An examination of women’s sport sponsorship: a case study of female Australian Rules football

ABSTRACT

In recent years we have seen an increase in corporate and media interest in women’s sport leagues and events. Despite the increase in commercialism and professionalism of women’s sport, there is a lack of research focusing on the marketing of and through women’s sport. This current study addresses this gap, examining the motivations of sponsors involved in the women’s Australian Rules football national league. Exploratory in outlook, this paper presents insights from key sponsorship decision-makers. It was found that sponsorship was motivated by a desire to promote gender equality at a firm, industry and broader societal level. Sponsorship of women’s football provides convergence of corporate social responsibility and commercial benefits. The paper provides insights for sport marketing and initiates the conversation of women’s sport sponsorship.     

The precarity of respectable consumption: normalising sexual violence against women

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon feminist scholarship, this study offers insights into how respectable consumption exacerbates precarity and contributes to normalisation of sexual violence in Delhi, India. It helps to uncover androcentricity of respect that has been under-examined in marketing theory. This research identifies androcentric discourse of izzat or respect as a key discursive apparatus that enframes sexual violence against women. In this discourse, women are carriers of family traditions and respect or honour. Moreover, norms of consumption get situated within discourse of izzat and alterity is created from women who do not follow these norms. Such women, labelled as unrespectable, live under conditions of heightened precarity and are blamed for the sexual violence they face. Therefore, this work offers insights into normalisation of sexual violence that have not been understood in marketing theory.     

Gender Entrepreneurship and Global Marketing

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to redirect attention to the role of gender entrepreneurship in global marketing. The value of gender in global marketing through the use of words and behavior is discussed, which helps to integrate the disparate gender, entrepreneurship, and global marketing streams of research. The article suggests that a more gender neutral stance in global marketing is required due to the more fluid and changing understanding about the meaning of gender in society. This enables increased dialogue about gender stereotyping in global marketing to be examined as a way to keep up to date with global trends. Global marketers must confront gender biases as a way of enhancing a more open and inclusive society. The trends in gender and marketing are addressed that help to raise awareness for how to improve global marketing standards.     

Global Marketing,Gender and Family Business in Asia: A Literature Review

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore the recent trends in global marketing, gender and family entrepreneurship in Asia. Taking into account previous contributions, this article aims to provide a better portrait about research on global marketing, gender and family entrepreneurship in Asian countries and future directions. The article presents a few comparative analyses for Asian countries in terms of gender representation in the entrepreneurship sector in recent years as well as the succession in larger family businesses in Asia.     

Critical visual analysis of gender: reactions and reflections

Abstract

As a way to think about gender in marketing, this article reflects on recent events of the ‘Gamergate’ scandal, in which an online analyst of gender in video games was severely harassed and threatened. We focus largely of representational conventions of gender, and introduce conceptual tools such as ethics of representation and performative iteration to illuminate key concerns within marketing representation. We raise several important issues for future work on gender and marketing, and urge a move beyond a search for ‘effects’.     

Marketing the female politician: an exploration of gender and appearance

Abstract

This paper sheds light on issues of gender roles and gender hierarchies using Goffman’s theories on gender and performance as a starting point to explore modern-day manifestations of power structures in political marketing, particularly as related to female politicians. In-depth interviews with four female politicians, 17 aides, volunteers, PAC and media executives as well as two focus groups with registered voters reveal subordination of female politicians through hyper-ritualised displays of social relations. The findings showcase how appearance is used to facilitate the ongoing objectification of female politicians in political marketing and devalue their candidacies. This study is an important step in examining the role of gender and appearance in political marketing and its importance in building brand image for a female politician.     

Marketing and the British chief executive

British chief executives increasingly recognise the need to make their companies more marketing orientated. But boards of directors are still dominated by a financial outlook and most lack a professional approach to strategy and market innovation. Chief executives need to supplement their generally inadequate base with education and development programmes on strategic marketing and to add non‐executive directors with substantial expertise in marketing.     

Gender effects on consumers’ attitudes toward comedic violence in advertisements

Abstract

This study examined gender’s effects on attitudes and tendencies to share online ads containing comedic violence. The results show that males enjoyed comedic violence more than females, when the perpetrator of the comedic violence was male, regardless of the victim’s sex; and, when the perpetrator and victim were both female. When the perpetrator and victim were of different sexes, the impact of attitudes toward comedic violence on sharing the ad varied by gender. However, when the victim and perpetrator were of the same sex, there was no significant gender difference in the effects of attitudes toward sharing the ad.     

