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Purpose – Digitalization denotes an on-going transformation of great importance for the retail sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of the digitalization of retailing by developing a conceptual framework that can be used to further delineate current transformations of the retailer-consumer interface. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a framework for digitalization in the retail-consumer interface that consists of four elements: exchanges, actors, offerings, and settings. Drawing on the previous literature, it describes and exemplifies how digitalization transforms each of these elements and identifies implications and proposals for future research. Findings – Digitalization transforms the following: retailing exchanges (in a number of ways and in various facets of exchange, including communications, transactions, and distribution); the nature of retail offerings (blurred distinctions between products and services, what constitutes the actual offering and how it is priced); retail settings (i.e. where and when retailing takes place); and the actors who participate in retailing (i.e. retailers and consumers, among other parties). Research limitations/implications – The framework developed can be used to further delineate current transformations of retailing due to digitalization. The current transformation has created challenges for research, as it demands sensitivity to development over time and insists that categories that have been taken for granted are becoming increasingly blurred due to greater hybridity. Originality/value – This paper addresses a significant and on-going transformation in retailing and develops a framework that can both guide future research and aid retail practitioners in analysing retailing’s current transformation due to digitalization.

Design research (DR) positions information technology artifacts at the core of the Information Systems discipline. However, dominant DR thinking takes a technological view of the IT artifact, paying scant attention to its shaping by the organizational context. Consequently, existing DR methods focus on building the artifact and relegate evaluation to a subsequent and separate phase. They value technological rigor at the cost of organizational relevance, and fail to recognize that the artifact emerges from interaction with the organizational context even when its initial design is guided by the researchers' intent. We propose action design research (ADR) as a new DR method to address this problem. ADR reflects the premise that IT artifacts are ensembles shaped by the organizational context during development and use. The method conceptualizes the research process as containing the inseparable and inherently interwoven activities of building the IT artifact, intervening in the organization, and evaluating it concurrently. The essay describes the stages of ADR and associated principles that encapsulate its underlying beliefs and values. We illustrate ADR through a case of competence management at Volvo IT.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the manufacturing reshoring decision-making content from an Eclectic Paradigm perspective. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a six-step systematic literature review on factors influencing manufacturing reshoring decision-making. The review is based on 100 peer-reviewed journal papers discussing reshoring decision-making contents published from 2009 to 2022. Findings In total, 80 decision factors were extracted and then categorized into resource-seeking (8%), market-seeking (11%), efficiency-seeking (41%) and strategic asset-seeking (16%) advantages. Additionally, 24% of these were identified as hybrid, which means that they were classified into multiple categories. Some decision factors were further identified as reshoring influencing factors (i.e. drivers, enablers and barriers). Research limitations/implications Scholars need to consider what other theories can be used or developed to identify and evaluate the decision factors (determinants) of manufacturing reshoring as well as how currently adopted theory can be further advanced to create clearer and comprehensive theoretical frameworks. Practical implications This research underscores the importance of developing clearer and more comprehensive theoretical frameworks. For practitioners, understanding the multifaceted nature of decision factors could enhance strategic decision-making regarding reshoring initiatives. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the value and practicality of the Eclectic Paradigm in categorizing factors in manufacturing reshoring decision-making content and presents in-depth theoretical classifications. In addition, it bridges the gap between decision factors and influencing factors in the decision-making content research realm.

PurposeThe aim of the study is to analyse negotiations about ownership and style in access-based apparel related to processes of identity construction.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies a qualitative and interpretative method and relies on semi-structured depth interviews and focus group interviews with clothing library users as the main data source. The conceptual context of this paper is that of consumer culture theory approaches to consumer identity construction and the role of object ownership in consumer identity projects.FindingsThe empirical analysis highlights how processes of consumer identity construction related to symbolic values of clothing and self-possession mechanisms related to ownership are negotiated in encounters with access-based types of fashion consumption with effects on potential consumer adoption of access-based forms of consumption. The findings are structured in six analytical themes.Social implicationsThere are several aspects of this research which are of relevance to the sustainability agenda and which have societal implications. Identity has been identified, in previous research, as a key conceptual tool for exploring, predicting and deepening the understanding of pro-environmental and sustainable behaviours. As such, if the aim is to strengthen the commitment of societies to environmental and sustainable behaviours, then this will require greater knowledge of consumers' identities and meaning-making processes. This is a challenge, not least in terms of recognizing the barriers identified in this study as relating to issues of consumer identity construction.Originality/valueThis study reveals multiple possibilities as well as barriers for implementing collaborative apparel consumption schemes in a fashion and apparel context. Some of the barriers might be explained by clothing's emotional character and close relationship to identity formation. Furthermore, the participants questioned whether access and renting services could substitute the meanings of owning. In conclusion, the authors argue that clothing may be a challenging type of goods to integrate in liquid forms of consumption and findings point out complexities amongst fashion-conscious consumers regarding meaning and identity values of collaborative apparel consumption. Theoretical contributions of an interpretative consumer identity approach for understanding barriers as well as possibilities for consumer adoption of access-based fashion are developed in the concluding sections of the article.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to further develop the conceptualization of music consumption in the digital age by examining how contemporary music listening is interweaved with other practices, how it shapes those practices and how it is in turn shaped by them. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on extensive, qualitative interviews with 15 Swedish music consumers. During the course of these interviews, specific situations of everyday music listening were discussed in detail. Findings Drawing on practice theory and more specifically the concepts of dispersed and integrative practices, the authors identify and explore a mode of music listening that they term soundtracking, which involves choosing and listening to music mainly to accompany other everyday practices. Research limitations/implications As soundtracking grows in importance, music is increasingly consumed as an affective-practical resource. Its significance is then not derived from its ability to demarcate difference and construct consumer identities but from its capacity to evoke emotions and moods than enable and enrich a set of everyday practices. Practical implications When music is consumed as part of soundtracking, issues such as the audio quality of music or ownership of material music media become less important, while aspects such as mobility, accessibility and the adaptability of music increase in importance. This has important implications for how and what music should be produced and marketed. Originality/value This paper offers an alternative view of contemporary music consumption compared to previous research, which has considered music listening primarily as an integrative practice on which the practitioner is fully focussed. The paper also contributes to practice theory by offering an empirically based understanding of a dispersed practice, showing that such practices are neither without shape nor necessarily very simple in their structure.

