Managing Family Businesses in Small Communities

Small businesses located in communities with populations of less than 10,000 were identified in a national sample of family businesses and examined for differences in their management strategies (n = 384). These businesses were first clustered by level and type of management strategy and then analyzed to ascertain differences and similarities in both personal and business firm characteristics among the family business manager groupings. Problems associated with small business management and sources of assistance were also identified. Findings suggest that managers of small family businesses located in small U.S. communities who practiced strategies focusing on extensive planning and controlling perceived their businesses to be successful; however, these managers noted that their greatest problem involved development of sound marketing strategies.     

国际营销STP战略及4P策略分析——以德国大众汽车集团为例

目标市场营销又称STP营销或STP三步曲,即市场细分、选择目标市场和市场定位。营销大师菲利普.科特勒认为当代战略营销的核心,可被定义为STP。在市场营销组合观念中,4P分别是产品（product）,价格（price）,渠道（place）,促销（promotion）。德国大众在中国的成功与其结合了中国市场准确制定出相应的STP战略和4p策略密不可分。     

Responsible Marketing: Can Social Enterprises Show the Way?

In this article, the authors present a new perspective on responsible marketing. We discuss if and how social enterprises can present a new understanding of responsible marketing. Relevant publications (14 on social entrepreneurship, 40 on marketing in non-profit organizations and social enterprises and 41 papers on marketing) are selected and reviewed. The result of the literature analysis and synthesis show that social enterprises can gain from a more formal, systematic approach to marketing. Since social enterprises prioritize social goals over business results, successful adoption of marketing policies and practices can help then create a blueprint for responsible marketing. Marketing of socially relevant products and services by social enterprises thus create a new paradigm of responsible marketing. Such models can also be useful for larger corporations who look at social business and shared value creation as part of their business and marketing strategy.     

论“4P”策略的辩证应用

“4P”组合策略是美国营销学大师菲利普.科特勒首创的经典策略,是过程营销的核心技术,在营销手段层出不穷的今天,这一技术也可以算是“长青藤”。在我国,由于市场营销起步较晚、时间较短,所以人们对它的理解仍有一定的误区,应用也缺乏有效性。     

Woman to women: Social marketing an idea to the new world

In 1971, Kotler and Zaltman developed a formal planning process for social marketing. But this article highlights the marketing of the idea of Britain's moral cause to American women in 1939–41, a clever example of social marketing thinly disguised to avoid the abhorrence attached to propaganda. The authors show how Ruth Drummond's letters in Ladies' Home Journal contain an effective mix of communication elements dedicated to winning women to a way of thinking that they had rejected initially. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Social marketing: Conceptual and pragmatic observations from a current Australian campaign

In this paper the authors discuss the meaning of social marketing and its essential differences from “conventional” marketing. Further, by reference to a current campaign which seeks to maximize adoption by medical general practitioners of an “early intervention” package to prevent development of alcohol‐related problems in patients, the authors discuss the merits of the application of social marketing principles to such a public health campaign. The difficulties experienced in both the application of social marketing principles to this campaign and in empirically assessing the effectiveness of this and similar campaigns are also discussed. The authors conclude that, although the validity of social marketing as a theoretical construct is unimpeachable, there is much further work to be done in establishing empirically the effectiveness of the application of the principles of social marketing as a social change strategy.     

The role of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness: Students versus managers

This paper investigates the differences in perceptions between business students and service-sector managers regarding the role that ethics and social responsibility serve in determining organizational effectiveness. An organizational effectiveness instrument containing business ethics and social responsibility items served as a questionnaire for a sample of 151 senior business undergraduates and 53 service-sector managers. The results indicated that while students acting as managers rate some social responsibility issues as more important than do managers, they also rate ethical conduct and a few dimensions of social responsibility lower than do managers. The findings have direct implications for both business practitioners and educators.Kenneth L. Kraft received his D.B.A. from the University of Maryland in 1982 and is currently an Associate Professor of Management at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. His recent papers explore the relationships between strategy, structure, social responsibility, and organizational effectiveness in a variety of settings. Anusorn Singhapakdi is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. His current research interests center on marketing/business ethics and selected public policy issues in marketing. He has published in Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Value Based Managementas well as other journals and proceedings.     

Evolving Relationship Marketing into a Discipline

Abstract

Relationship marketing is considered a paradigm change in both academic and practitioner literature. However, despite its popularity, relationship marketing has not yet evolved into becoming a discipline. The authors propose focus on eight areas to help relationship marketing evolve into a discipline. They compare the successful evolution of consumer behavior, services marketing and marketing strategy with the failure of international marketing, social marketing and business marketing as a discipline.     

