فصلنامه مدیریت بازرگانی
سال چهاردهم شماره 53 (پاییز 1401)

Research into customer engagement with the brand is on the rise, but so far little empirical work has been done on user engagement with the brand on media platforms. Since the competition among Iranian media platforms to attract and retain users is increasing and because the platforms are trying to increase the number of their users, identifying and explaining the components affecting user engagement are of high importance. The present study was done to investigate user engagement with the brand in the domestically created and launched Iranian media platform named “Rubika”.

The statistical population of the study included 419 users of Rubika. The required data was gathered via the distribution of online questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized for designing a model and Smart PLS3 software was used to analyze the collected data.

The achieved results showed that user engagement, user participation, and brand self-expression have a positive effect on the various dimensions of consumer engagement with the brand i.e. cognitive, emotional processing, and activation. Also, the dimensions of consumer engagement with the brand were proved to have a positive effect on brand loyalty and value creation in the Rubica platform. Value co-creation is a process in which the consumer and the brand are closely involved in the production of value, which makes brands able to use the positive experiences and ideas of their consumers and users to improve and develop new products.

This study is a continuation of a research piece carried out by Algharabat et al. (2019) that proposed testing and validation of the Consumer Brand Engagement Scale (CBE) by Middle-Eastern media, for future studies. The findings of the current research introduce user engagement as the key to promoting brand loyalty and value co-creation in the Rubica media platform. Co-creating value in media platforms to engage users with the brand can prevent them from Switching Behavior i.e. shifting to similar media platforms. Therefore, user engagement can improve the benefits and values ​​perceived by the user, lead to greater satisfaction with service relationships and increase customer value creation behaviors. Accordingly, Rubika can engage users with its service creation process (such as knowledge generation, discussion, and information exchange) to develop positive values ​​that benefit both Rubika and its users.

The fast technological change and increasing intensity of competitive environment have led to different types of innovation, including product and process innovation. However, this does not to guarantee firms’ success unless they adopt a holistic approach to innovation through business model innovation (BMI). As imitating BMI is not easy for competitors, it’s an efficient business experiment to attain a sustainable competitive advantage. By reviewing the existing literature on BMI, we concluded that one of the notable overlooked research streams is the analysis of BMI impact on firms’ performance. In this regard, this paper investigates the impact of BMI and its four dimensions (product, process, organizational and marketing innovation) on the performance of the tenants (firms) located at the Sharif Science and Technology (S&T) Park and highlights the moderating effect of networking and knowledge-based status of tenants.

The statistical population of this research includes firms located at the Sharif S&T Park which are 70 as of the summer 2020. Data to test our hypotheses was gathered by distributing questionnaires - formulated through the literature review and the Community Innovation Survey’s questionnaire - in the fall and summer of 2020. Among the filled questionnaires 59 ones were consideres as the basis for our statistical analysis. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis to test our hypotheses by SmartPLS3 software. Validity and reliability of constructs were also verified by Cronbach’s Alpha, composite reliability and average variance.

The obtained results proved the positive and significant impact of BMI on the tenants’ performance. Among BMI’s dimensions, product and marketing innovation had also significant positive effect on the tenants’ performance. On the other hand, the impact of process and organizational innovation on the tenants’ performance was not significant and these two hypotheses were accordingly rejected. Besides, the positive, significant, and moderating impact of both moderators were confirmed.

Our contribution involves analyzing BMI in overlooked S&T park tenants which are small and newly established firms. In the academic literature, research on BMI is dominantly focused on large firms. Therefore, research on BMI in tenants is another novel aspect of this paper. Studied firms, Sharif S&T Park tenants, are generally small and dedicate most of their resources to product innovation; however, they neglect process and organizational innovation. Insignificant impact of process and organizational innovation on performance implies that tenants’ capabilities should be strengthened in these BMI dimensions. As our findings suggests, Sharif S&T Park tenants’ performance is not influenced by process and organizational innovation. Despite due to the limitations on generalization the achieved results, this paper provides theoretical and managerial implications to both tenants and the managers to reinforce BMI and its dimensions, particularly, process and organizational innovation of tenants.

Market research often begins with two assumptions; first, consumers are able to choose among desirable products, and second, they have sufficient resources to buy them. However, many consumer decisions are constrained by the scarcity of products. In recent years, product scarcity has been used in marketing as a business phenomenon and the issue has received increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. The available academic literature discusses a wide variety of subjects investigated based on various theories, using different research methods in a diverse range of settings. However, this diversity makes it difficult to obtain the core themes and findings and also to recognize the outstanding knowledge gaps. The purpose of this article is to review previous studies on the use of product scarcity in marketing and also to identify new directions for future research. The review was conducted for two

initially, to describe the current state of research on the use of product scarcity in marketing, and second, to identify the present gaps in the current literature to highlight opportunities for future research. In particular, this review sought to answer the following: How can different types of product scarcity help firms improve their marketing performance, and what factors need to be considered in the process?