Purpose This paper aims to identify content strategies on social media that influence engagement and to analyze those operations to describe important features for co-creation and trust. Design/methodology/approach This paper addresses the question of how social media content can influence engagement by using a medium-sized Swedish company for an empirical case study. This empirical study is based on a participatory action research methodology. By using the company account on LinkedIn, the authors experimented with relational content to understand the effects on customer-perceived value and trust. Findings Results reveal that action-oriented messages had a more significant impact on engagement than product-oriented messages and value-based messages. Originality/value This paper builds on the existing literature in two ways: drawing upon business-to-business relationships and perceived value and using recent advances in the use of social networking sites to understand the value of co-creation through a participatory culture.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence that the design science framework Information System Research (ISR) works in practice. More than ten years has passed since ISR was published in the well-cited article ‘Design Science in Information Systems Research’. However, there is no thoroughly documented evaluation of ISR based on primary data. That is, existing evaluations are based on reconstructions of prior studies conducted for other purposes. To use an existing data set to answer new or extended research questions means to conduct a secondary analysis. We point to several risks related to secondary analyses and claim that popular design science research frameworks should be based on primary data. In this paper, we present an evaluation consisting of empirical experiences based on primary data. We have systematically collected experiences from a three-year research project and we present ting of both strengths and weaknesses are presented. The main strengths are: the bridging of the contextual environment with the design science activities and the rigorousness of testing IT artefacts. The main weaknesses are: imbalance in support for making contributions to both theory and practice, and ambiguity concerning the practitioners’ role in design and evaluation of artefacts. We claim that the identified weaknesses can be used for further development of frameworks or methods concerning design science research. 

Circular fashion supply chain management: exploring impediments and prescribing future research agenda 1.1 Contextualizing the need for circularity in fashion supply chains This Editorial emerges at the time when the notion of “circularity” or circular supply chains and business models has gained considerable momentum in the fashion industry worldwide. With increasing expectation and demands from the government and the public that enterprises should manage their wastes and products’ end-of-life there is requirement for comprehensive attention towards underlying circular supply chains and associated business models (Bocken et al., 2014, 2016). In light of this, the objective of this Editorial is to create comprehensive and focused understanding of the impact and implications of circular supply chain and business model operations, practices and strategies of extended fashion enterprises, through synthesis of the accompanying special issue (SI) papers. Through an action research to develop a Service Shirt concept – a physical prototype for exhibition – the paper demonstrates, how multiple business models come into play during the entire, deliberately extended product lifecycle, and further discuss the implications of designing for the circular economy within fashion.

Purpose This paper aims to purport deeper understanding of, and instigate theoretical elaboration to, multidimensional value created through different reverse supply chain (RSC) relationships. Design/methodology/approach By capturing the relationships (and their differences) constituted and embedded in three “extreme” case studies from global used clothing supply chain, the sources of multidimensional values are explored in line with Dyer and Singh’s (1998) relational theory. Findings In the RSC, when downstream relationships are typically more opportunistic, value is created using inter-personal ways of knowledge sharing and through use of informal safeguards. In contrast, the upstream RSC relationships are more symbiotic, and value is created through more seamless (and routinized) knowledge sharing practices, and additional use of more formal transaction-specific controls or financial incentives as safeguarding instruments. Research limitations/implications The use of consolidated case studies may affect the consistency in the findings presented. Another limitation relates to deriving propositions per each source presented in relational theory. Practical implications Practitioners particularly from industries whose global RSCs include different natures of relationships and multiple value incentives can be benefited through this study. Originality/value The paper extends the original sources of value creation prescribed in relational theory by contextualizing them in RSCs. It depicts how multidimensional values are created relationally by dyadic partners as the nature of relationship differs between upstream and downstream.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess elements that affect social responsibility in supply chains and beyond. The elements are classified into drivers, facilitators and inhibitors. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an assessment of supply chain management research published over the period of 2009-2013. Findings – Sixteen elements are identified and presented in a framework along with their proposed constituents. The elements capture structures and management principles of supply chains that are important for social responsibility. Research limitations/implications – The elements provide a basis to better understand how social responsibility in supply chains is related to contextual factors. The framework of elements is still only an initial step toward enhanced understanding of how the context affects social responsibility in supply chains. Practical implications – The framework may guide companies to acknowledge elements that are known to improve or deteriorate social responsibility in supply chains. Originality/value – This paper contributes to capture the state-of-the-art knowledge based upon recent research. It is also a stepping stone toward improved insights on what drives, facilitates and inhibits individuals in social responsibility.