Logic Perspective Research Articles

Organizational strategic stance and perceived public service performance: a public service logic perspective

ABSTRACT This study explores how public service organizations’ (PSOs) strategic stances impact citizens’ perceived service performance from a public service logic (PSL) perspective. Existing research often focuses on organizational-level performance, overlooking individual citizens’ subjective judgements. By using citizens’ perceived service quality and overall satisfaction as proxies for value-in-use and value-in-context derived from public services, this study provides new insights on how PSOs’ strategies influence value creation. Utilizing multilevel analysis on nested datasets from two surveys in China, this research offers empirical evidence for the strategic influence on individual value creation.

Community Value Co-Creation as a Catalyst for Village Tourism Sustainability: A New Paradigm

The purpose of this study is to propose a new conceptual model for tourism marketing management science, focusing on the perspective of the head of the tourist village manager to achieve village tourism sustainability. This study employs a quantitative approach and includes data from 140 respondents. The data pertains to the green environment mindset, local wisdom, community co-creation, and sustainable tourist villages. A quantitative research method was utilized in this study, with the head of the tourist village manager representing Indonesia. Data collected from 140 tourist village managers were analyzed using Smart PLS-4. This study's main findings emerged from the mediation hypothesis test results. Increasing community value co-creation, supported by the green environment mindset and local wisdom, contributed to sustainable tourist villages. This study adopts the perspective of service-dominant logic.

Value-in-context: co-creation across different context levels in the service ecosystem

Purpose This study aims to provide in-depth insight into how value is co-created on different levels of context (i.e. dyads, triads and networks) within a service ecosystem, and thus examine the impact of indirect service-for-service exchanges on the value co-creation process, the interdependencies between different levels of context and the roles in the value co-creation process that the actors play depending on the context level. Design/methodology/approach Using the theoretical framework of service-dominant logic, the authors carry out a case study analysis of a service ecosystem built around a digital platform where independent confectioneries sell customised cakes to customers. Findings This paper provides evidence for the importance of a wider context extending beyond producer–customer dyad as well as indirect service-for-service exchanges in the process of value co-creation. This paper also conceptualises trans-contextual exchanges, that is, exchanges occurring between different context levels of the service ecosystem. The analysis also allowed us to establish that the same actors simultaneously play different roles in the service ecosystem, depending on the level of context. Research limitations/implications This study highlights the importance of indirect service-for-service exchanges and trans-contextual exchanges. Constituting discreet avenues of value co-creation, often obscured from a single actor of a service ecosystem, these two types of exchanges are nonetheless crucial to understanding the full scope of the ecosystem’s interconnectedness, the varying roles of its actors, as well as supporting the scaling up process of the service ecosystem. Originality/value Althogh there are studies examining value co-creation within wider contexts or ecosystems from the service-dominant logic perspective, usually little attention is paid to the indirect service-for-service exchanges and the interplay between different levels of context.

Research Data Management in German Academia from a Multiple Logic Perspective

The requirements for research data management (RDM) have increased. Due to academia’s neoliberalization, however, researchers already face a high workload within a hypercompetitive environment. The demand to integrate RDM as an additional task into academics’ day-today actions seems to be quixotic. To deepen our understanding of early career researchers’ (ECRs) daily work arbitrage, we need to know more about their behavior, actions, and decisions in relation to RDM. Drawing on a multiple institutional logics perspective at the micro-level, we conducted 40 semistructured interviews at German higher education institutions (HEIs) to investigate how ECRs respond to institutional logics in the context of RDM. Our findings revealed three profiles – the conformist, the waverer, and the resister – that make use of different response strategies to the state, market, professional, and community logic. We contribute to institutional logic research at the micro-level and, in addition, broaden prior research on HEIs and RDM by taking neoliberal academia into account.

Institutional logics and organizational green transformation: Evidence from the agricultural industry in emerging economies

While the agricultural green transformation has garnered significant attention on the political stage as a crucial strategy for climate change mitigation and sustainable development, there remains a notable gap in our understanding of the prevailing logics that shape organizational decisions on this change in emerging economies. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective, this study explores the impact of state logic (manifested through green credit policy) and market logic (manifested through analyst attention) on agriculture-related firms' (ARFs') green transformation, as well as the moderating effects of organizational transparency and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) level. Using longitudinal data on 201 publicly listed ARFs in China from 2008 to 2020, we find that both state and market logics exert unique effects on facilitating the green transformation of ARFs. More notably, a complementarity between the two logics in offering value for ARFs’ green transformation is revealed. This complementary effect becomes more pronounced for organizations with a higher level of transparency or a superior ESG profile. Our study contributes to the neo-institutional perspective of organizational green transformation, a better understanding of conflicting institutional logics in emerging economies, and research on agricultural sustainability.

