Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel
Respondents in 86 UK companies known to engage in the sponsorship of schools and school activities participated in a survey designed to investigate the extent to which sample…
Abstract
Respondents in 86 UK companies known to engage in the sponsorship of schools and school activities participated in a survey designed to investigate the extent to which sample firms perceived and managed their schools sponsorship programmes as commercial investments rather than as philanthropic donations. The study also examined the reasons for schools sponsorship, how closely it was integrated with other forms of marketing communications, the location of responsibility for its administration, whether it was leveraged by other marketing communications instruments and how it was monitored and evaluated. Cluster and multiple group discriminant analyses were completed to identify the characteristics of the sample businesses which adopted materialistic as opposed to altruistic approaches towards the practice.
Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel
A number of large UK charities have extended their product sales into areas not traditionally associated with non‐profit organisations. Examines the connection between a person’s…
Abstract
A number of large UK charities have extended their product sales into areas not traditionally associated with non‐profit organisations. Examines the connection between a person’s assessment of the quality and value for money of conventional charity goods (T‐shirts or coffee mugs for example) and their evaluation of the likely merits of new and unfamiliar charity products (such as package holidays or household insurance). Emerges that the former variable exerted a strong and statistically significant impact on the latter, but that the form of the relationship was moderated by individual perceptions of the degree of similarity between the old and new products. “Similarity” was defined in terms of the skills and resources that consumers considered necessary in order to supply various items and the charity’s perceived capacity to employ these skills and abilities in ways which generate fresh products of the same calibre as existing goods.
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Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel
One hundred and seventy‐nine heads of sales or direct marketing departments in large UK companies across five industry sectors completed mail questionnaires concerning the…
Abstract
One hundred and seventy‐nine heads of sales or direct marketing departments in large UK companies across five industry sectors completed mail questionnaires concerning the knowledge management (KM) practices employed by their firms. The extents of the KM systems operating within sample enterprises were analysed with respect to each company’s use of teamwork, level of bureaucracy and centralisation of decision making, innovativeness, and ability to cope with change. Respondents’ views on the contributions of KM to marketing management were also examined.
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Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel
Presents the results of an empirical investigation into whether the attribution by members of the public of an unfavourable reputational trait (e.g. dishonesty) to a company…
Abstract
Presents the results of an empirical investigation into whether the attribution by members of the public of an unfavourable reputational trait (e.g. dishonesty) to a company covaries with other traits ascribed to the same enterprise. Additionally it examines whether people aggregate successive pieces of unfavourable information received about a business to form a continuously worsening impression of it; or whether they mentally average bad news, so that successive adverse items can actually improve the overall impression – provided the later messages are not as damaging as the earlier ones. The study is based on the UK pensions mis‐selling scandal, which generated severe, long‐term media criticism of the large UK insurance companies. Hence it analyses a unique reputational management situation in that the firms involved are subject to continuous and intense scrutiny, protracted and hostile media coverage, periodic public censure by regulatory authorities, and interference in day‐to‐day management by government agencies. The proposition that pensions are an “avoidance product” is also explored.
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Helen Gabriel, Rita Kottasz and Roger Bennett
To examine the extent to which “account planners” in advertising agencies use formal academic models of “how advertising works” and to identify the factors that discourage…
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the extent to which “account planners” in advertising agencies use formal academic models of “how advertising works” and to identify the factors that discourage non‐users from applying academic advertising theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Account executives in 152 full‐service and 72 creative advertising agencies in the UK completed a questionnaire concerning the use of formal models, preferences for developing those in‐house versus adopting pre‐existing “textbook” prescriptions, and factors that might discouraged application of academic advertising theory in any form. The data collected were interpreted by means of factor analysis, structural equation modelling and correspondence analysis, and conclusions drawn with respect to theory and practice.
Findings
There was considerable ignorance of formal models of advertising effect. Agencies using them typically favoured the hierarchy‐of‐effects variants. Although more than a third of the sample eschewed models, there was little evidence of animosity towards advertising theory of itself. Non‐adoption was significantly explained by constructs drawn from the academic literature of knowledge dissemination.
Research limitations/implications
It was not possible in this study to establish precise details of agencies' in‐house proprietary models, so the degree to which those reflected either current practice or textbook prescriptions could not be determined.
Practical implications
The study emphasises the pressing need to harmonise formal models of “how advertising works” with conceptual frameworks used by advertising agencies in practice (if any), for the improvement of campaign planning and evaluation.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study to investigate the extent to which advertising theory is actually used by account planners in advertising agencies.
