Reflexive methodology - new vistas for qualitative research: Media Reviews

The underpinning logic of value co-creation in service logic is analysed. It is observed that some of the 10 foundational premises of the so-called service-dominant logic do not fully support an understanding of value creation and co-creation in a way that is meaningful for theoretical development and decision making in business and marketing practice. Without a thorough understanding of the interaction concept, the locus as well as nature and content of value co-creation cannot be identified. Value co-creation easily becomes a concept without substance. Based on the analysis in the present article, it is observed that the unique contribution of a service perspective on business (service logic) is not that customers always are co-creators of value, but rather that under certain circumstances the service provider gets opportunities to co-create value together with its customers. Finally, seven statements included in six of the foundational premises are reformulated accordingly.

Value co-creation in service logic: A critical analysis:

The Social Contexts of Research. Edited by Saad Z. Nagi and Ronald G. Corwin. Pp. xii + 409. (John Wiley: New York and London, August 1972.) £5.65.

Sociology of Science

Digital Transformation: A Multidisciplinary Reflection and Research Agenda

This book opens a fresh chapter in the debate on local enterprise clusters and their strategies for upgrading in the global economy. The authors employ a novel conceptual framework in their research on industrial clusters in Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide new perspectives and insights for researchers and policymakers alike.

Governance in global value chains

Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Foundations, comparison, and a research agenda

It is a characteristic of the IMP approach in studying business markets that the emphasis is placed upon rich description and efforts to understand the underlying processes behind interaction between organizations in networks, rather than on the formulation of managerial checklists and decision rules. For this reason, while IMP scholars have made some interesting and profound contributions to the explicit literature on management strategy, the overall contribution of the IMP approach to the strategy literature has been fairly slim. The purpose of this paper is to compare the IMP approach with five important schools of thought in strategy, with the aims of establishing what areas of agreement and disagreement exist and identifying whether the IMP approach can yield unique insights into strategy, strategizing, and the strategy process. We compare and contrast the IMP approach with, in turn, the rational planning approach to strategy associated with Ansoff, the positioning approach associated with Porter, the resource-based view associated with Barney, the deliberate/emergent approach associated with Mintzberg, and the strategy-as-practice approach associated with Whittington. As we move through these five schools of thought – which are addressed in a roughly chronological order – we discern an increasing degree of alignment with the assumptions and methods of IMP scholars. The outcome from our analysis is a suggested research agenda designed to bring the concepts and methods of industrial network research to bear upon strategy, strategizing, and the strategy process.

Strategic Thinking and the IMP Approach: a Comparative Analysis

https://impgroup.org/uploads/papers/5622.pdf

Strategic thinking and the IMP approach : A comparative analysis

This article examines how IKEA handles a complex network of business relationships with its suppliers and partners. This industrial network is fundamental to IKEA's strategy in terms of efficiency and development goals. From the analysis of IKEA's experiences in dealing with its industrial network, the article discusses a set of struaural components and dynamic interactions of a network strategy. The three structural components are: defining the content of relationships; forming the network structure; and evaluating goal matching with the network. The two dynamic interactions are: interacting via inter-organizational routines for efficiency goals; and interacting via joint projects for development goals. Network strategies cannot be used as shortcuts to compensate for severe weaknesses, but instead can only be pursued by firms that possess adequate competences, external organizational interfaces, and network-oriented cultures.

Enrico Baraldi

Papers

Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Foundations, comparison, and a research agenda

Strategic Thinking and the IMP Approach: a Comparative Analysis

Strategic thinking and the IMP approach : A comparative analysis

Strategy in industrial networks : Experiences from IKEA

Identifying new dimensions of business incubation: A multi-level analysis of Karolinska Institute's incubation system