Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework

Social media marketing is an integral element of 21st-century business. However, the literature on social media marketing remains fragmented and is focused on isolated issues, such as tactics for effective communication. The current research applies a qualitative, theory-building approach to develop a strategic framework that articulates four generic dimensions of strategic social media marketing. Social media marketing scope represents a range from defenders to explorers, social media marketing culture includes the poles of conservatism and modernism, social media marketing structures fall between hierarchies and networks, and social media marketing governance ranges from autocracy to anarchy. By providing a comprehensive conceptualization and definition of strategic social media marketing, this research proposes an integrative framework that expands beyond extant marketing theory. Furthermore, managers can apply the framework to position their organizations on these four dimensions in a manner consistent with their overall corporate mission and objectives.     

Transfer of management knowhow to developing countries: An empirical investigation

This article examines the transfer of management knowhow to developing countries through managers who undertake a graduate program in business at an advanced country. Based upon a study of 67 Turkish managers, all of whom received a master's degree in business in the United States, the article addresses three issues: What are the differences in the local applicability of various management skills (including marketing) which were acquired in an advanced country? What company and individual manager characteristics are associated with the local application of these management skills? What principal factors impede the transfer of management knowhow to an indigeneous organization?     

Master's Level Education in Business Marketing: Quo Vadis?

ABSTRACT

Given the paucity of knowledge on the state of business marketing education at the master's level, we conducted an exploratory survey of instructors at selected universities in North America and Europe. We supplemented results from this survey with discussions with our colleagues who teach business marketing at the master's level, and a review of articles on master's level programs.

Through our investigations, we discovered that there is a shortage of management cases that address contemporary issues in business marketing. We learned that nearly half of survey participants do not use a textbook and that the remaining participants use a wide variety of textbooks. We observed that many instructors still teach business marketing courses from a traditional functional perspective. Instead, we believe that business marketing courses must address a host of emerging issues such as value and its assessment, business process reengineering, global marketing, working relationships and business networks, and cross-functional coordination issues, among other things.

We believe that scholars can rejuvenate the discipline by tailoring business marketing courses to the new generation of accelerated master's programs, by creating a network for sharing information on new cases and teaching materials, and by writing more relevant and timely business marketing cases. Finally, we believe that the time is right for a faculty consortium on teaching business marketing.     

Improving marketing success: The role of tacit knowledge exchange between sales and marketing

Successful organizations adapt their marketing strategies to marketplace changes. Boundary spanners, such as salespeople, because they are able to embed themselves in social networks outside the organization, play a key role in developing marketplace knowledge. However, if this knowledge remains solely with the boundary spanners, it cannot be used effectively to improve firm performance. This study investigates tacit knowledge exchange between sales and marketing and its ability to enhance marketing success (i.e., marketing program innovativeness, relative efficiency, and relative effectiveness). In addition, by examining five antecedents hypothesized to influence tacit knowledge exchange, it provides guidance to sales and marketing managers, who desire to improve tacit knowledge exchange, and, in turn, marketing success.     

Customer-based execution strategy in a global digital economy

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are continuing to invest more in expanding into new markets around the world. These firms are faced with determining the optimal go-to-market strategy in these heterogeneous new markets to attract and retain profitable customers. This paper provides an organizing framework to help firms develop profitable customer-level strategies across countries in the digital environment. We start by providing a summary of the marketing literature on a customer-based execution strategy. Next, we discuss how the evolving digital landscape is affecting firms’ relationships with customers and describe some of the current digital product and process innovations in the marketplace. We discuss boundary conditions for how these digital product and process innovations might affect profitable customer strategies in a global context. In addition, we discuss implementation challenges that MNCs will likely face in deploying these customer-level strategies and other stakeholders (outside of customers) that will likely play a role in the execution of these customer-level strategies. Finally, we summarize set of research questions to guide future research on customer-level strategies in a global digital context.     

From disruptively digital to proudly analog: A holistic typology of digital transformation strategies

Recently booming academic interest in digital transformation aims to provide continuous support to managers in dealing with this important issue. However, as with all new fields, the scholarly literature is characterized by increased variability and diversity of topics covered, constructs used, and the relationships between them, resulting in an unclear and blurry understanding of the whole of digital transformation. Our article closes this gap by identifying distinctive digital transformation strategies in terms of two critical dimensions: usage of digital technologies and readiness of a business model for digital operation. The result is a typology of four generic digital transformation strategies that essentially differ in the primary motivation and target of transformation, leadership style, importance of skills like creativity and entrepreneurial spirit among employees, risks and challenges faced in the process, consequences of potential failure, and available tactics for improvement. By providing heuristics and a systematic basis for comparison of different strategies, it is our belief that the proposed framework will be useful to researchers and managers responsible for and interested in digital transformation.     

