It seems intuitive that as firms continue to try and keep in touch with the customers they serve, research should play an increasingly important role in determining the needs and…
Abstract
It seems intuitive that as firms continue to try and keep in touch with the customers they serve, research should play an increasingly important role in determining the needs and wants of the consumer. Accordingly, as goods and services are tailored to meet these needs, so too does the accompanying advertising. Additionally, there is constant pressure on advertising agencies to produce advertising that consistently meets the objectives of their clients. Marketing departments, in turn, have to justify and be accountable to top management for advertising budgets. Consequently, agencies increasingly have to provide measures of effectiveness (Flandin et al 1992). In order to optimize the process(es) that will meet client objectives, agencies have to ensure that they understand how the consumer thinks and feels. One such approach to understanding the consumer's view is account planning. The main objective of this paper will be to provide a thorough review of the account planning phenomenon in advertising and in so doing, highlight the use of advertising research from a developmental perspective. This paper will describe the account planning process and how it differs from traditional agency practices. The justification for such a paper is the fact that billions of dollars are spent annually on advertising, in the hopes that the advertiser's objectives will consistently be met. If it could be demonstrated that increased attention to the consumer, in the development stages of advertising leads to more effective advertising than when consumer input is limited to the evaluation of advertising, after the fact, this would be of significant interest to advertisers as well as advertising agencies.
Stephanie Cowan, David Tappin and Rodney Ford
In order to reduce the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), maternal smoking must be eliminated. Describes the genesis of a peer support group, Kids against SIDS, at…
Abstract
In order to reduce the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), maternal smoking must be eliminated. Describes the genesis of a peer support group, Kids against SIDS, at a secondary school in a deprived area of Christchurch, New Zealand. The club aims to help teenagers to avoid starting smoking. Seminars acquainted school entrants with the club. Members designed a club badge and posters. A prize competition successfully broadcast the danger to future babies of starting to smoke. Local television and newspaper coverage gave the club a popular profile. Members made a video to recruit future school entrants to the club.
It is again suggested that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities comprise a disproportionately high percentage of mental health inpatients. Furthermore, the…
Abstract
It is again suggested that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities comprise a disproportionately high percentage of mental health inpatients. Furthermore, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) concluded the Department of Health (DH) did not have ‘due regard’ to the Race Equality Duty, retaining major concerns regarding the ability of the DH to ensure future compliance (CRE, 2007). In light of these ongoing problems the DH published a five‐year action plan, Delivering Race Equality (DRE) in Mental Health Care to develop race equality and cultural competence training for mental health practitioners (DH, 2005).A focused review of literature was undertaken, structured around three questions.1. How is cultural competence in mental health care defined?2. How is cultural competence in mental health care delivered?3. How is the delivery of cultural competence in mental health care evaluated?Consensus is lacking on definition of cultural competence and on the sequence of when the components should be acquired, some terms being used interchangeably. It is unclear how cultural competence in mental health care can be delivered. No attempts have been adequately evaluated, particularly by service users (Bhui et al, 2007). More innovative research is needed to develop a consensual definition of cultural competence and to facilitate the delivery and evaluation of such, in ways acceptable to service users and service providers.
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When planning a battle the military have intelligence officers as anintegral part of the team. In contrast large companies do not haveconsumer intelligence plugged in at the very…
Abstract
When planning a battle the military have intelligence officers as an integral part of the team. In contrast large companies do not have consumer intelligence plugged in at the very top. Market research usually reports well down the organization, often to a functional department like marketing. The failure to use consumer information properly cuts companies off from opportunities and is a major reason for the massive corporate failure seen at General Motors, IBM and Sears. Fortunately failure on this scale is relatively rare; nevertheless consumer information is not used well even in fast‐moving consumer goods companies. This is because information collection and analysis is directed from too low down in the organization and consequently is directed at tactical and not strategic issues. Spectacular business success can occur when consumer information is understood and acted on by business leaders. Taco Bell is one such example. Concludes that there is a need for CEOs who understand the centrality of consumer motivation to planning strategy for their whole business. Moreover CEOs need a creative strategic analyst who knows how to synthesize information to produce creative strategies which mobilize and co‐ordinate the company′s resources to motivate consumers to buy the company′s products and services.
