Search results

This article attempts to synthesize the contributions of Jagdish Sheth to the discipline. This is done by following the development of the field in various subdisciplines such that one can observe the impact Sheth's thinking has had on the field. This is the career of an “accidental marketer” who started as a social scientist, got interested in buyer behavior, and made his mark in that field. Noticing similarities between organizational buyer behavior and individual buyer behavior, he ventured into that field too. As a visionary, he started developing theories in international marketing in the seventies, which was a popular area that time. Similarly, he published a handbook on Customer Relationship Marketing and worked in the area before it became a major area of emphasis. As a multifaceted person, he has contributed to the practitioners through books and consulting projects. However, this article focuses mainly on his academic contributions including his research, teaching/mentoring, and his philanthropic activities.

Explores the application of expert systems in the field of services marketing. Describes the basics of the technology along with several hypothetical systems. Concludes with a brief examination of costs versus benefits, system design and implementation issues, together with the potential for other artificial intelligence technologies to contribute to the management of services marketing. Notes that advanced applications such as expert systems will dramatically change the competitive landscape of the future.

Discusses the relevance of formal marketing information systems for services marketing. Examines information technology and its potential for services marketing, presenting a design for an integrated services marketing information system. Examines emerging technologies and their applications to service marketing problems. Considers the overlap between marketing and operations for service businesses. Concludes with a discussion of an implementation vector for exploiting the benefits of this overlap and of related managerial issues.

Several forces at work in most organizations can kill promising technologies before they ever become transformed into marketable products. Here's how to recognize the syndromes and combat them if they have already taken hold in your company.

At a time when almost every business practice is undergoing a thorough reengineering process, many companies are discovering the value of going back to basics in one crucial area: design. Management, preoccupied during much of the 1980s with a set of concerns that were far removed from creating value for customers, is rediscovering the power of that fundamental building block of all commercial success: the interaction between a customer and a product, tangible or intangible. The quality of that interaction is overwhelmingly driven by two things: product and process design.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the concept of “Conscious Capitalism,” which refers to a new, more enlightened approach to business purpose and management.

The paper describes how the context for business has changed in fundamental ways in the past two decades, calling for a new approach to business that reflects rising levels of consciousness among customers and employees as well as multiple and deepening challenges facing the world today. It is imperative that business gets on the right side of society rather than continuing to add to societal burdens, as is too often the case. Conscious capitalism is not synonymous with corporate social responsibility (CSR); since society is recognized as an important, even the primary stakeholder, the core business itself must by definition be socially responsible. A conscious approach to business is based on the adoption of a higher purpose that transcends profits, a stakeholder rather than shareholder orientation, and conscious, service‐oriented leadership.

Businesses that adopt this approach not only create multiple types of long‐term wealth for society at large (including social, emotional, intellectual and even spiritual wealth); but they also dramatically outperform conventional firms on financial measures of performance. The world of conscious business is thus largely devoid of the trade‐offs that are commonly made and accepted as part of business‐as‐usual.

The paper concludes by recognizing that a conscious approach to business is highly compatible with the ancient wisdom found in Indian and other traditions.

This paper shows that there is the potential to enter a golden age of leadership thinking that blends the best of modern Western practice (geared towards efficiencies) and ancient Eastern wisdom (focused on effectiveness).

The purpose of this paper is to consider the development and application of marketing theory and practice over time and its current status. The terms “brickbats” and “bouquets” are used as metaphors to extend praise or criticism for marketing. In doing so, the authors draw upon the views of leading theorists over time and apply these in the current environmental context.

The approach adopted is discursive, critical and conceptual.

Following literature review, and drawing upon current examples, marketing as a discipline is subject to both kudos and criticisms. Nonetheless, it is concluded optimistically in that marketing can be an even greater source for societal good. That “goodness” is partly based upon the added impetus of social media adoption and use by consumers, the need for growth and accelerative innovation in the digital age coupled with the democratisation of consumption. Nonetheless, the authors offer the caveat that free competitive markets lead to market failures, and the need for market regulation by governments is becoming more evident.

