web-based link to access the survey, to the sampling frame; a database comprising of 2,265 students, between the ages of 18-34, enrolled full-time with the department of Marketing and Communication Management (University of Pretoria) during 2011. Convenience sampling was used until a sufficient quantity of fully completed surveys had been collected; 333 usable questionnaires were obtained. The collected data received statistical treatment primarily through the application of exploratory factor analysis and multivariate analysis of co-variance. The theoretical synthesis showed that characteristics of postmodernism are evident in society and affect marketing and/or marketing communication activities. The results of the empirical phase of the investigation demonstrated that respondents show postmodernism traits in their behaviour towards digital media and their reactions towards brands and marketing and/or marketing communication. The most dominant postmodern characteristics displayed by respondents were hyperreality, de-differentiation and fragmentation. Several factors were found to be statistically significant, which may be related to socio-economic conditions, behavioural patterns, and digital infrastructure. These were: ethnicity, cell phone usage, frequency of social media usage, cell phone plan, average monthly Internet expenditure for cell phones, use of Internet bundles on cell phones, and the device used most often to access the Internet. Social media use was identified as an important behavioural outcome by respondents, and the most significant influencing factors related to the dependence that respondents placed on their cell phones and the need to fulfil certain activities only available in the social media space. Finally a conceptual framework was proposed, which integrated theoretical and empirical findings. This framework suggested a broadening of certain roles within marketing and/or marketing communication, namely: consumers transforming to collaborators; communication transforming to interaction; and value exchange transforming to value-in-use. It is anticipated that this study has added to the theoretical level of knowledge by indicating the need to readdress principles and theories of marketing and/or marketing communication in the context of a postmodern society and in particular the use of digital media. An outcome of the study was the proposition of a conceptual framework, which addressed a number of aspects in the transformation from modern to postmodern marketing. Furthermore, at the practitioner level the study has broadened understanding of Generation Y’s behaviour towards digital media in the marketing and/or marketing communication context. Managerial recommendations were expressed on the basis of the theoretical and empirical findings. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Marketing Management / PhD / Unrestricted

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Digital innovation (DI) has enabled businesses to enhance their existing market offerings by integrating digital features. Despite advanced technologies, substantial marketing efforts, and global recognition, businesses can still struggle to convince customers to adopt their digital market offering. This process of spreading novel innovation is known as diffusion. In the fast-growing digital world, due to the unique characteristics of DI, traditional diffusion theories and models shows limited explanatory power, creating challenges for researchers and practitioners alike. With the aim to explore these challenges, we position our research within the IS literature with the following research question: "How and why do diffusion enablers and barriers emerge during digital innovation?". We conducted an interpretive case study of Company X, one of the world's largest consulting firms and an active DI practitioner. Our findings suggest that digital innovation diffusion can be enabled or hindered by several understudied interdependencies in its technological architecture. Furthermore, for successful diffusion, how DI distributed division of labor between layers must be effectively embedded and aligned for value in the clients' context. This study provides novel insights, exciting research avenues, and a diffusion strategy for DI practitioners.

Hälso- och sjukvården behöver ständigt förbättras för att klara framtidens utmaningar och möta de krav som ställs från så väl befolkning som politisk ledning. En förutsättning för att lyckas är att systematiskt arbeta med offensiv kvalitetsutveckling och att se patienten som en medskapare. Trots att fördelarna med användarinvolvering är tydliga så sker det sällan. Denna intervjustudie, som framför allt var kvalitativ med en fenomenologisk metodansats, syftade till att bidra med kunskapsutveckling kring användarinvolvering i primärvården för att skapa en ökad organisatorisk förmåga för offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. Forskningsfrågor som besvarades var hur verksamhetschefer i primärvården såg på användarinvolvering och vilka faktorer verksamhetscheferna i primärvården upplevde som främjande respektive hämmande för användarinvolvering.  Nio verksamhetschefer i primärvården i Region Dalarna intervjuades. Resultatet från intervjuerna tematiserades utifrån offensiv kvalitetsutveckling sett som ett ledningssystem i allmänhet och Hörnstensmodellens värderingar i synnerhet. I slutsatserna framkom att användarinvolvering ansågs vara viktigt för att möta befolkningens behov men att det fanns cementerade syn- och tankesätt som bidrog till att förbättringsarbeten i regel tog sin utgångspunkt i att verksamheten utvecklade hälso- och sjukvården för användarna snarare än med. Uppfattningen var också att användarinvolvering till viss del redan skedde, även om den framför allt var av reaktiv karaktär. Genom att på andra sätt och i större utsträckning involvera användarna skulle värdet kunna öka och den personcentrerade vården ta sig uttryck i handling. Examensarbetet har genererat kunskaper om vilka faktorer som krävs för att öka och framgångsrikt arbeta med användarinvolvering. / Healthcare needs to be continously improved to meet the challenges of the future and meet the demands of both the population and politicians. A prerequisite for success is to work systematically with Total Quality Management (TQM) and to see the patient as a co-creator. Although the benefits of user involvement are clear, it rarely happens. This interview study, which was primarily qualitative with a phenomenological methodological approach, aimed to contribute with knowledge development around user involvement in primary care to create an increased organizational capacity for TQM. Research questions that were answered were how operations managers in primary care viewed user involvement and what factors the operations managers in primary care perceived as promoting or inhibiting user involvement.  Nine operation managers in primary care in the Dalarna Region were interviewed. The results from the interviews were thematized on the basis of TQM seen as a system in general and the Corner Stone Model's values in particular. The conclusions showed that user involvement was considered important to meet the needs of the population, but that there were cemented views and mindsets that contributed to improvement work usually being based on developing healthcare for users rather than with.  The perception was also that user involvement had to some extent already taken place, even though it mostly were of a reactive nature. By involving users in other ways and to a greater extent, the value could increase and the person-centered care be expressed in action. The master thesis has generated knowledge of the factors required to increase and successfully work with user involvement. / <p>2021-06-06</p>

