Roderick J. Brodie’s research while affiliated with University of Auckland and other places

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis for healthcare systems worldwide. There have been significant challenges to managing public and private health care and related services systems’ capacity to cope with testing, treatment and containment of the virus. Drawing on the foundational research by Frow et al. (2019), the paper explores how adopting a service ecosystem perspective provides insight into the complexity of healthcare systems during times of extreme stress and uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach A healthcare framework based on a review of the service ecosystem literature is developed, and the COVID-19 crisis in Australia provides an illustrative case. Findings The study demonstrates how the service ecosystem perspective provides new insight into the dynamics and multilayered nature of a healthcare system during a pandemic. Three propositions are developed that offer directions for future research and managerial applications. Practical implications The research provides an understanding of the relevance of managerial flexibility, innovation, learning and knowledge sharing, which offers opportunities leading to greater resilience in the healthcare system. In particular, the research addresses how service providers in the service ecosystem learn from this pandemic to inform future practices. Originality/value The service ecosystem perspective for health care offers fresh thinking and an understanding of how a shared worldview, institutional practices and supportive and disruptive factors influence the systems’ overall well-being during a crisis such as COVID-19.

Business school leaders would like to attract and keep the top research talent in order to stay competitive, attract high-potential students, and recruit the most promising young faculty. To accomplish these objectives, a successful research environment for its business academic researchers needs to be established, so that they can produce a sustainable research stream. We examine important antecedents including business school research strategy, leadership, governance, and policy, and from these we develop a set of conditions that are related to long-term success of research programs in academic business institution. As detailed illustrations, we elaborate the experiences of two active research institutions—the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group and the Contemporary Marketing Practices (CMP) Group — and discuss how each of these groups has implemented the conditions for success. We conclude with general observations on the environmental conditions most conducive to sustainable business school research, and present implications regarding the role of the journal editor as a gatekeeper.

The paper investigates the complexity associated with the valence of actor engagement in the service network and develops a research agenda for future studies in this area. The psychological foundations of valence are explored, and studies on the valence of engagement from the marketing discipline are analysed in order to provide more insights into the nature of the valence of actor engagement. This leads to the development of five sets of propositions that define the conceptual domain of the valence of actor engagement and provide a future research agenda in the area. The paper integrates different conceptual approaches to the valence of actor engagement in the service network. In particular, the study identifies various factors that influence an actor’s positive and negative psychological dispositions and discusses engagement ambivalence, which results from the combination of positive and negative dispositions. The paper addresses the relationship between service network factors and the valence of actor engagement and engagement behaviours. We provide a comprehensive understanding of the valence of engagement in actor networks by taking into account different dimensions that define the conceptual domain, which leads to an agenda for future research. We conceptualise the valence of engagement in actor networks. In doing so, we recognise actor engagement ambivalence resulting from different positive and negative actor dispositions.

