Rethinking Customer Solutions: From Product Bundles to Relational Processes

The application of digital technology is a crucial means to achieve low-carbon development goals, with supplier firms’ digital transformation driving supply chain optimization as a key pathway to this goal. This study systematically examines the forward spillover effects of supplier firms’ digital transformation. Using panel data from A-share listed companies in China over the period 2007–2022, we focus on vertical supply chain linkages. The results indicate that supplier firms’ digital transformation significantly reduces customer firms’ environmental pollution emissions, a conclusion that remains robust across various tests. Moreover, we find that this effect is asymmetric: it is significantly stronger when suppliers’ digitalization levels exceed those of their customers. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the pollution-reduction effect is stronger when customer firms are located in regions with lower resource endowments, have higher supply-chain dependence, operate in non-heavy-pollution industries, or are non-state-owned enterprises. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that supplier digitalization achieves these gains by enhancing green technological innovation and increasing external stakeholder attention. The findings provide a foundation for fully leveraging the environmental potential of digital transformation within supply chains and offer important insights into advancing supply chain modernization and promoting green, high-quality development.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-24812-z.

PurposeFor successful servitization, manufacturing firms must understand how their customers adopt new services. The purpose of this paper is to explore customers’ readiness for a manufacturer’s new services to complement its goods. The goal is to increase knowledge of the aspects that manufacturers should consider when bringing new kinds of services to market.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study design is used to analyze readiness for services and interest in service adoption in three customer firms of a manufacturer. The interview data were collected from 14 persons at customer sites and were content analyzed.FindingsThe results show that readiness – a concept that is often used in the field of technology – is relevant also for the service adoption process. In a business-to-business context, readiness for service adoption concerns the individual and organizational levels, and hence a new dimension of organizational culture and habits had to be added to the concept that originally focuses on individuals. People consider different factors when making consecutive decisions during the service adoption process and these factors can vary even within a company. The cornerstone for new service adoption is the customer firm’s actual need for the service.Originality/valueThe results offer new knowledge about service adoption in a business-to-business context by taking a customer firm’s perspective. They, thus, complement previous studies on the supplier perspective of servitization and service adoption in consumer business. The contributions help manufacturers focus their efforts when bringing new services to market.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how the power dynamics between the client firm and the supplier firm in the information technology outsourcing (ITO) supplier chain influence the supplier firm's human resource management (HRM) practices, particularly talent retention.Design/methodology/approachA multi-case study approach was adopted comprising four supplier firms, three client firms and a total of 53 interviews. The transaction cost economics (TCE) is the theoretical lens that guides the interpretation of our findings.FindingsThe power dynamics between client and supplier firms in the ITO supply chain is one underpinned by TCE theory, characterised by an asymmetric client-dominated, transactional relationship, with the client firms controlling the “why”, the “what”, and the “how” dimensions of their collaboration. This “three-dimensional control” led to high talent turnover in supplier firms, which boomerangs to perpetuate the power dynamic, forming “vicious cycles of talent turnover” in the ITO supplier chain. Originality/valueNo previous study has analysed power dynamics as an external factor on ITO supplier firms' talent retention. The construct of the “three-dimensional-control” offers a framework to study power dynamics in the ITO supplier chain. The study’s framework of the “vicious cycles of talent turnover” is the first that explains the mechanisms through which the power dynamics in the ITO influences supplier's talent retention.

In the food delivery sector, the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has grown significantly. An important player in the Indian market for online food ordering and delivery, Swiggy, has been looking into how AI could improve its business processes and customer support. This topic intends to analyze the research on artificial intelligence (AI) utilisation in the food delivery sector and investigate its possible uses for Swiggy. The paper covers several AI applications and their effects on many business elements, such as logistics optimization algorithms, NLP-based chat bots, and picture recognition-based recommendation systems. According to the study, Swiggy could boost customer service, increase delivery efficiency, and give users tailored recommendations if it used AI. However, it is essential to assure the moral use of AI and address any potential privacy and prejudice issues. The study comes to the conclusion that AI offers a lot of potential for enhancing Swiggy's business processes and customer service, which would eventually improve customer satisfaction and retention. To do the findings of this topic the sample size of 400 restaurants were taken into account to know the customer preference and the service provided by the restauramt partners in the Swiggy platform and to rectify there problems and issues faced by them in accepting the orders and their online presence in the Swiggy app so that there customer ratings and service can be increased.