Reframing gender and feminist knowledge construction in marketing and consumer research: missing feminisms and the case of men and masculinities

Abstract

Gender has been theorised and studied in many ways and across different disciplines. Although a number of these theorisations have been recognised and adopted in marketing and consumer research, the significance of feminism in knowledge construction has largely remained what we would call ‘unfinished’. Based on a critical reframing of gender research in marketing and consumer research, in dialogue with feminist theory, this article offers theoretical and practical suggestions for how to reinvigorate these research efforts. The analysis highlights dominant theorisations of gender, relating to gender as variable, difference and role; as fundamental difference and structuring; and as cultural and identity constructions. This reframing emphasises various neglected or ‘missing feminisms’, including queer theory; critical race, intersectional and transnational feminisms; material-discursive feminism; and critical studies on men and masculinities. A more detailed discussion of the latter, as a relatively new, growing and politically contentious area, is further developed to highlight more specifically which feminist and gender theories are mainly in use in marketing and consumer research and which are little or not used. In the light of this, it is argued that marketing and related disciplines have thus far largely neglected several key contemporary gender and feminist theorisations, particularly those that centre on gender power relations. The potential impact of these theoretical frames on transdisciplinary studies in marketing and consumer research and research agenda(s) is discussed.     

Exploring the Antecedents of Brand Loyalty and Electronic Word of Mouth in Social-Media-Based Brand Communities: Do Gender Differences Matter?

ABSTRACT

Recently, social media have emerged as key marketing communication channels. In this context, consumers are increasingly gathering in online communities which have been identified as social-media-based brand communities (SMBBCs). However, notwithstanding scholars' attention towards SMBBCs, the role of consumers' gender in developing brand loyalty intention (BLI) has been scarcely explored by literature. Moreover, scant attention has been given to the analysis of whether gender is related to different propensities towards brand recommendation—identified as a proactive behavior towards a positive electronic word of-mouth diffusion (E-WOM)—in the social media context. Hence, this research aims to explore the antecedents of BLI and E-WOM by focusing on consumers' gender differences. A structural equation model has been created based on 250 surveys collected among SMBBCs of an American sportswear brand. The results showed that male consumers' BLI is influenced by engagement in SMBBCs. Instead, brand trust was the main antecedent of females' BLI.     

Gender after gender: fragmentation,intersectionality, and stereotyping

ABSTRACT

This special issue on gender, markets, and consumption follows another special issue on gender and identity that appeared in 2003 in CMC. Fifteen years later, gender still represents a spirited field of confrontation. Seven articles emerged from the reviewing process, and contribute to three main themes: (1) refined representations of gender, which are fine-tuned to contemporary market and societal changes; (2) transformative contributions sharpening understanding of what gender inequalities are and how to contrast them through consumption and markets; and, (3) critical perspectives on gender, which stimulate societal as well as subjective undoing of gender.     

Gendered reading of the body in the bed

Abstract

This study contributes to studies on domestic material culture and gender. In studying object–person relations, prior scholars have given priority to materialising the ‘object’, paying less attention to the material aspects of the ‘person’. To redress this gap, we draw on recent feminist materialist and affective turns and conceptualise the object–person relation as inherently gendered, embodied and affective. We develop this conceptualisation by analysing the way in which the gendered body interacts with the bed – a domestic material object that is fruitful for a gender analysis. As a result, we offer an extended view of the gendered body that interacts with the material world: one that is biological and cultural, sleeping and waking, and has the capacity to affect and be affected. Our study thereby contributes to gender studies in marketing and consumer research by taking a step forward in materialising both the object and the body.     

A New Frontier in the Battle Against Smoking: An Exploratory Investigation of Low-Income Adult Smokers

ABSTRACT

This paper fills an important gap in the marketing literature by examining the drivers of risky behaviors such as smoking among the economically disadvantaged. Smoking rates and smoking-related illnesses are on the rise in this group and previous research has not adequately considered the efforts of smoking cessation marketing campaigns and anti-smoking policy directives. Data were gathered from 729 ethnically diverse, low-income consumers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that depression, gender, race, and age are significant predictors of risky behavior (smoking) in this group. The implications of the findings for demarketing campaigns and public policy programs are discussed and future research directions are identified.     

Symbolic violence and marketing ECRs in the neoliberal University

ABSTRACT

This paper uses symbolic violence as one way of interpreting the lived experiences of early career researchers (ECRs) in the neoliberal University. We focus on marketing ECRs as business schools epitomise the highly market-mediated, performative, and managerialist ideology of the contemporary neoliberal University which facilitates symbolic violence. Specifically, marketing education, with its orientation towards market logic, has been identified as aligning with the neoliberal paradigm. We draw on qualitative narrative interviews with 16 United Kingdom and Australian ECRs in marketing to demonstrate how symbolic violence is produced and reproduced through institutions, ideology, language and discourse, and social relations. We find that while ECRs are not entirely subjugated by symbolic violence in the neoliberal University – with some participants displaying critically reflexive awareness and resistance, we also find that they can be complicit and serve to reproduce the system through seeking to learn and play the game of academia, rather than change it. We argue that symbolic violence offers a framework to help conceptualise the neoliberal University. Further, we submit that instrumental advice to marketing ECRs on how to navigate a life in academia is not enough and that critical reflexivity, resistance, and social action to oppose symbolic violence and the ideology of the neoliberal University is required to achieve emancipation.     

