Suggests that marketing should not remain stagnant, basing its interest in business/customer relationships alone. Speculates about the future of the marketing concept and…
Abstract
Suggests that marketing should not remain stagnant, basing its interest in business/customer relationships alone. Speculates about the future of the marketing concept and demonstrates the applicability of a broadened marketing concept to all functional areas of business, other types of organization and a wide diversity of objects of change. Proposes that, for marketing to remain relevant, the concept of marketing provided will allow organizations to achieve their targets if it is followed.
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“Developing a new product is one of the most exciting, costly and dangerous things a company can do.”
This article examines how bidding decisions are being tackled in practice. It appears very likely that in the future, these decisions will have to be made on a sounder, more…
Abstract
This article examines how bidding decisions are being tackled in practice. It appears very likely that in the future, these decisions will have to be made on a sounder, more structured, quantitative basis. The article suggests a formal, yet mathematically unsophisticated way of handling the bidding problem and considers how such an approach can help the decision maker. Such an approach is a valuable addition to the experience, judgment, intuition and common sense of the bidding strategist.
This article reports on research into the transportation cost element of physical distribution in an Australian packaging materials company. The authors describe how mathematical…
Abstract
This article reports on research into the transportation cost element of physical distribution in an Australian packaging materials company. The authors describe how mathematical programming was applied to rationalise the allocation of customers between the company's two plants. The outcome of this research was twofold. Firstly, transportation costs were reduced. And secondly, as a by‐product of the exercise, the marketing research analyst demonstrated to the managerial decision makers the potential contribution that management science could make to their decision making. Thus, a link was forged between the management scientist and the manager.
This paper is focused on my search over nearly 60 years for an understanding of marketing – not just as a management technology, but as a social discipline which gives meaning and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is focused on my search over nearly 60 years for an understanding of marketing – not just as a management technology, but as a social discipline which gives meaning and purpose to the technology.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper illustrates my life as an academic in context, which began with a strong focus on marketing in contemporary management and went on to conclude that marketing is much more than management. It was my travels across the world to widely differing markets and marketplaces that led me to this conclusion. I saw individuals, groups and organizations linking with each other in the voluntary exchange of economic and social value, self-organizing into increasingly complex networks that in the end become the institutions that frame marketing action.
Findings
I gradually came to see marketing in a much wider, intensely human setting, and to realize some of the complexities of the networks that marketing activities generate.
Practical implications
My story may be of assistance to younger scholars beginning a career in marketing.
Social implications
Marketing is much more than management and if re-framed should/could stand alongside other social sciences in considering social and economic policy.
Originality/value
To build on my recollections of an unplanned life spent in search of marketing to highlight the need for younger scholars to think about marketing in a dynamic ever-changing systems setting.
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The objective of this paper is to empirically test and verify the enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility and to assess the influence of these flexibilities on…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this paper is to empirically test and verify the enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility and to assess the influence of these flexibilities on operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A research framework consisting of nine pairs of hypotheses was developed using an extensive literature review. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 391 responses were collected, and these responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling techniques.
Findings
The findings empirically confirm the enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility. The proposed model explained 59 percent variance in volume flexibility and 63 percent variance in product-mix flexibility. Volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility together explained 38 percent variance in operational performance.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, this study advances flexibility literature in two significant ways. First, the study conducts first of its kind quantitative empirical investigation considering upstream, downstream, and internal integration practices as enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility. Second, this study adds to the flexibility literature by suggesting the positive influence of volume and product-mix flexibility on the operational performance of firms.
Originality/value
The study reinforces the role of enablers in the development of volume and product-mix flexibilities. Thus, the study provides a comprehensive view of flexibility enablers that can be used as a diagnostic tool, which practitioners can use to assess and deploy flexibility.
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Claudine Parent, Caroline Robitaille, Marie-Christine Fortin and Anne Avril
Despite the over-representation of stepfamilies in the clientele receiving protective services, there is still very little information about the different forms of the parental…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the over-representation of stepfamilies in the clientele receiving protective services, there is still very little information about the different forms of the parental commitment of stepfathers in those families. However, the characteristics of families receiving child protective services (CPS) are likely to influence the way that the stepfathers’ commitment is expressed.
Methodology/approach
Taking into account the viewpoint of mothers (n = 10), stepfathers (n = 10), and adolescents (n = 10), this study attempted to document, using the free association method and semistructured interviews, the following: (1) the representations that the members of these stepfamilies had of the stepfathers’ parental commitment; and (2) the way in which engagement was expressed in daily life.
