Human beings are described by many spiritual traditions as ‘blind’ or ‘asleep’ or ‘in a dream.’ These terms refers to the limited attenuated state of consciousness of most human beings caught up in patterns of conditioned thought, feeling and perception, which prevent the development of our latent, higher spiritual possibilities. In the words of Idries Shah: “Man, like a sleepwalker who suddenly ‘comes to’ on some lonely road has in general no correct idea as to his origins or his destiny.” In some religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, the myth of the ‘Fall from the Garden of Eden’ symbolizes the loss of the primordial state through the veiling of higher consciousness. Other traditions use similar metaphors to describe the spiritual condition of humanity:

The Human Condition.

We discuss and explore the effects of internationalization, an entrepreneurial strategy employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on firm performance. Using concepts derived from the international business and entrepreneurship literatures, we develop four hypotheses that relate the extent of foreign direct investment (FDI) and exporting activity, and the relative use of alliances, to the corporate performance of internationalizing SMEs. Using a sample of 164 Japanese SMEs to test these hypotheses, we find that the positive impact of internationalization on performance extends primarily from the extent of a firm's FDI activity. We also find evidence consistent with the perspective that firms face a liability of foreignness. When firms first begin FDI activity, profitability declines, but greater levels of FDI are associated with higher performance. Exporting moderates the relationship FDI has with performance, as pursuing a strategy of high exporting concurrent with high FDI is less profitable than one that involves lower levels of exports when FDI levels are high. Finally, we find that alliances with partners with local knowledge can be an effective strategy to overcome the deficiencies SMEs face in resources and capabilities, when they expand into international markets. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The internationalization and performance of SMEs

Because extant literature on the service logic of marketing is dominated by a metaphorical view of value co-creation, the roles of both service providers and customers remain analytically unspecified, without a theoretically sound foundation for value creation or co-creation. This article analyzes value creation and co-creation in service by analytically defining the roles of the customer and the firm, as well as the scope, locus, and nature of value and value creation. Value creation refers to customers’ creation of value-in-use; co-creation is a function of interaction. Both the firm’s and the customer’s actions can be categorized by spheres (provider, joint, customer), and their interactions are either direct or indirect, leading to different forms of value creation and co-creation. This conceptualization of value creation spheres extends knowledge about how value-in-use emerges and how value creation can be managed; it also emphasizes the pivotal role of direct interactions for value co-creation opportunities.

Critical service logic: making sense of value creation and co-creation

Purpose – In the discussion on service‐dominant logic and its consequences for value creation and marketing the inner meaning of the value‐in‐use notion and the nature of service marketing have not been considered thoroughly. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the meaning of a service logic as a logic for consumption and provision, respectively, and explore the consequences for value creation and marketing.Design/methodology/approach – Being a research‐based paper, the topic is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development.Findings – Discussing the differences between value‐in‐exchange and value‐in‐use, the paper concludes that value‐in‐exchange in essence concerns resources used as a value foundation which are aimed at facilitating customers' fulfilment of value‐in‐use. When accepting value‐in‐use as a foundational value creation concept customers are the value creators. Adopting a service logic makes it possible for firms to get involved with their customers' value‐generating proces...

Service logic revisited: who creates value? And who co‐creates?

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/20885.pdf

How to Sustain the Customer Experience:: An Overview of Experience Components that Co-create Value With the Customer

In marketing and consumer research, consumers have been increasingly theorized as producers. However, these theorizations do not take all facets of consumers’ productive role into account. This pap...

/pdf/working-consumers-the-next-step-in-marketing-theory-574vhen5nz.pdf

Working consumers: the next step in marketing theory?:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarize and classify extant research and to better understand the past, present, and future state of the theory of value co-creation. Its main objectives are: to identify the different theoretical perspectives and research streams that characterize and define the co-creation literature, and to highlight the connections between them; to look for emerging trends and gaps in the literature by comparing the most recent papers with those representing the field's core. Design/methodology/approach – The paper relies on bibliometric data: co-citation techniques were employed to select, analyze, and interpret citation patterns within the co-creation literature. Findings – The paper identified two main clusters, as well as specific research streams and common themes, representing scholarly journals’ publications on co-creation over the past years. These research streams and themes apply three different theoretical perspectives: service science, innovation and technology m...

Theory of value co-creation: a systematic literature review

This special issue continues the critical engagement with the popular discourses of Prahalad’s value co-creation paradigm and Vargo and Lusch’s service-dominant logic of marketing. The intensity of the debate among marketing scholars over these two marketing and management concepts demonstrates how much is at stake – conceptually and politically – when the roles of consumer and producer become blurred. Economic concepts of value, ownership, consumption, and production need to be redefined, and political ideas of the relationship between the social and the economic require addressing in the age of cognitive, or as we call it, collaborative capitalism. In addition to these broad theoretical challenges, the contributions in this issue zoom in on what arguably constitutes the central question for our specific field: What are the implications of a collaborative capitalism for understanding the place of marketing techniques in value creation? As with all good scholarship, the essays in this issue do not provide definitive answers but instead lead to a more elaborate set of questions. By doing so, they broaden the critical engagement with value co-creation in marketing.

Critical Perspectives on Consumers' Role as 'Producers': Broadening the Debate on Value Co-Creation in Marketing Processes

This special issue continues the critical engagement with the popular discourses of Prahalad’s value co-creation paradigm and Vargo and Lusch’s service-dominant logic of marketing. The intensity of the debate among marketing scholars over these two marketing and management concepts demonstrates how much is at stake — conceptually and politically — when the roles of consumer and producer become blurred. Economic concepts of value, ownership, consumption, and production need to be redefined, and political ideas of the relationship between the social and the economic require addressing in the age of cognitive, or as we call it, collaborative capitalism. In addition to these broad theoretical challenges, the contributions in this issue zoom in on what arguably constitutes the central question for our specific field: What are the implications of a collaborative capitalism for understanding the place of marketing techniques in value creation? As with all good scholarship, the essays in this issue do not provide...

Critical perspectives on consumers' role as 'producers': Broadening the debate on value co-creation in marketing processes.

Consumers’ appraisals of brand-related stimuli originating from both marketer- and non- marketer-controlled sources of information may evoke negative emotional reactions toward certain brands. We derive a scale that includes six distinct brand-related negative emotions (anger, discontent, dislike, embarrassment, sadness, and worry). Studies 1 through 4 demonstrate that our scale achieves convergent and discriminant validity and provides superior insight and better predictions compared to extant emotion scales. Study 5 manipulates specific negative brand-related emotions and reveals that they predict particular behavioral outcomes (i.e., switching, complaining, and negative word of mouth).

Daniele Dalli

Papers

Working consumers: the next step in marketing theory?:

Theory of value co-creation: a systematic literature review

Critical Perspectives on Consumers' Role as 'Producers': Broadening the Debate on Value Co-Creation in Marketing Processes

Critical perspectives on consumers' role as 'producers': Broadening the debate on value co-creation in marketing processes.

Emotions that Drive Consumers Away from Brands: Measuring Negative Emotions Toward Brands and Their Behavioral Effects