Commentary on: “Toward a theory of agency and altruism in family firms”

Agency theory would predict a low incidence of agency costs within family firms because of the fusion of ownership and control. The concept of altruism challenges this oversimplification. However, the interesting findings by Schulze et al. rely upon two assumptions that should be examined in future research.     

Exploring How Managers Conceive and Practice Market Orientation in Near “Perfect” Food Markets

Abstract

This paper explores what it means to be market-oriented in food commodity markets, i.e., markets that are near “perfect” as characterized in economics. This is an almost neglected topic in past research on market orientation. By eliciting how top managers in food commodity firms conceptualize market orientation, we reveal that their understanding and practice of market orientation partly deviates from the prototypical views reflected in the market orientation literature. Findings are discussed and implications highlighted.     

Looking at the brain: Neural effects of “made in” labeling on product value and choice

International business research posits that, under certain circumstances, consumers prefer goods manufactured in their own country regardless of their country of origin image. Yet the psychological origin of such Domestic bias remains unknown. This study presents a neuroimaging experiment developed in Spain. The task combined low and high involvement goods marked with Domestic “Made in Spain” and Foreign “Made in USA” (similar culture) and “Made in China” (different culture) labels. The findings reveal that Domestic goods always convey neural rewarding sensations. Neural aversive biases toward Foreign goods occur only when the products are culturally different and high involvement. These findings help improve business retailing strategies.     

Beyond Environmental Regulations: Exploring the Potential of “Eco-Islam” in Boosting Environmental Ethics Within SMEs in Arab Markets

The recent global increase in environmental regulation does not necessarily signal improvement in firms’ ecological imprints. Like many markets, the Arab world is struggling to implement environmental compliance measures among local firms. For Arab countries, the reliance solely on formal policies to improve local firms’ ecological footprints may be risky given the evident institutional challenges to enforce environmental regulations, specially post the Arab Spring. Drawing from the literature highlighting the merits of combining formal and informal controls to ensure successful implementation of a strategy, we argue that the emphasis for regulation must be accompanied by an emphasis for developing environmental ethics of individuals, who are the expected implementers of any environmental policy. In that light, we propose that the Eco-Islam phenomenon can serve as an influential and effective foundation for building organizational cultures with stronger environmental ethics among local small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We explain the underlying maxims of Eco-Islam then conduct qualitative research among experts preaching or practicing the concept to gain better insights into the potential of leveraging it in Muslim-majority Arab countries. Finally, we conclude with insightful implications for local SMEs in the region.     

Commentary on “Working consumers: Co-creation of brand identity,consumer identity,and brand community identity”

This commentary highlights the specific role of the political marketing agent, which, in the case of the “Yes Scotland” campaign triggered multiple dynamic opportunities to create dialogues between all stakeholders, thus enhancing reciprocal value co-creation. Two processes contribute to the reciprocal identity and value co-creation: Brand Identification and Branding as Shared and Common Meanings. In the first process, the political marketing agent acts as the initiator of the physical identity; in the second process, the agent acts as a facilitator of interactions, which eventually result in a co-creation process. A discussion of how the learning objectives and marketing activities differ among the two processes concludes the commentary.     

From brand identity to polysemous brands: Commentary on “Performing identities: Processes of brand and stakeholder identity co-construction”

The commentary endorses the view of brands as complex social relations that develop among a multitude of enacted stakeholder identities and discusses in what ways this perspective may lead to a novel paradigm of brand building – one that highlights the dynamic and fluid character of brand identity. The author underlines the importance of better understanding the many ways in which (internal and external) stakeholders can contribute to brand identity construction. Suggesting how this novel brand building paradigm can contribute to resolving confusions stemming from current misunderstandings within the branding literature, the commentary sees the opening of a new avenue of fascinating research questions that can lead to a better understanding of stakeholders' roles in the construction of polysemous brands identities.     

Commentary on “2019 Academic Marketing Climate Survey: motivation,results and recommendations”

Marketing Letters - This paper reflects on the conclusions of a survey by Galak and Kahn on the climate experienced by faculty of all genders and ethnicities in the marketing departments of US...     

