The Application of Stakeholder Theory to Relationship Marketing Strategy Development in a Non-profit Organization

Non-profit (NP) organizations present complex challenges in managing stakeholder relationships, particularly during times of environmental change. This places a premium on knowing which stakeholders really matter if an effective relationship marketing strategy is to be developed. This article presents the successful application of a model, which combines Mitchell’s theory of stakeholder saliency and Coviello’s framework of contemporary marketing practices in a leading NP organization in the U.K. A cooperative enquiry approach is used to explore stakeholder relationships, dominant marketing practices, and to surface differing perceptions about the organization’s marketing strategy. Resolving these differences sets the scene for developing choices in marketing strategy for the future. Simon Knox is Professor of Brand Marketing at the Cranfield School of Management in the UK and is a consultant to a number of multinational companies including Levi Strauss, DiverseyLever, BT and Exel. Upon graduating, he followed a career in the marketing of international brands with Unilever plc in a number of senior marketing roles in both detergents and foods. Since joining Cranfield, Simon has published over 100 papers and books on strategic marketing and branding and is a regular speaker at international conferences. He is a Director of the Cranfield Centre for Brand Management Development in the School and is currently looking at the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Management. He is the co-author of two recent books, "Competing on Value", published by FT Pitman Publishing in the UK, Germany, the USA and China, and "Creating a Company for Customers", FT Prentice-Hall, in the UK, Brazil and India. Colin Gruar is currently studying for his Doctorate of Business Administration at the School. His thesis is concerned with developing marketing strategy across stakeholder groups in the Not-for-Profit sector.Formerly Head of Marketing at a major UK medical research charity, Colin has also had senior roles in sales, marketing and operations management in a range of sectors including manufacturing, financial services and energy supply.     

The Relationship between Family Firms and Corporate Governance*

This paper contributes to the agency theory literature by identifying relations between family control and corporate governance structure. Emerging literature supports the notion that family control creates strong incentives that have potentially competing influences on the manner in, and extent to, which internal corporate governance mechanisms are utilized. A sample of 100 listed companies (evenly divided between family and nonfamily firms) is used to test the hypotheses that corporate governance structures are different between family and nonfamily firms; and that family firms adopt optimal corporate governance structures. This research finds evidence that suggests that family firms utilize substantially different corporate governance structures from nonfamily firms and that these differences lead to performance differentials. Indeed, results suggest that family control creates, rather than negates, agency costs and future research may be well rewarded by pursuing this latter notion further.     

UK brokers' characteristics: does size matter?

This study provides one of the first insights into how UK brokers' institutional characteristics may impact on the forecasting performance of their financial analysts. The study focuses on brokerage house size and finds it to be a significant factor explaining cross sectional variation in forecasting performance. This is consistent with evidence from several recent US studies (Jacob et al. 1997; Clement, 1999). It is likely that this broker-size effect reflects the resources (human, IT) available to brokers' analysts to support them in their activities. It may also reflect larger brokers' superior access to company managers and information. However, this broker-size effect appears to be significant only for forecasts made at horizons of one year or less. The sign of the earnings change being predicted also has a significant impact: for observations where earnings changes are negative, the broker-size effect is larger than for positive changes, though the effect is significant for both cases. In addition, the form of the model employed here suggests diminishing marginal returns to broker size. More generally, this study reiterates the importance of controlling for the most commonly cited explanatory variables for forecast accuracy, and there is evidence that the heavy industry sectors may be more difficult to forecast, echoing the conclusions of UK studies from the 1980s.     

Share Tipsters and Fair Advertising

The paper considers the concept of ‘fairness' as it applies to the advertisements of investment advisers. In the light of the empirical evidence relating to the performance of investment tipsters and fund managers, it is argued that current advertising practices tend to raise investors’ expectations to unrealistic levels. Possible changes to advertising practice regulations are considered.     

Assessing the Time-Varying Interest Rate Sensitivity of Real Estate Securities

Abstract

This paper examines the sensitivity of real estate securities to changes in both market and central bank interest rates. It is commonly viewed that the traded real estate market is one of the industry sectors most susceptible to interest rate movements. This is due to traditional high levels of borrowing, the impact of rate changes on property yields and indirectly upon occupational demand and thus rental income. The results which are the first to examine the UK sector, highlight the impact of interest rates on UK property companies, in relation to both returns and volatility. The paper also illustrates that this sensitivity is not confined to periods of high and volatile interest rates as the sample period under examination is characterized by historically low and stable rates.     

Short-term residual reversal

Conventional short-term reversal strategies exhibit dynamic exposures to the Fama and French (1993) factors. We develop a novel reversal strategy based on residual stock returns that does not exhibit these exposures and consequently earns risk-adjusted returns that are twice as large as those of a conventional reversal strategy. Residual reversal strategies generate statistically and economically significant profits net of trading costs, even when we restrict our sample to large-cap stocks over the post-1990 period. Our results are inconsistent with the notion that reversal effects are the result of trading frictions or non-synchronous trading of stocks and pose a serious challenge to rational asset pricing models.     

Anti-corruption reform in indonesia: an obituary?

Indonesia's Anti-Corruption Court had until recently convicted all the defendants brought before it by the Corruption Eradication Commission. Many of these were well-known and politically powerful figures. Yet both the Court and the Commission are under threat. Between February and October 2011, the Anti-Corruption Courts issued more than 20 acquittals, and on 11 October 2011, for the first time, a defendant prosecuted by the KPK itself was acquitted. This article traces the history of the Court and the Commission and explains why their fall may be imminent. Both institutions have been the targets of efforts to discredit and hobble them, apparently orchestrated by people the Commission has investigated. If the current trend continues, the Anti-Corruption Court and the Corruption Eradication Commission may soon join the growing list of Indonesia's failed anti-corruption initiatives.     

Parasoziale Meinungsführerschaft

In a democratic society, the media operate as a public space in which political and social topics are discussed. As media communicators influence and restrict both the topics of discussion and the amount of information available from in the media, they exert a substantial influence on the recipients’ formation of political opinion. The present study examines this impact by integrating the theoretical concepts of opinion leadership and parasocial relationship, resulting in a phenomenon referred to as parasocial opinion leadership. Based on the results of a qualitative survey of recipients, the concept was then substantiated. Parasocial opinion leadership is based on viewer’s perceptions and comes into existence, if (1) a recipient ascribes certain attributes to a media communicator based on a parasocial relationship; which (2) allows for a gradual influence of the media personality on the recipient’s opinions and attitudes by fulfilling at least one of the three functions information and reduction of complexity, orientation or arousal of interest.