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PurposeThis paper aims to look at what CRM 2.0 is and how it impacts customer insights. It will show how CRM 2.0's incorporation of social tools and strategies with traditional operational functions meets the demands of twenty‐first century "social" customers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a combination of independent research by the author for the last decade and third‐party sources. This means direct client consulting, interviews with senior corporate management and copious access to expert sources and documents.FindingsThe new breed of customer requires corporate transparency, authenticity and interaction. To affect this intelligent, aggressive social consumer, richer insight than that of the past is necessary. CRM and social tools use combined provides the capability for this insight.Research limitations/implicationsCRM 2.0 as a fully integrated strategy and system remains immature, though the integration of CRM traditional technologies with social networks is ongoing and increasingly coexistent. CRM 2.0 thus must be seen as strategically maturing but technologically immature.Practical implicationsAny company that understands that their customers are demanding something more and different will adopt CRM 2.0 strategies to gain greater insight into their customers and to support creation of mutual value.Originality/valueBy systematically providing an understanding of how contemporary customers act and what they demand and how CRM 2.0 satisfies that, this adds to contemporary scholarship and modern business practice.

Purpose– This paper aims to explore the necessary mechanisms for coordination in complex industrial networks which are temporary in nature, known as temporary organisations (TOs).Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based on two in-depth case studies conducted in the UK construction industry.Findings– The paper outlines the necessary mechanisms for coordination in TOs – referred to as "scaffolding practices" – which ensure consistency (stability in terms of thinking and action), consensus (agreement) and co-constitutiveness (personal pledges and commitments).Research limitations/implications– The study provides practical implications for situations where actors create temporary organisational specific logics. This "logic" helps explain how actors are able to undertake tasks of finite duration where members lack familiarity and have competing loyalties.Originality/value– The paper is novel in that it represents the first extant attempt to examine "temporary industrial organizations" where individuals from different (often competing) organisations collaborate on a task for a defined period and suggests how coordination may be achieved.

PurposeFacing increasing global competition, firms must ceaselessly acquire new knowledge and enhance their capabilities in response to rapidly changing customer requirements. Amidst the varying collaborative relationships that occur between firms, it is particularly important for firms to learn from international joint ventures. However, few existing studies have explored this issue empirically. Rooted in the organizational learning perspective, this study seeks to investigate the learning intent, learning process and learning outcomes of host parent companies taking part in international joint ventures, and to propose and verify a theoretical model of learning for host parent companies.Design/methodology/approachThe study used Taiwanese firms as research objects and employed the survey method to collect sample data. In total, 64 international joint ventures involving Taiwanese firms were collected and analyzed. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between latent constructs, such as learning intent, learning process and learning outcome. Thus, the structural equation modeling approach was adopted to test the theoretical model. However, the sample size used in this study was small, so the partial least squares (PLS) method was employed.FindingsThe empirical results showed that a parent company's learning outcome is affected by the interaction between the parent company and the joint venture, as well as the internal knowledge integration capacity of the parent company. The interaction between the parent company and the joint venture will simultaneously drive the parent's intra‐organisational knowledge integration. Moreover, the parent company's strategic intent to learning from the joint venture will affect the parent company's knowledge integration, along with the interaction between the parent company and the joint venture. Likewise, the parent company's learning intent will affect its evaluation of the joint venture's knowledge, while further influencing its intra‐organizational knowledge integration.Originality/valueThe paper combines the perspectives of learning intent, learning process and learning outcomes in order to propose and test empirically a model that explains how the host parents of developing countries enhance their knowledge and capabilities by means of international joint ventures. Thus, the study attends to the deficiency of the literature in addressing the field of learning through international joint ventures. It also provides some insights and suggestions for firms that regard alliance strategy as a learning opportunity for enhancing a firm's knowledge base and organizational capabilities.

PurposeFirms collaborate for many reasons; however, sharing resources would seem a primary motive. This paper seeks to argue that in many instances firms collaborate to become part of a knowledge network – to learn about their industry and collectively use their knowledge to serve their own customers more effectively in a competitive environment.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper; however, the authors illustrate the work with examples from the automotive industry.FindingsThe authors conclude that it is necessary to expand traditional approaches to understanding networks to include the nature and purpose of the interactions between the firms, as well as the structural features of the network and the development of shared meaning and consensus among the network participants.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors demonstrate the need to take a broader view of learning and collaboration in networks.Practical implicationsThe automotive and other industries are beginning to witness firms collaborating with competitors and other firms that can add value through collective learning. What seems certain is that for many industries the basis of future competition will be collaborative learning communities versus collaborative learning communities rather than OEM versus OEM in competing for resources and market share.Originality/valueThe paper examines how and why firms interact and how this influences what learning is shared, and how such learning is utilised by the firms involved. The paper explores the concept of collective learning, and discusses how the nature and purpose of the interactions between network partners facilitate key learning capabilities.

