From the Guest Editors: About this Journal of Promotion Management “Down Under” Special Issue

Abstract

The Internet is rapidly becoming an accepted communication/promotion medium for all types and sizes of businesses. It is especially significant in reference to the major marketing functions of advertising and sales. Individual Internet users are rapidly moving from the upper income/educational demographic to a more median level. Needs exist for clearer understanding of the terminology developing around this medium, as well as for a system of advertising effectiveness measurement as related to measuring traditional advertising effectiveness.     

Conclusion: Globalization,Work and Employment – Asia Pacific Experiences in Retrospect

In the concluding essay, the authors of this special issue provide a synthesis of the contributions presented in the volume. It is argued that globalization has become a powerful force in the business environment and has a major influence on the labour process, labour markets, the practice of management, and the management of employees in organizations. It is also asserted that both local and global companies are in various ways adjusting to the changes brought about by globalization. The essay comprehensively evaluates the significant number of management issues and variety of outcomes arising from economic globalization in the Asia-Pacific region. The implications of these issues for academic debate by managers, other practitioners, trade unions, employees and governments are critically explored.     

How Mental Simulations of the Future and Message‐Induced Expectations Influence Purchasing Goals

In the reported experiment, participants considered future fantasies about owning an electronics product, negative realities that impeded the realization of that fantasy (e.g., insufficient money), or simultaneously considered both. Consistent with Fantasy Realization Theory (Oettingen, 1996), only participants who simultaneously considered fantasies and reality formed stronger (weaker) goals to purchase their fantasy product if they read an advertisement for an electronics store leading them to expect that doing so was feasible (unfeasible). Purchasing goals were not influenced by expectations in the other conditions. The theoretical and practical contributions of these findings as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

Media,markets and violence

ABSTRACT

Media have multipronged linkages to violence, and these have been studied in considerable detail in the fields of communication and media studies. With commercialisation of media and the rapid decline of paying subscribers, for their survival in a capitalist economy, media have to rely increasingly on advertising revenues, and on other ways of linking to markets. Portrayals of violence have become reliable vehicles for ensuring media profitability – in terms of generating advertising revenue – as well as for generating revenue streams via related market-developing and market-maintaining ways. With the advent of new media – social media, virtual reality media and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-robotics-sentient media – the nexus of media, markets and violence is beginning to transform. This paper offers concepts and frames to start exploring the new patterns of linkages across media, markets and violence.     

Evaluation of land administration systems

Currently there are no internationally accepted methodologies to evaluate and compare the performance of land administration systems. This is partly because land administration systems are in constant reform, and probably more importantly, they represent societies’ different perceptions of land. This paper describes the development of a framework to measure and compare the performance of land administration systems. The research is of particular relevance since it develops a management model which links the operational aspects of land administration with land policy.     

Patients' Voices, Rights and Responsibilities: On Implementing Social Audit in Primary Health Care

This paper reports on an interpretive research project which examines the feasibility of implementing social audit within the general medical practice setting. The study aims to communicate patients' voices to aid evaluation of the potential contribution of social audit to the public health sector and also addresses particular conceptual problems which arise when attempting to implement social audit within this environment. The fieldwork focuses on one general health practice in Lanarkshire (in southern central Scotland). Consultative focus group discussions and individual interviews were carried out with a sample of twenty two patients. Patients were most concerned with health service organisational and delivery issues. Overall, the results suggest patients are enthusiastic about the ideas and process of the social audit. Patients were able to demonstrate a capacity for grasping accountability issues and balanced reasoning. There was an acute awareness of the constraints which exist in the public services. Patients addressed the broad rights and responsibilities issues, and highlighted the possible pitfalls of relying on a representational mechanism for ensuring their voices were heard. The study concludes that an involved and negotiative dialogue process of implementing social audit could provide beneficial understanding and ideas to the organisation which may be further researched.     

Buyer Alliances and Managed Competition

In a health insurance market, a large employer or an organized "buyer alliance" is in a position to influence the design of plans offered to its members. We study how the sponsors of buyer alliances manage competition among insurance firms by focusing on their choices of the format of competition, the number of firms allowed to compete, and the quality of care offered by the firms. We find deviations from optimality in all three dimensions. Specifically, we find a tendency toward too many firms and too much quality, and a bias toward a format involving the prescreening of insurance plans by the sponsor.