Making a market for male dairy calves: alternative and mainstream relationality

ABSTRACT

The article uses actor network theory and the field of market studies to take a processual and relational approach to the alternative/mainstream food duality. Questions about how food systems or products make claim to be of the alternative or mainstream, and to what consequence, underpin the study. Analysis traces the making and shaping of two market versions for male dairy calves, a by-product of the dairy industry, often treated as ‘waste’ in the UK. Analysis focuses on the assemblage of actors, the breaking of matters of fact and shaping and communication of concerns, and at actions. Contrary to many approaches to the alternative, focus is paid to overlap between systems, knowledge and actors and simultaneous development of two products. From this, the ethicality of the mainstream, the continued duality and its consequences are discussed. Beyond seeing mainstream/alternative as co-constituted constructs, the two are symbiotic, mutually supportive and implicated in the circuit of culinary capital.     

Sustainability marketing at the farmers’ market: An ethnographic analysis of ambiguous communication

Farmers’ markets have grown rapidly in recent decades. One explanation for this growth relates to consumers’ view that farmers’ market products are more sustainable. While many have analyzed customer preferences at farmers’ markets, few have examined farmers’ message strategies in this space. Little has been done to analyze the ways farmers use sustainability as a marketing approach. This ethnographic research is based on 100 hr of observation and in‐depth interviews with 36 participants and analyzes the ways farmers position their products as sustainable to customers. The findings indicate that sustainability is not a primary topic of conversation during customerfarmer interaction. However, related concepts such as environment, local, organic, and chemical serve as the proxies for sustainability, even though these messages are presented ambiguously.     

The efficacy of marketing skills and market responsiveness in marketing performance of emerging market exporting firms in advanced markets: The moderating role of competitive intensity

Emerging market exporting firms in advanced economies must manage a highly dynamic landscape owing to factors such as changing market needs and fierce competition. Hence, these firms need to develop unique marketing skills for superior performance. Accordingly, this study draws on the resource-based and dynamic capability theory to empirically examine the role of marketing skills in developing a dynamic capability—market responsiveness—for improved marketing performance, and the changes in this relationship under highly competitive intensity. Using a sample (n = 98) of firms originating from an emerging market (Pakistan) mainly exporting to advanced markets (the United Kingdom, the United States or both), the findings show that marketing skills, positively mediated by market responsiveness, influence the marketing performance of such firms in advanced markets. The indirect relationship is positively moderated by a higher level of competitive intensity. This study extends the dynamic capability and export marketing streams of literature, particularly for emerging market exporting firms in advanced markets, and provides useful performance implications to export marketing managers.     

Provenance as a filtering and framing device in the qualification of wine

This research examines how provenance – where a product was produced, by whom, how and when – features in the work of cultural intermediaries in the Australian premium wine market, at two different stages in the career of a wine. First, evaluations of provenance attributes (in terms of sincerity, tradition and transparency) serve as filters through which wine promoters identify market-worthy wines; second, those attributes are strategically deployed to frame the wine as a worthy choice for consumers (focusing on the use of the winemaker as a framing device). The article offers a distinctive account of the qualification of wine, and makes the case for a cultural economic conceptualization of provenance as a negotiated, accomplished quality. In foregrounding wine promoters’ emotional attachments to provenance attributes of wines they choose to promote, the research highlights the affective dimensions of markets, which are made, in part, through the consuming passions of cultural intermediaries.     

Consumer response to food labels in an emerging market: the case of Romania

This study investigates consumer response to food labels in an emerging market. More specifically, it measures the levels of awareness, objective and perceived understanding, perceived usefulness and perceived trustworthiness of the most prominent food labels found in the Romanian market. An online survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 428 respondents (45.6% males of an average age of 30.6 years). Results revealed that for most respondents, awareness levels towards food labels are generally low, except for the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) and the organic food labels. Objective understanding towards food labels was relatively high, especially towards those food labels that included a clear text element. Perceived understanding, perceived usefulness and perceived trustworthiness were found to be consistently high with regard to the GDA and the national organic food labels, while the European organic label scored lower. Finally, response to food labels was found to differ between aware and unaware respondents.     

