The role of the market in transforming training and knowledge to superior performance: evidence from the Australian manufacturing sector

Training and development of employees increases the value and breadth of employee capabilities and knowledge, although this improvement, we suggest, cannot drive improved competitive performance in the absence of effective commercialisation of these capabilities. We propose and test a model of training and organisational performance, mediated by effective market engagement and transformation by firms. We find, as we anticipate, no direct link between training and performance, although there is a significant and positive path between training and performance when mediated through effective and contemporaneous market engagement.     

Stakeholder theory and internal marketing communications: a framework for analysing the influence of new media

Effective two‐way communication is widely viewed as an essential component of successful internal marketing strategies, yet little research has so far been conducted on the relative merits of different communication media in an internal marketing context. Since the mid‐1990s Internet technologies have revolutionized internal communications in many organizations. However, the impact of these new forms of electronic media on internal marketing communication remains relatively unexamined. This paper draws on stakeholder and communication theories to provide a framework for understanding the dimensions of effective internal marketing communications and presents the results of an empirical study on the relationship between these dimensions and the use of new media in the workplace.     

The role and function of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department: A study of medium‐sized companies in the UK

The unification of “marketing” functions under the control of a chief marketing executive has long been regarded as central to implementing the marketing concept. While not accepting the logic that suggests that marketing orientation implies any particular set of organisational arrangements, this article examines new empirical data concerned with the role and status of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department, in a sample of manufacturing firms, to suggest that they function very differently in different companies.

Such distinctions have important implications for our understanding of how marketing operates in organisations, and the different ways in which it may be developed, both in manufacturing and in other sectors.     

The impact of low cost airline operations to Malta

In 2006 the controversial step was undertaken by the Maltese government to provide incentives for new routes with the intention of attracting low cost carriers to fly to the Islands. This paper examines the impact that low cost airline operations are likely to have on the volume and profile of passengers visiting Malta. The focus is on whether the low cost carriers are merely facilitating existing custom in terms of tourism flows, or whether they are attracting a different kind of visitor. The analysis uses data from a number of air transport and tourism sources and concentrates on the UK; the largest tourist market and where the low cost carriers are likely to have the greatest impact. Initially the effects of low cost carriers to date are examined and then there is an assessment of the longer-term impacts investigating recent developments of other low cost routes from the UK. The evidence shows that traffic to Malta increased significantly in 2007 but these additional travellers do not seem to be more interested in history or culture, nor do they take shorter trips or travel more in off-peak times. This is unlike the situation at a number of other European destinations where the introduction of regular low cost services has provided the flexibility for short break cultural tourism to develop.     

Marketing implementation: The implications of marketing paradigm weakness for the strategy execution process

Reviewing the marketing strategy implementation issue in an era of a weaker marketing paradigm contrasts traditional sequential flow models of implementation with the “strategy formulation/implementation dichotomy” and leads to the emergence of a processual view of implementation. The processual view clarifies the underlying behavioral and organizational factors that build strategy implementation capabilities. These underlying factors are at risk from a weaker marketing paradigm. The weakening of the marketing paradigm is discussed in terms of the downsizing and disappearance of the marketing function, but more fundamentally in the loss of strategic influence for marketing in the face of competing management paradigms such as the “lean enterprise” and “lean thinking.” The conclusion is that the impact on implementation capabilities is being felt first in companies where the marketing paradigm has been traditionally weak, but that this may be prototypical for other companies in the longer term. A number of important areas for conceptual and empirical attention are indentified. Nigel F. Piercy, Ph.D., is Sir Julian Hodge Chair in Marketing and Strategy with Cardiff Business School, at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, and has held visiting positions at Texas Christian University, the University of California-Berkeley, and the Athens Laboratory for Business Administration. He has published widely in the area of marketing strategy and implementation in the international literature and has had articles published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of International Marketing, and theJournal of World Business. He has published eight books, most recently the executive textMarket-Led Strategic Change: Transforming the Process of Going to Market (Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann).     

