Guest talk: Jacob Thundil, MBE; Founder & MD Cocofina

The style and appearance of the space where the service is delivered (including online space) is highly consequential for: Facilitating the service encounter and enhancing productivitySignalling quality, and positioning the brandReinforcing the value proposition, andShaping customers’ (and employees’) feelings and behaviours in the space For instance, warm colours are energising, while cool colours are calming. … Continue reading Guest talk: Jacob Thundil, MBE; Founder & MD Cocofina

In hot water – A tale of service failure and recovery

Last week, right when I was feeling very sorry for myself because of the booster vaccine’s side effects and needed a pick me up, our Nespresso coffee machine stopped working. It started by being a little bit annoying; but, 48 hours later, it was really frustrating, and I was seriously considering quitting coffee or, at … Continue reading In hot water – A tale of service failure and recovery

New paper “Power Negotiation on the Tango Dancefloor: The Adoption of AI in B2B Marketing”

Artificial Intelligence is expected to impact many different aspects of marketing in business to business (B2B) organisations, from advertising, to product development and customer service, to name a few. Though, for those benefits to materialise, firms need to have technological and technical capabilities in place by either developing them in-house or using external suppliers. How … Continue reading New paper “Power Negotiation on the Tango Dancefloor: The Adoption of AI in B2B Marketing”

An emoji lost in translation

Earlier this week, I punctuated a message for a colleague with the emoji below: I wanted to express my frustration at a certain situation, by adding an emoji that, in my view, had a certain physical resemblance to me. However, something happened between me (the information source) and my colleague (the destination) such that when … Continue reading An emoji lost in translation

The consumers’ role in the current UK supply problems

The UK is currently experiencing various supply chain problems, resulting in fuel shortages, bare supermarket shelves, reduced options in restaurants, and warnings of disruption for Christmas retail, amid many other problems. The Institute for Government, a think tank focused on improving efficiency in government and public service, produced a really helpful explainer of the reasons behind the current supply chain … Continue reading The consumers’ role in the current UK supply problems

To be, or not to be humanlike, that is the question for marketing AI

As a concept, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is usually defined in terms of how closely its workings (e.g., ability to hold a conversation) resemble human reasoning. The closer it is to humanlike performance, the better the AI is deemed to be (read about the Turing test, here). But what about the way the AI looks? Or … Continue reading To be, or not to be humanlike, that is the question for marketing AI

Screen multitasking, cognitive overload, and learning

This week, for me, is week 1 of a new academic year (not all universities start at the same time; and, indeed, even within the same university, there may be staggering starts for different programmes and year groups. Luckily, this year I managed to go back to the classroom. I say “luckily” because, while teaching … Continue reading Screen multitasking, cognitive overload, and learning

The potential and limitations of AI in home care – the users’ view

This week, the English parliament approved a new “health and social care” tax, corresponding to an increase in National Insurance contributions from 12% to 13.25% of salary (i.e., a whopping 10.4% increase!!). This increase is to pay for the home care needs of older people, disabled citizens, and others with high care needs. That is, for carers … Continue reading The potential and limitations of AI in home care – the users’ view

New paper “Digital strategy aligning in SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective”

Several years ago, Sarah Quinton, Rebecca Pera, Sebastián Molinillo, Lyndon Simkin and I set out to investigate how small and business organisation (SMEs) adopt digital technology, and how they adapt their strategy to succeed in the digital environment. While there is a significant body of work on digitalisation, it tends to focus on large organisations, … Continue reading New paper “Digital strategy aligning in SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective”

Drivers of acceptance of AI vary with type of service setting

Not all consumption settings are the same. They can range from situations where we can easily evaluate what we are consuming (for instance, buying a new car), to situations where we can only evaluate what we are consuming afterwards (for instance, renting a car), as well as situations where we will struggle to evaluate what … Continue reading Drivers of acceptance of AI vary with type of service setting