PurposeThis study sets out to examine the relationship between firms' learning orientation and network collaboration. The aim is to investigate how learning orientation enhances network collaboration and to discuss the role of the co‐innovation focus in the learning orientation‐network collaboration relationship.Design/methodology/approachBased on a partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling analysis of 90 small and medium‐sized industrial firms (SMEs), the study tests hypotheses regarding how two diverse learning orientations – i.e. exploration and exploitation – precede firms' network collaboration.FindingsThe analysis shows that learning drives firms' co‐innovation focus in terms of product and process co‐innovation. In particular, the explorative learning orientation is found to foster firms' network collaboration through product co‐innovation. Exploitative learning orientation promotes process innovations but discourages networking.Practical implicationsA key implication for business practitioners is the understanding that SMEs' explorative learning approaches drive their network collaboration. The development of novel product innovation calls for learning with partners in inter‐organizational networks, whereas process improvements rely on the firm's intra‐organizational learning.Originality/valueThe paper provides evidence of the connection between firms' learning orientation, co‐innovation focus, and networking. Thus, it contributes to the literature on organizational learning, innovation management, and business networks by explicating how learning drives a firm's networking through its co‐innovation focus.

PurposeThis paper seeks to give empirical examples of the processes whereby networks learn to collaborate. Specifically, the authors aim to examine efforts to learn to collaborate in response to the challenge of climate change.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses case study research methods to examine concepts previously developed in the literature and propose a conceptual framework of barriers to learning to collaborate.FindingsExisting research on collaboration over environmental issues highlights the prevalence of cognitive deficiencies, an abundance of conflicts and disputes and the ignorance of exchange opportunities among interdependent actors. Based on a theoretical review and an empirical case study, the authors put forward a framework that involves three stages. The paper proposes that networks learning to collaborate undergo a process of: framing the problem; negotiating; and achieving wise trades.Practical implicationsAt all three of the stages given above, there are significant cognitive biases, which can lead to failure to learn to collaborate. The paper gives examples that should help businesses and regulators to understand and avoid in‐built barriers that could lead to a failure of the network to learn to collaborate.Originality/valueThe paper reviews a number of research disciplines linked to collaboration and gives an empirical case study that explores their links. The authors then propose a conceptual framework of barriers to learning to collaborate, which can be used to help guide practitioners. Failure to learn to collaborate can be found in the many contemporary cases of conflicts and disputes; such as in the areas of intellectual property rights, international trade, inter‐firm alliances and vertical marketing systems.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the process of the arrival of technological change and how the learning process impacts on network evolution.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses longitudinal, case‐based qualitative research to illustrate the network dynamics underpinning two technological generations.FindingsThe arrival of technological change not only is a pivotal event concerning a firm's long‐term competitiveness, but also challenges the firm's ability to manage its portfolio of relationships and balance its position in the evolution of business nets. Such an arrival process can be viewed as a learning process, where the firm learns how to devise appropriate strategies based on its inter‐organizational interaction history to cope with the rapidly changing environment, for example technological changes.Originality/valueThe findings illustrate the value of analyzing technological change from a network perspective. They illustrate the complexity of the process and show that, despite cooperation and collaboration, relationships are constrained and/or enabled by organisational learning. Relationships are determined by a plethora of issues such as strategic fit, functional fit and time fit.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify why and how organizational network legitimacy facilitates firms' access to knowledge networks and reciprocal knowledge exchange between stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachThe study involves a managerially oriented inductive interpretative research, with empirical evidence sourced from a single in‐depth case study, complemented by hands‐on experience with the industry.FindingsSubsidiaries of multinationals operating in China's politically sensitive and protective mobility technology market have stronger proactive and collaborative aspirations towards exploiting emerging technological opportunities in the external environment and developing technological capabilities because they are more inclined to pursue organizational network legitimacy initiatives.Research limitations/implicationsHow organizational network legitimacy is produced, where does it become manifest, and at what administrative layers within China's politically sensitive and protective telecommunications are systematic empirical research questions that could be examined in the future.Practical implicationsInternalizing, driven only by market and/or technology legitimacy, falls short of realizing the organizational network legitimacy goal. It must also include cognitive understanding of the net sum of relational, investment and social legitimacies, as these are cognitively binding as well as benefiting with respect to subsidiaries of multinationals in accessing knowledge networks.Originality/valueThe paper underscores the importance of studying organizational network legitimacy and how it impacts on firms' access to knowledge networks, in a politically sensitive and protective Chinese mobility technology market.