Managerial Attitudes Toward Stakeholder Salience Within Selected Western Pacific-Rim Economies

ABSTRACT

This study empirically examines the attitudes of managers and managerial students in Australia, China and Indonesia, toward the perceived prominence of selected organisational stakeholders. A development model is used to argue that Australian respondents will perceive greater equality in prominence between the selected organisational stakeholders than their Chinese and Indonesian counterparts. Results indicated that Chinese respondents attributed greater prominence toward Government as an organisational stakeholder, and contrary to expectations, perceived greater equality (less variance) in prominence between stakeholders. The study provides a basis on which further work on the perceptions of stakeholder prominence can be undertaken in different contexts.     

Marketing,violence and social cohesion: first steps to a conceptual approach to the understanding of the normalising role of marketing

ABSTRACT

This paper answers a call for contributions ‘dedicated to revealing how markets and marketing make violence culturally acceptable and socially normalised’. Such an investigation has to involve some in-depth conceptualisation with respect to the meanings of both marketing and violence. The market is an institution related to other institutions which altogether are – as in all societies – trying to cope with violence. Today our societies are based on both markets and democracy, but those institutions tend to be mutually contradictory. When marketing tends to replace politics and to almost religiously convert citizens into consumers it is social cohesion that is at stake. This paper aims at contributing to a deeper understanding of social/historical trends. As it highlights the importance of ideas (representations and motivations) and their links with changing institutions, it might help researchers and marketers to a broader understanding of their role and towards a more conscious social behaviour.     

The role of innovation,entrepreneurial self-efficacy and local uniqueness on marketing performance in small and medium-sized restaurants

ABSTRACT

The growth of the food service business in Indonesia cannot be optimized by small and medium restaurants due to a lack of innovation and entrepreneurial skill. This present study combines marketing and entrepreneurship literature and explores the link among innovation, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and marketing performance. Using a purposive sampling methodology, data were collected from 124 respondents of small and medium-sized restaurants in Bogor city, Indonesia. This study used Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the influences of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, innovation and local uniqueness on marketing performance. The findings indicate that innovation activity has a direct significant influence on marketing performance. This study also indicates that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively influences marketing performance reflected by increasing sales, profits and number of customers. In addition, local uniqueness, which is an intermediary variable, is not affected by innovation activities and does not directly affect marketing performance. Even though this study supports most hypotheses, two out of six were not. As such, the results of this study provide important practical insights as well as interesting contributions to the theoretical advancements in entrepreneurship and marketing especially in the setting of small and medium-sized restaurants.     

Women “in motion”: the kinaesthetic viewing experience in Chinese viral advertising films

ABSTRACT

Visual imagery provides aesthetic experiences for viewers, and viral advertising films address viewers’ experience of movement which has not been analysed. Developing visual analyses, this study uses phenomenological approaches and the concept of kinaesthetic empathy, defined as the ability of viewers to react to movements, also in film. It considers Chinese Wei movies (“microfilms” or viral advertising films) with reference to examples by Audi and Swarovski as representatives of China's post-socialist marketing culture. Women in these films are presented as “in motion,” yet still are often delimited by traditional gender stereotypes. These films are potentially ambivalent ideological carriers that encourage women to reinvent themselves through consumption within traditional gender roles but may also suggest the pursuit of different experiences as movement is abstract, transitory and cannot be commodified.     

Exploring the Role of Product Development Capability for Transforming Marketing Intelligence into Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study examines the role of product development capability for transforming marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.

Methodology/Approach: The authors apply structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from 342 industrial manufacturing companies.

Findings: Results reveal that sales integration and holistic macroeconomic view are particularly important features of the marketing intelligence capability on industrial markets to gain additional insights in order to develop products successfully. Results also reveal that product development capability transforms the marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.

Research Implications: This study offers new insights on marketing theory by extending and concretizing the concept of market orientation to a broader concept of the marketing intelligence capability for industrial markets. Further, this research reveals that the product development capability serves as a mediator to business performance.

Practical Implications: This study’s systematic and tangible outline of the dimensions of marketing intelligence and its link to the product development capability helps firms to better understand how to capitalize on market orientation’s potential values.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This research (a) reveals the relevant dimensions of marketing intelligence on industrial markets and (b) shows how the product development capability tranforms marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.     

Consuming stress: exploring hidden dimensions of consumption-related strain at the intersection of gender and poverty

Abstract

Consumer stress as experienced at the nexus of gender and poverty, has received limited attention in marketing and consumer research. This empirical study applies the theoretical lens of social stress to explore gendered aspects of poverty, consumption and marketplace activity. It demonstrates that for women in poverty, consumer stress is a relational issue, involving marketplace and interpersonal (dis)connections. In particular, it surfaces the hidden, often, nuanced power relations that place additional strain on women with limited finances, as they oscillate between marketplace and intra-household pressures. By applying social stress theory, the study offers a new way of thinking about the unequal social relations and associated consumption strains bound up with the disadvantaged position of an intersectional group of women experiencing poverty.