CALL FOR PAPERS

2024-10-28

SPECIAL ISSUE: Innovation in Marketing and in Services in a digital transformation context

Deadline for submitting abstracts (max. 1000 words): 15 January 2025

Download PDF

 

The BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC STUDIES: Presentation

 BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC STUDIES (BE) is a peer-reviewed and Open Access journal (https://bee.revistas.deusto.es/) that publishes since 1942, in Spanish and English, original manuscripts that primarily aim at disseminating knowledge and promoting the transference of research outputs in economics and business management.

Specifically, this journal seeks a deepening into the practical contributions and implications that are relevant, not only to the academia, but also -and especially- to an international professional audience in the economics and management arena. Indeed, BEE pursues submissions that convey the transference of cutting-edge from authors that have recently developed research works (publications in top-ranked academic journals -preferably, Q1&Q2 Scopus/WoS- or competitive research projects), in a style and language oriented to the community of managers or practitioners from different areas of management and economics. As stated in the BEE's editorial policy and author guide, contributions must be between 2,500 and 5,000 words (excluding references, tables or graphs), emphasizing implications and practical lessons learned.

The Bulletin of Economic Studies is edited by Deusto Business Alumni (DBA) (https://www.alumnidba.es/), the community where Deusto Business School Alumni gather. This community is made up of 7,000 people who work in more than 2,700 different companies, covering the whole range of positions and areas. In 2022 Deusto Business Alumni celebrates 100 years of life. The Association was born with the purpose of fostering the spirit of collaboration among its members and after all these years, it continues to be its primary value. 

Special issue: Innovation in marketing and services in a context of digital transformation.

In recent years, digitisation in organisations has brought new opportunities to add digital services to the traditional offer in tangible goods, as well as intangible goods. This opportunity to innovate through the addition of digital services to tangible product offerings presents numerous challenges (Opazo-Basáez et al., 2022; Favoretto et al., 2022). Thus, several authors indicate that moving from selling tangible products to selling solutions presents cultural challenges, as selling from tangible to intangible goods involves a change of mindset (Rabetino et al., 2021). Furthermore, the relationship moves from a dyadic to a multilateral relationship where, in addition to the customer and the manufacturer, other actors such as consultants, KIBS, other technology providers or integrators can be involved. (Narvaiza et al., 2024). Some authors refer to the collective innovation process that involves a broad set of actors inside and outside of the service ecosystem (Vargo et al., 2024). In this context value creation is joint (Sjödin et al., 2020), therefore we would be talking about co-creation in a nested ecosystem (Lusch and Nambisan, 2015) and these relationships go from transactional to relational and are maintained over an extended period of time. Another element of interest is that the inclusion of digital technologies is driving traditional business paradigms towards more sustainable approaches (Guandalini, 2022). Despite the growing interest in service innovation, on the one hand, many manufacturing companies that add services and digital services do not yet services do not end up invoicing as expected, and on the other hand, their customers are finding it difficult to exploit the possibilities of these services (Kohtamaki et al., 2020). As an explanation, different authors highlight the multidimensionality of innovation in digital services, being a phenomenon that simultaneously involves the creation of customer-centric services, the development of digital innovations (including applications), and innovation in business models based on value propositions developed in ecosystems (Rabetino et al., 2024).

Digitisation is also contributing to marketing innovation in sectors such as health, retail, commerce, entertainment, finance and education. In these service-focused sectors, in many cases their business model is changing, driven by digitalisation, and they are also facing numerous challenges, such as information and knowledge management (Mahavarpour et al., 2023) or value co-creation (Suárez-Álvarez et al., 2021).

Therefore, the motivation for this special issue is to discuss how innovation in digital services can be developed both in the industrial context as well as in other contexts (education, health, finance, entertainment, commerce). This Special Issue invites contributions for consideration on, among others, the following topics.

- Value proposition and its perception by the manufacturer and the customer. What internal levers of the manufacturer can be articulated so that the service offer is internalised throughout the organisation? How to move from a product mindset to a service-oriented mindset? How can we get the customer ready for new services adoption?

- Co-creation of value through the integration of products, services and software. How should the integrated offering of products, services and software be articulated to co-create value together with the customer? How should the stages of the buying/selling process be? What prices could be set in the design phase? How should the digital solution be delivered to international customers?

- Culture and leadership: How to get digital services companies to focus on discovery and entrepreneurship? How do senior managers legitimise and support this ongoing change? How to deploy a culture that combines continuous change due to the infusion of services, and disruptive and discontinuous changes due to digitalisation?

- Adaptation of organisations: How does the provider need to adapt its organisation in order to develop appropriate solutions? What changes customers need to implement in order to adopt new digital services? How to achieve greater agility in product-service development processes? How to get all departments to act in an aligned way? Creation of separate digital services departments or not? Under what conditions?

- Innovation in business models, and ecosystem and network management. What business models can help to overcome the digital paradox based on new value configurations, alternative revenue streams and specific pricing models? What mechanisms need to be articulated for proper coordination and collaboration of all actors in the ecosystem throughout the life cycle? How can multi-actor business models be managed to develop integrated digital solutions? How can multi-stakeholder business models be managed to develop integrated digital solutions? How are traditional business boundaries affected by the increasing number of actors in the value network? How to drive open innovation?

