Search results

Analyses of the on‐line search market have been subject to several serious misconceptions concerning the service retailers, i.e. the information search services (ISS). One of the consequences of this is that the ISS growth potential has been overestimated. The paper points out that, even if there is an overall growth in on‐line searching, the individual ISSs will typically show a stagnation after just over two years. Since the average operative age of an ISS is about two years, it is possible that even the aggregate growth in the next few years will be less than the present. This decline in growth rate is not inevitable but likely.

Organizational change is an activity that is only partially analysable within current systems theories since they are based on static models of systems. The change process therefore is often organized on an ad hoc basis with less efficient control compared to the operation of the regular system. This paper offers some guidelines for the design of change programmes, ie the plan of action for the implementation of a change. In particular the concept of ‘Design/Contribution Graphs’ is presented as a tool for planning the implementation programme.

It would have been both tidy and convincing to have started this paper with statistical tables showing what resources are funded by governments overseas. If I have not done so, it is both because the figures are not readily available, and the task—taking ‘overseas’ at face value—like the universe, is unbounded. Indeed, as defined for the statistics which show we are entering a post‐industrial Information Society, ‘information’ may cover any activities concerned with the processing of symbols rather than of materials. Even if we restrict the term to the provision of specific services by word of mouth, document or computer output, it is still difficult to draw tight boundaries. The OECD struggled unsuccessfully for ten years to reach international agreement on meaningful and useful definitions for statistics on information; hopefully the recent US compilation of Statistical Indicators of Scientific and Technical Communication, will stimulate further efforts in other countries. There is an enormous and urgent job to be done.

The present success of online retrieval is well known. The future is dependent on several factors including technological developments (computers, communications, terminals and storage), progress in information with science research, availability and use of funds for employing and coupling the available technology and the useful results of research, and finally the nontechnical exterior factors, such as political, psychological, legal and legislative constraints. Research is under way to pave the way for the development of transparent systems for retrieving references, facts and information contained in textual material. Such systems will greatly increase the useability of computer‐readable databases by professionals and laymen alike. Really significant changes will depend on research that progresses towards fact retrieval and ultimately towards knowledge retrieval.

Uses experiences in Bulgaria to exemplify market entry and control strategies employed by franchisors in a business environment that is geographically and culturally remote from the West. Carries out interviews in 1996 with Bulgarian franchisors and franchisees to test a number of hypotheses relating to issues including the type of franchisor, system densities, market entry strategies and monitoring tactics. Identifies 17 environmental factors ‐ cultural, organisational, political and legal ‐ which represent possible areas of conflict between the franchisor and franchisee. Establishes that franchisors adapt to a remote business environment in a variety of ways in respect of both market entry and monitoring strategies ; establishes some significant correlations between different types of franchisors and their strategies. Finds that western franchisors and Bulgarian owned firms often place different emphasis on the relative importance of environmental factors. Observes a broad variation in market entry tactics. Recommends that franchisors need to establish criteria to establish risks in remote business environments and devise appropriate strategies prior to entry.

Now that the World Wide Web has changed previously arcane electronic publishing into a popular everyday phenomenon, fulfilling the exciting promises of many years, a global electronic resource for the health sciences becomes technically feasible. Though recent evolutions have inspired prophecies on the imminent death of printed biomedical journals, the latter have now themselves joined the electronic platform. Since 1995, a respectable portion of the traditional top journals have started offering new channels of access that do not differ essentially from their paper formats. These electronic versions feature attractive additional value such as extra (multimedia) contents and improved retrieval and (hyper)linking capabilities. While many were originally partial versions, mainly figuring as eye‐catchers, increasingly more full‐text editions are appearing on the Worldwide Web. Compared to exclusively electronic journals or reprint archives, traditional journals migrating to the Internet have certain strategic advantages such as an aura of intellectual trust‐worthiness (based on peer review) and considerable social acclaim (based on citation records, amongst other things). As such, their impact is now increasingly being extended into cyberspace and the rumours of the death of the biomedical journal appear to be greatly exaggerated— or at least premature.

The enabling technologies that emerged from information technology (IT) have had a considerable influence upon the development of marketing tools, and marketing has become digitalized by adopting these technologies over time. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the impacts of these enabling technologies on marketing tools in the past and present and to demonstrate their potential future. Furthermore, it provides guidance about the digital transformation occurring in marketing and the need to align of marketing and IT.

This study demonstrates the impact of enabling technologies on the subsequent marketing tools developed through a content analysis of information systems and marketing conference proceedings. It offers a fresh look at marketing's digital transformation over the last 40 years. Moreover, it initially applies the findings to a general digital transformation model from another field to verify its presence in marketing.

This paper identifies four eras within the digital marketing evolution and reveals insights into a potential fifth era. This chronological structure verifies the impact of IT on marketing tools and accordingly the digital transformation within marketing. IT has made digital marketing tools possible in all four digital transformation levers: automation, customer interaction, connectivity and data.

The sequencing of enabling technologies and subsequent marketing tools demonstrates the need to align marketing and IT to design new marketing tools that can be applied to customer interactions and be used to foster marketing control.

This study is the first to apply the digital transformation levers, namely, automation, customer interaction, connectivity and data, to the marketing discipline and contribute new insights by demonstrating the chronological development of digital transformation in marketing.