“Current status and future direction: views from global thought leaders - III”

Citation

Svensson, G. (2008), "“Current status and future direction: views from global thought leaders - III”", European Business Review, Vol. 20 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2008.05420daa.001

“Current status and future direction: views from global thought leaders - III”

Article Type: Editorial From: European Business Review, Volume 20, Issue 4

This special issue - Number 3 of a series - by personal invitation from the editor includes articles from an exclusive group of “global thought leaders.” This selected group consists of academics that have had a lifetime of experience in their field of expertise.

The contributors are distinguished and well-known members of academia or business. The purpose of this special issue series is to document and share parts of their accumulated lifetime knowledge. Their insights and reflections will be valuable to the research community worldwide. Their ideas should also be of great importance to business. The special issue series will provide a unique source of their thoughts of the past, the present and their beliefs about the future.

The views of these global thought leaders are published in an unbiased manner, because their thoughts are based upon their long-term expertise. I am convinced that their expertise is indisputable and it does not need to be blind reviewed! Furthermore, their thoughts might inspire current and forthcoming generations in academia and business to unprecedented achievements in research and practice. So, this special issue consists of a selection of distinguished contributions as follows.

The first article is authored by Professor Christian Grönroos of Hanken Swedish School of Economics, Finland. He shares his thoughts on and discusses the meaning of a service logic as a logic for consumption and provision, respectively, are analyzed and consequences for value creation and marketing are explored.

The second article is authored by Professor Evert Gummesson of Stockholm University School of Business. He shares his thoughts with Sweden and Europe and the present and the future as vantage points, to challenge the viability of customer centricity (or customer orientation) and its axiom, the marketing concept, as the basis for marketing and profitability.

The third article is authored by Professor Ian F. Wilkinson of University of New South Wales, Australia and Mr Roy Crossfield (England), Founder and Director of the Business Genome Project. They share their thoughts on business innovation that comes from combining, recombining and modifying existing ideas, knowledge and know-how in new ways. They describe an approach to accelerating the business innovation process by priming the combining and recombining process, called the “Business Genome Project.”

The last article of this special issue is authored by Professor Stephen Brown of University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He shares his thoughts on the widely-held belief that marketing holds customers in thrall and persuades them to buy things they otherwise would not. Rather than adopt a scientific approach to the “Mesmeric Marketing” phenomenon, it embraces an artistic perspective, focusing on three crucial cultural “moments” in the emergence of the “Great Manipulator” mindset.

I truly wish that you - the reader of European Business Review - will find the four contributions of this special issue of great intellectual interest and stimulation. I also believe that both scholars and practitioners will find them valuable, because they are based upon thorough expertise and deep insights communicated by highly knowledgeable and well-known professors in academia and pioneers in business. In fact, their articles may be used for teaching purposes in higher education and doctoral programs, as well as at higher research seminars in academia.

Keep an eye out for other special issues that will appear in European Business Review during 2008 and onward. “Academic Publishing and Academic Journals”/II (Issue 5, 2008); “Management theory and practice: bridging the gap through multidisciplinary lenses” (Issue 6, 2008); “Business ethics - through time and across context” in 2009 (Co-Editor Professor Gael McDonald of Unitec, New Zealand); and “Anatomy of value and value-driven processes in business organizations” also in 2009 (Co-Editor Professor Aron O’Cass of University of Newcastle, Australia).

Welcome to the thought-provoking and challenging world of European Business Review!

Göran Svensson