The present research is conducted based on the systematic literature review method. In the first step, while determining and specifying the subject of study, the research questions were developed in accordance with the research design. In the next step, the research protocol was designed and an appropriate mental model was designed, accordingly. Subsequently, inclusion and exclusion criteria were determined. Accordingly, the comprehensive and systematic search began within the literature and 914 studies were selected. After classifying, screening, and evaluating their quality, 66 studies were finally examined in depth and the required data were collected. 

The analysis of the identified papers led to the development of a conceptual framework to describe the key factors of product scarcity and how these factors influence both consumers and the market. The established framework indicated that the use of product scarcity in marketing depends on consumer characteristics, types of scarcity, and types of products. The use has different impacts on consumers. By purchasing scarce products, consumers satisfy their needs for uniqueness, conformity, behavioral freedom, and/or avoiding future regret. All of the above can increase consumers’ perception of the value of products and consequently boost their willingness to purchase.

This paper systematically reviewed a sample of previous studies on product scarcity, with a focus on the use of product scarcity as an effective marketing strategy to improve market as well as firm performance. The analysis of the identified literature highlighted the main findings obtained so far, summarised the underlying theories for product scarcity in marketing, and developed a framework based on the key factors and causal relationships. The analysis of the identified papers proves substantial gaps in our knowledge of this field, opening up new paths for future research. Based on the current review, we see a key limitation resulting from the lack of research uncovering the process black box between product scarcity and performance improvement. This is also largely caused by the lack of high-quality case studies on this issue in the existing literature.

Today, technological developments and business restructuring have highlighted the need for new leadership styles to overcome uncertainties. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the impact of digital leadership on firm performance in dynamic environments by explaining the mediating role of dynamic capabilities, business model innovation, and sustainable competitive advantage.

The current study is an applied descriptive survey. Its statistical population includes a group of managers of knowledge-based companies based in Tehran province. The sample size was calculated by G-Power 3.1 software, which included 244 individuals. The non-probability method was used for sampling and 240 questionnaires were distributed by conducting an online survey. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed. Descriptive data were analyzed by SPSS software version 26 and a research model based on structural equation modeling using Smart PLS software version 3.

This study confirmed the direct and indirect effects of digital leadership on firm performance through the dynamic capabilities and business model innovation. It rejected the direct effect of digital leadership on sustainable competitive advantage, however, its indirect effect was confirmed. In addition, the perceived environmental dynamics only moderated the relationship between dynamic capabilities and business model innovation, sustainable competitive advantage, and firm performance.

Digital transformation of companies can be a challenging task in leadership and a high interconnectedness of virtual teams via technology could cause an identity crisis for leaders. Therefore, leaders’ role is changing and the new trends in the business environment require a new paradigm for future leadership. In sum, the findings of this study can provide an important combination of managerial and theoretical perspectives. The results underline the valuable information for addressing emerging challenges and opportunities in the digital age as well as the transformations to guide, support, and manage personnel, especially under the COVID-19 Pandemic, when digital leadership plays an important role in transformation in order to guide, support and manage personnel in the digital era and it provides key insights for leaders to enhance their digital leadership skills by abandoning traditional leadership styles. Navigating a dynamic environment in the digital era requires digital leadership that combines leadership capabilities with optimizing digital opportunities and threats to ensure a sustainable and profitable organization. Leaders of knowledge-based companies must develop their individual capacity and competence to manage uncertainty and create organizations with strong dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities are important to create numerous business model innovations, especially in the digital era.

Social bundling strategy is an extensive business approach to pricing based on the company's marketing strategies, which involves offering two or more products for sale as an item. In industries that are active in competitive markets and have a diverse product range, the bundling strategy can be effective. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of designing a social bundling model in the home appliance industry using the Grounded theory.

This is mixed research applying both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The statistical population of the study consisted of company managers, marketing managers, and university professors. Since experts in this field are not easily identifiable, the snowball sampling method was used. In the snowball method, the first group of experts is used to identify and select the next sampling units. In this method, sampling is continued until the categories reach theoretical saturation. The data collection tool, in the qualitative part, was a semi-structured interview. In the quantitative part, a questionnaire was used to gather the required data. To evaluate the validity, the Creswell model was used in the qualitative part and the content validity and the reliability of the in-coder and inter-coder were calculated. In the quantitative part, content validity and test-retest reliability were measured.

this study, to present the research model, the Strauss and Corbin grounded theory was applied. The main elements of Strauss and Corbin, included causal conditions, underlying factors, interfering factors, pivotal phenomena, and strategies and consequences, which were identified using ATLAS.ti software and coding methods.