The extant scholarship has concentrated on the macro-level interorganizational interactions within business-to-business (B2B) relationships. However, granular-level phenomena, particularly the resistive behaviors of individual B2B relationship managers, have not been adequately scrutinized. Grounded in resource dependence theory, the study examines the ramifications of B2B relationship manager resistance within customer firms on acquiring customer knowledge by entrepreneurial suppliers, with subsequent implications for product innovation. An empirical analysis of data from 135 entrepreneurial entities within the nascent blockchain industry indicates that the resistance from customer firms’ B2B relationship managers exerts a substantive detrimental effect on the supplier's innovation outcomes, a process that is mediated by the diminished assimilation of customer knowledge. This article further discerns two salient organizational competencies—customer involvement capability and relational capability—as moderating variables that can attenuate the negative repercussions of B2B relationship manager resistance. By shedding light on the mediating function of customer knowledge assimilation and addressing the impact of individual-level resistance in the specific milieu of an emergent technological field, this study augments the corpus of B2B literature, offering novel insights into the intricate dynamics at the microinteractional level.

Inter-firm learning and knowledge-sharing in multinational networks: An outsourced organization's perspective

A review of the literature on stereotypes about Chicanas/os reveals that people of Mexican descent are perceived predominantly in derogatory terms, with the few positive terms primarily related to the centrality of the family for this ethnic community. This review also indicates that Chicanas/os themselves often endorse these stereotypes. However, the extant literature has not examined the counseling process in relation to consensual, social stereotypes of this ethnic group. This article serves to bridge that gap in the literature. Counselors are strongly encouraged to be cognizant of how stereotypes may affect Chicanas/os, especially in areas related to identity, risky behavior, stereotype threat, education, gender roles, and stigmatization. Counselors are encouraged to increase racial awareness as part of the mental health development of their Chicana/o clients. Counselors are particularly challenged to examine how their own conscious and unconscious stereotypes may affect the counselor-client relationship. Future research directions are also discussed.

Supplier firms in business-to-business (B2B) contexts increasingly are introducing digital sales channels. This marks a fundamental change for salespeople, in particular, given the extended capabilities of contemporary digital sales applications. While prior research has begun to explore the benefits of introducing digital sales channels for salespeople, insights into the challenges remain vague and fragmented. In addition, knowledge about contextual boundary conditions that help salespeople cope with the introduction of digital sales channels is scarce. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key decision-makers from supplier firms (21 interviews) and buyer firms (18 interviews), this article advances current theoretical knowledge by identifying three main challenges for salespeople, namely (1) the amplification of professional purchasing’s strategic reorientation, (2) the threat of purchasers pitting personal and digital sales channels against each other, and (3) tightrope acts in buyer education. Furthermore, this research offers insights into contextual boundary conditions, which are (1) sales buy-in for e-commerce and (2) sales empowerment for multichannel selling. These findings extend personal selling, multichannel, and strategic change implementation research. Moreover, they offer actionable practical implications.

The changing consumer expectations requires an innovative and advanced technological model in the textile retail. In line with the changing trend towards customers, the customised services are highly appreciated. The use of technology is essential for the effective and efficient way of operating the retail businesses in India. In this juncture, this present study is executed to reveal the reality of business development and customer care excellence through innovative technologies. This research work is aims to establish the role of innovative technology in customer service excellence. This study follows the descriptive and analytical research method. The data has been collected directly from selected organized retail stores from South India, especially from the metropolitan cities. A sum of 45 textile retailers has been interviewed for the purpose of collecting data. Subsequently, a sum of 45 customers has been randomly selected to collect the information related to the role of technology in customer experience. The collected data has been analysed with statistical data. The data expresses descriptive statistics of various operative instruments of sample retail stores in the study area. Subsequently, the analysis on the customer side, portraits that product identification, suggestions, purchase ideas, shopping analysis, reward points details, customer queries, availability of kiosks, availability of wifi, and payment gateways facilities. On the whole, the business development and customer service enhancement of retail textile stores have been taken place through the technological adaptation.KeywordsTechnologyInnovationRetailCustomerService and business

When a buyer firm and a supplier firm plan to transact, what factors drive their choice of mechanism to govern the relationship? Focusing on contract-governed versus joint venture–governed relationships, the authors present a theoretical framework that specifies the conditions that make one or the other form of relationship structure more appropriate. This study was designed to address potential limitations regarding measurement, financial consequences, and context in the extant literature. The authors employ measures derived from Standard & Poor's Compustat financial database and an overall measure of firm reputation to examine empirically differences in firm characteristics across the two types of relationships. To examine the financial consequences of relationship structure, the authors use event-study techniques that tie stock price reactions to the governance mechanism choice. The results suggest that buyers and suppliers are more likely to form a joint venture (versus simple contract) when (1) the supplier's degree of asset specificity is high, (2) monitoring the supplier's behavior is difficult, and (3) the supplier has a poorer reputation. The authors find that vertical joint ventures (between buyers and suppliers) are economically similar to contracts, to the extent that abnormal wealth gains go solely to the supplier firms. Horizontal joint ventures (partners are at the same level of the value chain), however, provide bilateral, synergistic wealth gains. The results suggest that buyers and suppliers can use joint ventures to reduce certain governance problems rather than to gain synergies.