Digital marketing communication in global marketplaces: A review of extant research,future directions,and potential approaches

Digital marketing communication, that is, communication through digital or electronic media among businesses and consumers, is growing rapidly, especially during the COVID-19 era. We propose a framework for analyzing digital marketing communication along four major dyads, business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and consumer-to-business (C2B). We review and summarize, for researchers and practitioners, the literature during 2000–2021 in these dyads along four major components: goals; channels, media, and platforms; content; and responses. We find that extant research in digital marketing communication pertains mostly to a specific, national level rather than a global level, despite the porousness of national boundaries for digital marketing. We derive important insights, identify key research gaps and questions in each of the dyads along these dimensions. We suggest approaches to address these research questions under three major components: substantive issues, data, and methods. These approaches can offer the insights that managers need to better formulate digital marketing strategies in local and global contexts.     

Business Marketing Education: A Distinctive Role in the Undergraduate Curriculum

ABSTRACT

By extending their knowledge of markets beyond the consumer-goods domain, by deepening their understanding of how organizations make buying decisions, by strengthening their grasp of cross-functional processes, and by providing them with decision-making skills in this important area of marketing, the business marketing course makes a special contribution to undergraduates and the undergraduate marketing curriculum. Moreover, the content and focus of the business marketing course are closely tied to important themes that are transforming business practice. This article isolates the distinct contribution of business marketing education and examines important trends that are reshaping this domain. The central knowledge areas that comprise the undergraduate business marketing course are detailed and linked to specific course design strategies that can be pursued to strengthen the skill set of marketing students and respond to the needs of important constituents.     

Weight Watchers: Social Event Centered Marketing

ABSTRACT

This article looks at an international weight loss service company known as Weight Watchers and evaluates the promotional effectiveness of their social event focused business. Secondary research highlights their approach to the marketing mix and the significance of perception within this particular market and the marketing mix per se. Research of their traditional social event based business is reported in terms of the effect of the promotional tools used by Weight Watchers, influences on consumer decision making, consumer behavior, and internal and external factors which influence marketing decisions. The conclusions drawn are that there are significant issues for Weight Watchers to consider in terms of their future approach to the weight loss market. Firstly, the need for Weight Watchers to differentiate themselves further from their competitors and, secondly, to ensure they have distinct differentiation strategies for their social event and online businesses.     

The ethical profile of global marketing negotiators

As international trade and business opportunities grow globally, insight into trading partners’ strategies is essential. One of the major strategies that impact trading partners’ relationships is negotiation strategy employed by each partner. These strategies assume even greater importance when these strategies have ethical content. This study examines the effects of marketing executives’ preferred ethical ideologies (relativism and idealism), opportunism and Machiavellianism on their perceived appropriateness of unethical negotiation tactics. Utilizing a sample of 995 marketing executives from six countries, cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of variance revealed two types of marketing negotiators: principled and corrupt negotiators. Corrupt negotiators tend to be more Machiavellian, more relativist, more opportunistic and less idealistic than their principled counterparts. Principled negotiators tend to perceive unethical negotiation tactics less favorably than their corrupt counterparts. Implications of these results for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.     

中小企业物流外包的动因及策略简析

企业物流外包即第三方物流(3PL),是企业充分利用外部资源,降低成本,提高效率,增加自身竞争能力的一种管理策略。本文从多角度探讨现阶段我国中小企业物流外包的经济动因,并为中小企业物流外包提出相应的应对对策。     

Marketing performance assessment and accountability: Process and outcomes

Marketing accountability, and how it may be achieved via performance assessment and metrics, have been central topics in both the marketing literature and practice (Katsikeas et al. 2016). Recent developments in digital channels, the accompanying explosion of data and emergence of marketing automation, the globalization of markets, and the rise of customer experience as a key firm priority have further magnified interest in and the importance of understanding how potential marketing outcomes are and can be achieved (CMO Survey, 2021; Mintz et al., 2021). As a result, gaining clarity on how to design and manage performance assessment systems to deal with these issues has never been more important. This paper argues that further progress in this research domain requires a deep understanding of the marketing performance assessment (MPA) process to provide both a catalyst and foundation for the next generation of research. Although there has been considerable research in the areas of marketing metrics and marketing accountability, much less attention has been paid to the MPA process that links them. Yet, the MPA process is essential to successful marketing management. To address this, we first review past research in this broad domain to answer the “Where have we been?” question that identifies theneed for a new conceptual model. Second, drawing on research findings both within the broad MPA domain and allied areas within and outside of marketing, we develop and detail a new conceptual model of the MPA process and use it to identify what really needs to be known but is currently unclear in this domain (i.e., “Where do we need to go?”). Third, we suggest how these areas of needed inquiry may best be investigated (i.e., “How do we get there?”) by identifying new perspectives, theories, data sources, and analysis approaches that may be productively employed in future research.     

