The role of brands in recruitment: A mixed-brand strategy approach

DelVecchio et al. (Marketing Letters, 18, 149?C164, 2007) expanded the role of brand equity by revealing the important role it plays in human resource management. We extend their study by incorporating a mixed-brand structure in a potential job applicant's decision to pursue a job. We integrate both corporate level and product level brands to form an overall brand in this decision process. Four models based on inference processing and affect transfer are developed and tested. Our results suggest that corporate-level brand and product-level brand, which constitutes an overall brand name, play a major role in influencing a potential recruit to pursue a job.     

PRICING COUPON-BOND OPTIONS AND SWAPTIONS IN AFFINE TERM STRUCTURE MODELS

This paper provides a numerically accurate and computationally fast approximation to the prices of European options on coupon-bearing instruments that is applicable to the entire family of affine term structure models. Exploiting the typical shapes of the conditional distributions of the risk factors in affine diffusions, we show that one can reliably compute the relevant probabilities needed for pricing options on coupon-bearing instruments by the same Fourier inversion methods used in the pricing of options on zero-coupon bonds. We apply our theoretical results to the pricing of options on coupon bonds and swaptions, and the calculation of "expected exposures" on swap books. As an empirical illustration, we compute the expected exposures implied by several affine term structure models fit to historical swap yields.     

The effectiveness of a permaculture education project in Butula,Kenya

In the 1980s, agricultural development organizations began promoting permaculture, an agroecological approach that emphasizes local autonomy, through training programmes in the developing world. Few assessments have measured the effectiveness of such projects. Here we surveyed and interviewed small-scale farmers to assess the perceived impacts of a Canadian permaculture non-governmental organization’s (NGO) project in Butula, Western Kenya. Two types of projects are evaluated and compared: community projects (CPs) at six primary schools, and an intensive two-week permaculture design certification (PDC) programme. Our results suggest that both PDC and CP participants felt that they had benefited from the projects. However, PDC participants developed a more comprehensive understanding of permaculture, felt empowered and frequently related permaculture to their own traditional cultural values whereas CP participants often misunderstood permaculture, felt frustrated by the limited immediate economic benefits and frequently contrasted permaculture against traditional cultural values. These differences may have occurred because CP participants had fewer opportunities to interact directly with the permaculture teachers, to ask questions, or to clarify points of uncertainty. This study emphasizes the importance of direct, reciprocal communication between NGOs and project participants for fostering feelings of autonomy and competence, thereby strengthening resilient agroecological systems.     

An examination of measurement context effects in empirically based advertising research

The purpose of this research was to examine the issue of measurement context effects in advertising processing research. Based upon a review of the advertising processing literature and recent research focusingon measurement contexteffects, hypotheses were specified and empirically tested via a measurement context experiment. The results indicate that the cognitions measurement treatment procedures used in advertisement processing model tests produce small measurement context effects. However, these effects are not sufficiently severe to suggest a reinterpretation of previous findings or to result in drastic changes in future advertisement processing research methods. The results suggest the process of measuring respondents' attitudes towards advertisements did not result in statistically significant measurement context effects on the measures of attitudes towards brands or purchase intentions.     

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.     

Improving relationships between sales and marketing: the relative effectiveness of cross-functional coordination mechanisms

ABSTRACT

The importance of effective sales and marketing working relationships is well known and this article examines the effectiveness of various coordination mechanisms used to improve this cross-functional relationship. Six coordination mechanisms are measured to identify their effect on sales and marketing conflict and collaboration, which in turn influence business performance. The results reveal that not all coordination mechanisms are equally effective. Structuring sales and marketing as a single unit and creating cross-functional project teams improve the interface, as do providing opportunities for job rotation and establishing cross-functional meetings. However, employing cross-functional training and co-locating sales and marketing do not influence this working relationship. Finally, reducing conflict and increasing collaboration between sales and marketing is shown to independently, and positively, influence business performance.     

Material Distortion of Economic Behaviour and Everyday Decision Quality

Misleading information and unfair commercial practices have to be viewed against the background of what consumers otherwise do, i.e., what their purchase decisions look like when no misleading information or no unfair commercial practices are in place. This article provides some of this background by studying how consumers sample information when making an in-store purchase decision. This was done by an eye-tracking study which reveals to what extent consumers succeed in purchasing the products that best meet their purchase intentions when only a representative amount of misleading information is present. The study shows that decisions were suboptimal in relation to what the consumers claimed they wanted to purchase. Only in one product category did consumers in this study actually look at products that were slightly better than average, and as a result, they mainly selected products that were just as often poor as good. If the proportion of bad purchase decisions based on misleading information is small enough, perhaps it might be better to direct the authors’ attention to other ways of improving the decision environments that consumers encounter. In addition, the eye-tracking study provides some insight into how consumers sample information when making an in-store purchase decision. The present data show that consumers invested on average of less than 1 s to look at products.     

Using customer motivations to reduce peak demand: does it work?

This study considers whether consumers' motives to avoid waiting can be used to benefit both themselves and the services they attend. Specifically, two related aspects are explored: informing customers about alternative service delivery options that will allow them to avoid physically standing in line, and telling them at which times and days the service is usually busier (hoping they will avoid the more congested periods). The main issue is whether customers will alter their behaviour to avoid waiting –even in the absence of other incentives. Examples from four attempts to modify customer behaviour at two bank branches are analysed. Some of these attempts were quite successful in accomplishing their intended purpose and others were not. Results suggest that peak demand can be reduced and overall demand can be levelled using customer motivations, although the effectiveness of implementation depends on a number of factors. These factors include, among others, the type of clientele and the flexibility of the capacity.     

Caller ID – Whose Privacy Is It, Anyway?

Caller ID or CND (Calling Number Display) is an internationally-available telecommunication service first introduced into the United States about ten years ago. Caller ID utilizes a new form of technology which enables telephone subscribers to identify the numbers (and/or names) of callers before picking up their telephones. This service has been widely assailed as an invasion of the caller's right to anonymity, a right which allegedly subsists as an important component of the caller's right to privacy. However, if privacy is defined from the perspective of the British philosopher John Stuart Mill, it can be argued that, even though anonymity is in fact an implication of genuine privacy, placing an unsolicited telephone call does not constitute a private act. Indeed, many callers who routinely block their numbers from Caller ID display units (such as telemarketers and telecharities) falsely assert a right to place anonymous calls in order to expedite their own intrusion into the privacy of others. This conclusion will be strengthened by contrasting anonymous telephone calls with the much more legitimate appeals to anonymity made by Usenet bulletin boards in cyberspace.