As the demand for imported electricity from the grid continues to increase in Södermanland county, achieving a smoother load profile for the overall imports becomes very critical. The utilization of batteries in every type of a company’s infrastructure aims to provide a backup solution when the electric network’s capabilities are unable to support demand for high imported capacities. The current degree project aims to analyse the impact of a New Market Logic, which encourages the prospective stakeholders of a future industrial park to invest in upgrades of their energy infrastructures. Interviews with company employees and literature reviews were used to analyse the conventional energy system according to its power-generating entities, distribution operators, and market norms of electricity. Microsoft Excel was used to simulate a model that aligns with the research goal specifications. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to provide a better understanding of how different aspects impact the economics and the energy flows. Inventory management theory principles were applied to the design of an integrated battery charging algorithm with the goal of achieving a smother load profile while keeping a low battery capacity. The results indicated a smoother load profile of the companies, followed by a lower intensity in fluctuations during hourly peaks. Further, the author observed a positive economic impact on the yearly cash flows of the companies accompanied with a sustainable investment cost. This was particularly evident when the charges were adjusted according to the norms introduced by the New Market Logic. / <p>This thesis is a part of the integrated Master's studies program at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The author had the privilege of completing it in Sweden through the Erasmus+ Exchange program. </p>

The number of companies who base their business model on digital platforms has increased in the recent years. Successful examples of digital platforms are e.g., Airbnb, Klarna or Uber. Compared to traditional linear value chains the value creation process in digital platforms is characterized by co-creation between multiple actors who exchange resources through interactions to mutually create value. Because of this fundamental difference in the value creation process it is necessary to research value creation in digital platform. Screening the literature has however shown that there is research gap in understandthe value creation process in digital platforms. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand this context by conducting a case study-based research. For this purpose, the start-up company Eljun is chosen that creates a digital wallet for customers to proceed payments for sustainable transportations. By conducting semi-structured interviews with the central actors of the platform we received insights that allow us to answer the three research questions. The value proposition canvas for the first research question has shown that the technical integration, costs, and lack of uncertainty are negative perceived values by the actors and positive values result from synergy effects in the platform like enhancing reach and customer experience by offering complementary services. For the second question we appliedthe view of service-dominant logic to analyse what facilitates value cocreation in the platform which led to the following themes: Adopting customer centric approach, stimulating purposeful communication, fostering collaborative development, cultivating transparent and fair interaction. For the third questions we derived barriers and motivators for value co-creation that are connected to a shared mission, competition, organizational &amp; industrial readiness, number of actors and end-users, and the design of boundary resources.