In a recent article the authors used the “United Breaks Guitar” case (Authors, 2017), to explore the complexity of the dynamics of multi-actor engagement. The research revealed the complex nature of engagement associated with the changing number of individual and organisational actors, interactions, connections and networks, and the diverse actors’ dispositions. In this follow-up study we revisit findings in the light of the April 9, 2017 crisis due to United Airlines (UA) forcefully removing a passenger from an overbooked flight. This study provides empirical validation and refinement of the conceptual model proposed in the authors’ previous research. We address why an even more severe crisis occurred with UA. Particular attention is given to the increased connectivity that have occurred with social media and the interface with traditional broadcast media. Implications for crisis management in service delivery are developed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to refine an agenda concerning the theory–praxis gap to develop a foundation for a research tradition. Design/methodology/approach The paper synthesizes and builds on the suggestions in commentary articles by Kohli (2017), Leeflang (2017) and Möller (2017). Findings The authors develop a research agenda consisting of the following issues: the need for a systemic view of business practice; the need for innovative and meaningful theoretical understanding; the need to identify conditions and approaches for collaborative theorizing; to further define and instruct the abductive approach; and to explore pragmatic realism to ensure both practical outcomes and truthful theories. Originality/value These five issues are a step towards developing a theory–praxis research tradition.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and delineate research directions that guide future empirical studies exploring how engagement platforms facilitate value co-creation and actor engagement in the context of the sharing economy. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopt a midrange theorizing approach with service-dominant logic as the integrating meta-theoretical perspective to develop a theoretical framework about service platforms, engagement platforms, and actor engagement in information communication technology (ICT) mediated environments. The authors then contextualize the framework for the sharing economy. Findings The authors introduce 20 unique research questions to guide future studies related to service ecosystems, engagement platforms, and actor engagement practices in the context of the sharing economy. Research limitations/implications The sharing economy is an emerging phenomenon that is driven by the development and proliferation of engagement platforms. The engagement platform concept therefore provides a novel perspective for exploration of how ICT can be utilized to facilitate value co-creation and engagement amongst interdependent economic actors in a service ecosystem. Practical implications The purpose of this paper is to guide future academic research, rather than managerial practice. Future research based on the framework can help guide decision-makers to implement and use engagement platforms more effectively. Originality/value This paper offers new insight into the important intersection of ICT and service research, and guides future studies exploring the role of engagement platforms in the context of the sharing economy.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamic process of multi-actor engagement by examining how it evolves and spreads in actor networks. The authors challenge the dyadic perspective adopted by previous research. Design/methodology/approach An abductive theorizing approach uses a longitudinal case study to develop a theoretical framework of the iterative process of multi-actor engagement. The authors draw on the contemporary literature on engagement, service-dominant logic and value propositions. Findings The research shows that engagement conditions, via actors’ appraisals, lead to engagement properties and result in engagement outcomes as the new conditions for the next iteration. Changes within this multi-actor engagement process lead the network to evolve over time. Research limitations/implications The authors highlight the importance of adopting a dynamic multi-actor perspective of engagement and provide foundations for further research. The use of longitudinal methods that focus on the groups of actors in the evolving network is a key consideration. Practical implications There is the need to understand and measure the dynamic process of engagement among different groups of actors within networks in the service context. Originality/value This is the first empirical study to explore the dynamics of engagement among multiple actors in the network. This leads to the expansion of Storbacka et al.’s (2016) conceptual work by identifying the iterative nature of the multi-actor engagement process, and new components in the process (i.e. actors’ connections, value propositions and engagement outcomes), as well as clarifying existing ones (e.g. engagement properties and actors’ appraisals).

A new theoretical framework is developed to scrutinize the strategic advantage for branding. The theoretical framework applies both at the firm level, for the marketing of individual brands and corporate brands, and also to branding where a marketing agent plays a facilitating role within a community or industry. The framework presents branding as a dynamic capability held by a marketing agent within a market network. Two interrelated processes are involved: (i) managing brand identity and (ii) facilitating integration with the social processes that co-create brand meanings for buyers, sellers, and other actors. The social complexity of this dynamic capability makes the brand difficult to imitate and so provides a strong strategic advantage for the marketing organization. An agenda for future research is developed and the article concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

Purpose While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer lives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intersubjective hermeneutic framework that bridges the socially constructed as well as the individualised meanings of brand engagement in the context of service research. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper adopts a theory-building approach based on recent developments in the service-centric marketing literature. Findings The authors offer a novel theoretical perspective that recognises the intersubjective and phenomenological nature of individual and collective consumer brand experiences, and show how such experiences emerge from socially constructed brand engagement practices using the co-constituting lens of value-in-use. Research limitations/implications The proposed conceptual framework invites further empirical and contextual investigations of intersubjective brand engagement in both online and offline contexts. Originality/value The contribution of this framework is twofold. First, the authors draw on the intersubjective orientation and hermeneutic framework to provide conceptual clarity in relation to the nature of brand engagement practices, brand experiences, and value-in-use, and discuss their interrelationships. Second, the authors address the nature of meaning ascribed to engagement beyond customer-firm-brand relationships, and discuss why any given consumer’s experience of brand engagement reflects a complex dialectic between socially constructed and individualised brand meanings. In doing so, the integrative framework recognises the interplay between the intersubjective and phenomenological natures of consumer brand experiences, and offers insights as to how these experiences are framed by broader socially constructed engagement practices.