The role of disclosure in organized word‐of‐mouth marketing programs

Prevailing views of organized word‐of‐mouth (WOM) marketing programs suggest that disclosing corporate affiliation reduces perceived credibility and hampers campaign effectiveness. To test this view we surveyed WOM marketing agents and their conversational partners (CP) after a WOM marketing episode. Results indicate that when disclosure occurred – defined as when the CP was aware they were talking with a person participating in an organized WOM marketing program – agents were rated as more credible, CPs had fewer negative feelings about the agent's corporate affiliation, and CPs told more people about the brand being discussed. These counter‐intuitive results can be explained in part by the existing personal relationship between the agent and CP and invite us to consider how personal relationships may moderate the impact and potential business advantages of disclosure in organized WOM marketing programs.     

The theory and practice of user‐initiated innovation

User‐initiated product innovation occurs when a firm that has invented a novel device first invests in its internal application as a process innovation and second seeks returns from its general marketing. The paper defines the nature and scope of user‐initiated innovation (UII), presents summaries of detailed case histories of its instance, and discusses its explanation and managerial implications. Three modes of user‐initiated product innovation and users’ roles in them are distinguished and three explanations of the functional locus of innovation are critically considered in terms of their explication of empirically‐derived strategies of innovation: the appropriability of benefit, appropriability regimes, and transaction costs theories.     

Other‐Centered Behavior and The Dialectics of Self and Other

The social sciences in general and consumer research in particular have been detrimentally hampered by the presumption of self‐interest as an exclusive foundation of human behavior. As a result, conduct that fails to conform to the self‐interest paradigm has often been ignored, or worse, grossly twisted to fit the dominant categorizations. This article attempts to revisit the self‐interest assumption and renegotiate the subsequent interpretations of other‐centered behavior. An open dialogue concerning these pressing issues involves investigating the fundamental conceptions of self, other, and identity. Such a discussion enables a critical review of existing consumer research of other‐centered behavior and invites new lines of consumer research. More important, it compels one to openly consider the place of self/other relationship in contemporary consumer culture(s).     

The impact of electronic point of sale technology (epos) on marketing strategy and retailer‐supplier relationships

EPOS is an established and rapidly growing feature of the UK retail scene with a wide range of potential impacts across the whole value chain. This paper focuses upon the more immediate impact of EPOS on the marketing strategies of retailers and their suppliers and on the retailer‐supplier relationship. Emphasis is given to the potential which EPOS presents for the development of new approaches to channel co‐operation and for the building of new patterns of strategic alliance.     

Consuming nostalgia? The appreciation of authenticity in local food production

Many consumers consider local food a more sustainable choice than conventional food because of the shorter transport distances involved as well as the support provided to local economies. In addition, consumers value the perceived safety benefits, ethical associations and improved taste of local food. In this study, we focus on the cultural meanings of locally produced food among Finnish consumers. Based on interviews with 22 consumers, our analysis suggests that, besides consumers valuing sustainable, healthy and tasty locally produced food, they perceived self‐produced, self‐processed items, including those they have gathered, hunted and fished themselves, as the most authentic local food. Furthermore, local food is associated with craftsmanship and artisan production. We also found that interviewees tended to historicize their relationship to food through local production. Thus, consumers seem to be in search of ‘real’ or ‘true’ food that is embedded in their personal and shared social histories.     

The value impact of international and industrial diversifications on public‐listed firms in Malaysia

This study examines the relationship between firm value and both international and industrial diversification involvements for a sample of 267 listed firms in Malaysia over 2001–2009. We find no evidence that international diversification has any significant impact on the firm value but industry diversification locally slightly increases firm value, even after controlling for the degree of ownership concentration. Our research further indicates that without any diversification involvement, family ownership presents lower value than foreign and government ownerships; and with industrial diversification family ownership presents significant higher value than foreign and government ownerships.     

The coherence of inconsistencies: Attitude–behaviour gaps and new consumption communities