Going digital? The impact of social media marketing on retail website traffic,orders and sales

Given the rapid proliferation of digital technology, social media has become a key digital marketing strategy to promote business products, with the ultimate aim of maximising profits. Yet, empirical evidence on the impact of social media as a marketing tool remains underexplored. Using unique data over a 12-month period from a major online retailer, this paper examines the impact of daily social media activity on daily business outcomes: website traffic, orders and sales. Key findings reveal that social media leads to increased web traffic, but it does not produce a significant rise in product orders and sale income. Though, larger social media campaigns tend to result in significantly higher number of orders and sale income, and Facebook emerges as the most effective channel. Our results also reveal that the effectiveness of social media marketing varies across products depending on their complexity, cost and brand status. Taken together, these results offer a better understanding of the ways social media marketing impact businesses and provide intelligence on how to allocate resources to develop marketing campaigns.     

Corporate Culture

This study tests the relationship between the Peters and Waterman cultural criteria of customer closeness and corporate values and the scales of marketing effectiveness as developed by Kotler. Analysis of data collected from 54 mid-American companies suggests a positive association. Marketing effective companies appear to have distinguishing cultural profiles when compared with marketing ineffective companies.     

A comparison of marketing practices: perspectives from first and second generation UK South Asians

This paper highlights not only the differences and similarities in marketing activities between first and second generation South Asian entrepreneurs; but the extent to which such activities lead to convergence with the mainstream small business population also. Therefore, differences are found in the fact that first generation respondents consider organic growth, thus differentiation via expansion initiatives and related diversification, as a way to access new co‐ethnic and non‐ethnic customer markets. This contrasts with that of the second generation. Here these particular respondents prefer to adopt a more transparent and open approach to marketing via knowledge skills advantage, and technological expertise. A feature common to both sets of respondents, and again one which this paper argues may be indicative of any small business, finds respondents following some form of self‐directed informal customer care/customer centric philosophies. Interestingly, there is no evidence to support differences in customer care and practice between the various business sectors or generation, given that such practices appear even in the absence of any formal procedures and written policies also.     

Volunteerism Among Non-Clients as Marketing Exchange

SUMMARY

Generalized exchange, one of three types of exchange proposed by Bagozzi (1975), has been neglected as an area of research. This is unfortunate because it may provide a better understanding of ex-' change processes involving non-client input publics (Kotler and Andreasen, 1991). This paper proposes a social marketing model in which non-client perceptions of community benefits, social responsibility, and service quality predict willingness to volunteer for public school activities. The results support a generalized exchange model which emphasizes indirect transfers of utilitarian values and fulfillment of symbolic values.     

The Earth Is Flat,Almost: Measuring Marketing Standardization and Profit Performance of Japanese and U.S. Firms

ABSTRACT

Globalization has fostered greater interest in all aspects of standardization theory, including the four Ps (product, price, place [distribution], and promotion) of the marketing mix. The study researches the firm's strategy of marketing standardization as it correlates to the firm's profit. Multinational firms from Japan and the United States operating in a global environment were studied in order to correlate marketing standardization to profit performance. The results indicate there is increasing support for a strategy of standardizing marketing mix components and contributing to a firm's profit performance.     

Chinese immigrants in network marketing business in Western host country context

Many Chinese immigrants start their entrepreneurship business by joining major network marketing businesses in Western host countries. The willingness of these Chinese immigrants to undertake network marketing rests on the influence of the social environment of the network marketing organization. Network marketing specific self-efficacy, social competence and motivation for establishing one's own business are also hypothesized to play an important role in their engagement in entrepreneurial actions. Drawing upon Bandura's social cognitive theory and the immigrant entrepreneurship literature, the present study investigates whether the social environmental influence of a network marketing organization affects the extent to which Chinese immigrants develop the self-efficacy, social competence and motivation to establish their own business and how these variables affect the actions undertaken in the host country. The study is based on the sample of 194 Chinese immigrants in their adopted host country, Australia. The findings of the survey suggest that the social environment within network marketing organizations positively affects self-efficacy, which in turn positively affects the entrepreneurial actions undertaken by Chinese immigrants in conducting their network marketing business. Social environmental influence impacts positively on their motivation to establish their own network marketing business and social competence. However the effects of motivation and social competence on entrepreneurial action were not supported. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Upstream social marketing strategy: An integrated marketing communications approach

This article provides an organized approach for managers to develop social marketing strategies that target upstream decision and policy makers. A conceptual application model and five-stage process is presented for an upstream social marketing strategy based on integrated marketing communications (IMC). IMC concepts are described in the context of social marketing, as well as specific stages for creating an IMC social marketing strategy; these include target audience research and determination, channel selection and integration, strategic message creation, and measurement and control. A central and novel feature of the IMC social marketing strategy model is the simultaneous targeting of an upstream decision maker and influential peripheral (upstream) audiences in order to triangulate and increase campaign effectiveness. An IMC approach to upstream social marketing ensures consistent, persuasive messages specifically crafted for the selected target audiences and coordinated through precise channels to maximize impact. This multi-channel, multi-audience approach to message creation and channel selection produces synergies that increase the potential to influence an upstream decision/policy maker.     