Enhancing strategic public procurement: a public service logic perspective

ABSTRACT This paper introduces a special issue focused on strategic public procurement from a public management perspective. It articulates the goals, key dimensions, and challenges inherent in strategic public procurement while contextualizing the articles featured in this issue. To advance the field and strengthen the integration of public procurement and public management literature, we propose adopting the Public Service Logic (PSL) framework. PSL provides a comprehensive approach to reframe public procurement, shifting it from a focus on legal compliance and cost-efficiency to achieving broader strategic policy objectives, including fostering innovation, environmental sustainability, security, and social inclusion.

Why Target Communities Remain Subjects Rather than Partners of Development Agencies in Integrated Conservation and Development Projects in Latin America

AbstractDespite repeated calls for locally anchored Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs), the decision-making authority of targeted Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) remains limited. This paper is grounded on an Institutional Logics perspective to examine the role of major development agencies—the World Bank (WB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the German Development Bank (KfW)—in perpetuating this challenge. Interviews with project managers in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region reveal complex internal hierarchies, risk-focus, high performance pressure, a “better than nothing” rationale, and a hands-off approach to community participation. We argue that these tendencies are rooted in organisational structure and individual mentalities that constitute a project management logic, which in turn raises concerns about the ability and willingness of development agencies to foster local project ownership of ICDPs. The paper calls for the international donor community to reflect on and transform such management logic, and to allocate more substantial decision-making power and resources to local representatives.

Perceptions of e-lending in Scandinavian libraries: tension and harmony between institutional logics

ABSTRACT This study examines e-lending dynamics in Scandinavian public libraries, by exploring the relationship between libraries and publishing houses. We ask how representatives of both fields perceive the public library’s role. Public libraries and publishers have traditionally served different roles in the book sphere: the library as a key cultural policy institution providing access to information and culture, and the publishers as involved in the production of books, operating on commercial premises. This relationship is affected by the change from ownership to licensing of digital book collections, which occurs along with changes on the national book markets. As a theoretical and analytical tool, the study uses the institutional logics perspective to explore the relations between different perceptions. We argue that this relationship can be illuminated through the dynamics of public service logic, market logic and digital logic. The study is empirically based on 26 in-depth interviews interviews with representatives of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish major libraries and trade publishers. Findings indicate that the relationship is nuanced and multifaceted, more than if it relied on a simple opposition between the public and the market. Both libraries and publishers share a common understanding of public service and market logics; however, they differ in perceptions of library’s role which is amplified by digital logic. The study also indicates that e-lending dynamics are influenced by cultural policies but with different outcomes in the three countries.

Examining customer pressure and green supply chain management in emerging market: An institutional logics perspective

Employing contingency and configuration approach, this study explores the role of institutional logics in the relationship between customers' green expectations and firms' adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. The results of a survey of 310 supplier companies in China, an important emerging market, provide the empirical evidence for the coexistence of multiple institutional logics that are divergent from and almost incompatible with firms' GSCM practices. The multiple logics impose different and conflicting effects on the adoption of GSCM practices when responding to customers’ expectations. Thus, decisions about the adoption of GSCM practices are complicated and contingent on institutional logics. Despite advances in GSCM and rising customer expectations concerning sustainability and the environment, firms still struggle to engage suppliers. This study illuminates how multiple and competing institutional logics play a role in this area. Our results suggest that firms with predominantly cost logic are less likely to engage with GSCM compared to those with market or regulative logics.

Co-creation of value in a cultural organizations’ ecosystem

From the perspective of Service Dominant Logic (Vargo and Lusch 2018), this research analyzes how co-creation of value develops in a Peruvian cultural ecosystem through analyzing its actor’s engagement, embeddedness, and value-in-context. The findings obtained aim to contribute to the dialogue between S-D logic and Arts Marketing, and to put light on the mechanisms that activate and restrict cultural participation in a service ecosystem. The research consists of a multiple case study which analyzes the Peruvian Puntos de Cultura Network (PPDCN) through 9 of its organizations. Participants include organizational leaders, users, and Network central headquarters’ managers. The instruments were an exploratory survey, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. The analysis included codification, inter-rater reliability, ‘making-strange tool’ and a meta-matrix. Through the study of the co-creation of value in the PPDCN, findings revealed the following mechanisms for cultural participation: (1) Activation mechanisms: co-production between organizations and users; high leader engagement; cultural identity activities; educative, affective and entertainment-oriented activities. (2) Restriction mechanisms: different institutional logics at any level of interaction: organizations and Headquarters managers, organizations and socio-cultural environment, Headquarters managers and state actors; misalignment of platforms.