The results of the study present a model including causal conditions (macro-industry policies, competitive market, and sanctions), contextual conditions (culture, organizational performance, and organic structure), and interventionist ones (alignment with economic status and organizational effectiveness). This study also introduces the central phenomenon (sales, pricing, and relationship with customers), presents social bundling strategies (specialist force in sales, advertising media, and market research), and identifies the related consequences (profitability, brand equity, and easy shopping). In this study, the social bundling model is presented based on the three pivots of sales, pricing, and relationship with customers.

In recent years, due to the increase in the use of influencers to introduce and promote products and services for companies, influencer marketing has been widely considered as an important and effective advertising tool. On the other hand, with the significant growth of social media among Internet users across the globe. For an instance, Instagram is used as one of the most popular social media in Iran as an advertising tool to increase access to consumers. But the most important issue is the selection of the most appropriate influencers by companies to send their advertising messages to their audience. As a result, companies need to consider some criteria to make the right choice in this regard. The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the characteristics of the right influencers active in the food industry to advertise products on Instagram as a social media platform.

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and uses a mixed method approach consisting of two phases. In the first stage, through doing library research, reviewing the available literature and conducting semi-structured interviews with seven experts in the field of food industry, the factors that play a pivotal role in selecting the right influencers were identified. Then, in the second stage, the identified indicators were prioritized and weighted by experts through the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) questionnaire. Finally, Lingo and Excel software were used to prioritize the solutions identified in the previous step.

The findings of the present study could identify the most appropriate indicators for selecting the right influencers on Instagram, which were classified into two main categories. The first category was related to the content of the influencers’ pages on the platform i.e. number of the followers, comments of the users, reaching followers, previous experiences on the rate of return on investment, topic distribution, and topic engagement rate. The second category included the personal characteristics of the influencers i.e. brand congruence with the influencer, congruence between the audience and the influencer, influencer reputation, honesty and credibility of the influencer and the influencer expertise. Prioritization of these indicators indicated that “the rate of user involvement with the subject” and “reputation of the influencer” are the most important indicators, and “brand congruence with the influencer” and “the number of followers” are the least important indicators identified for choosing an influencer for the food industry.

According to the results of the FUCOM analysis among the identified indicators, ‘’topic engagement rate’’ is the most important indicator in the influencer page features category and ‘’influencer reputation’’ is the most important indicator in the influencer personal characteristics category. In order to achieve maximum efficiency in the field of influencer marketing, companies need to consider these indicators for evaluating influencers to select the appropriate ones.

Marketing of industrial goods, like other organizational functions in companies, is constantly changing. Marketing and sales departments with different levels in various industries are being developed. To ensure that the approaches, tools, concepts, and models provided by this study can be implemented in the best way, it is essential to use a coordinated reference framework in the form of the B2B marketing maturity model. This model allows B2B marketing managers to assess the relevant level of maturity of their marketing department and, accordingly, identify appropriate actions. The purpose of this approach is to prevent the implementation of very complex activities and projects in sectors that do not match the dimensions of the maturity model. In addition, the other purpose of this study is to protect B2B marketing managers from making mistakes and assist them with achieving a stable position among rival industrial companies.

Due to the lack of knowledge and guidance for leading the organizations in relation to this phenomenon, this study aimed to present a B2B marketing maturity model for them. For this purpose, the articles published within the period from early 2013 to the end of November 2021 were reviewed systematically. The content of the articles was coded and analyzed using the Grounded Theory and MAXQDA software.

Based on the performed analyses, codes were extracted including 331 concepts and 20 main categories. Next, relying on the systematic approach of the Grounded Theory, the identified codes were classified into six categories including main phenomenon, causal conditions, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences.

Based on the obtained results, the six aforementioned categories include: 1) Causal categories i.e. the new roles of leadership in B2B business, policy-making, B2B marketing budget, investment, supporting B2B marketing, B2B marketing organization and performance management indicators; 2) Central (axial) categories i.e. identifying the dimensions of B2B marketing maturity model, B2B marketing organizational chart, mission description, B2B marketing authority and responsibilities, capabilities and competencies of B2B marketing staff; 3) Strategic categories i.e. B2B marketing strategy, digital / non-digital strategy, digital business model, value creation in the value chain; 4) Contextual categories i.e. B2B marketing operations and process, B2B marketing tools and platforms; 5) Interventionist categories i.e. organizational change management; and 6) Consequential categories i.e. gaining competitive advantage in B2B marketing organizations/companies through B2B dimension management, improving the quality of B2B marketing services, increasing customer satisfaction, and key indicators of B2B marketing performance. It is obvious that in B2B marketing maturity model special attention should be paid to these categories.