- Knowledge and skills: What knowledge and skills do manufacturer's employees need to develop in order to achieve the learning required to sell solutions? How should customer employees in different departments be upgraded to adopt new digital services?

How to articulate the need for exploration and exploitation in digital services? How to manage knowledge for the development of new services?

- Digital services and performance: How do digital services affect business performance? What investments are required to capture value through digitisation of services? What combination of factors linked to digital services can lead to increased performance?

- Services and sustainability: How can service innovation contribute to sustainability goals in companies? How can digital transformation drive the sustainability of organisations?

- The digitisation of services: How is digitisation being embedded in sectors such as retail, commerce, banking, health, education, entertainment and others? What challenges do these sectors face in incorporating digital services?

References

Favoretto, C., Mendes, G.H.S., Oliveira, M.G., Cauchick-Miguel, P.A. and Coreynen, W. (2022). “From servitization to digital servitization: how digitalization transforms companies‘ transition towards services“, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 102, pp. 104-121.

Guandalini, I. (2022). “Sustainability through digital transformation: A systematic literatura review for research guidance”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 148, 456-471.

Kohtamäki, M., Einola, S. and Rabetino, R. (2020), “Exploring servitization through the paradox lens: Coping practices in servitization”, International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 226, 107619.

Lusch, R. and Nambisan, S. (2015), “Service Innovation: a service-dominant logic perspective”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 155-175.

Mahavarpour, N., Marvi, R. And Foroudi, P. (2023), “Abrief history of service innovation: the evolution of past, present, and future of service innovation“, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 160, 113795.

Narvaiza, L., Campos, J. A., Martín-Peña, M. L., and Díaz-Garrido, E. (2024), “Characterizing digital service innovation: phases, actors, functions and interactions in the context of a digital service platform”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 253-279.

Opazo-Basáez, M., Vendrell-Herrero, F.  and Bustinza, O.F. (2022), “Digital service innovation: a paradigm shift in technological innovation”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 97-120.

Rabetino, R., Kohtamäki, M., Brax, S.A., and Sihvanen, J. (2021), “The tribes in the field of servitization: Discovering latent stream across 30 years of research“, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 95, pp. 70-84.

Rabetino, R., Kohtamäki, and Huikkola, T. (2024), “ Digital service innovation (DSI): a multidisciplinary (re)view of its origins and progress using bibliometric and text mining methods”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 35, pp. 176-201.

Sjödin, D., Parida, V., Kohtamäki, M., and Wincent, J. (2020), “An agile co-creation process for digital servitization: A micro-service innovation approach”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 112, pp. 478-491.

Suárez-Álvarez, L., Suárez-Vázquez, A., Río-Lanza, A. (2020), “Companion cocreation: improving health service encounters of the elderly”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 35 No.1, pp116-130.

Vargo, S.L., Fehrer, J.A., Wieland, H. and Nariswari, A. (2024), "The nature and fundamental elements of digital service innovation", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 227-252.

 

 Guest editors

Lorea Narvaiza (lorea.narvaiza@deusto.es)

Associate professor, Management Department, Deusto Business School, University of Deusto

Rodrigo Rabetino (rodrigo.rabetino@uwasa.fi)

Professor, School of Management, University of Vaasa

 Sending contributions

Contributions to this special issue should be submitted via the BEE platform (https://bee.revistas.deusto.es/about/submissions) according to the following instructions:

  • Send the abstract proposal of maximum 1000 words by 15 January 2025 to (https://bee.revistas.deusto.es/about/submissions).
  • Acceptance or non-acceptance of abstract proposals for further development will be made before 30 January.
  • The full manuscript must be submitted before 15 April 2025 to (https://bee.revistas.deusto.es/about/submissions).
  • The author for correspondence should register at https://bee.revistas.deusto.es and send an anonymised version of the paper and one page including: title of the paper and authors following the journal's guidelines.
  • The editorial policy and guidelines for authors can be found at the following link: https://bee.revistas.deusto.es.
  • The editorial team can be contacted to discuss ideas and proposals via the following email address: beejournal@deusto.es.

 

Associated workshop

The Workshop ‘Innovation in marketing and services in a context of digital transformation’ associated with this Special Issue will be held at Deusto Business School on 5-6 June 2025.

Those interested in participating in this Workshop should send their abstract proposal before the established date of 15 April 2025 through the BEE platform (https://bee.revistas.deusto.es/about/submissions).

Participation in this workshop will be independent of the final publication decision. A selection of the best contributions from the workshop will be chosen for the fast-track of the Bulletin of Economic Studies.

In addition to submitting their contributions via the journal's platform (https://bee.revistas.deusto.es/about/submissions), those interested in participating in the workshop should send their manuscripts to<servitization.ws@deusto.es> no later than 15 April 2025. The evaluation process for acceptance for participation in the workshop will end on 25 April 2025.

 

Publishing in the Special Issue

In addition to the open digital edition of the special issue to be published openly at https://bee.revistas.deusto.es, accepted papers will be printed in hard copy in the first quarter of 2026 and 6,000 printed copies sent to the DBA community will be distributed.

A selection of contributions not published in this special issue may be published in Deusto Business Open Alumni, an open digital platform for the dissemination and exchange of knowledge, experiences and research in economics and management of Deusto Business Alumni.