A new dominant logic for marketing has evolved, one that sees both firms and customers as resource integrators. Proponents of this new marketing logic have called for the refinement and elaboration of this resource integration concept and a more explicit connection to the interactivity and networking literature. We address this need by exploring these literatures and drawing inferences for value creation. In particular, we explore how value creation in marketing is reliant upon organizational learning. To do this we draw upon structuration theory as a means of explaining the relationship between organizational and individual learning. We then explore how this relationship helps a firm to improve its value creation capabilities. We examine three key aspects of the structuration process of organizational learning: (1) the structural properties that enable and constrain learning practices; (2) the ways in which knowledgeable individuals carry out learning practices; and (3) the social processes in which learning practices are embedded. We illustrate these processes with the example of a typical network relationship dilemma in the construction industry. We then conclude by highlighting the ways in which our framework captures the central role that marketing plays in enhancing the organization's capacity and capability to engage in knowledge management, organizational learning, and value creation and what that means to both the customer and the organization.

PurposeThis paper aims to develop a conceptual framework based on the identification and examination of the mechanisms (termed "viability mechanisms") under which market-shaping activities yield the emergence of a viable market: one able to adapt to the changing environment over time while remaining stable enough for actors to benefit from it.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses extant literature to build a conceptual framework identifying viability mechanisms for market shaping and a case illustration examining how a viable market for Finnish timber high-rise buildings was created. The case exemplifies how the identified viability mechanisms are practically manifested through proactive market shaping.FindingsThe proposed conceptual framework incorporates four viability mechanisms identified in the extant literature: presence of dissipative structures, consonance among system elements, resonance among system elements and reinforcing and balancing feedback loops. It illustrates how these mechanisms are manifested in a contemporary case setting resulting in a viable market.Practical implicationsFirst, firms and other market-shaping organizations should look for, or themselves foster, viability mechanisms within their market-shaping strategies. Second, as failure rates in innovation are extremely high, managers should seek to identify or influence viability mechanisms to avoid premature commercialization of innovations.Originality/valueThis study identifies how these viability mechanisms permit markets to emerge and survive over time. Further, it illuminates the workings of the non-linear relationship between actor-level market-shaping actions and system-level market changes. As such, it provides a "missing link" to the scholarly and managerial discourse on market-shaping strategies. Unlike much extant market-shaping literature, this study draws substantively on the systems literature.

Purpose
Recent research places an increased emphasis on the inclusion of the customer in value creation, learning and innovation processes; yet, there remains a gap in the understanding of just how such customer involvement may work. This paper aims to address this gap by examining two aspects of customer involvement – their knowledgeability and their agency. In addition, three boundaries (semantic, syntactic and pragmatic) across which relationship development occurs and which may facilitate and/or inhibit value co-creation, collaborative learning and innovation processes have been explored.


Design/methodology/approach
Three case studies have been used. Two were large-scale construction projects in the UK, and one was a global professional accounting firm in the USA.


Findings
Customers may become frustrated if not allowed to exercise their agency. However, their involvement can create tensions for suppliers who may have to become more tolerant of divergent goals. In respect of knowledgeability, it was found that constraint satisfaction is important in allowing customers to reconcile their personal knowledge schema with the collective schema. However, it was also noted that customer knowledgeability brings with it challenges for suppliers, who must find ways to add value for such customers.


Research limitations/implications
A number of further questions relating to the agency and knowledgeability of customers and their inclusion in value co-creation, collaborative learning and innovation processes have been posed. The need for guidance in identifying and minimising the barriers to crossing semantic, syntactic and pragmatic boundaries between customers and suppliers has also been highlighted.


Originality/value
This study makes an important contribution to research in the field, in that how the inclusion of the customer in business networks alters current assumptions and practices is investigated.

Resource integration, as it relates to value creation, has recently been a key aspect of the discussions about service-dominant (S-D) logic. However, the majority of research pays relatively little explicit attention to the process of theorizing and the epistomological and ontological assumptions upon which the theorizing process is based. This article addresses these issues. The processes that relate to theorizing and developing strong theory are discussed. We then examine how to conceptualize 'resources' and 'resource integration' following differing ontological and epistemological assumptions that guide the theorizing process. Research recommendations to help navigate through the finer details underlying the theorizing process and to advance a general theory of resource integration are developed.