Gamified interactions: whether,when, and how games facilitate self–brand connections

Firms increasingly use games to interact with their customers. Yet, surprisingly little is known about whether, when, and how such “gamified” interactions engage consumers with a firm’s brand, thereby facilitating self–brand connections. Building on flow theory, we show that gamified interactions that are highly interactive and optimally challenging facilitate self–brand connections, because such games lead to emotional and cognitive brand engagement. A field study and three experiments across various product domains and game designs support our theory. We also identify conditions under which consumers do not become engaged with a brand, namely when firms restrict their decisional control either to voluntarily participate in the game (i.e., compulsory play) or to spend as much time as desired playing the game (i.e., time pressure). Our findings advance existing knowledge about the use of games in marketing and provide important implications for how marketers can harness their potential to build self–brand connections.     

Some 'real' problems of 'virtual' organisation

This paper presents an ethnographic study of organisational change in a retail bank considering issues surrounding the supposed emergence of the 'virtual organisation'. It outlines emerging problems in organisational work as a consequence of the shift toward 'virtuality' and questions the explanatory value of such theoretical stances.     

The Flemish customer contact centre for public information from a marketing and management perspective

This paper describes the Flemish customer contact centre for government information (‘the Flemish Infoline’) as an example of marketing in the public sector. First it defines the term ‘customer contact centre’ and describes the objectives and main characteristics of the Flemish Infoline. It then identifies the three reasons for setting up the Flemish Infoline in 1999: the complicated Belgian institutional landscape; the unprofessional telephone traffic handling and service; and the lack of knowledge about citizens' information needs. Finally, the paper applies Kotler's 4 Ps concept to the case, and puts the relevant stages from Lees‐Marsh‐ment's political marketing orientations into one integrated scheme in order to understand the functioning of the Flemish Infoline. Based on the literature and on an in‐depth interview with the project head of the Flemish Infoline, the authors demonstrate that marketing techniques can be used in contact centres for public information, but they also illustrate some important differences from those in the forprofit sector, such as the available amount of customers' personal data, the level of call operators' skills and the degree of heterogeneity of the questions. Further research on information needs and contact centres, and providing one ‘umbrella’ contact centre for government information in Belgium are recommended. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

卡尔加里--一座充满智慧的城市

卡尔加里是加拿大西部一座充满活力和适于创业的城市。我们这座城市因靠近RockyMountain山脉和拥有著名的CalgaryStampede而享誉世界 ,同时我们也是加拿大经济运行最好的城市。我们拥有平均年龄最低、教育素质最高的市民。除了石油及天然气 ,农业和旅游业等传统产业外 ,我们在高新技术产业领域也有很强的实力。令我们引以为豪的是 ,卡尔加里已成为加拿大计算机应用最普及的城市之一 ,也是国际互联网应用最普及并且通过应用这一技术受益最多的城市之一。82 %的卡尔加里人是国际互联网的用户 ,70 %多的市民在家里上网。尽管我们在应用先进技…     

Pseudo empirical likelihood method in the presence of missing data

In this paper, we propose an estimator for the population mean when some observations on the study and auxiliary variables are missing from the sample. The proposed estimator is valid for any unequal probability sampling design, and is based upon the pseudo empirical likelihood method. The proposed estimator is compared with other estimators in a simulation study.     