The Pedagogy of Executive Education in Business Markets

ABSTRACT

There is a growing recognition in Corporate America and other markets throughout the world that knowledge, the result of learning, and competence in technological and managerial skills are key competitive advantages. Business Week estimates that approximately $12 billion is devoted to executive education annually. However, only a quarter of this is being delivered through university settings. This shift towards alternatives to universities as sources for executive education is a result of a growing number of corporations that see current university-based programs as ineffective.

In this paper, we trace the evolution of the substance of business marketing education, underscoring the current trends in this field that focus on concept development and, to some extent, the application of these concepts in the context appropriate to participant managers. We then examine the pedagogical methods used by educational programs to address the identified trends. In the concluding section we discuss what we see as the missing piece in business marketing education. We propose that academic institutions need to go beyond the development of concepts and their contextual application to providing an architecture that enables change that corporations (the customers) are looking for. Addressing this additional objective requires not only innovative development and delivery of substance, but also developing and orchestrating the cultural climate for effecting change. Traditionally, academic institutions have delivered high quality conceptual and contextual knowledge, but have a lot to learn regarding education for effecting change. We believe that academic institutions with carefully crafted strategies that focus on leveraging their core competencies, coupled with a fierce dedication to quality, teaching excellence, innovation, and measured market responsiveness will not only survive, they are likely to flourish in partnership with the corporate community.     

Worried about strategy implementation? Don’t overlook marketing's role

Many executives and scholars have argued that effective strategy implementation is at least as important as—if not more important than—developing a brilliant strategy. While there are several extant viewpoints regarding what is required for successful strategy implementation, perhaps the most influential perspective is that business success requires a fit between strategy and organizational architecture. Organizational architecture subsumes structural variables and capabilities. For the past 10 years, we have studied the performance implications of matching marketing's organizational architecture to four generic business strategies: Prospectors, Analyzers, Low-Cost Defenders, and Differentiated Defenders. Through six empirical studies we have identified best practice matches between these strategy types and: (1) marketing organization culture, (2) marketing strategy, (3) market strategy formation process, (4) market-focused strategic organizational behaviors, (5) marketing organization structure, and (6) marketing control systems. In this article, we bring together findings from each of these studies to provide a comprehensive overview of those marketing actions and policies that are associated with superior firm performance.     

NFT marketing: How marketers can use nonfungible tokens in their campaigns

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are a record of ownership of primarily digital media, where the NFT is stored on a blockchain. According to the 2021 Gartner Hype Cycle for Key Technologies, NFTs may significantly transform marketing functions. Marketing managers wishing to adopt NFTs therefore need to know something about the marketing implications. This article explains NFTs in broad terms and discusses the marketing implications using a modified AIDA hierarchy. These implications can give marketing managers and executives guidelines on how to persuade consumers to purchase NFTs owing to their unique characteristics, such as scarcity, nonfungibility, proven authenticity, proof of ownership, royalties, and direct distribution infrastructure.     

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.     

National response strategies and marketing innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, different nations have adopted a variety of response strategies to fight and contain the new coronavirus. Such national response strategies can be classified into three categories based on their underlying philosophy: strict control with unlimited resources, relentless contribution with limited resources, and rough rationality with limited resources. We discuss the philosophies, characteristics, and performances of the three response strategies and when they should be adopted. We also examine what marketing innovation strategies enterprises should adopt to survive and grow their businesses in both the short and long term. This study provides important strategic implications for national policymakers and enterprises on the use of response strategies as well as marketing innovation tactics and strategies to be used both during and after the pandemic.     

基于邮件列表商务营销的分析与研究

在电子商务营销中,电子邮件列表具有针对性强,营销效果出色的特点得到广泛应用,邮件列表是在用户自愿订阅的前提下,为用户提供有价值的信息,同时附带一定数量与之相关的商业信息,达到网络营销的目的。利用好邮件列表这一商务营销工具,需对邮件列表的创建,信息的发布与管理以及邮件列表商务营销策略有深入的研究。