Towards conscientious food consumption: exploring the values of Czech organic food consumers

The effects of the organic consumption are often contested with regard to the motives of consumers. Main goal of the paper is to present a theoretical framework that would encapsulate the motives of consumption and enable to identify the conditions for sustainable consumption. In particular, the paper seeks a new perspective that will not be tied to specific ways of life and that could bridge the complex, and often contradictory, motives of consumers. This framework is applied to map the values of organic food consumers in the Czech Republic with the use of the means‐end approach. The participants identified about 30 attributes related to organic food. Those attributes were divided into 14 basic categories. The study proves that Czech consumers mainly see organics as food ‘without chemicals’ that is favourable to health. At the same time, the identified hierarchical map of values reveals the great importance of the environmentally friendly approach, which results in the reduction of negative impacts and creates an opportunity to balance the relationship between society and nature. Some of the identified motives have pointed out a potential for merging together the egocentric and altruistic motives of ethical consumption in relation to the concept of ‘alternative hedonism’.     

Applications of the behavioural homogeneity evaluation framework: The predictive ability of consumer involvement for international food market segmentation

Abstract

This article proposes a framework of alternative international marketing strategies, based on the evaluation of intra- and inter-cultural behavioural homogeneity for market segmentation. The framework developed in this study provides a generic structure to behavioural homogeneity, proposing consumer involvement as a construct with unique predictive ability for international marketing strategy decisions. A model-based segmentation process, using structural equation models, is implemented to illustrate the application of the framework.     

Making It Part of the Package: Edible Packaging Is More Acceptable to Young Consumers When It Is Integrated With Food

How does edible packaging bias taste perceptions and acceptability? To examine this, we conducted an experiment where we manipulated what information participants received about a product with edible packaging and whether participants ate the product with its edible packaging and core food product intact or ate the edible packaging and core product layers separately. Participants who received information about edible packaging and tasted the edible packaging layer separately rated the product lower on dimensions of taste, healthiness, and intention to purchase than participants in other treatment groups. Findings suggest that framing a product as an edible package with environmental benefits can lead to negative judgments. Contrary to what environmentalists would expect, it may be best to simply not highlight its environmental benefits. Findings also suggest that consumers’ judgments of edible packaging may depend on how well the packaging material is integrated with its principal food product, and that highly separated products (such as edible cups) may face greater barriers to adoption.     

The moderating effect of technology and marketing know-how in the regional-global diversification link: Evidence from emerging market multinationals

In this study, we link regional diversification to global diversification of emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) and explore the importance of firm-specific technology and marketing know-how in that process. We develop our hypotheses and test them using a sample of 625 Chinese manufacturing multinationals across multiple industries. The results reveal that regional diversification predicts global diversification, and that firm-specific technology and marketing know-how both increase the likelihood of a firm’s moving from regional to global operations. Technology know-how was found to be more influential than marketing know-how.     

Competing in an emerging market: antecedents and consequences of market orientation and the role of environmental factors

Adoption of market orientation is an investment decision involved with benefit and cost considerations. How environmental factors influence the adoption of market orientation has received scant attention in the literature. This study fills the void by investigating the environmental antecedents to market orientation. In addition, the research explores the role market orientation and customer satisfaction play for firms operating in an emerging market in search of growth and prosperity. Based on data collected from India, one of the BRIC nations and an important emerging market, results show that turbulent and dynamic market conditions foster an adoption of market orientation, which leads to high levels of customer satisfaction, and in turn leads to customer loyalty. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.     

A dynamic market conceptualization for entrepreneurial marketing: the co-creation of opportunities

The entrepreneurial marketing domain should consider opportunity co-creation as a foundational construct for advancing the discipline. This paper integrates emerging views in entrepreneurship with an evolving, service-dominant logic of marketing to develop a market conceptualization for exploring uncertainty in dynamic social and economic environments. With this market conceptualization, opportunities are continually co-created through the development and communication of value propositions, the derivation and determination of value, and the (re)formation of markets. Emerging research around the process of opportunity co-creation is used to create an initial definition and theoretical considerations.     

Toward a greater understanding of the market orientation and internal market orientation relationship

The study explores the relationship between market orientation (MO) and internal market orientation (IMO) using the process model of MO development. Data from 370 nonprofit organizations were analyzed using structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation technique. The comprehensive CFA marker method was used to partial out the influence of social desirability bias on the substantive relationships. The study finds that MO works through IMO to elicit desirable employee outcomes, which also contributes to performance outcomes. IMO does not offer direct performance benefits, but it partially mediates the effect of MO on employee-related outcomes. Competing models offering alternative explanations are ruled out empirically by the superior fit of the theoretical model with the data. The study integrates IMO in Kohli and Jaworski’s model of antecedent and consequences of MO and encourages practitioners to embed IMO in their MO development plans.     

