Search results

To contrast the role and practical application of strategic marketing in higher and lower‐performing firms.

In‐depth personal interviews with senior marketing executives in three matched high/low performing manufacturing firms in the UK were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The interview agenda was derived from the authors' own previous research studies, plus precedents in the literature.

These are structured around four key strategic marketing activities previously found to be characteristic of higher performing firms. They clearly show that such companies implement them with a far greater degree of skill, sophistication and ingenuity than do their lower performing counterparts. Above all, for the higher performers, strategic marketing is a truly cross‐functional activity.

The methodology of this study indicates a fruitful approach to further research aimed at extending and refining the findings and recommendations, though details requiring methodological attention are identified.

As an aid to marketing practitioners and educators alike, these findings and conclusions identify and describes a number of specific, applicable characteristics of successful strategic marketing.

This paper aims to examine the impact of purchasing occasion on product value indicators for a selection of Australian and New Zealand branded wines, as evaluated by consumers. Value indicators were defined as conspicuous or inconspicuous. Conspicuous indicators include corporate advertising, such as the vineyard, region or brand, and are considered the same (or equal) for all recipients. Inconspicuous indicators are less visible and may differ from recipient to recipient, such as referrals. Purchasing occasions are either home (personal and private) or restaurant consumption (personal and public) or as a gift (impersonal and public).

An online survey was used to understand the changing importance of value indicators based on differing purchase goals. The snowball sample was comprised of marketing professionals, who are highly educated and likely to be of prime working age (25-55 years). Initial participants were then asked to forward the email invitation to their networks. The majority of the 298 survey respondents were Australian-born and described themselves as Anglo-Saxon.

Conspicuous indicators, such as advertising, are given more consideration for impersonal consumption experiences such as gifts or to drink in public. Less conspicuous, but more trustworthy, indicators, (personal recommendations), are more important for personal consumption experiences. These results offer insight into the indicators of product value that marketers could emphasise in their marketing mixes to target consumers buying with different purchase goals in mind and seek new markets.

This study was limited in geographical selection, and the methodology comprised an online survey. The nature of the purchase contexts was deliberately kept broad to highlight the overall impact of value indicators.

While there have been some studies centering on wine purchase and consumption in different situations, direct comparisons between contexts are rare. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by comparing consumer behaviour across wine purchase contexts. The value of this paper stems from deepening understanding of the role of context in purchase decision-making and the implications for marketing practitioners and clearly identified opportunities for future research.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) constructs, which include economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities, on the intended buying behaviour of Malaysian consumers. The study also aims to investigate the perceived value of whether the consumers considered an organisation’s CSR initiatives before deciding any purchase of products or services.

An online Google form survey successfully obtained 295 usable responses through a snowballing and networking approach. Statistical analyses such as Pearson correlation, ANOVA and standard multiple regression were used to examine the correlation and the strength of relationship, as well as the prediction between the CSR attributes and their impact on consumer buying behaviour.

The results represented a significant positive association between all the four constructs (social, ethical, legal and philanthropic) and consumer intended buying behaviour. These constructs also significantly contributed to the prediction of consumer behaviour towards the CSR initiatives. Conversely, the demographic profile of consumers had no effect on the relationship between CSR and consumer buying behaviour.

Examining basic concepts of CSR awareness and understanding might add to the flavour and rigour of this study, which future research should consider. The positivist approach of the current research could be supplemented with a more interactive qualitative in-depth study investigating why and how consumers behave.

The implication for Malaysian companies is that it is imperative for their long-term survival that a strategic view, rather than just a tactical, reactive or operational view, is taken of their CSR activities. Furthermore, it will help organisations to confidently predict positive intentions towards the sales of goods and services.

The outcome of this study has filled the CSR lacuna in the context of a developing country, as well as adding new insights into the influence and perceived value of CSR on intended consumer buying behaviour. Consumers, irrespective of their age and background, are getting wiser and cautious in purchasing products from companies which are CSR-oriented, in particular, in relation to social, legal, ethical and philanthropic perspectives.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use and effectiveness of a bespoke mobile learning resource, Pocket Tutor. This resource responds to a number of teaching and learning challenges within the tertiary education context. These include those related to the number and type of learning activities that can be offered, class pacing, subject-specific content considerations and the availability and quality of off-the-shelf learning resources. Educators have to potentially contend with all of these amidst mounting institutional constraints and external pressures. Yet, a supplemental, from-scratch online learning resource can help mitigate some of these challenges.

This study presents the successes and challenges of introducing a mobile learning resource, Pocket Tutor, to bolster autonomous learning in a supported university learning environment. Pocket Tutor was designed and developed in 2019 and integrated in 2020 and 2021 into a multimedia design class offered at a large university in the Asia-Pacific. The resource’s effectiveness is measured against common technology acceptance factors – including self-efficacy, enthusiasm and enjoyment in relation to contextual purpose and class learning outcomes – through a multi-pronged approach consisting of a class-wide survey, developed specifically for this purpose and analysis of usage data. Deeper context was also provided through a small pool of follow-up interviews.