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Market research has enormous potential for creating marketunderstanding, which pays off in huge marketing productivity gains andquantum leaps in corporate entrepreneurship. It is…
Abstract
Market research has enormous potential for creating market understanding, which pays off in huge marketing productivity gains and quantum leaps in corporate entrepreneurship. It is failing to deliver because the effort is concentrated at the bottom of the corporate decision hierarchy and because users of research do not use it to its full potential. Defines what “understanding” means in market research and describes how it comes from purposeful questioning, the generation of “nuggets” of information using different sources and different techniques, the results of which require intensive analysis and assembly into causal pictures of what is happening and why. Sees problems arising because researchers are purchasers not analysts of market research, and lays ultimate responsibility for this with managing and marketing directors because they are not asking the fundamental questions about their businesses.
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A fully automated chip assembly and test facility in Digital Equipment's Ayr plant has changed the role of this operation
Thomas D. Beamish and Nicole Woolsey Biggart
Following Philip Selznick’s lead in using pragmatist social science to understand issues of public concern we conducted a study of failed innovation in the commercial construction…
Abstract
Following Philip Selznick’s lead in using pragmatist social science to understand issues of public concern we conducted a study of failed innovation in the commercial construction industry (CCI). We find that social heuristics – collectively constructed and maintained interpretive decision-making frames – significantly shape economic and non-economic decision-making practices. Social heuristics are the outcome of industry-based “institutionalization processes” and are widely held and commonly relied on in CCI to reduce uncertainty endemic to decision-making; they provide actors with both a priori and ex post facto justifications for economic decisions that appear socially rational to industry co-participants. In the CCI – a project-centered production network – social heuristics as shared institutions sustain network-based social order but in so doing discourage novel technologies and impede innovation. Social heuristics are actor-level constructs that reflect macro-level institutional arrangements and networked production relations. The concept of social heuristics offers the promise of developing a genuinely social theory of individual economic choice and action that is historically informed, contextually situated, and neither psychologically nor structurally reductionist.
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This research seeks to respond to Simon's challenge to apply “an economic calculus to knowledge”. The paper aims to develop a typology of knowledge that may be fruitful in…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to respond to Simon's challenge to apply “an economic calculus to knowledge”. The paper aims to develop a typology of knowledge that may be fruitful in facilitating research in a knowledge‐based view of production.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the enduring literature on the knowledge‐based view of the firm (KBV) and gleans three classifications of organisational knowledge as distinct factors of production: tacit, codified, and encapsulated knowledge.
Findings
Differences between the tacit, codified, and encapsulated shapes of knowledge carry strategic implications for the firm along six important dimensions. Distinguishing between its three classifications sets the stage for measurement of knowledge as a factor of production.
Research limitations/implications
Distinctions between the three shapes of knowledge may be less defined in practice than in theory. The classification in which a repository of knowledge falls is dependent on the tacit knowledge being applied by the user. Software may be encapsulated to a user, but codified to its creator.
Practical implications
Recognition of the differences between the three shapes of organisational knowledge may help managers to: determine the most economic combination of knowledge to use in production; transfer knowledge more effectively within and across organisational boundaries; determine the most economic location of firm boundaries; and ensure value is appropriated for the firm.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that distinguishing and accentuating encapsulated knowledge as a distinct classification of knowledge can help advance the development of a strategic knowledge‐based theory of production.
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Duc Dang and Katsuhiro Umemoto
This paper aims to model the national development of the knowledge economy and argue its policy implications.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to model the national development of the knowledge economy and argue its policy implications.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is a deductive research approach. First, the paper examines fundamental epistemological assumptions of the literature on the knowledge economy to identify major views on the knowledge economy. Second, it synthesizes relevant studies of the knowledge economy to develop key concepts to be used in the theoretical model of the knowledge economy.
Findings
The paper argues that among three views of the knowledge economy (i.e., knowledge‐as‐asset, knowledge‐as‐relation, and knowledge‐as‐capability views), the knowledge‐as‐capability view is the most appropriate to explain the knowledge economy. However, this view is still evolving to explain the knowledge economy. Only a few studies have discussed national capabilities, but they omitted many points of capability as an aspect of knowledge. Although many studies have discussed organizational capabilities and provided some insight, these ideas are not directly applicable at the national level.
Practical implications
This paper suggests that to develop a knowledge economy a national government should be concerned about the balanced development of the whole system of the economy, while paying due attention to knowledge‐related activities.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a theoretical model of the knowledge economy, using original concepts of three types of national basic capability, i.e., epistemic capability, economic capability, and institutional capability and national developmental capability as the meta‐capability of leveraging, orchestrating, and restructuring those basic capabilities.