Brand Networks as the Interplay of Identities,Selves, and Turtles: Commentary on “Interplay between intended brand identity and identities in a Nike related brand community: Co-existing synergies and tensions in a nested system”

This commentary emphasizes the networked nature of brands. Brands are identities, and identities are meanings. Meanings are always embedded in networks of association. Therefore, all understandings of brands are necessarily vast, complex, and incomplete, especially in the contemporary age of branding.     

Classifying and classified: An interpretive study of the consumption of cruises by the “new” Brazilian middle class

The paper seeks to make a contribution in addressing a theoretical gap related to how emerging middle class consumers utilize consumption as a classificatory practice. We adopted an interpretive approach and used the method of participant observation combined with in-depth interviews. Drawing from Bourdieu and Veblen, two main categories were used to explain the use of cruises as a means of classification: distinction and conspicuous consumption. It was found in addition to consumers classifying themselves in relation to others, they classify the time spent, space, artifacts, and the very experience of the cruise itself. The cruise simulates, for a short period of time, the life of the “leisure class,” with its attendant conspicuous consumption and waste.     

“This Post Is Sponsored”: Effects of Sponsorship Disclosure on Persuasion Knowledge and Electronic Word of Mouth in the Context of Facebook

Social media, such as Facebook, offer brands the opportunity to reach their target audience in a less obtrusive way than traditional media, through sponsored posts. Regulations require marketers to explicitly inform consumers about the commercial nature of these posts. This study addresses the effects of sponsorship disclosures by means of a 2 (no disclosure vs. the sponsorship disclosure ‘Sponsored’) × 2 (source: celebrity endorser vs. brand) experiment. Results suggest that a sponsorship disclosure only influences the use of persuasion knowledge when the post is disseminated by a celebrity. Moreover, a disclosure starts a process in which the recognition of advertising (i.e., the activation of conceptual persuasion knowledge) causes consumers to develop distrusting beliefs about the post (i.e., higher attitudinal persuasion knowledge), and in turn, decreases their intention to engage in electronic word of mouth.     

“Fairtradization”: a performative perspective on fair trade markets and the role of retail settings in their enactment

In line with the Callonian approach in economic sociology, this paper introduces the concept of “fairtradization” to analyze the assemblages of human agents, material devices, and discourses through which the fair trade market is enacted. We argue that the retail setting is a key site for the enactment of particular versions of “fair trade,” focusing on a case study of the newly designed world shops in Flanders (Belgium). We reveal that the new shop design – aimed to address particular overflows resulting from the mainstreaming of fair trade – constitutes a multivocal shopping environment that enables four analytically distinct enactments of fair trade shopping. Our analytical approach opens up a more dynamic and complex understanding of fair trade beyond the unidirectional diagnosis of mainstreaming. More generally, it provides support for a radically performative view of consumption markets, pointing to the importance of retail settings as socio-material spaces for their enactment.     

Exploring the Antecedents of Brand Loyalty and Electronic Word of Mouth in Social-Media-Based Brand Communities: Do Gender Differences Matter?

ABSTRACT

Recently, social media have emerged as key marketing communication channels. In this context, consumers are increasingly gathering in online communities which have been identified as social-media-based brand communities (SMBBCs). However, notwithstanding scholars' attention towards SMBBCs, the role of consumers' gender in developing brand loyalty intention (BLI) has been scarcely explored by literature. Moreover, scant attention has been given to the analysis of whether gender is related to different propensities towards brand recommendation—identified as a proactive behavior towards a positive electronic word of-mouth diffusion (E-WOM)—in the social media context. Hence, this research aims to explore the antecedents of BLI and E-WOM by focusing on consumers' gender differences. A structural equation model has been created based on 250 surveys collected among SMBBCs of an American sportswear brand. The results showed that male consumers' BLI is influenced by engagement in SMBBCs. Instead, brand trust was the main antecedent of females' BLI.