To Trust or Not to Trust? Consumer Responses to Cause-Related Marketing

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand if company trustworthiness and the type of cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns (strategic vs. tactical) affect purchase intention and company image of a yogurt producer, under the control of socially responsible consumer behavior, general trust, income, attitude toward the CRM campaign, and initial company image. The study applies a quantitative (experimentation) research to test the proposed model. MANCOVA was applied with data obtained from 600 respondents who were selected by a two-stage cluster sampling method. The research model is partially supported. Company trustworthiness and CRM type are found to affect only company image and without any interaction effect. Being a highly trustworthy company applying a CRM campaign has more positive influence on company image than a less trustworthy one. Additionally, a strategic CRM campaign creates more positive influence on company image than a tactical one. The findings are further deliberated with the managers of the two selected companies with focus group discussions.     

Marketing strategies of ethnic minority businesses in the UK

This paper seeks to evaluate the influence of the entrepreneurs' educational backgrounds, the firm's target market, and the sector of operations on the marketing practices of Turkish ethnic minority businesses. The paper reports and analyses the findings of 227 face-to-face structured interviews with Turkish small business owners. The findings of the study indicate that Turkish ethnic minority businesses operating in different sectors use both transactional and relational approaches to marketing. Their choices of pursuing different marketing strategies are influenced by the entrepreneurs' educational backgrounds, the firm's target market, and the sector of operations.     

Determining the property ownership on cadastral works in Turkey

The transformation process from state to civil ownership in Turkey was started at the end of the Ottoman Empire and continued until after the formation of Turkish Republic. In this process, in accordance with the Civil Code legislation, most land users who had been using state lands were regarded as owners of those lands. These parcels of real estate were used in various ways and it became necessary to register these properties by using a process called ‘written cadastre’. The initial process was slowed down during World War II but an intensive cadastral program was begun after the war in both urban and rural areas, particularly in 1950s. The cadastre work had two components called technical and legal. The definition of land ownership is the legal foundation of the cadastre. If properties have their titles, land ownership can be defined based on the title; otherwise the ownership can be defined according to statements by experts chosen from local people. However, without title or written evidence, determining the land ownership is more problematic. In this context, this study explains how the ownership of properties, with or without a title, is determined in cadastral work in Turkey.     

Is volatility risk priced in the securities market? Evidence from S&P 500 index options

The authors examine whether volatility risk is a priced risk factor in securities returns. Zero‐beta at‐the‐money straddle returns of the S&P 500 index are used to measure volatility risk. It is demonstrated that volatility risk captures time variation in the stochastic discount factor. The results suggest that straddle returns are important conditioning variables in asset pricing, and investors use straddle returns when forming their expectations about securities returns. One interesting finding is that different classes of firms react differently to volatility risk. For example, small firms and value firms have negative and significant volatility coefficients, whereas big firms and growth firms have positive and significant volatility coefficients during high‐volatility periods, indicating that investors see these latter firms as hedges against volatile states of the economy. Overall, these findings have important implications for portfolio formation, risk management, and hedging strategies. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:617–642, 2007     

Retailing institutions in developing countries: Determinants of supermarket patronage in Istanbul,Turkey

The extent to which supermarkets can provide solutions to the shortcomings of a developing nation's food retailing system depends on their success in increasing store patronage. This study was designed to identify the determinants of supermarket patronage in Turkey. Consumers who primarily patronized supermarkets were compared with consumers who primarily patronized other food stores in terms of their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, grocery shopping habits and characteristics, and life-style orientations. Some differences between the two groups emerged with respect to their patronage motives, life-style orientations, and product purchase patterns.     

Aggregate Volatility and Market Jump Risk: An Option‐Based Explanation to Size and Value Premia

It is well documented that stock returns have different sensitivities to changes in aggregate volatility, however less is known about their sensitivity to market jump risk. By using S&P 500 crash‐neutral at‐the‐money straddle and out‐of‐money put returns as proxies for aggregate volatility and market jump risk, I document significant differences between volatility and jump loadings of value versus growth, and small versus big portfolios. In particular, small (big) and value (growth) portfolios exhibit negative (positive) and significant volatility and jump betas. I also provide further evidence that both volatility and jump risk factors are priced and negative. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 34:34–55, 2014     

Exploring the relationship between the human resource management practices and growth in small service firms

This paper seeks to evaluate the relationship between the growth and the human resource management (HRM) practices of small service firms in catering to professional services and the retailing sectors in the UK. The paper reports and analyses the findings of 196 face-to-face structured interviews with small service business owners. Findings suggest that employee empowerment contributes to the sales growth of small firms in the different sectors of the service industry. The study also shows that employee training and recruitment through formal channels contribute to the sales growth of firms operating in the catering sector. This paper argues that contextual variables – the extent of the competition and the availability of the workforce – have a bearing on the HRM practices employed by small service businesses.     

Can tail risk explain size,book‐to‐market,momentum, and idiosyncratic volatility anomalies?

We examine the impact of tail risk on the return dynamics of size, book‐to‐market ratio, momentum and idiosyncratic volatility sorted portfolios. Our time‐series analyses document significant portfolio return exposures to aggregate tail risk. In particular, portfolios that contain small, value, high idiosyncratic volatility and low momentum stocks exhibit negative and statistically significant tail risk betas. Our cross‐sectional analyses at the individual stock level suggest that tail risk helps in explaining the four pricing anomalies, particularly size and idiosyncratic volatility anomalies.     

Food shopping orientations in Turkey: Some lessons for policy makers

Modernization of food retailing systems will continue to be among the major public policy problems facing the governments of developing countries. Throughout the developing world efforts are instigated by central and local governments to increase the efficiency of distribution systems. Unfortunately, many decisions are made without due regard to an understanding of consumers' food shopping orientations. The article first seeks to determine the grocery shopping habits and life-style orientations of a representative sample of female Turkish grocery shoppers. Second, the implications of the study are presented for policy makers who view introduction of large self-service supermarket-type stores as a panacea of Turkey's food retailing system.     

A comparative cultural study of mathematics education at Northern Cyprus and Turkmenistan secondary schools

This study was aimed at investigating the opinions of secondary school supervisors about mathematics education as a cross cultural study at the secondary schools of Northern Cyprus and Turkmenistan. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit responses from three supervisors from inside of the Northern Cyprus and eight educational supervisors from province of Turkmenistan (totalling eleven participants from two countries) about mathematics education in both countries to make a cross cultural comparison. Findings of the study indicated major challenges such as short duration of the control period, ignorance about the facilities and conditions, coincidental selection of the topics and classes, teacher’s unawareness of the evaluation criteria, and incompetence of supervisors in the field of mathematical inspection. It was further found that the difference between both the countries on the matter of control of the mathematics education is not very big. The study has positive significance for Ministry and Department of Education, Education Supervisors, administrators, researchers and teachers on effectively implementing mathematics education.