FOBICS: Assessing project security level through a metrics framework that evaluates DevSecOps performance

Context:In today’s software development landscape, the DevSecOps approach has gained traction due to its focus on the software development process and bolstering security measures in projects, a task in light of the ever-evolving cybersecurity threats. Objective:This study aims to address the lack of metrics for quantitatively assessing its efficacy from both security and business logic perspectives. Methods:To tackle this issue, the research introduces the Framework of Business Index Concerning Security (FOBICS), a set of metrics designed to enable transparent evaluations of project security. FOBICS considers various perspectives relevant to DevSecOps practices. It includes factors such as project duration and financial outcomes, making it appealing for implementation in business settings. Results:The effectiveness of FOBICS is validated theoretically and empirically via its application in two real-world projects: the results from these implementations show a correlation between FOBICS metrics and the security strategies employed as the development methodologies adopted by diverse teams throughout the projects. Conclusion:Hence, FOBICS emerges as a tool for assessing and continuously monitoring project security, offering insights into areas of strength and areas that may require enhancement. FOBICS is shown to be effective in assessing the level of DevSecOps implementation. The ease of calculating FOBICS metrics makes them easily interpretable and continuously verifiable. Moreover, FOBICS summarizes most of the other quantitative and qualitative metrics in the literature.

Teacher’s service-dominant orientation: scale development and validation

ABSTRACT The literature suggests that the co-creation of higher education value, from the perspective of the service-dominant logic (SDL), begins in the teaching-learning process, and the results of this process shape the entire ecosystem of higher education value for economic and social development. From this perspective, it is important to identify strategic tools that foster the co-creation of services and value during the teaching-learning process. As a contribution, this article presents the first proposal for a scale to measure teachers’ service-dominant orientation (SDO) in higher education. This proposal was operationalised using a literature review and qualitative and quantitative empirical approaches involving six stages and supported by three studies. Conceptualised as a portfolio of interaction capabilities that teachers can strategically develop to foster co-creation in higher education, the Teacher S-D Orientation scale is presented, made up of five capacities: individual interactions (four items), relational interactions (four items), ethical interactions (three items), empowered interactions (three items) and developmental interactions (four items). Considering that from the SDL perspective, the strength of the student-teacher relationship is a decisive factor in co-creation during the teaching-learning process, the external validation of the SDO scale was ensured, with the results suggesting that the teacher’s SDO has a significant impact on the relationship quality in higher education. The scale validation has implications for both marketing and educational literature. The article concludes with recommendations for teachers and management of higher education institutions.

Moral market compliance: How a logic of activism is used to ‘fem wash’ market violence against women in the user-generated pornography market

In turning to the user-generated pornography market and its mainstreaming sexual violence against women, this paper looks to uncover why women are increasingly participating as self-producing content creators. Specifically, we ask how the institutional logics perspective can help uncover more disguised market dynamics encouraging and coercing women to (re)produce their own abuse through self-produced pornographic content creation. With an institutional logics analysis of archival data from five user-generated pornography websites, our findings uncover how social logics act to disguise market logics. We show that a logic of activism is mobilised through two prominent feminist, social justice imperatives of: (i) the representation of diversity and (ii) appeals to environmentalism, which function together to construct a compliant and duty-bound imperative for women’s content creation. In doing so, this paper introduces a concept of moral market compliance: a dark market dynamic that functions to fem wash and (re)produce market violence against women.