The implications of the paper are profound. Academics should be concerned in and involved with marketing theory. Questions need to be raised concerning non-robust definitions of marketing and its application. The authors wait for a consumer-led approach to marketing to add depth to the marketing theory.

Marketers need to be made more accountable for their actions. Consumers need to become part of the marketing process. Marketing claims need to be verified by delivered benefits. Companies need to take steps to ensure that the marketing process does not end at purchase. Satisfaction needs to be made manifest. Likewise, dissatisfactions need to be managed well as part of the marketing process.

Too much marketing currently is relatively unregulated in the sense that there are so few opportunities to evade its myriad reach and – despite social media – little chance of changing marketing practice for the good of societies. Many criticisms of marketing practice are not being addressed in the literature.

Marketing is a vibrant force in all nations and markets. It is deeply rooted in business practice. It is contemporaneous and relevant. It is global and national. But, it is not entirely all good news. There are caveats and criticisms as well as kudos and praise. While both are addressed here, the topic needs to be considered for marketing and its accompanying theory and practice to change.

The purpose of this paper is to look back at the first year of publication of the Journal of Indian Business Research (JIBR) and to provide details of the current issue.

It is time to look back at the first year of launch of the JIBR. After all, it is widely believed in the academic publishing world that the first year of a new journal is the most crucial one. This editorial gives details of the current issue, paper by paper.

Filling a much‐felt gap for a high‐quality publishing outlet on Indian business research, JIBR has attracted the attention of leading scholars in the discipline in the very first year of its existence. Renowned scholars such as Jagdish Sheth, Alok Chakrabarti, Raj Aggarwal, Madhukar Angur, G.K. Kalyanaram and Rajendra Sisodia have published their research and/or viewpoints/commentaries in JIBR in its very first year. This issue begins with “Corporate social responsibility communication in the Indian context” wherein Brigitte Planken, Subrat Sahu, and Catherine Nickerson report on research, which investigates the CSR platforms and the communication surrounding those platforms in India. In the second paper titled “Effectiveness of integrated marketing communications: empirical analysis of two brands in India,” Mehir Baidya and Bipasha Maity utilize quarterly, time‐series data over 2000‐2005 for two competing brands in packaged goods business to assess the impact of marketing communication on sales. Pramila Rao, in the third paper titled “A resource‐based analysis of recruitment and selection practices of Indian software companies: a case study approach” enhances our understanding on senior‐level staffing practices of Indian software companies. The next paper by Federica Collato is a case study titled “Is Bangalore the Silicon Valley of Asia? Analysis of the evolution and the structure of this Indian local economy organization.” The final paper of this issue is a viewpoint article on “Overcoming decision flaws from framing” by V.N. Bhattacharya.

The Editorial provides an overview of the inaugural volume of JIBR.

This chapter focuses on critical thinking as a new, powerful, and specialized tool and technique for understanding and analyzing the subtle operations of the free enterprise capitalist market system and its ethics and morality. Everything in the world of consumers and market enterprise systems are determined by our supply–demand system that in turn are determined by our presumed limitless production–distribution and consumption (LDPC) systems. From a critical thinking viewpoint, we study the free enterprise capitalist system (FECS) as a dynamic, interconnected organic system and not as a discrete or compartmentalized body of disaggregate parts. Systems thinking with critical thinking calls for a shift of our mindset from seeing just parts to seeing the whole reality in its structured dynamic unity; both mandate that we see ourselves as active participators or partners of FECS and not as mere cogs in its wheels or as mere factors of its production processes. Critical thinking seeks to identify the “structures” that underlie complex situations in FECS with those that bring about high- versus low-leveraged changes in various versions of capitalism. Specifically, this chapter applies critical thinking to FECS as defined by its founder, Adam Smith, in 1776 to its fundamental and structural assumptions, and as supported or critiqued by serious scholars such as Karl Marx, Maynard Keynes, C. K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond (inclusive capitalism), John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia (conscious capitalism), and others.