An Objective and Task Media Selection Decision Model and Advertising Cost Formula to Determine International Advertising Budgets

Abstract

A company needs to estimate the cost of media plans and advertising upon introducing a new or existing product into an unfamiliar environment such as a new international market. This article presents a conceptual framework for making media decisions and a method for estimating the cost of advertising in international markets. The objective and task method is used to build a working model in order to articulate the necessary steps leading to informed media decisions for budgeting an international advertising campaign. Methods of estimating product demand and a flow model for media selection are also presented.     

Consumer complaint channel choice in online and offline purchases

This research explored the influence of the purchase environment on the choice of complaint channel. The study was based on responses from 480 undergraduate students who participated in a 2 (purchase environment: offline vs. online) × 2 (the degree of dissatisfaction: weak vs. strong) online experiment. Consumers who purchased online were more likely to complain online than those who made their purchase offline. Online complaining among online purchasers increased with the degree of dissatisfaction. The research suggests that future researchers should include consumer complaint channel choices when examining consumer complaining behaviour.     

An econometric analysis of cognitive impairment and healthcare utilization in the ageing population

The ageing population is a major concern for policy makers, with the ever-increasing strains placed on health budgets. One overlooked area of research is the impact that cognitive impairment (an early marker of potential dementia onset) has on the healthcare utilization of an ageing population. Based on the theoretical micro-economic foundations of healthcare demand, we study the relationship between cognitive functioning and impairment, measured by word recall and changes thereof, and healthcare utilization among over 50s in nine European countries. The contribution of this article is to produce estimates for cognitive functioning and impairment, as opposed to full dementia, in the context of healthcare utilization.

We apply regression models to healthcare utilization data from Waves 1, 2 and 4 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and find that recalling one additional word is associated with a reduction in visits to a medical doctor of 0.32, per year (p<0.01). Even after controlling for self-assessed health, this association is strong at just over 0.1 visits – this is the additional impact, over and above the average number of visits for similar individuals without cognitive impairment.     

New venture strategies: Theory development with an empirical base

The strategy focus of over 2500 new ventures across six different industries was examined to identify what dimensions coalesce into distinct configurations. The supposition that traditional strategy typologies are inadequate to describe the breadth of differentiation exhibited among new ventures was supported. Factor and cluster analysis revealed six generic new venture strategy archetypes that can be distinguished along two dimensions; scope of segmentation, and product vs. marketing emphasis. The extent to which the archetypes tend to dominate in different industries was found to vary according to the industry's position on the industry supply chain. Strategies with a narrow scope of segmentation tended to prevail in industries near the end of the supply chain, whereas those that adopted a broad approach tended to predominate in industries near the beginning or middle of the supply chain.     

Large format retailing in the US: a consumer experience perspective

Proponents of relationship marketing seek to develop and maintain long-term ties to their customers in the hope of having a loyal customer base. In this paper we examined large format retailing from the perspective of consumers’ experiences in these stores. Focus group interviews were conducted in two major US metropolitan areas and one medium size market. After analyzing the focus group content, several themes emerged related to patronage of large format retailers. These included the accuracy of prices when products were scanned and loyalty to store personnel based on familiarity. Large format supercenters were especially chided for their bigness and potential negative impact on smaller retailers. Attending to the details of the food retail business (accurate pricing, product availability, continuity of personnel) are ways in which consumers’ experiences in retail stores might be improved. Numerous choices and a diverse array of retail formats are available to consumers in the US market. Managerial implications are discussed in the light of a changing retail landscape.     

Experience, instruction and knowledge acquisition: a study in taxation

This study examines the effects of direct work experience, gained through internships and cooperative educational experiences, on subsequent knowledge acquisition. In particular, theoretical and empirical research in education, cognitive psychology and accounting suggests that experienced individuals develop organizational knowledge structures which allow them to better assimilate new information into memory than inexperienced individuals. Consistent with this notion, the research investigates whether the benefits of prior direct work experience on knowledge acquisition is a function of the nature of the learning tasks (structured versus unstructured) used in subsequent educational experiences.As hypothesized, the results indicate that inexperienced subjects were assisted to a greater extent in the knowledge acquisition process by structure oriented tax return preparation tasks than by relatively unstructured tax research assignments. Also consistent with expectations, the opposite was true for experienced subjects. When experienced subjects were provided with instruction supplemented by unstructured tax research assignments, they demonstrated a greater level of tax knowledge than when assigned structured tax return problems. Further, the knowledge level of experienced subjects was found to be greater than that of inexperienced subjects only when unstructured tax research assignments were provided. These findings suggest that all benefits of direct work experience on the knowledge acquisition process cannot be realized without the specific consideration of such experiences on the design of educational and firm training materials. Finally, the study also indicates that the benefits of direct work experience on subsequent knowledge acquisition are generally greater for individuals with low versus high learning aptitudes.     

Alliance Concentration in Multinational Companies: Examining Alliance Portfolios,Firm Structure,and Firm Performance

Research summary: This article explores the distribution of alliances across firms' internal structure. Focusing on multinational companies, we examine the impact of alliance portfolio concentration—i.e., the extent to which alliances are concentrated within a limited number of geographic units—on focal firms' performance. Relying on Knowledge‐Based View (KBV) insights, we hypothesize that an increase in alliance portfolio concentration positively influences firm performance and that alliance portfolio size negatively moderates this relationship. Our empirical results enrich the emerging capability perspective on alliance portfolios, point to the relevance of conceptualizing focal firms in alliance portfolio research as polylithic entities instead of monolithic ones, and provide new insights into how firms create value by potentially recombining externally accessed knowledge. Managerial summary: In the setting of multinational companies, we examine whether alliance activities are concentrated in a limited number of subsidiaries or are highly dispersed across multiple subsidiaries. We find that, over time, firms exhibit different patterns in terms of alliance portfolio concentration. In addition, the results show that, for MNCs with a relatively small alliance portfolio, an increase in alliance portfolio concentration is positively related to their financial performance. However, when MNCs' alliance portfolios are relatively large, the relationship between alliance portfolio concentration and firm performance becomes negative. Jointly, these findings suggest that the distribution of alliances across firms' internal structure is an important factor in shaping potential knowledge recombination benefits from alliance portfolios. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ethical Leadership in Modern Employment Relationships: Lessons from St. Benedict

Business ethics and leadership play an increasingly important role for contemporary organizations as employers and employees search for new ways to cope with ongoing changes in organizational environments. Research attention to date has focused upon how to improve process and structural configurations, while there has been scant attention devoted to an examination of the ethical and leadership perspective. This article breaks new ground by exploring the applicability of the Rule of St. Benedict (RSB) to modern employment relationships. A significant proportion of the RSB is directly relevant for today’s leaders, as it contains crucial lessons dealing with leadership issues such as ethics, cultivating a consultative climate, encouraging the virtues of humility, obedience (“servant” leadership), justice, discretion, prudence, discernment, and personnel-related issues such as discipline and termination.