Findings
While the participants agreed that the stepfather had a parental role to play, that is to take care of the children, they did not necessarily agree about which dimensions were the most important. Whereas the adults emphasized the child-rearing dimension of this role and the necessary cooperation with the biological parents, the adolescents insisted on the relational aspect. The results likewise indicated that these men were very committed to their partners’ adolescents and showed that even in families challenged by problems that lead to involvement with CPS, stepfathers can play a positive, supportive role.
Originality/value
This study represents an important addition to the existing literature on the role of stepfathers in that it uses multiple measures and direct reports from father figures allowing us to explore the main dimensions of stepfather commitment.
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Sorokhaibam Khaba, Chandan Bhar and Ankita Ray
The purpose of this research is to identify and study the contextual relationships of the significant lean enablers in the Indian coal mining industry using the application of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to identify and study the contextual relationships of the significant lean enablers in the Indian coal mining industry using the application of interpretive structural modeling (ISM), matrice d' impacts croisés-multiplication appliquée á un classement (MICMAC) and structural equation modeling (SEM).
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a conceptual model based on ISM was developed forming a hierarchy and contextual relationships of significant enablers for lean implementation in the Indian coal mining industry using a literature review and eliciting expert opinion, which is followed by MICMAC for grouping of enablers and questionnaire survey to validate the ISM based conceptual model using SEM.
Findings
The study modeled and analyzed ten significant enablers of lean implementation in the Indian coal mining industry. The findings suggest that the most important lean enablers in the Indian coal mining industry are employee empowerment, employee motivation and commitment, consistent financial performance measurement and management support.
Research limitations/implications
Judgmental sampling was used for selecting the respondents for conducting the questionnaire survey in this research work as there are a few numbers of coal mines implementing lean principles in India. Although the study was not restricted to a particular part of India with the sample representing the heterogeneous population, the study represents more data from the coal mines in eastern India.
Practical implications
The model on lean enablers would help the researchers, decision-makers and practitioners to anticipate potential lean enablers in the Indian coal mines and rank the enablers for improved and efficient usage of the available resources creating value to customers with lean and to sustenance academic research on lean.
Originality/value
Studies on lean enablers in the mining sector are scarce in the literature, and this study is a novel contribution of exploring lean enablers in the Indian coal mining industry using an integrated approach of ISM–MICMAC and SEM.
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There are approximately 24 million children living in conflict areas across the globe who are not enrolled in school. The reasons vary greatly; while some have access to a school…
Abstract
There are approximately 24 million children living in conflict areas across the globe who are not enrolled in school. The reasons vary greatly; while some have access to a school, many do not attend. School safety is a primary concern, in the form of bullying and racism, school attacks, and sexual abuse. Other refugee children are required to find employment during normal school hours to help their family. In addition, host governments struggle to find qualified teachers and administrators in many of these conflict-strewn nations. Over the next 10 years, these unschooled refugees will reach adulthood, lacking the tools necessary to build successful lives, either abroad or back in their devastated homelands.
The modern homeschooling movement presents an opportunity to address these challenges. Key technological enablers – fast microprocessors, high-speed internet, cloud computing, etc. – are becoming ubiquitous and cheap. Online, free curriculum, combined with translation software, presents a new paradigm. Even caregivers with limited education themselves can facilitate a learning environment in the home, wherever that home may be. While homeschooling will not work in every situation, it could quickly become an option that positively affects the future of tens of thousands of refugees.
Virpi Turkulainen and Mikko Ketokivi
Conventional wisdom has it that cross‐functional integration is a “must”. The purpose of this paper is to take an information‐processing approach to integration and elaborate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Conventional wisdom has it that cross‐functional integration is a “must”. The purpose of this paper is to take an information‐processing approach to integration and elaborate the conventional wisdom by theoretical examination of both the concept of integration as well as theoretical and empirical elaboration of its link to operational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop six propositions on how cross‐functional integration affects performance and test the propositions in an international sample of 266 manufacturing plant organizations in nine countries.
Findings
The results strongly suggest that disaggregation of performance is important, because the effects of cross‐functional integration on performance are contingent: even though the effects of achieved integration on several dimensions of operational performance are positive, the performance effect varies from one dimension to the next. This is an important finding given that performance has typically been treated at an aggregate level in prior research on the performance effects of integration.
Originality/value
Although most research on integration has focused on the performance implications in particular, theoretical work on the nature of the integration‐performance relationship is required. In this paper, the authors argue the benefits of cross‐functional integration to be fundamentally context‐dependent and elaborate the link between integration and performance by developing the definition of the concept of integration further, as well as by disaggregation of performance, to its constituent dimensions.