Once upon a market dreary: the prescient marketing principles of Edgar Allan Poe

ABSTRACT

An American icon, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) is famed for his fiendish tales of fear and trembling, and premature burial. He is less well known as a businessperson, let alone a marketing thought leader. Poe, though, was not only an entrepreneurially inclined self-promoter of genius, but he practised prescient marketing principles that are pertinent to present circumstances. In a world where dark tourism, dead celebrities and disinterred brands loom large, Poe’s principal principles – perversity, poetry, plagiary, plasticity – are prior portents of marketing precepts. Written in an appropriately literary style, this paper shows that dead men do foretell tales. Of markets dreary.     

Accessing and affording sustainability: the experience of fashion consumption within young families

Despite the ever increasing levels of fashion consumption, neither retailers nor consumers have as yet implemented sustainability principles to a significant degree. This is despite the fact that sustainability principles are increasingly understood and will be applied by consumers, as long as affordable alternatives in mainstream fashions are available. In a highly competitive fashion retail sector, there exists an opportunity for UK high street fashion retailers to differentiate their brand image through aligning products with consumers' moral frameworks. Using phenomenological interviews, this research explores the fashion consumption experiences of professional women with young children and living in or near Edinburgh, with particular focus on their expression of their own sustainability concerns in their day‐to‐day practices. The findings reveal that in the absence of suitable products, information and labelling, consumers apply heuristics to their choices, especially price. They refer to the more familiar ethical food market which serves as a metaphor for fashion‐related practices. They talk about trustworthy retailers and about how they deal with and rationalize their own practices where they reveal an obvious attitude‐behaviour gap. The women's role of providing for the family adds further complexity in a sector which provides affordable alternative options.     

Consumers' perceptions of individual and combined sustainable food labels: a UK pilot investigation

Consumers are faced with an increasing number of sustainable food labels. These different labels may be complementary or add to the increasing competition of product information in consumers' minds. We investigate: (1) the perceptions that consumers in the UK have about sustainable labels vs. other labels, such as origin or nutrition labels; and (2) consumers' reactions to combinations of different sustainable labels. Overall, the findings from two focus groups conducted in the UK indicate that consumers have positive perceptions of organic and fair trade labels but tend to be sceptical about unfamiliar labels and general claims such as ‘climate friendly’. The results also indicate the importance of familiarity, trust and fit between combinations of labels as well as between associating a label with a brand. While the combination of certain labels can enhance the value of a food product, this study also indicates that other label combinations (e.g. private and sustainable label) can detract from a label's value. Implications and recommendations are suggested for managers to counter the image of greenwashing, and for policy makers to facilitate sustainable food choices.     

Materiality and family consumption: the role of the television in changing mealtime rituals

This interpretivist study contributes to our understanding of how materiality mediates everyday family life by exploring the role of material objects in changing family rituals. We show how the television acts as an agent of cultural change when intermixed with family mealtimes. Our findings present a conceptual framework to explain the ways in which family life is altering across four key areas, namely: (1) mealtime settings and practices; (2) type of food consumed; (3) family structure and membership; and (4) family values and identity. This analytical framework illustrates how technologies such as the television mediate family relationships and how technologies become progressively more embedded in everyday practices. Revealing a transfer of mealtime practices from the formal environment into the informal environment, and vice versa, our study shows how mealtime rituals are altered and changed in form when mediated by the television, but not ultimately abandoned.     

国内外环氧乙烷的生产及市场分析

本文综述了近年国内外环氧乙烷的生产状况并对市场前景进行了分析与预测,针对目前我国环氧乙烷的生产状况,提出了我国环氧乙烷的的生产和发展建议.     

Information for decision making in marketing: the use of Group Support Systems (GSS)

Group Support Systems (GSS) Technology is an information technology which seeks to support collaborative work. Extensively used to support organisational activities, it has not yet been tested to the full within the market research setting. The paper reports on a GSS focus group meeting to determine key questions of concern about the National Training Reform Agenda. Participants were leaders in a primary industry in Australia and the questions would be related to a public relations exercise. GSS provided the opportunity to deal with complex issues efficiently and yet preserve the conversational characteristics of the focus group meeting.