Introduction to the Special Thematic Symposium on the Ethics of Controversial Online Advertising

The field of marketing and consumer ethics has evolved considerably over the past 20 years, yet research on specific areas of advertising ethics remains limited. This limitation persists despite developments in digital technologies, and the impact they have had on advertising practice generally and online advertising more specifically. Online media are becoming increasingly populated by advertising content, as consumers continuously navigate ever-evolving mediascapes. Thus, there is a need to examine the ethical issues associated with the use of controversial advertising online, as well as consumers’ responses to such ads. This special thematic symposium addresses this literature gap, which is at the intersection of consumer ethics, e-marketing, and controversial advertising. The two papers in the special thematic symposium present new research in this area, along with some initial ethical implications as well as potential for future research.     

Context-Sensitive Access Control Model for Government Services

During the past two decades, e-government information systems have become less paper-based and more computer-based. Those information systems usually take the form of workflow systems. Due to the large social impact of e-government systems, computer security plays a pivotal role in ensuring its efficiency and effectiveness. Access control is one of the key aspects of computer security. Current access control models do not take into account the context of the system and its environment. In this article, we argue that a formal context-sensitive access control model can improve the development of e-government workflow systems and present a particular context-sensitive access control model. The subject of the article is a specification of the context-sensitive access control model for business processes (COBAC). By using a context-sensitive access control, it is possible to define more sophisticated access control policies that cannot be implemented by existing access control models. The COBAC's context is modeled using Web Ontology Language (OWL) in order to provide formal representation of context, rich representation of diverse contextual information, semantic interoperability between various context-aware systems, and a high degree of inference making. The presented model is applicable in different e-government systems, and supports the definition of access control policies for both simple and complex business processes. The model's prototype is verified by a case study on a real e-government business process—the national petty offense trial proceedings.     

An Empirical Investigation of Brand Equity: A Cross-Country Validation Analysis

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model in order to better understand brand equity. The goal of this research is to identify the drivers and determine how they influence brand equity performance in the researched industry in order to develop a more effective brand strategy. Quantitative data collected are used to test a model of brand value in the context of the food industry. The findings of this research provided evidence that the customer-based brand equity model can be applied to the food industry context and be used to guide marketing activities internationally. Brand awareness has a positive influence on brand associations and perceived quality. Brand associations have a positive influence on brand loyalty. Finally, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations all have a positive effect on brand equity. This study contributes to the scarce international brand equity literature by testing the proposed model using data from a sample of consumers in two European countries.     

Conceptual and mathematical model for quality improvement in health care

Numerous studies have shown that implemented models for quality assurance or improvement in healthcare facilities differ, even those models that are based on the same guidelines, i.e. standards, regulations or concepts. The cause of diversity in implemented quality models could be found in the process of translating guidelines into the implemented model for quality assurance or improvements in healthcare facilities, while neglecting processes of healthcare facilities that are not clinical processes, but still responsible for the quality of healthcare services. Therefore, this research recommends a conceptual model that should be a link between guidelines, implemented models and mathematical models derived from the conceptual model, which could provide a means of evaluating quality values of any part of the healthcare organization.     

Factors Influencing Successful Brand Extensions

Organisations frequently follow brand extension strategies. This paper investigates the impact of category similarity, brand reputation, perceived risk and consumer innovativeness on the success of brand extensions in FMCG, durable goods and services sectors. A set of hypotheses were developed and tested in a study amongst 701 consumers. The findings show that extensions into categories more similar to the original brand tend to be more readily accepted. Likewise, the reputation of the original brand is an important factor influencing the success of the extension. These findings are consistent across FMCG, durable goods and services brands. However, perceived risk about the extension category was only found to enhance acceptability of extensions for durable goods and services brands. Innovative consumers are more positively disposed towards service brand extensions than FMCG and durable goods brand extensions.     