Abstract

Despite the growing success of well-marketed environmentally friendly products, there remains a gap between consumers' positive attitudes towards green issues and products, and their inconsistent and often conflicting consumption behaviour. Indeed, this is a challenge for social marketers seeking to advance the sustainability agenda. Therefore, this study problematises what has been conceptualised as attitude–behaviour gaps (Boulstridge & Carrigan, 2000 Boulstridge, E. and Carrigan, M. 2000. Do consumers really care about corporate responsibility? Highlighting the consumer attitude–behaviour gap. Journal of Communication Management, 4(4): 355–368. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and explores how groups of consumers have re-construed such practices and their meanings through the formation of New Consumption Communities (Szmigin, Carrigan, & Bekin, 2007 Szmigin, I., Carrigan, M. and Bekin, C. 2007. “New consumption communities and the re-enabling of 21st century consumers”. In Consumer tribes, Edited by: Cova, B., Kozinets, R.V. and Shankar, A. 296–311. Oxford: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.  [Google Scholar]). Multi-sited ethnographic findings illustrate the social processes through which ethical and green forms of consumption are established and normalised. Findings also stress the importance of normative and habitual reframing through ‘ethical spaces’ (Barnett, Clarke et al., 2005 Barnett, C., Cafaro, P. and Newholm, T. 2005. “Philosophy and ethical consumption”. In The ethical consumer, Edited by: Harrison, R., Newholm, T. and Shaw, D. 11–24. London: Sage. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) in establishing and maintaining increased consistency in participants' consumption meanings, behaviours, and goals. Thus we re-frame attitude–behaviour gaps as coherent inconsistencies, which allows for a move away from solely trying to explain and change individual consumer behaviour, to identifying how suitable upstream and downstream (Verplanken & Wood, 2006 Verplanken, B. and Wood, W. 2006. Interventions to break and create consumer habits. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 25(1): 90–103. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) approaches and policies can be used to facilitate more sustainable forms of consumption.     

The Impact of Revenue Sources on Marketing Behavior: Examining Web‐Promotion and Place‐Marketing in Nonprofit Organizations

To overcome failure to generate profits from the goods they produce, nonprofit organizations have unique methods to generate and sustain capital flows resulting in distinct exchange relationships. This leads scholars to argue that nonprofit marketing strategies should differ as well. Given the lack of empirical work that investigates this possibility, this article explores how the uniqueness of the nonprofit funding environment shapes the ways in which nonprofits use business principles to market their products and services, asking if the resource acquisition process is the primary mechanism that predicts business‐like marketing behavior. Findings indicate that both the resource acquisition process and institutional relationships are influential in predicting business‐like marketing behavior.     

Just‐in‐time as a competitive weapon: The significance of functional integration

The Just‐in‐Time (JIT) concept has often been considered a preserve of manufacturing and distribution. However, the philosophy has evolved to a strategic level where the concept can be applied throughout an organization. In particular, the cross‐functional integration of JIT in production, purchasing and marketing can provide continuous improvement and sustain a source of differential advantage for a firm.

This paper explores this philosophy and presents research data to demonstrate that the functional integration needed to implement JIT can improve a company's efficiency, quality, flexibility and innovativeness. and lead potentially to the acquisition of competitive advantage and, perhaps, to world‐class status.     

Manufacturer and retailer perceptions of in‐store promotions in South Africa

The objective of this article was to investigate the perceptions of retailers and manufacturers with regard to in‐store promotions A literature review of in‐store promotions was undertaken in the context of channel conflict between manufacturers and retailers In this study, the perceptions of a sample of 133 manufacturers and 144 retailers in South Africa were measured Perceptions of these two groups were obtained about the promotional activities conducted, promotion objectives, price and non‐price promotions and the effectiveness and evaluation methods for promotions The results indicate that there are differences between the two groups, with the retailers being the dominant group Also there is a lack of sound measurement of in‐store promotion Implications for manufacturers are discussed     

The lure of the sorcerer: Consumers’ consumption meanings in the context of trading card games

This article examines the consumption experiences of consumers of trading card games. Fourteen depth interviews illuminate the emic and etic meanings that exist for two key groups of trading card game players – hobby players and expert tournament players of the trading card game, Magic. An etic framework is then derived that analyzes these perceptions in the context of issues related to collective dramatizations of leisure consumption and the social self. Findings show marketers how consumers use their imaginations especially for mythic consumption.     

Edging out of the nest: emerging adults’ use of smartphones in maintaining and transforming family relationships

Abstract

The transition to adulthood, often accompanied by an emptying of the family nest, has implications for family relationships, identities and consumption practices. Despite this, the voices and experiences of emerging adults are largely missing from literature on family consumption. Emerging adult families typically combine digital natives and digital immigrants, but little is known about how their interactions around digital communications technology relate to emerging adult preoccupations with affiliation and autonomy. This interpretive study explores how emerging adults’ smartphones are bound up with a complex network of family communication and consumption practices, often across household, geographic and generational boundaries. Affiliation and autonomy emerged as intertwined rather than competing dimensions of participants’ smartphone use, contributing to the distribution and development of family as the nest empties.     

The memory-search frame effect: impacts on consumers’ retrieval and evaluation of consumption experiences

Marketing Letters - When consumers recall past consumption experiences (e.g., vacations), they often need to search their memory for relevant events within certain time frames (e.g., the past...     