This research qualitatively characterized the subjective concept of counseling and psychotherapy of faculty working at a public university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the Middle East, and how they embraced this concept when teaching psychology related courses. Using Grounded Theory Analysis as a general methodological framework, this study was based on the analysis of 14 face-to-face in-depth interviews with psychology faculty members. The results revealed that the interviewees regarded the teaching of psychology and counseling as a relational process that leads to personal growth, both for the patient/student and for the faculty/therapist, implying that both cultural and intersubjective dimensions should be considered. As further implications, it is concluded that all the psychologists interviewed stated that the relational and ethnographic dimensions of counseling should be incorporated into training psychologists in the UAE.

Irrelevant answers in customers’ earnings communication conferences and suppliers’ cash holdings

Customer loyalty has emerged as a strategic imperative for most firms. Many studies conducted in different industries have empirically proven that the overall perception of service quality is one of the essential factors to establish customer loyalty. The value of these empirical findings per se has been questioned because of the derivative information for lack of specificity and diagnostic usefulness to managers. Moreover, extant literature has signified the nature of the relationship between service quality and customer behavior to be disparate. These purported disparities may result from prior research on the basis of global-level analysis. Thus, this study is intended to examine the nature (including main, curvilinear and moderation) of the relationships between service quality and customer loyalty at the service-attribute level. Service quality is conceptualised in terms of four service attributes: personnel, operational, physical and merchandise. Customer loyalty consists of two behavioural indicators: visiting frequency and amount spent per visiting. The research sample was drawn from the customer database of a large wholesalers located at the metropolitan area of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Regression analyses were performed to analyse the hypotheses under study. Most empirical results have confirmed evidence available in the extant literature and highlighted the complex nature of the quality–loyalty relationship. By implication, these disparate relationships identified in prior global-level studies may coexist when the basis of research analysis was on the attribute level. The research findings derived from the attribute-level analysis, we believe, may provide important information to both academics and practitioners.

PurposeThe emergence and rapid expansion of social media platforms have transformed the dynamics of consumer–brand communication. While consumer–brand relationship is driven on marketing campaigns in regular manner, social media (e.g. WeChat groups) creates boundaryless connections between external forces (e.g. customer community engagement) and internal resources (e.g. sales force). Therefore, this paper aims to provide a firm–customer synergistic perspective to explain service performance (SP) through service customization, which is significantly contributing to the research of consumer–brand relationship field in the current era.Design/methodology/approachA survey including two sets of questionnaires are employed for data collection, with one completed by frontline salesperson of Casarte and the other by their customers. A total of 242 dyadic-level data are adopted to test the hypothesis.FindingsThe findings shed light on the mechanism that drive SP by firm–customer interactions. These insights hold distinct managerial implications for firms seeking to leverage digital tools to efficiently meet customer demands.Originality/valueThis study contributes to understanding consumer–brand relationship within social media environment. It offers a synergistic perspective combined both outside-in and inside-out thinking, and explains how consumer–brand relationship can be fostered from both customers and salespeople. It highlights the significance of customer community engagement and salespeople dynamic learning capability as crucial factors in building strong consumer–brand relationship.

Two decision support systems were developed in order to help managers of small firms. The first is an inventory decision support system that utilizes both the fixed quantity model, the fixed period model, as well as forecasting techniques both for new and old products. The second is a support system for field (customer) service which utilizes a queueing network model and a simulation model. Both models are useful tools for strategic allocation of resources by a field (customer) service manager in order to improve customer service. The contribution of the paper is (i) the integration of the two support systems into a single unified DSS that will help the Logistics and Field (Customer) Service managers in their decision making; (ii) the use of the simulation field service model which is more powerful than the Markovian queueing model as it allows more realistic distributions to be used for the operation and repair times than the exponential distribution, (iii) the novel provision of powerful facilities such as the product forecasting techniques that were utilized by our support system. The proposed logistics DSS has been successfully tested with an authorized service provider of a local subsidiary of a multinational computer company which sells computer systems and integrated solution services, including after sale services (maintenance, etc).