Digital technologies have dramatically changed the organisation and marketing environments. Whether this presents an opportunity or a challenge for small and medium organisations depends on how these organisations approach it, strategically. Specifically, organisations that are guided by a combination of market, learning and entrepreneurial orientations are well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunities presented by digital technologies because they adopt attitudes and behaviours that support the generation and use of market insight, proactive innovation and openness to new ideas. We call this combination the digital orientation (DO), and present a set of propositions that facilitate its development. This paper creates value both through the conceptualisation of the DO and the outlining of the implications for strategic marketing management of understanding the strategic factors supporting or hindering the performance of small and medium enterprises in the digital economy.
The Internet of Things and, particularly, wearable products have changed the focus of the healthcare industry to prevention programs that enable people to become active and take responsibility for their own health. These benefits will only materialise, however, if users adopt and continue to use these products, as opposed to abandoning them shortly after purchase. Our study investigates how the characteristics of the device, the context and the user can support the adoption and the sustained use of health and fitness wearables. We find that the factors that support the former differ from those that support the latter. For instance, features that signal the device's ability to collect activity data are essential for adoption, whereas device portability and resilience are key for sustained use. Statement of contribution: The findings contribute to the conceptual understanding of consumers' adoption and sustained use of wearable technology for general health and fitness purposes. The findings also provide valuable guidance to firms investing in the development and marketing of these devices, as well as key insights for government initiatives aimed at combating rising levels of obesity and diabetes.
The paper explores whether 'Big Data' (BD) has changed the process of board-level strategic decision-making. To enable a rich understanding of the issues, we gained access to directors of UK-based global organizations who were routinely involved in high-level strategic decision-making, undertaking lengthy semi-structured interviews.The quality of the data achieved is therefore a distinctive feature of our study. Our data reveal important findings in three broad areas. First, we explore the cognitive capabilities of board directors, and find evidence of a shortfall in cognitive capabilities in relation to BD, as well as issues with cognitive biases and cognitive overload.Second, we reveal the challenges to board cohesion presented by BD, including disruption to the processes of strategic decision-making, and temporal challenges relating to the speed of BD and decision-making. Finally, we show how BD is impacting on responsibility and control within senior teams, with boards undertaking reconfiguration activity, and in some instances drawing heavily on external stakeholders in order to address gaps in internal capabilities. We draw out key learning points in the context of both a knowledge-based view of the firm and a cognitive and dynamic capabilities perspective.
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