Just looking? Choice and constraint in practices of visual consumption at magazine newsstands

This article takes as its subject practices of looking that occur in London's newsstands (magazine retail displays). Taking an ethnographic approach inspired by the flâneur and emphasising the symbolic properties of consumption activities that take place in public retail space, it reports on an extensive participant observation of newsstands. A three-fold typology of visual consumption is put forward: “drifting,” “speed-shopping” and “free-reading.” These practices of looking are then critically analysed in the light of theoretical perspectives on visual consumption, in particular, the tension between arguments prioritising the pleasures and, conversely, the constraints that it entails. The analysis culminates in the argument that the most fruitful position is a dialectical one that acknowledges the conditional freedom of visual consumption.     

The process of conflict in buyer‐seller relationships at domestic and international levels: A comparative analysis

Despite the fact that conflict is an essential behavioural dimension underlying the buyer‐seller relationship, no empirical work has as yet been conducted on the comparison of conflictual processes between different types of marketing channels. This paper attempts to compare exporter‐importer and exporter‐domestic customer business partnerships, regarding the dimension of conflict throughout its various stages of growth and development. The study was carried out on a sample of 53 indigenous Greek manufacturing firms. Contrary to prior expectations, it was found that the exporter‐importer (E‐I) kind of relationship was not characterized by higher levels of conflictual processes than those in the domestic type of business association. Surprisingly, the study results also showed that in a substantial number of conflict areas, the domestic relationship category was governed by significantly higher levels of conflictual processes compared with those in the E‐I kind of business partnership. The managerial implications of the research findings are discussed and avenues for future research directions are outlined.     

The role and function of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department: A study of medium‐sized companies in the UK

The unification of “marketing” functions under the control of a chief marketing executive has long been regarded as central to implementing the marketing concept. While not accepting the logic that suggests that marketing orientation implies any particular set of organisational arrangements, this article examines new empirical data concerned with the role and status of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department, in a sample of manufacturing firms, to suggest that they function very differently in different companies.

Such distinctions have important implications for our understanding of how marketing operates in organisations, and the different ways in which it may be developed, both in manufacturing and in other sectors.     

Tone quest: exploring the (ir)resolvable paradoxes and infinite (im)possibilities of “epic tone” in (rock ‘n’ roll) musical consumption constellations

ABSTRACT

One of the driving forces for consumer-musicians in the market of rock ‘n’ roll musical creation is the quest for “epic tone” (i.e. production of a distinct and unique sound). Such tone is not the result of a single product or practice, but of a complex consumption constellation composed of a multitude of cultural processes and material factors in which the sum is often greater than the parts. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the market forces that directly impact these musical consumption constellations have exposed (and exacerbate) the inherent paradox in the quest. To help consumers create virtually any possible tone, the marketplace has increased the focus on the structural and functional components that compose these constellations, while subsequently decreasing the focus on the anti-structural and anti-functional aspects that underlie actual sound production. Consequently, the marketplace both stimulates and inhibits the (im)possible quest for epic tone.     

The Impact of Smokers' Group‐Membership and Activist Gender on Tolerance for Smoking,Receptiveness and Perceived Susceptibility to Anti‐Smoking Messages,and Likelihood of Anti‐Smoking Activism

Using two experiments we demonstrate that people have lower tolerance for smoking and higher anti‐smoking activism likelihood when in‐group versus out‐group members smoke. The likelihood of anti‐smoking activism toward in‐group smokers was greater for men than women. Moreover, as social distance declined, men showed greater anti‐smoking message receptiveness, message susceptibility and activism likelihood, whereas, women displayed no significant differences in tolerance for smoking, message receptiveness, message susceptibility, and activism likelihood. Open‐ended responses indicated generally negative cognitive reactions to smokers, yet a broad unwillingness to confront them. While feelings of personal relevance and caring facilitated anti‐smoking activism intentions, beliefs in the freedom of personal choice and polite interpersonal interactions hindered these intentions.     

Strategic policy revisited: The origins of mass production in the motor industry of Argentina,Korea and Spain, 1945–87

During the postwar ‘golden age’ of economic growth, Argentina, Korea and Spain promoted the development of their motor industries by restricting imports, licensing investment, imposing a high level of local sourcing for parts, and supporting their own national champions. These strategic policies took advantage of economies of scale, achieving significant increases in output, and creating dynamic competitive advantage. Sudden liberalisation or the high volatility of the macroeconomic environment could jeopardise the process of structural change. Gradual evolution of policy-making and the cumulative learning of capabilities by the national champions were crucial for long-term success. The present research supports both List's classical defence of protection for infant industries in medium–large economies and more recent claims in favour of strategic policy.