Worldwide, more than 1/3 of all e-commerce transactions in business-to-consumer industries are nowadays executed via mobile devices (Criteo, 2015). Despite its increasing importance, it can be noted that mobile commerce does not seem to “take-off” equally across diverse goods and services contexts. We observe, for instance, that mobile commerce is quite common in service industries for purchasing tickets (e.g., for flights, public transportation, and sport events), while it is less common for services such as financial products. Balasubramanian et al. (2002) addressed this issue and proposed that contexts of m-commerce differ from each other with regard to several characteristics. For example, they propose that location sensitivity (among other characteristics) differs for various m-commerce applications, and that this characteristic may impact acceptance of m-commerce across industries. It may be that acceptance of m-commerce is higher in some industries since use of location sensitive data is appreciated by customers, while it is not valued in other purchasing contexts. Against this background, we propose that examining (1) risk perception related to mobile commerce and (2) different types of mobile commerce applications are essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of differing relevance of m-commerce across industries. In particular, our study acknowledges the differential roles of the financial, performance, and security facets of risk. In addition, we assume that the role of value and risk dimensions differs subject to three mobile commerce application characteristics which are location sensitivity, time criticality, and extent of control. Based on a dataset of 800 respondents, results of our models demonstrate that especially security risk can act as a critical inhibitor of acceptance. The extent to which performance risk and financial risk impact perceived usefulness was found to be moderated by the three contextual characteristics. From a managerial perspective, results show which factors should deliberately be considered in the development of m-commerce applications, and in which different application contexts they matter.

Although the relationship marketing literature acknowledges the importance of switching costs for increasing customer retention in general, little is known about its relevance in industrial markets. In particular, it is unclear whether switching costs and its dimensions impact relevant behavioral outcomes of buyer-seller relationships in business-to-business (B2B) markets. Against this background, our research intends to make two main contributions: Since we assume differential effects for different types of switching costs, our research first explores the dimensions of switching costs for the B2B domain. Second, it tests the relative impact of the dimensions of switching costs on business customers’ actual purchase behavior. Results suggest that switching costs in B2B settings are a multi-faceted construct, including (i) procedural, (ii) financial, and (iii) relational switching costs. Moreover, we find relational switching costs to be most important for securing B2B buyer-seller relationships since they impact a customer’s (a) share-of-wallet, (b) cross buying behavior, and (c) actual switching behavior. While procedural switching costs only influence share-of-wallet, financial switching costs solely impact customer’s cross-buying behavior across a firm’s product and services categories. These findings contribute to a better understanding about how to secure B2B buyer-seller relationships.

The importance of frontline employees (FLEs) for the success of organizations is recognized by researches and practitioners alike. However, their importance for the innovativeness of companies resulting from their boundary spanning role is often underestimated and has received little attention in prior research. The present paper identifies individual and firm-level factors that explain variations in idea collecting behaviors of FLEs. To test the hypotheses, data was collected from 31 different managers from the automotive, construction, IT, machinery, and chemicals sectors. In addition, a total of corresponding 237 FLEs were surveyed and matched to the firm-level data. Results of our study show that FLEs’ idea gathering is positively influenced by job satisfaction, desire for upward mobility, and lack of resources. Role ambiguity between FLEs and the employer decreases FLEs intention to gather ideas. Dissemination behavior is enforced by inter-sender role conflicts and reduced by role conflicts resulting from a lack of resources. Both dimensions of idea generation depend on the presence of a strong internal network. On a firm-level, learning orientation and providing feedback to FLEs are found to strengthen the interrelationship between idea gathering and dissemination. Based on these findings, implications for management and research are derived.

Research on new product development has emphasized the importance of integrating customers, employees, and suppliers in an organization’s innovation processes. While several studies evaluate respective participatory processes, there is, surprisingly, no consensus on which dimension participation quality consists of, and how to measure them consistently. The present study contributes to the literature by identifying the dimensions of participation quality and by constructing a participation quality scale that includes six dimensions, namely (1) project-related resources, (2) early involvement, (3) degree of influence, (4) transparency of processes, (5) incentive mechanisms, and (6) voluntariness of participation. Furthermore, a 24-item measure of participation quality is developed using a mixed-method design. Results of our study show that the developed measure impacts important innovation-related outcomes such as innovation performance, acceptance of the innovation, and intention to participate in future innovation projects. Given that the six identified dimensions of participation quality differentially affect these outcomes, the scale provides the opportunity to better design participatory innovation projects, and thus helps managers to integrate stakeholders more successfully in these projects.