Shopping motives as antecedents of e-satisfaction and e-loyalty

Abstract

Customer loyalty is fundamental to the profitability and survival of e-tailers. Yet research on antecedents of e-loyalty is relatively limited. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of motives for online shopping on e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. A structural equations model is developed and tested through data from an online survey involving 797 customers of two UK-based e-tailers focussing on hedonic products. The results suggest that convenience, variety seeking, and social interaction help predict e-satisfaction, and that social interaction is the only shopping motive examined with a direct relationship to e-loyalty. Data also show that e-satisfaction is a strong determinant of e-loyalty. These findings are discussed in the light of previous research and avenues of future research are proposed.     

Determinants of knowledge transfer strategy in franchising: integrating knowledge-based and relational governance perspectives

This study presents an integrative model on the franchisor's choice of knowledge transfer strategy by deriving hypotheses from the knowledge-based theory and the relational governance view. First, based on the knowledge-based view, tacitness of system-specific knowledge influences the choice of the knowledge transfer strategy of the franchisor. The higher the degree of tacitness of knowledge, the more knowledge-transfer mechanisms with a high degree of information richness (HIR) are used, such as training, seminars, visits and formal meetings, and the more likely the franchisor chooses a personalization strategy (P-S). Conversely, the lower the degree of tacitness of system-specific knowledge, the more knowledge transfer mechanisms with a low degree of information richness (LIR) are used, such as reports, emails, intranet, databases, and the more likely the franchisor chooses a codification strategy. Second, based on the relational view of governance, trust influences the choice of knowledge transfer strategy of the franchisor. If trust reduces relational risk, more trust reduces the franchisor's use of HIR-knowledge transfer mechanisms and increases the franchisor's use of LIR-knowledge transfer mechanisms. If trust increases knowledge-sharing between the network partners, it increases the franchisor's use of both HIR- and LIR-knowledge-transfer mechanisms. The hypotheses are tested by using data on the use of the P-S in the Austrian franchise sector. The data provide some support for the hypotheses. A new model on the franchisor's choice of knowledge transfer strategy, using knowledge-based theory and relational view of governance is developed, and specifically, the knowledge-based view of Windsperger and Gorovaia [(2011). Knowledge attributes and the choice of knowledge-transfer mechanisms in networks: The case of franchising. Journal of Management and Governance, 15(4), 617–640] is extended by considering trust as additional explanatory variable of the knowledge-transfer strategy.     

Convenience food consumption in the Nordic countries and St. Petersburg area

Building on the theoretical framework provided by sociological research on eating practices, family meals, self‐cooked meals and time use, this study examines national differences and similarities in the use of convenience food in Northern Europe. The study draws on two quantitative sets of data, the primary data set (N = 8248) collected in 2012 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and the complementary data set (N = 800) collected in St. Petersburg area in 2013. In general, consumers’ attitudes towards convenience food were negative. Time saving was an important motivator for convenience consumption in all countries. The effects of other attitudes were diffuse and factors such as low cost, health effects, and taste of convenience food, affected convenience consumption differently in different countries. In the four Nordic countries women used less convenience food than men. In Finland and in Norway older respondents used convenience food less often than the young. Generally, the use of convenience food was most frequent among those living alone. The effects of education and occupation were small, implying that the phase of life is more important than social stratification in explaining convenience food consumption. In the St. Petersburg data, there were no differences related to social background.     

Consumers’ Sensorical Product Evaluation and Perception

The aim of the research was to determine consumer perceptions of meat products regarding their origin and the potential impact of their origin on the sensory evaluation of other meat properties. Data were collected during the experiment. By testing the correlation model with multiple analyses of variance for repeated measures, it was determined that there was a statistically significant correlation between the factors. The important contribution of the research is the surveyed issue and the approach to researching the impact of product origin on scientific field of marketing and field of consumer behavior. The research represents a deeper investigation of impact of country-of-origin (COO) on consumer perceptions. An integrated approach to the research of the impact of meat origin was chosen to form interlinks between meat origin and its other sensorical properties.