My goal is to describe my life in marketing over more than 36 years and to help readers better understand (from my personal perspective) the history of marketing. I also aim to…
Abstract
Purpose
My goal is to describe my life in marketing over more than 36 years and to help readers better understand (from my personal perspective) the history of marketing. I also aim to lift the curtain on some aspects of service within the marketing community.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is an autobiographical sketch. It describes some key moments in my career, as well as describing how my most cited articles came to be written. It emphasizes the contextual factors at work in different periods, so readers can better understand how and why my research evolved in certain ways. I aim to convey the nature and variety of career experiences that were (and are) open to marketing academics. I discuss my experiences at the Journal of Marketing and the Marketing Science Institute.
Findings
Marketing changed rapidly between 1974 and 2017. Although change can be uncomfortable, I urge marketers to seek exposure to new ideas and practices; they are essential to learning and growth. Unexpected opportunities will come along and an alert individual can learn much from them. My time in industry was a learning experience for me. There are many kinds of interesting and successful careers.
Practical implications
The marketing field advances, not by the work of a single individual, but from the accumulated work of the entire marketing community. Everyone has a role to play. I encourage each individual to look for ways to contribute. I offer thoughts on how to build a research career based on my own experience.
Social implications
My thoughts may shed some light on the experiences of a woman academic and the globalization of marketing academia between 1974 and 2017.
Originality/value
My hope is that this paper contributes to a better understanding of the history of marketing, when it is considered together with other articles on this topic. It may also be useful to people who are embarking upon a career, as well as those seeking to understand the work of earlier marketing scholars.
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Jane Whitney Gibson, Richard M. Hodgetts and Jorge M. Herrera
This paper discusses the lives and contributions of five key members of the Management History Division: Arthur G. Bedeian; Alfred A. Bolton; James C. Worthy (now deceased);…
Abstract
This paper discusses the lives and contributions of five key members of the Management History Division: Arthur G. Bedeian; Alfred A. Bolton; James C. Worthy (now deceased); Charles D. Wrege; and Daniel A. Wren. Each has proved himself a teacher and intellectual leader in matters of fundamental concern to management history.
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Discusses the situation of Catholic aided schoolsfollowing the 1988 Education Reform Act withemphasis on school governing bodies. Governorsneed training, information and guidance…
Abstract
Discusses the situation of Catholic aided schools following the 1988 Education Reform Act with emphasis on school governing bodies. Governors need training, information and guidance on school management plans and devolved budgets, new flexibilities in staff salaries, teacher appraisal and morale, buying in inspection. Further classification of new grant maintained status may be needed. A proper balance must be found between education authorities, governors, Church, parents and teachers that best suits individual community needs.
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Andrea Handley and Jerome Carson
The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Andrea Handley.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Andrea Handley.
Design/methodology/approach
In this case study, Andrea gives a short account of her background and is then interviewed by Jerome.
Findings
Andrea outlines a number of issues from her childhood that led to her later mental health problems.
Research limitations/implications
Individual case studies are of course just the story of one person’s difficulties. For too long in psychiatry, case studies were written by professionals about their lives and problems. First person accounts allow the individual to tell their own narrative.
Practical implications
Andrea is not the first person to talk about the delay in access to mental health services. As she notes, 16 years on, she is still waiting for that referral! She notes that a friend of her could not wait even the three months that she had been and tragically took her own life.
Social implications
So much of Andrea’s story is overshadowed by loss, especially the death of her brother when she was a teenager. As a society, we are no as well “prepared” for death, as older generations. The coronavirus pandemic is bringing our mortality home to all of us.
Originality/value
Patricia Deegan once asked, “How much loss could a human heart hold?” In this moving account Andrea lets us see the huge losses she has sustained and yet she is still determined to try and help others who are suffering. Hers is truly a remarkable life.
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Chadwick J. Miller, Laszlo Sajtos, Katherine N. Lemon, Jim Salas, Martha Troncoza and Lonnie Ostrom
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customers’ upgrading/downgrading (t−1) behavior may be predictive of future spending. Further, this paper also investigates how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customers’ upgrading/downgrading (t−1) behavior may be predictive of future spending. Further, this paper also investigates how customers’ post-consumption evaluations of upgrades and downgrades [satisfaction(t−1) and perceived value(t−1)] may moderate the relationship between upgrades/downgrades and future spending.
Design/methodology/approach
The predictions are tested using a large longitudinal data set of river cruise purchases (N = 48,103) and largely replicated using a data set of zoo membership purchases (N = 2,469).
Findings
Satisfaction(t−1) mitigates the positive relationship between prior upgrades(t−1) and future spending(t). In contrast, perceived value(t−1) magnifies the positive relationship between prior upgrades(t−1) and future spending(t). However, no positively moderating effects are observed to alleviate the negative relationship between prior downgrades(t−1) and future spending(t).
Practical implications
This research suggests that managers should work hard early in customer–firm relationships because of an asymmetric difficultly in altering the trajectory of an established relationship. Specifically, relationships that are trending downward (as consecutive downgrades would suggest) are difficult to repair – a mechanism to alter this trajectory is not observed. In contrast, relationships that are trending upward (as consecutive upgrades would suggest) can be improved with high perceived value evaluations but also degraded with high satisfaction evaluations.