The consumer behaviour is adapting within industries due to new technologies such as smart phones. As consumer behaviour changes so do companies by adapting their way of engaging and interacting with their customers. This provides potential to innovate new service offerings. Successfully launching new services which provide value for the customer is faced with risk of failure. To mitigate risks associated with failure, a clear understanding of the customer can aid with understanding what value a service offering should provide to be successfully adopted by the market. Due to customer experience being unique for each individual, personalization is a technique which could be used within software to improve the customer experience. Challenges could arise in terms of scarcity of data which can impact the performance negatively of a data driven algorithm. However, veracity is another aspect of data known to be associated with the potential to improve performance. Based on these two issues, this study conducted a sequential mixed methods study consisting of an etnographic study on Instagram to better understand the customer experience within nightlife. Furthermore, the netnographic study enabled the construction of a gold standard, which were used while conducting a GSDMM topic modelling experiment with the purpose to evaluate what topics required further pre-processing due to high ambiguity of the text content. Findings from the netnographic study and its implication for customer experience was discussed from the point of view of a software service offering. This study suggests software offerings within nightlife to improve customer experience during the pre-purchasing phase by considering aspects related to age, interests in atmosphere, type of activity, preferred music genres, spending time with friends or facilitating escapism. The discussed service has negligible control during the post-purchasing stage suggesting that the firm could innovate controlled touchpoints, such experiences can be related to anticipation, joy, celebration, social adventures, memory of previous nights out (stories), current music preferences or new desires occurring spontaneously. Upon adopting a service dominant logic, this study suggests that software services can facilitate the customer experience within nightlife through co-creation, since with the proper usage of data, network effects could occur between the customer and an organizer or venue within nightlife, but also between customer to customer. A future study is proposed to investigate how the coordination could be conducted through crowd-sourced based interactions where the software functions as an overseer of a multi-actor setting to provide further insights regarding how such coordination impacts the co-creation of value. / Konsumentbeteende förändras inom industrier mot bakgrund av att nya teknologier introduceras, till exempel smarttelefoner. Då konsumentbeteendet förändras, gör även företagen förändringar i hur de involverar och interagerar med kunder. Dessa förändringar ger möjligheter för att utveckla eller ta fram nya tjänster. Samtidigt finns utmaningar vid lansering av nya tjänster. För att minska riskerna vid lansering av nya tjänster kan en god förståelse av konsumenten tydliggöra vilket värde en tjänst bör erbjuda för att bemötas positivt av marknaden. Då kundupplevelse är unikt för varje person, kan individualiseringstekniker inom mjukvara tillämpas för att förbättra kundupplevelsen. Det kan däremot uppstå problem när det är bristfälligt med data som algoritmen kan använda sig av. Kvalité och valt fokus på data kan dock förbättra algoritmens prestationer. Mot bakgrund av de två redogjorda problemen, genomfördes en sekventiellt blandad metodstudie bestående av en nätnografisk studie på Instragram för att utöka förståelsen av kundupplevelsen inom nattlivet. Resultatet från nätnografistudien har därefter använts för att konstruera en guldstandard vilket tillämpades på en ämnesklassificerare vid namn GSDMM. Syftet med ämnesklassifikationsexperimenten var att förstå vilka ämnen som skrivs med en hög grad av tvetydighet och därför komma att kräva en mer gedigen förbehandling av den textbaserade informationen. För att tillägga, har insikter från nätnografistudien diskuterats och dess betydelse för kundupplevelsen utifrån en mjukvarutjänsts perspektiv. Studien tyder på att mjukvarutjänster inom nattlivet kan förbättra kundupplevelsen i förköpsstadiet genom att beakta aspekter relaterat till ålder, föredragen stämning, typ av aktivitet, föredragna musikgenrer, att vara med vänner eller framhävning av eskapism. Den diskuterade tjänsten har försumbar kontroll av kundupplevelsen i efterköpsstadiet, därför föreslås införandet av kontrollerbara interaktioner med tjänsten. Sådana upplevelser bör fokusera på att spänna förväntningar, glädje, firande, sociala äventyr, minnen från tidigare utgångar (berättelser), föredragen musik i stunden eller nya önskemål som uppstår spontant under utgången. Vid tillämpning av tjänstedominantlogik indikerar studien att mjukvarutjänster kan förbättra kundupplevelsen genom samskapande, eftersom vid korrekt användning av data, kan nätverkseffekter förekomma mellan dels kund och organisatör eller lokal inom nattlivet, men även mellan kund och kund. Fortsatta studier föreslås forska om hur samverkan kan koordineras genom crowdsource-baserade interaktioner där en mjukvarutjänst fungerar som kontrollant/moderator av en multi-aktörkonstellation. En sådan studie kan ge förståelse om hur koordinationen påverkar värdeskapandet under samverkan.

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Inledning: Den tillverkande industrin har länge ansetts ha en stor tillväxtpotential i en ökad tjänstefiering och att det finns en stor outnyttjad potential i tjänster för sålda produkter som kan realiseras genom intäkter för tidigare upplevda gratistjänster genom en process som kallas Free-to-Fee. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka tillverkande företags interna förståelse av de processer som leder till behovet att genomföra en Free-to-Fee-transition, det vill säga hur man idag hanterar tjänster relativt produkter i sina erbjudanden till marknaden och varför man i vissa fall inkluderar tjänster “gratis” i samband med en produktförsäljning.  Metod: Vi har valt att göra en studie med semistrukturerade intervjuer av medarbetare på större tillverkande företag med erfarenhet av att arbeta med tjänsteaffären. Medarbetarna återfinns på stora tillverkande företag inom olika branscher. Slutsats: Vi har funnit att intresset för tjänstefiering och Free-to-Fee övergångar är mycket begränsade, även om det finns en förståelse för värdet av en mer tjänstedominant affärslogik. Industrin är starkt påverkad av traditioner och institutioner där tjänster betraktas som adderat värde i en produktdominant affärslogik. / Introduction: The manufacturing industry has been perceived to have a substantial growth potential in an increased servitization. There is a great untapped potential for service for already sold products that can be realized through a transition from free services to paid service, in a process called Free-to-Fee. Purpose: The purpose with the study is to investigate manufacturing companies internal understanding of the processes that leads to the need to conduct a Free-to-Fee transition, how they today manage service related to products in their offerings to the market and why services are included for free, in some cases with a product sales.  Method: We have chosen to conduct a study of semi structured interviews with professionals working in manufacturing companies, with experience from the service business. The professionals are found at major manufacturing companies representing different branches.  Conclusion: We found that the interest for servitization and Free-to-Fee transitions is very limited, even if there is an understanding of the value of a more Service-Dominant Logic. The industry is strongly affected by traditions and service is perceived as an added value in a Product-Dominant Logic.