Identity, identification, and relationship through social alliances

The authors studied social alliances, a type of corporate societal marketing initiative. Their research finds that social alliances are an important means whereby employees identify more closely with their organizations while gaining a greater sense of being whole, integrated persons. Furthermore, this integration allows both organizations and their members to align their commercial identities with their moral and social identities. As organizational members struggled to resolve conflicts within their own identities, they were aided by social alliances, which in turn led them to identify more with their organizations. Unlike previous research, the findings suggest that the kind of connections referred to by the informants went well beyond the cold, rational associations described in previous research to emotional attachments that appear to be critical to organizational identification. The results also suggest that participation in social alliances may result in multiple forms of identification: intra- and interorganiza-tion identification. Ida E. Berger (bergeri@ryerson.ca) is the associate director of faculty affairs and a professor of marketing in the School of Business Management at Ryerson University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Her articles have appeared in leading marketing journals, including theJournal of Consumer Research, Public Policy and Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, andCalifornia Management Review. Her current research interests include social alliances, voluntary and nonprofit sector studies, diversity, and the value of sports in social inclusion. Her teaching interests include marketing theory, consumer behavior, and marketing communications. Peggy H. Cunningham (pcunningham@business.queensu.ca) is the Marie Shantz Teaching Associate Professor of Marketing, School of Business, in the Queen’s University. She completed her Ph.D. at Texas A&M University. Dr. Cunningham’s research interests revolve around two related themes: marketing ethics and marketing partnerships (international strategic alliances, partnerships between for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, relationships between firms and their customers). These areas of study are linked by their focus on the concepts of trust, integrity, and commitment. She is the coauthor of the Canadian editions of a number of marketing textbooks (Marketing Management; Principles of Marketing; and Marketing: An Introduction). Her work is published in a number of journals, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of International Marketing, and California Management Review. Minette E. Drumwright (mdrum@mail.utexas.edu) is an associate professor with a joint appointment in the College of Communication (Department of Advertising) and the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Previously, Dr. Drumwright was on the marketing faculties of Harvard Business School and the University of Texas Business School. She currently is the faculty chair of the Bridging Disciplines Program in Ethics and Leadership at the University of Texas. She has a Ph.D. in business administration (marketing) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Drumwright’s current research is in the areas of corporate social responsibility, marketing for nonprofit organizations, and business ethics. Her focus is on understanding how managers and consumers integrate noneco-nomic criteria related to society into their decision making. Dr. Drumwright has studied noneconomic criteria in various contexts, including cause-related marketing, partnerships between companies and nonprofit organizations, socially responsible buying behavior, and corporate volunteerism. Her articles and cases have been published in various books and journals, includingCalifornia Management Review, theJournal of Advertising, and theJournal of Marketing.     

Implementing continuous improvement in the North American mining industry

This study identifies key factors required to successfully change a mining organization's culture to that mandated by a continuous improvement (CI) philosophy. Guided by a change-oriented model of CI implementation and the Malcolm Baldridge criteria, a survey was conducted involving mining firms operating in North America with annual revenues over $100 million. Twenty-four firms participated and resulted in 268 usable questionnaires. A principal component factor analysis followed by linear regression revealed that four factors accounted for success in implementing CI; employee involvement was the most important one. This dominant factor proved to be complex and had elements of the context of change (e.g., acceptance of company goals), the content of change (teamwork, new ways of working, and supportive HRM policies), and the process of change (leadership and access to information). Other predictors included, in order of importance, corporate presence, customer-oriented strategy, and adoption of practical goals. The article concludes with a discussion of employee involvement and the trend toward a productivity gap, with firms pursuing CI in the lead.     

The stability of generalised stackelberg equilibria in heterogeneous oligopoly

Conclusions In this paper we have derived sufficient conditions for the stability of the G. S. E. These conditions follow from the condition on the stability of the G. C. E., given by Okuguchi (1978).When the conditions for asymptotic stability are fulfilled, the existence of the G. S. E. may be demonstrated in the same way as the existence of the G. C. E. has been demonstrated by Okuguchi (1978), that is: the G. S. E. is the fixpoint of a contracting mapping. In the case of linear demand functions and quadratic cost functions we have found the rather strong result that the sufficient conditions for (asymptotic) stability of the G. C. E. imply the (asymptotic) stability of the G. S. E. as well.This conclusion may be surprising to followers of Stackelberg. Mostly the outcome of a Stackelberg oligopoly is considered as adisequilibrium.In this paper we have made clear that a firm maximizing expected profit and using a generalised Stackelberg strategy, like a firm using a generalised Cournot strategy, only correctly predicts inequilibrium the price of the other firms. (See also on this point Heertje and Furth (1979)).When the outcome of a G. S. E. gives one or more firms less profit than in a G. C. E. then they expect, any price change, under-taken by them, will lower their expected profit even more.I would like to thank Prof. Dr. A. Heertje and an anonymous referee for their useful comments on earlier drafts of this paper and D. Weatherall for his remarks on the english of the text.