Originality/value
This research should recast marketers’ understanding of the value of customers’ upgrade and downgrade decisions. Instead of using customers’ upgrade or downgrade decisions as the dependent variable, or final outcome in buyer behavior, this study shows how the accumulation of prior upgrades and prior downgrades, over time, acts as a bellwether of the customer–firm relationship. Further, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to connect these upgrade/downgrade decisions to customers’ evaluations of those purchases to understand how individual purchases can impact the overall customer–firm relationship.
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Chadwick J. Miller, Adriana Samper, Naomi Mandel, Daniel C. Brannon, Jim Salas and Martha Troncoza
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of activities within a multi-activity experience influences consumer preferences before and after consumption.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of activities within a multi-activity experience influences consumer preferences before and after consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested using four experiments and a secondary data set from a river cruise firm that includes first-time river cruise purchases by consumers from this firm between January 2011 and December 2015 (n = 337,457).
Findings
Consumers prefer experiences with fewer (vs more) activities before consumption – a phenomenon, this paper calls “activity apprehension” – but prefer experiences with more (vs fewer) activities after consumption. A mediation analysis indicates that this phenomenon occurs because the highly perishable nature of activities makes consumers uncertain about their ability to use all the activities within the experience (usage uncertainty).
Practical implications
Evaluations of a multi-activity experience depend on both the number of activities and on whether the consumer is at the pre- or post-consumption stage of the customer journey. As such, firms looking to sell multi-activity experiences should design and promote these experiences in a way that minimizes activity apprehension.
Originality/value
This study is the first to demonstrate that consumer perceptions of an optimal experience depend on both the number of included activities and on the stage of the customer journey (i.e. pre- or post-purchase). It further contributes to the consumer experience literature by examining an unexplored activity characteristic, perishability, in shaping experiential purchase decisions. Finally, it demonstrates a new way in which experiential purchases differ from tangible product purchases.
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President Nicolas Maduro’s beleaguered government will seek to sidestep sanctions on the Venezuelan oil sector announced by the United States on January 28. Some technical aspects…
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB241543
ISSN: 2633-304X
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Geographic
Topical
Peter L. Wright and David S. Taylor
A review of the relevant literature and case study analysis draws the conclusion that a skills approach to leadership makes it possible to describe and provide training in the…
Abstract
A review of the relevant literature and case study analysis draws the conclusion that a skills approach to leadership makes it possible to describe and provide training in the core skills required in a wide variety of managerial situations. Such skills are most effectively acquired through practice, with feedback and guidance provided by skilled interpersonal skilled tutors. The latter skills are also best learned via feedback and guidance; unless there is a growth in effective interpersonal skills training there will ultimately be a shortage of tutors to pass on the skills learned.
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Patrick Hopkinson, Mats Niklasson, Peter Bryngelsson, Andrew Voyce and Jerome Carson
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the life of the musician Brian Wilson from five different perspectives.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the life of the musician Brian Wilson from five different perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a mixed method of collaborative autoethnography, psychobiography and digital team ethnography to try and better understand the life and contributions of Brian Wilson.
Findings
Each of the five contributors provides different insights into the life and music of Brian Wilson.
Research limitations/implications
While the focus of this paper is on a single individual, a case study, the long and distinguished life of Brian Wilson provides much material for discussion and theorising.
Practical implications
Each individual presenting to mental health services has a complex biography. The five different contributions articulated in this paper could perhaps be taken as similar to the range of professional opinions seen in mental health teams, with each focusing on unique but overlapping aspects of the person’s story.
Social implications
This account shows the importance of taking a biological-psychological-social-spiritual and cultural perspective on mental illness.
Originality/value
This multi-layered analysis brings a range of perspectives to bear on the life and achievements of Brian Wilson, from developmental, musical, psychological and lived experience standpoints.
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Barbara Plester, Helena Cooper-Thomas and Joanne Winquist
Fun means different things to different people and the purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer the question “what is fun at work?”. Given that perceptions of fun differ…
Abstract
Purpose
Fun means different things to different people and the purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer the question “what is fun at work?”. Given that perceptions of fun differ among people, the answer is that a pluralistic concept of fun best captures different notions of what constitutes fun at work.
Design/methodology/approach
The research combines two separate studies. The first is an in-depth ethnographic project involving interviews, participant observations and document collection investigating fun and humour in four different New Zealand companies. The second study extends findings from the first by specifically asking participants to reply to survey questions asking “what is fun at work?”.
Findings
Currently fun is described in a variety of ways by researchers using different descriptors for similar concepts. Combining current conceptions of fun with the own research the authors categorize the complex notion of workplace fun into three clear categories: organic, managed and task fun. This tripartite conception of fun combines and extends current models of fun and collates earlier findings into a synthesized model of fun. The investigation found that fun is ambiguous and paradoxical which creates issues for both managers and employees. The authors recognize fun as a multifaceted concept and use paradox theory and the concept of flow to theorize the multilateral fun framework.
Practical implications
The authors find significant implications for managers in regards to creating and fostering fun in the organizational context. Differing perceptions of fun may result in misunderstandings that can negatively impact morale and workplace relationships. A wider conceptualization of fun offers potential for more harmonious and productive workplaces and creates a greater tolerance for competing and paradoxical perceptions of fun.
Originality/value
Current literature on workplace fun uses a variety of descriptors of fun and emphasizes a duality between managed and organic forms of fun. In suggesting a new term “task fun” the authors synthesize earlier conceptions of fun to create an integrated model of fun. The model clearly outlines three overlapping yet paradoxical categories of fun.