Take me to church: What ministries are of perceived value for attendees from a nonprofit marketing perspective?

Church can mean different things to different people. Whilst the opportunity to hear preaching within a conventional church building has traditionally represented the key driver of church value, other ministries such as contemporary worship music, fellowship with others, and small group bible studies are relevant for church attendance amongst certain church attendees. In addition, these church ministries of perceived value may vary on the basis of whether a church attendee is involved in a ministry role or not and if the church is located within an urban or a regional context. To identify the perceived value of church ministries as perceived by church attendees, data from 8,000 respondents of the Australian 2011 National Church Life Survey were analysed. Although sermons and communion represented the church items of perceived value for both leaders and nonleaders regardless of their location, respondents varied considerably in what they deemed as most important for their church in the future. This study provides theoretical and practical implications for religious nonprofit organisations (e.g., churches) relating to the perceived value of church experiences and provides future research opportunities. Specifically, through appropriate market segmentation, target marketing, and positioning, these organisers can design and promote specific ministries to precise church attendee segments.     

The stories groups tell: campaign finance reform and the narrative networks of cultural cognition

Quality & Quantity - The purpose of this study is to test whether groups with different cultural cognition orientations construct different stories about the same policy issue given the same...     

Health insurance generosity and conditional coverage: Evidence from medicaid managed care in Kentucky

This article estimates the impact of the introduction of Medicaid managed care (MMC) on the formal Medicaid participation of children. We employ a quasi‐experimental approach exploiting the location‐specific timing of MMC implementation in Kentucky. Using data from the March Current Population Survey from 1995 to 2003, our findings suggest that the introduction of MMC increases the likelihood of being uninsured and decreases formal Medicaid participation. This finding is consistent with an increase in “conditional coverage,” waiting until medical care is needed to sign up or re‐enroll in Medicaid. These effects are concentrated among low‐income children and absent for high‐income children. We find no evidence of “crowd‐in,” substituting private coverage for Medicaid. These results are robust to multiple placebo tests and imply the potential for less formal participation (i.e., more conditional coverage) among the Affordable Care Act‐Medicaid expansion population (which is likely to be primarily covered under MMC) than is typically predicted.     

Implications of a Discard Ban in Multispecies Quota Fisheries

We present an analysis of quota regulation and discarding in multispecies fisheries, explicitly taking into account the costs of non-compliance with quotas and a possible discard ban, as well as the costs of selective fishing (avoidance effort). We examine the impact of a discard ban on vessels’ profit maximising behaviour, in particular where species quotas are not set in proportion to their availability on the fishing grounds, considering both non-tradeable quotas and ITQs. We show the interdependence between penalty rates for both discards and over-quota landings in determining quota market outcomes. We find that quota prices are sensitive to penalty rates and to the presence of restrictive quotas for “choke” species.     

Franchise branding: an organizational identity perspective

Despite the call for increased theoretical diversity in franchising research, the incorporation of organizational theory into this literature has been minimal. In response, we examine how aspects of organizational identity are represented in franchisee recruitment Web sites. We develop the concept of franchise branding to understand how franchisors position franchise opportunities to attract potential franchisees. We find that firms in the Franchise 500 use more language associated with market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and charismatic rhetoric when compared to a sample of lower-performing franchises. We also examine the impact of franchisor size and age to examine how liabilities of size and newness impact language use. We find that larger firms tend to use more rhetoric but detect no significant differences based on age. We conclude by discussing future possibilities for incorporating additional theoretical perspectives into the franchising literature.     

Concentration and Market Structure in Local Real Estate Markets

The competitiveness of the residential real estate brokerage industry has attracted much attention. Anecdotal evidence suggests some local markets are concentrated, yet no systematic market structure study has been conducted. We collected cross‐sectional data on real estate brokers in 90 diverse markets across the United States and collected longitudinal data for Louisville, Kentucky. In medium and large markets, no evidence exists that market concentration might create problems for competition. Small markets, on average, have higher Herfindahl‐Hirschman Indexes than medium and large markets. The longitudinal data reveal that many small brokers sell a house or two one year and none the next year.     

FROM EXPERIENCE: Products Talking to People—Conversation Closes the Gap between Products and Consumers

Product design is a complex undertaking, requiring manufacturers to find a balance among business goals, regulatory guidelines, the requirements of the distributor and retailer, and consumer demand. Along the way, it is sometimes easy to forget that, in the end, an actual person will attempt to operate the product.
Manufacturers are skilled at collecting and analyzing data about their customers and at using this information to formulate a "brand message": those things a company wants to communicate to consumers, the expectations that should be set in the consumer's mind, and what feelings and associations consumers should take away from an interaction with the company and its products. But while this information may be useful in understanding demographic and economic aspects of consumers, it often does not help the manufacturer understand how the product and user should interact—how the product and user should "talk" to each other. Something is lost in translation as a product goes from being a conceptual instantiation of a brand to being an actual physical object that a consumer must communicate with and must manipulate. The result is an experience that reflects poorly on the product and the manufacturer.
This article presents a framework for developing the interaction between user and product, using the metaphor of conversation between people. Human beings have developed a set of conversational rules and norms over the last few thousand years, and by leveraging these standards, manufacturers can create product interactions that provide a better experience to the consumer.