Transformative value, communities and service designs for sustainability

PurposeThe purpose of this transformative service research (TSR) is to apply, innovate on and extend the understanding of service-dominant logic (SDL) perspectives, sustainable service ecosystem design ideas, transformative value and meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study explores these through volunteers’ lived experiences and their perceived health and well-being outcomes in the context of botanic gardens as health-care service settings.Design/methodology/approachA total of 3 UK botanic gardens and 84 volunteers between 22 and 87 years of age participated in this qualitative study. Volunteering stories were collected through emails, telephone exchanges, online and in-person interviews, free-flowing discussion and field observations. These were coded and analysed by using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, NVivo 14 Plus and Leximancer. Thematic analysis facilitated the mapping of well-being outcomes highlighting transformative value against existing health and well-being indices.FindingsInsights extend knowledge into SDL, TSR and transformative value experienced by volunteers across three UK botanic garden service ecosystems. Environmental, organisational and personal factors, and physical, mental and social health outcomes are presented to emphasise transformative value experienced, especially in retiree volunteers. Theoretical contribution is in the form of empirical evidence to support and extend insights about transformative value and more so, significant epistemological change and meeting SDGs in botanic gardens. Results add to contemporary TSR on health-care-related well-being outcomes and ideas regarding sustainable service ecosystem design.Research limitations/implicationsIt is recommended that service research be extended across other botanic gardens, as well as other novel underexplored contexts for comparative studies of transformative value. Continued development and consideration of service designs as ongoing efforts to redefine and reimagine services marketing innovation for botanic gardens are recommended. Botanic gardens are complex service ecosystems worthy of rigorous service research to capture and measure the impact and outcome of ongoing work of the sector in advancing SDGs and having a transformative effect on individual and societal health and well-being.Practical implicationsThis study highlights opportunities for greater area-based, coordinated, collaborative, multi-stakeholder services marketing partnerships for strategic sustainable service ecosystem design for the botanic gardens and health-care sectors. These sectors can make better use of service research and marketing to further innovate and co-develop health and well-being strategies, campaigns and opportunities to develop services to transform and influence positive health and well-being outcomes for people. Results reveal greater opportunities for collaborative partnership and services marketing’s role and practice for the ongoing vitality and viability of botanic gardens. Joint efforts would enable innovation on sustainable service ecosystem design, advancing SDGs and improving life on planet Earth.Social implicationsTransformative value linked to newfound life experiences and meaning to life after retiring with a range of factors, and health and well-being outcomes were prominent. Social connections to the wider community were present, revealing links to a range of people who may not have traditionally had contact with botanic garden heritage and their strategic efforts. Therefore, it is services marketing opportunities for botanic gardens that hold one key to greater transformative value, sustainability and greater influence and impact on individual and societal health and well-being.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first TSR on botanic gardens as health-care service settings, resulting in a conceptual framework on transformative value and well-being outcomes in meeting SDGs. It extends insights on SDL, sustainable service ecosystem design and roles of marketing for the common good. Botanic gardens are unique research institutes, highly acclaimed for research, conservation, education and displays of special botanical collections, as well as providing health care, among other impactful SDG opportunities. This can be made more explicit through ecosystemic thinking, service research and integrated services marketing of botanic garden’ roles and contributions worldwide.

Quantum logic automata generalizing the edge of chaos in complex systems

BackgroundHistorically, although researchers in the science of complex systems proposed the idea of the edge of chaos and/or self-organized criticality as the essential feature of complex organization, they were not able to generalize this concept. Complex organization is regarded at the edge of chaos between the order phase and the chaos phase and a very rare case. Additionally, in cellular automata, the critical property is class IV, which is also rarely found. Therefore, there can be overestimation for natural selection. More recently, developments in cognitive and brain science have led to the free energy principle based on Bayesian inference, while quantum cognition has been established to explain various cognitive phenomena. Since Bayesian inference results in the perspective of a steady state, it can be described in Boolean logic. Considering that quantum logic consists of multiple Boolean logic in terms of lattice theory, the perspective of the free energy principle is the perspective of order, and the perspective of quantum logic might be the perspective of multiple worlds, which is strongly relevant for the edge of chaos.ProblemThe next question arises whether the perspective derived from quantum logic can be generalized for the complex behavior consisting of both order and chaos, instead of the edge of chaos or self-organized criticality, to reveal the property of critical behavior such as a power-law distribution.SolutionIn this study, we define quantum logic automata, which entail quantum logic (orthomodular lattice) in terms of lattice theory and have the features of a dynamical system. Because quantum logic automata are applied to a binary sequence, one can estimate the behavior of those automata with respect to patterns and a time series. Here, we show that most of a group of quantum logic automata display class IV-like behavior, in which oscillatory traveling waves collide with each other, leading to complex behavior; moreover, a time series of binary sequences displays 1/f noise. Therefore, one can see that quantum logic automata generalize and expand the idea of the edge of chaos.