Evidence from this study’s data suggests that a bespoke, mobile-learning resource can provide greater consistency, more relevance, more flexibility for when and where students learn and more efficiency with limited opportunities for synchronous interaction. At the same time, a bespoke mobile-learning resource represents a significant investment of skill and time to develop and maintain.

This study responds to calls from scholars who argue that more research (especially that is qualitative and discipline-specific) is needed to investigate students’ willingness to use learning apps on their mobile devices. This study pairs such research about student willingness with actual usage data and student reflections to more concretely address the role of mobile learning resources in higher education contexts. This study also, importantly, does not just assess perceptions and attitudes about mobile learning resources in the abstract but assesses attitudes and usage patterns for specific generic and bespoke mobile learning resources available for students in a specific university class (thereby providing discipline-specific insights). This study also provides a unique contribution by including multiple years of data and, thus, offers a longitudinal view on how mobile-learning resources are perceived and used in a particular higher education context.

The purpose of this paper is to model and investigate collaborative culture and relationship strength roles in supply chain collaboration. This research highlights critical role played by culture and relationship strength in collaboration.

Drawing from relational view, a conceptual model is developed with the help of literature, and the model is validated with data collected in India using partial least squares method.

Results and analyses revealed that culture and relationship strength significantly and strongly influence each collaborative activity. The relationship strength fully mediates between collaborative culture and supply chain performance. The research also finds that the relationship strength partially mediates between collaborative culture and market-based information sharing, operational resource planning and sharing. In the long-term, collaborative culture drives relationship strength and the element enhances collaborative activities.

This research attempted to explore collaborative culture and relationship strength which are crucial for collaborative relationship. Many mediation effects are studied which increase the understanding and give insights for its implementation. Its theoretical and practical implications are highlighted. This knowledge has enough potential to lead collaborative relationships towards success.

The “4Ps” of the marketing mix have long been popular with students, tutors, trainers and practitioners as a learning and teaching aid. The purpose of this paper is to present an equivalent tool for retail and e‐retail: “Sale the 7Cs”.

The approach is by reference to and synthesis of other authors’ versions of the marketing, retail and e‐retail mixes, distilled into a simplified framework.

The findings or outcome of the study are summarised into a framework that has seven components, linked by the “C” mnemonic. Starting with C1 for convenience; the framework also includes C2 for customer value and benefit, C3 for cost to the customer, C4 for computing and category management, C5 for customer franchise, C6 for customer care and service and C7 for communication and customer relationships. This simplified mnemonic is new for (e‐)retail.

Mini case examples are used to illustrate the applicability. These have a practical value for trainers and educators as specimen answers to activity exercises. Retailers may find the convenient 7Cs structure useful when planning strategies and tactics.

Advanced analytics‐driven data analyses allow enterprises to have a complete or “360 degrees” view of their operations and customers. The insight that they gain from such analyses is then used to direct, optimize, and automate their decision making to successfully achieve their organizational goals. Data, text, and web mining technologies are some of the key contributors to making advanced analytics possible. This paper aims to investigate these three mining technologies in terms of how they are used and the issues that are related to their effective implementation and management within the broader context of predictive or advanced analytics.

A range of recently published research literature on business intelligence (BI); predictive analytics; and data, text and web mining is reviewed to explore their current state, issues and challenges learned from their practice.

The findings are reported in two parts. The first part discusses a framework for BI using the data, text, and web mining technologies for advanced analytics; and the second part identifies and discusses the opportunities and challenges the business managers dealing with these technologies face for gaining competitive advantages for their businesses.

The study findings are intended to assist business managers to effectively understand the issues and emerging technologies behind advanced analytics implementation.

The utilization of the Internet and Internet marketing for marketing research has received considerable attention. Although there is a growing body of research devoted to this issue little has been done to explore the impact of Internet technology, e‐mail users’ on‐line skills and experience, on their choice of the new survey medium. This study is based on a sample of 122 responses from UK marketing executives using e‐mail and mail questionnaire surveys respectively. The research instrument included measures of respondents’ extent of e‐mail use, their general knowledge of online communications and their time of using the Internet. Some significant impact of these factors has been identified. The empirical evidence supports the hypotheses that the use of e‐mail survey methods is positively connected with high technology awareness and extensive e‐mail use. The findings imply that proper survey planning and administration are important for Internet‐based marketing surveys and suggest the existence of certain user patterns among different Internet user populations.

The growth of the Internet and other digital media has opened up exciting opportunities for the provision of public services, for business and for personal transactions. Comparisons between the earliest forms of “online” research, in the form of telephone interviewing, and offline data collection via face‐to‐face interviews or self‐completion questionnaires, revealed that the modality within which research was conducted could affect research findings. In examining the evidence, this paper indicates that the use of online methodologies has important implications for sampling, response rates, quality of data produced, and operational practices in research projects. Online research is restricted to individuals with access to relevant technologies (e.g. the Internet) and where online technology penetration is limited, survey samples are unlikely to represent the general population. Online surveys, however, can produce quicker response rates than offline surveys and also richer open‐ended responses. The important point is to recognise the strengths and weaknesses are associated with different methodologies and what differences can exist between online and offline data collection procedures.