Understanding contemporary marketing: Development of a classification scheme

The term Relationship Marketing has been used in a multitude of ways to describe and define marketing in the contemporary environment. This has led to the term being loosely defined and applied in the literature, resulting in frustration for both researchers and practitioners. Therefore, a classification scheme is developed from analysis of the extant literature, and used to systematically examine the meaning of marketing across twelve dimensions which reflect issues related to marketing practice. From this scheme, the authors identify two ‘perspectives’ of marketing, which encompass four distinguishable ‘types’ of marketing. Implications for future research in the area are discussed.     

THE CHARITY COMMISSION – POLITICISED AND POLITICISING

Charities have always had to show that they provide a ‘public benefit’, the meaning of which has been developed by case law. The Charity Commission, a body created by the last government, has provided guidance on the meaning of ‘public benefit’ which is at odds with the meaning developed in case law – and therefore in conflict with the statute under which the guidance was ostensibly provided. The Charity Commission has also allowed charities to engage in political campaigning, an activity which the House of Lords has held no charity can lawfully pursue without losing its charitable status. The Charity Commission and its guidance should be scrapped. Professionally qualified and independent Charity Commissioners should be appointed.     

以“客房之声”制定运营战略

客户之声的管理方法自20世纪90年代早期进入管理主流以来,现已大大推动了无数产品的设计。越来越多的企业正从其客户那里收集一手资料,然后将这些信息应用于产品开发决策和流程之中,通过这种努力,这些公司获得了决定性的竞争优势。然而,目前只有少数企业将客户之声的信息广泛应用于业务与运营战略的其它方面。     

When the Men Left the Mines: Examining a Labor Demand Shock to a Male-Specific Industry and its Consequences on Women’s Education and Labor Force Participation

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

Assessing the impact of price changes and extreme climatic events on sediment loads in a large river catchment near the Great Barrier Reef

Ocean turbidity (associated with sediment from rivers) can significantly impact reef health. In Australia, there are many plans to reduce sediment loads by encouraging best management practices; there is also interest in the use of market‐based instruments. But it is exceedingly difficult to assess the potential efficacy of market policies, since that requires one to determine how changes in the socio‐economic system (e.g. price changes) impact the biophysical (e.g. sediment loads). We use historical data (from 1938 to 2011) in a vector autoregression model to simultaneously model interactions between the economic and biophysical systems in the Burdekin River catchment adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon. This allows us to statistically test for the impact of changes in prices on sediment load, while controlling for biophysical influences. We find that extreme events have the most impact on sediment loads, but that prices also impact sediment loads. Evidently market‐based policies may have the potential to reduce sediment loads. Our empirical results provide useful information for those interested in the Burdekin River catchment and the GBR; the modelling approach may have wide applicability in a variety of contexts.     

Reply to the commentary

Our conclusion that econometric market share models may not be consistently more accurate than naive models was not surprising to the commentators. The comments they made help clarify the research that is needed to identify when econometric market share models are likely to be useful for forecasting.     

Towards a paradigm shift in marketing? An examination of current marketing practices

In recent years, the traditional Transaction approach to marketing has been challenged to the point where a number of authors have suggested that a “paradigm shift” is occurring. The “newparadigm” is commonly referred to as Relationship Marketing, and has been used to reflect a number of different types of relational marketing activity, including Database, Interaction and Network marketing. This paper investigates current marketing practice to clarify the relevance of these alternative approaches using four case studies and a survey of 134 firms. The results do not support the notion of a complete “paradigm shift”. Rather, the findings show that for many firms, transactional marketing is relevant and practised concurrently with various types of relational marketing. It is concluded that while relational marketing issues are currently receiving attention from academics and practitioners alike, the role of transactional marketing should not be ignored or underestimated.     

The plurality of co-existing business models: Investigating the complexity of value drivers

Business models are key tools to provide a means of operationalizing theories about firm and industry level strategies, and to understand the nature of value drivers and the role of marketing in these processes. In this paper we assess empirical evidence for a plurality of co-existing business models within firms by developing a typology of business models in a single industry, the New Zealand Wine industry. We examine the co-existence of the types of models using in-depth analysis of seven case firms that vary in size and ownership. Our findings show how value creation is done in the context of interactions and they provide support for multiple business models that co-exist alongside each other with varying degrees of separation. Plurality better explains the complexity of value drivers and strategies for firms in this rapidly changing industry environment, where businesses are under extreme financial pressure. Our findings challenge assumptions that firms have (or should have) a single business model thus allowing a plurality of approaches within a single firm or industry that shifts the focus from implementing strategy A or B or C, to implementing strategy A and B and/or C.