The Competitiveness of the Maritime Clusters in the Baltic Sea Region: Key Challenges from the Finnish Perspective

This article examines the Finnish maritime cluster by identifying the key challenges hindering its competitiveness. The main bottlenecks for the future are concluded to comprise rising cost levels in relation to customer demand, the need for human and capital resources, the need for financial and scientific support for innovation activities, and the lack of contacts and resources when competing for large-scale international projects. These issues are relevant also for the other maritime clusters in the Baltic Sea Region. Thus, joint policies and cooperation in tackling these issues could support the competitiveness of the maritime sector in the whole region.     

Pharmaceutical marketing through the customer portfolio: Institutional influence and adaptation

This paper discusses the dilemma of managing marketing in institutionalized business contexts. On the basis of a study of pharmaceutical marketing practices it is argued that business aspirations are dependent on understanding institutional influence and adaptation mechanisms on the customer-portfolio level. As relationships are perceived as such mechanisms, understanding network dynamics, institutional co-evolution and actor cognitions are key managerial issues. Furthermore, it is suggested that institutional discontinuities leverage institutional entrepreneurship to a critical extent.     

Contributions from mood research

In this article definitions of mood and the behavioral effects of negative moods are reviewed and scrutinized. This is an important task for two reasons. First, in prior studies, consumer researchers have treated concepts such as affect, mood, feeling, and emotion vaguely and arbitrarily. This has resulted in confusion regarding the substance of mood. In an attempt to dispel a part of this confusion, this article offers a conceptual analysis of mood. Second, a large part of prior consumer behavior‐ and advertising‐related mood research has addressed the relation between mood and mental constructs. The relation between mood and actual consumer behaviors is a more neglected research area. The behavioral effects of negative moods are an especially interesting phenomenon, because past studies have produced mixed and contradictory results. Thus, to offer novel insights, the key conclusion of the conceptual analysis of mood is harnessed to explain the inconsistent findings regarding the negative mood–(consumer) behavior relation. Another theoretical contribution is the provision of starting points for conceptualizing mood‐alleviative consumer behavior. Suggestions for future research are also briefly outlined in the concluding section of this article. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Co-evolution of trust and dependence in customer–supplier relationships

The relational and dynamic aspects of interfirm trust and dependence produce a crucial, but insufficiently addressed, challenge for successful relationship coordination. In this paper we concentrate on this issue by examining how trust and dependence co-evolve in customer–supplier relationships. Building on a case study, we develop propositions and a model that illustrates how interorganizational trust and dependence co-evolve through the different phases of customer–supplier relationships and how we may distinguish cooperative and trustworthy actors from those who will behave opportunistically. Theoretical and practical implications are offered.     

Customer‐oriented thinking within the Finnish Lutheran Church

This study analyses what preconditions are necessary for customer orientation within the church, and to what extent these preconditions are in place in the case of the Finnish Lutheran Church. A proper intelligence base and organisational preconditions are needed. Within the Church, there is mostly a positive attitude towards customer orientation but defects exist, for example in the intelligence base system, the coordination of congregational operations, and in cooperation with laymen. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Traditional Sushi for Modern Consumers: A Comparison Between Sushi Consumption Behavior in Japan and Norway

This study focused on differences between uses and users of sushi and sashimi in Norway and Japan. The study was based on a consumer survey that was completed by a representative sample of 902 participants from Norway and 897 participants from Japan. The survey included questions about food consumption frequency, ways of sourcing sushi and sashimi and situational factors related to consumption. Participants also reported their knowledge about, attitudes toward, and ambivalence related to sushi and sashimi, social acceptability of sushi and sashimi consumption, domain-specific innovativeness, and social and demographic characteristics. Differences in sushi consumption behavior between Japanese and Norwegian consumers considering the situational parameters surrounding sushi and sashimi consumption were revealed. Considerations for future research and implications on export strategy development were discussed.     

A Call for Authenticity: Audience Responses to Social Media Influencer Endorsements in Strategic Communication

ABSTRACT

Utilizing social media celebrities as a communication channel has become a strategic practice for many organizations. By using the concepts of celebrity endorsement and authenticity, the effect of celebrity and content characteristics on followers’ attitudes towards the content and, in the case of sponsored content, purchase intentions are scrutinized. Instagram followers (N = 592) of 45 celebrities responded to a survey on nine photos of the celebrities. The results show that both the perceived authenticity and attractiveness of the celebrity are positively related with photo attitudes, but only authenticity has an effect on purchase intentions. Photos of social media influencers, people who have become famous through social media, increase purchase intentions more than photos of general celebrities. Congruence between the photo and the celebrity has the strongest positive effect on photo attitudes and purchase intentions. Sponsored photos are less favorably perceived than non-sponsored photos, but, among sponsored photos, sponsor disclosure has no effect on purchase intentions. The perceived authenticity of both the celebrity and her content is said to explain favorable audience perceptions. The findings imply that organizations should seek authentic matches between their message and the endorsing celebrity and that the content should align with the usual style of the celebrity.     

Differences and Similarities between Impulse Buying and Variety Seeking: A Personality‐based Perspective

Although personality is a key determinant of consumer purchasing decision making, the role of personality traits in impulse buying and variety seeking is not conclusive. This research uses a personality perspective to determine the unique associations among impulse buying tendency (IBT), variety seeking tendency (VST), and the Big Five personality traits within one integrated framework. Based on data from a nationally representative sample of 1644 Norwegian adults, the results show that while IBT and VST might be correlated, they differ significantly with respect to two major personality aspects: “neuroticism” and “openness to experience.” Specifically, the present study indicates that neuroticism predicted IBT positively and VST negatively, while openness was a strong predictor of VST and unrelated to IBT.     

Casting Roles to Stakeholders – A Narrative Analysis of Reputational Storytelling in the Digital Public Sphere

This article presents a narrative study of stakeholder positions, storytelling agency, and power in the digital public sphere as seen by organizational actors. According to the institutional approach, corporations and their reputations are enacted, sustained, and altered by their external stakeholders. This article posits that, in the online public sphere, corporate reputations are formed by narratives, in which stakeholders take different positions on intended actions. Using a qualitative data set derived from seventeen interviews with communication and risk management professionals, these positions were analyzed using a Burkean pentadic analysis combined with the Stakeholder Saliency Model. Using pentadic ratios, seven different narrative stakeholder positions were identified: Information seeker, Influencer, Pressurer, Communicator, Mender, Monitor, and Intermediator. These positions were taken by different actors, such as individual users, communities, online media and the organization itself. Analyzing the attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency related to these positions three transformations were identified: mobilizing crowds, issue recognition, and scene transformation. The proposed model helps to identify the different stakeholders in the digital communication sphere and to understand their agency through their narrative positions.