Institutional pressures and greenwashing in social responsibility: reversing the link with hybridization capability

PurposeDespite the ongoing scholarly interest in greenwashing, it is not well known the impact of multiple institutional pressures on greenwashing in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Following the institutional logics perspective, this study investigates how three distinct logics – commercial, public, and social welfare – drive greenwashing and whether organizational capability for blending diverse CSR expectations reverses this link.Design/methodology/approachThe current study conceptualized and tested an original model on how three institutional logics influence greenwashing in CSR, with the mediation effect of hybridization capability as a response to logic plurality. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed on a survey data, which was collected from 150 middle managers in Turkey.FindingsThe results show that while commercial logic has no direct or indirect impact on greenwashing, public and social welfare logics drive greenwashing in CSR. However, these effects are reversed when the CSR hybridization capability increases.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to the understanding of what predicts CSR greenwashing by integrating a comprehensive theoretical framework involving multiple institutional logics, conflicting stakeholder demands, and organizational hybridity.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that theoretically and empirically analyzed how the exposure of multiple external pressures affects the CSR greenwashing and how it can be reversed by CSR hybridization capability. This capability mitigates the threats and challenges of multiple logics and turns them into an opportunity to gain legitimacy in the eyes of stakeholders by preventing greenwashing.

Breaking free from the invisible cage: Leveraging institutional logics to understand and facilitate organizational change projects

Organizational change projects suffer from a high failure rate. Extant literature identified structural inertia as the main cause of resistance to change. This structural inertia puts invisible shackles on organizations and makes the change process difficult or even pulls organizations back to their former state. However, it is still unknown how these organizations can be unchained. Drawing on an institutional logic perspective and based on an intriguing organizational change project of a state-owned company in China, we explored how institutional logic changes in organizational change projects. The results indicate that institutional change occurs through organizational deinstitutionalization, organizational institution building, and organizational reinstitutionalization across both individual and organizational levels. We developed a theory for successfully securing change efforts that relies on the level-crossing alteration of institutional logic that shackles employee behaviors. A model of institutional logic change is proposed to illustrate the organizational change carried out in the form of projects from an institutional logic perspective. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.

Institutional logics in play at work: how applying an institutional logics approach to employees’ intentions to quit contextualizes HRM

Organizational and human resource management (HRM) scholars have shown an increasing interest in examining how macro-level institutions influence individuals’ behaviour, frequently adopting an institutional logics perspective. This approach encourages a holistic perspective, highlighting the multiplicity of logics within organizations. However, HRM studies that adopt an institutional logics approach often focus on just two logics (profession and HRM), downplaying other logics that influence individuals, and not fully assessing how a HRM logic plays out in organizations. Based on 54 interviews with Pakistani banking employees, we find that their perceptions of HRM effectiveness only partially explain their turnover intentions. Several logics (HRM, traditional leadership, corporation, professional, family, and religious logics) and their associated values are in play at work, and help to explain how HRM influences employees’ intentions to quit. Consequently, we contend that the HRM literature that applies an institutional logics approach downplays the multiplicity of institutional logics embedded within local contexts, and overlooks how various institutional logics and their constituent values shape individuals’ behaviour. Thus, this article highlights the importance of contextualizing HRM policies, ways for HRM research to fully benefit from the institutional logics approach, and the role of values in shaping employees’ responses to enacted HRM policies.

The Logical Perspective in Pragma-dialectics

AbstractI argue that the logical perspective—the study of arguments as products—is not well integrated into pragma-dialectics. I show that the Validity Rule and the Argumentation Scheme Rule, despite being procedural rules, are, in a certain sense, “logical” rules. Subsequently, I distinguish and review three successive periods in the development of the logical dimension of pragma-dialectics: conventionalist, inferentialist and dualist, to reveal that none of them is completely satisfactory. I contend that, given the assumptions and conceptual apparatus of pragma-dialectics, the integration of the logical perspective, and especially of a suitable account of counterargumentation, requires the adoption of a conception of logic as a theory of reasons, as opposed to the traditional conception of logic as a theory of inferences. Understanding logic as a theory of the dialogical construction of reasons enables us to approach the study of the relationships between arguments and the weighing of opposing arguments.

Diaspora and development: The IOM's role in diaspora mapping in Bosnia and Herzegovina

AbstractDiaspora governance strategies are part of an increasingly vibrant academic and policy debate. International organisations play a significant role in promoting diaspora institutions, collaborating with home states, diaspora communities, and other stakeholders. In post‐conflict states, the involvement, and evolving roles of international organisations, among a variety of actors in diaspora institution building, is implicit but has been underresearched. This article analyses a diaspora mapping exercise led by the IOM to demonstrate how an institutional logics perspective can help to better understand how such processes unfold. Taking an organisational perspective, it sheds light on the interplay among international organisations, state agencies, local government, and individual actors in diaspora and development. By focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the study offers insights into the challenges and opportunities in diaspora engagement in post‐conflict countries. It underscores the need for further research and the long‐term implications of international organisations' efforts in diaspora development programs and diaspora governance.