Measuring the Digital Divide: A Framework for the Analysis of Cross-Country Differences

This article proposes a new model for measuring the digital divide within a set of countries or geographical areas. Starting from a series of elementary indicators the methodology groups these indicators into six factors of digitalization and, subsequently, aggregates the factors in a synthetic index called the synthetic index of digitalization. The dispersion in the distribution of the synthetic indexes of digitalization constitutes the measure of the digital divide. This method is based upon a measurement approach, which is different from the ones previously developed, since it uses principal components analysis for aggregating the variables and avoids many of the problems and limits shown by existing models. In the article an application of the methodology is provided within a set of ten developed countries for 2000 and 2001. The measurement framework for the digital divide presented here reveals new policy implications for public institutions and highlights opportunities and risks for managers working in the ‘digital economy’ environment

Free upgrades with costly consequences: can preferential treatment inflate customers’ entitlement and induce negative behaviors?

Purpose Companies often provide preferential treatment, such as free upgrades, to customers. The present study aims to identify a costly consequence of such preferential treatment (i.e. opportunistic behavior) and reveal which type of customer is most likely to engage in that negative behavior (i.e. new customers). Design/methodology/approach Across two experimental studies, the authors test whether preferential treatment increases customers’ entitlement, which in turn increases their propensity to behave opportunistically. Moderated mediation analysis further tests whether that mediated effect is moderated by customers’ prior relationship with the company. Findings Preferential treatment increases feelings of entitlement, which consequently triggers customers’ opportunistic behaviors. New customers are more likely to feel entitled after preferential treatment than repeat customers, and hence new customers are more likely to behave opportunistically. Preferential treatment also increases customers’ suspicion of the company’s motives, but suspicion was unrelated to opportunistic behavior. Research limitations/implications Future research may focus on other marketplace situations that trigger entitlement and explore whether multiple occurrences of preferential treatment provide different effects on consumers. Practical implications Present findings demonstrate that preferential treatment can evoke opportunistic behaviors among customers. The authors suggest that preferential treatment should be provided to customers who previously invested in their relationship with a company (i.e. repeat customers) rather than new customers. Originality/value Prior research has focused more on the ways companies prioritize their repeat customers than how they surprise their new customers. The present research instead examines preferential treatment based on customers’ relationship with a firm (i.e. both repeat and new customers) and demonstrates behavioral and contextual effects of entitlement

Fueling innovation management research: Future directions and five forward‐looking paths

Research about innovation management explores how the future is created—who is creating it (organizations, collaborations, etc.), for what aims (customer satisfaction, market performance, etc.), and with what broader effects (social, environmental, etc.). With this extended essay, we explore the potential futures of innovation management research in three ways. First, we briefly review the history of past research agendas and priorities published in the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), highlighting three broad topic areas (technological, social/environmental, and organizational) that have emerged over time and their potential disruptive implications for innovation management research. Second, we describe the outcome of a gathering of leading scholars in innovation management tasked with the challenge of identifying critical research paths for our field. This collaboration resulted in five “deep dive” essays into areas ripe for innovation management research in the years ahead: liquid innovation, artificial intelligence in innovation, business model innovation, public value innovation, and responsible innovation. Third, we reflect on this expansive effort and offer a discussion of implications (tensions, challenges, and opportunities) for future innovation management scholarship

Gap di progettazione: come innovare e sviluppare nuovi servizi

Analisi dei processi di sviluppo dei nuovi servizi attraverso la prospettiva della Service-Dominant Logic

Le tappe principali del dibattito sul marketing dei servizi

Review sui principali contributi scientifici che hanno caratterizzato la nascita e lo sviluppo della tematica del marketing dei serviz

The Ties that Bind: How Cooperative Norms and Readiness to Change Shape the Role of Established Relationships in B-to-B E-Commerce

Mainstream research indicates that close, long-term ties with business customers have beneficial effects; however, an alternative stream advances the possibility of a “dark side” of close relations, especially when the original conditions of the relationships change. This empirical study investigates how established buyer–seller relationships respond to significant changes in their exchange context by considering the value of close ties in the presence of an e-commerce strategy, which generally represents a radical shift. By exploring both the direct effects of close, long-term ties on e-commerce success and the moderating effects of two key contingency factors (partners’ readiness and cooperative norms), this study reveals that the mere presence of strong, long-term customer relationships cannot guarantee performance improvements or enhance e-commerce potential. Instead, the two contingency factors modify the role of established relationships, making them as either points of strength or weakness in presence of a change. These findings suggest important theoretical and managerial insights

Information Technology and Small Businesses

Today, critical IT solutions are instruments for strategic changes in business processes, whose adoption and impact likely follow different rules than those expected for automation. For this reason this book has two basic purposes, which are reflected in the content of its two main parts: • To build a coherent model explaining IT adoption among SMEs (part one); and • To investigate the conditions under which such technologies may improve the performance of SMEs (part two)

What makes crowdfunding projects successful ‘before’ and ‘during’ the campaign?

This chapter sets out to deepen the understanding of crowdfunding campaigns, and investigates a hand-collected database of 500 projects taken from Kickstarter.com, the biggest crowdfunding website in terms of revenue. Through a logistic regression and mediation model, our study tries to explain which are the predictors that can help reaching the funding goal of a crowdfunding initiative