Interactions between marketing and quality at the SBU level: Influences and outcomes

The management of quality and development of effective cross-functional cooperation have assumed a new strategic importance over the past decade. However, many companies have reported that quality strategies have failed to deliver anticipated performance benefits and that ineffective interfunctional relationships may be to blame. This study explores marketing-quality interfunctional relationships as a potential source of quality strategy implementation failure at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. This study focuses on interdepartmental connectedness, communication and conflict between marketing and quality, and the antecedents and consequences of these dimensions of interfunctional interaction. Using data from a pooled response mail survey, the results suggest that marketing-quality interactions are associated with senior management quality leadership, strategic quality planning process, and control system characteristics. Interfunctional interactions between marketing and quality are found to be only weakly related to relative quality, market performance, and financial performance outcomes. Neil A. Morgan is a university lecturer in marketing and strategy at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge, England. His research interests focus on strategic issues concerning marketing strategy formulation, marketing implementation processes, and business performance. His work has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, British Journal of Management, and other journals. Nigel F. Piercy is Sir Julian Hodge professor of marketing and strategy and chair of Marketing and Strategy at the Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, United Kingdom. His research interests focus on the organizational context of marketing management, market-led strategic change, and the role of process in marketing strategy implementation. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising, and other journals.     

Accounting for Net Entry into Greek Manufacturing by Establishments of Varying Size

Adopting the view that size matters in understanding entry (exit) patterns, this research explores the nature and causes of net entry patterns of various size-defined groups of establishments in the case of a less industrialised country – Greece. The hypothesis to be tested is that the determinants of entry are not independent of firm size. Throughout this paper the analysis has had to confront difficulties arising from the use of net entry rates defined at the size class level. The degree of size disaggregation used in this paper is considerably finer than used before. Five employment-defined size classes have been used instead of sliding cut-off points discriminating between small and large firms. Unlike other research using pooled models to explain variation in entry (exit) rates across industries, the data used here are characterised by the absence of significant industry-specific systematic variation. Overall, the results obtained in this paper indicate that there is a gradation in the responses of different size classes to stimuli defined at the industry level. Evidence is offered that small firms are different in that they manage to overcome entry barriers, perhaps adopting different survival strategies, and that large firms are well aware of market conditions and are in an advantageous position to overcome many of the problems imposed by entry barriers. Size classes in the middle of the size class distribution offer a rather mixed result due to size-related advantages and disadvantages.     

Meta programme patterns in accounting educators at a UK business school

The purposes of this study are to compare the results of two alternative methods of eliciting meta programmes, the Motivation Profile Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Language and Behaviour (LAB) Profile semistructured interview, and to identify whether accounting educators exhibit any dominant meta programmes. An individual trained to use the LAB Profile interviewed a sample of 14 accounting educators who then completed the MPQ. The results of the MPQ and the LAB Profile identified three common patterns, indicating a good degree of correlation between the two methods. Identification of the key meta programmes of the accounting educators may have benefits in their teaching and is the precursor to a larger study of the meta programmes of accounting undergraduates, which can now be undertaken in a cost effective way using the MPQ.     

Residential development on gardens in England: Their role in providing sustainable housing supply

Development of garden land has attracted political and media attention in recent years, yet there remained uncertainty over whether the issue was nationally or locally significant. Gardens are not a land use in their own right and have no special status in planning law. This enabled them to be considered, until very recently, as previously developed land according to The Brownfield Guide (English Partnerships, 2006). This allowed garden sites to be developed for new housing, thereby helping some authorities to meet their targets for residential development on brownfield land as monitored through their strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA). This paper reports the findings of a survey of local planning authorities carried out in 2009 and focused on planning applications and permissions on garden sites over a five year period ending 31 March 2008. The results reveal that garden development was a significant issue in only certain regional contexts, South East, London and West Midlands, and its actual and potential contribution to the local housing stock was variable. Where other forms of brownfield land were in short supply, garden sites might be crucial in meeting targets. The paper examines the policy framework underpinning such applications and shows that where local planning authorities had specific policies on the subject in place they were able to reach more robust decisions on garden site planning applications and there was less likelihood of first stage rejection decisions being overturned on appeal.