Promotion mix management: A consumer focused Islamic perspective†

Religion penetrates deep into our social and cultural life but its significance in developing marketing theories has rather been disregarded. Islam has well-established business, economic and social systems and its influences are interwoven with the daily life of Muslims. Therefore, it is vital for the companies to comprehend the impact that religion makes on Muslim societies before designing their marketing strategies. Off late, Islamic perspective has been well appreciated in the form of Islamic banking and finance, with many western financial institutions incorporating Islamic ideologies in their operations. This paper aims to extend the application of Islamic values in development of Marketing theories, specifically promotion mix management. This study argues that Islam offers a parallel paradigm of conducting business and proposes a distinctive set of principles that can conceptualize the marketing field in its own inherent manner.     

A Behavioural Analysis of Co-operative Marketing Organisations

Most research to date on co-operative marketing has focused on large organisations. This paper explores co-operation that takes place between smaller businesses for the purpose of marketing the generic elements of their product. A review of literature discusses the business and social objectives of co-operative marketing organisations. It is suggested that the social element of such groups may be more important than in the strategic alliances of larger organisations. A proposition is developed that co-operative marketing groups have a tendency to begin life with a business focus, but over time a social focus becomes more important. The proposition is tested by a qualitative study of co-operative tourism marketing groups. While business objectives were cited by most co-operative groups as their primary goal, evidence within this study suggests that a drift toward more social objectives occurs as associations mature. Adopting a social role may be a means of extending the lifecycle of an association, while the missionary zeal of newer associations provides a focus for co-operation which has more clearly defined business objectives.     

Fan-centric social media: The Xiaomi phenomenon in China

In this highly competitive century, social media offers both opportunities and challenges. The concept of social media is top of mind for many entrepreneurs today. Fans are assuming an increasingly active role in co-creating marketing content with companies and their respective brands. Based on the Xiaomi success story in China, we provide a framework for building the power of the fan base and propose a new fan-centric social media business model. We examine the best practice case study of an emerging company's successful efforts to leverage social media in order to reach an important audience of young consumers. Thereafter, we conclude with several lessons related to the integration of social media into a new firm's operation strategy. We strongly recommend that businesses, and especially startups, make good use of powerful social media to develop a business model with fan demand as the core. This is what we call the ‘fan-centric’ social media business model.     

The evolution of social media and its impact on organizations and leaders

This paper examines organizational impacts of social media on Fortune 100 companies over a 5-year period (2011–2016). Specifically, the study focuses on three broad areas of social media impact: (1) the adoption of social media platforms across industries and business models from 2011 to 2016, (2) the influence of social media adoption on the roles of the chief information officer (CIO) and chief marketing officer (CMO) and their changing relationships in companies over this time frame, and (3) the impact of social media on company strategy, governance, and the IT (information technology) and marketing functions. The results support the contention that the CMO role has evolved to meet the technology needs of the marketing function and that the relationship between the CMO and CIO has taken on greater importance. In most Fortune 100 companies in 2016, social media has transitioned to ownership by the marketing department and the CMO provides leadership for social media strategy while working closely with the CIO. This study contributes to a better understanding of the established role of social media in companies, governance structures, and the evolving roles of both the CIO and CMO in relation to social media trends. The study integrates the IT and marketing literature to provide an agenda for future work that builds on theory and establishes an ongoing cohesive research agenda.     

The Role of Business and Friendships on WeChat Business: An Emerging Business Model in China

ABSTRACT

WeChat business is an emerging way of doing business in China, which can be considered as a marriage between traditional e-business and social networking communications. In WeChat business, firms have developed customer relationships along two distinct ways: business relationships and friendships. However, research on the combination of business relationships and friendships is relatively nascent, and there are contradictory findings. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of the two relationship strategies using data from a field experiment through the WeChat platform by an apparel firm. Results from the field experiment suggest that development of friendships with new customers can help the strategy of developing business relationships; but developing friendships and business relationships with experienced customers negates each other. The study contributes to the literature on relationship marketing and role theory, and helps WeChat managers clarify how new social networking relationships with customers can be effectively leveraged.