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Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel
Relationships between a supplier’s corporate reputation, trust in the supplier, co‐operation, buyer commitment, and willingness to undertake relationship‐specific investments…
Abstract
Relationships between a supplier’s corporate reputation, trust in the supplier, co‐operation, buyer commitment, and willingness to undertake relationship‐specific investments were examined in the context of interactions between three UK seaports and a sample of 144 of their customer shipping firms. It emerged that the model proposed by the International Marketing and Purchasing Group performed well as a predictor of supplier/purchaser relationships within this sector. Seaports’ corporate reputations (as measured by the Fortune reputation index) significantly affected shippers’ desires for close relationships with particular ports, and acted as a quasi‐moderator of the impact of supplier trust on closeness. Reputation, moreover, constituted a pure moderator vis‐à‐vis the influences of trust on commitment and on relationship‐specific investments and adaptations of business systems. Additionally reputation modified the effects of experience (i.e. the period for which a shipper had been doing business with a specific port) on trust.
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Roger Bennett and Helen Gabriel
Headteachers in Greater London’s 401 state‐funded secondary schools were sent a questionnaire designed to relate their personal characteristics to, inter alia, their attitudes…
Abstract
Headteachers in Greater London’s 401 state‐funded secondary schools were sent a questionnaire designed to relate their personal characteristics to, inter alia, their attitudes towards educational sponsorship, the levels of their schools’ marketing orientation, the demand for commercial sponsorship of school activities, and whether their schools possessed formal policies in connection with external sponsorship. In line with earlier research in the educational management area, the major personal characteristics examined (in addition to age, length of service, etc.) related to the individual headteacher’s management style; specifically whether he or she was particularly autocratic, consultative, democratic or innovative. Responses to the questionnaire were factor analysed and tested for construct reliability. A stepwise regression procedure was then applied to assess the influences of various sets of variables on attitudes and behaviour. The results indicated that within Greater London the commercial sponsorship of schools is widespread and expanding. Extreme democrats were less likely to desire large amounts of additional sponsorship for their schools than were autocrats. Schools located in prosperous areas were far more proactive in their approaches to sponsorship and employed headteachers with more positive attitudes towards marketing and sponsorship than schools in poorer neighbourhoods.
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Balkrushna Potdar, Tony Garry, John Guthrie and Juergen Gnoth
The purpose of this paper is to explore how interactional justice within a retail context may influence employee organizational commitment and how this may evoke guardianship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how interactional justice within a retail context may influence employee organizational commitment and how this may evoke guardianship behaviors that manifest in shoplifting prevention.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a phenomenological approach conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 shop-floor employees of two major national supermarket chains in New Zealand.
Findings
The findings suggest that interactional justice in the workplace is important in shaping organizational commitment amongst employees. Additionally, heightened organizational commitment may have a significant effect on employee propensity to engage in shoplifting prevention/guardianship behavior. A conceptual model is developed based on these findings.
Practical implications
Retail managers may promote and exercise interactional justice practices with employees to improve their organizational commitment and consequential shoplifting prevention/guardianship behaviors.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, and from a theoretical perspective, it offers both a conceptual foundation and empirical-based evaluation of interactional justice and its effect on organizational commitment and, specifically, on guardianship/shoplifting prevention behaviors. Second, and from a pragmatic perspective, the conceptual model derived from this research may assist retailers in developing interactional justice strategies that encourage organizational commitment of employees that consequently leads to employees’ guardianship/shoplifting prevention behaviors. Finally, it explores significance and role of employee perceptions of interactional justice, employee workplace attachment and organizational commitment within the context of retail crime prevention.
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This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion.
Design/methodology/approach
The author reflects on her “lived experience” of conducting doctoral research, five years earlier and re‐searched for the paper, by composing a fictional narrative that aims to capture some of the emotional and other complexities of the process.
Findings
The author demonstrates that fictionalisation opens possibilities for a deeper probing of the emotional aspects of the research experience. Her conclusion is that this method can help researchers to think about the processes of writing, reflexivity, and emotion. It can also be useful to academic writers more widely, by showing how fiction writing techniques can convey some of the more complex aspects of their day‐to‐day activities.
Practical implications
The paper can act as a model for extending academic writing skills in the area of fiction, by introducing characterisation, plot and dialogue.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original account of the emotions of the doctoral writer, situated within current discourses on emotion, fiction writing and methodology. It will be of value to scholars of arts, humanities and social sciences.