Brand Image Transfer Through Sponsorship: A Consumer Learning Perspective

Despite the massive growth in sponsorship activity of all kinds, academic research is still in its infancy in this area. This is particularly true with regards the effect of sponsorship on the brand image of the sponsor. This article seeks to address this by producing a conceptual framework of factors that influence sponsorship's effect on brand image transfer (BIT) amongst consumers. The findings from existing research are summarised and highlighted. Where there is a lack of research, 'appropriate' theory from the wider branding literature is used to develop the discussion. Thus, brand knowledge, power, fit and quality are considered as influences on the BIT process. A model of the actual process by which brand image transfers is developed and conditions influencing the strength of the transfer are identified. From this overall analysis, implications for both sponsors and sponsored are discussed and future research directions are outlined.     

International Retail Restructuring and Divestment: The Experience of Tesco

A key purpose of this study is to explore the lessons learned from international retail divestment and market withdrawal experiences. Drawing on 33 in-depth interviews with leading investment banks and key retail executives at Tesco, the study investigates the company's international restructuring and divestment activities in Ireland and France during the mid -1980s and 1990s. It has been demonstrated that, despite the progressive merger and acquisition wave sweeping through the corporate retail landscape recently, international retail divestment is quite widespread. The main conclusion from this study is that Tesco originally did not envisage divestment or de-internationalisation as part of the original internationalisation strategy process in either the acquisition of Three Guys in Ireland or Catteau in France. There was no appreciation from Tesco during their early period of expansion of the fact that exit pressures might arise during the course of market entry. In this regard, the case study provides insights into the relationship between investment and divestment within the context of international retail restructuring. The case evidence also demonstrates the positive impact of the Three Guys and Catteau divestments which helped management to refocus and rejuvenate the company's internationalisation process.     

Market-Based Organisational Learning - Theoretical Reflections and Conceptual Insights

As an area of academic inquiry, organisational learning has matured to such an extent that it can now be described as an institutionalisation of a body of knowledge. Nonetheless, underlying the apparent maturity of this literature lies the proliferation of disciplines that claim aspects of this theoretical territory, each with their own ontological premises and schools of thought resulting in frequently conflicting theories which often reflect a diverse pattern of phenomenological domains, interpretative issues, methodological predilections and conflicting operationalisations. The marketing literature is characteristic in detecting elements in cognate disciplines and introducing them within the guise of mainstream marketing thought. Consequently, it was a matter of time before marketing academicians became interested in exploiting seams of organisational learning research that are relevant to areas of marketing. Consequently, a recent announcement by the Marketing Science Institute finds that market-based organisational learning is now a 'second tier' research priority for 2002-2004, reflecting its developing attraction in organisational, conceptual, theoretical and empirical respects. In this paper, an attempt will be made to address the following: to delineate the organisational learning concept by reviewing multi-disciplinary contributions; to evaluate the intellectual roots to market-based organisational learning by considering its theoretical heritage; to propose a model of the theoretical properties of market-based organisational learning; to consider the extent to which market-based organisational theory satisfies criteria for theory construction in marketing and organisation science; to identify critical gaps in our knowledge of market-based organisational learning; and, to indicate the contextual issues surrounding the development of market-based organisational learning programs in firms.     

Critical approaches in undergraduate marketing teaching: investigating students' perceptions

For some years now, marketing educators have been exhorted to adopt more critical approaches in teaching and learning. Such approaches are purported to bring numerous benefits to students, including improved appraisal skills, self-awareness, and enhanced abilities to deal with the uncertainties and ambiguities of marketing practice. To date however, there has been very little empirical study of how students respond to critical approaches, and whether they perceive any of the proposed benefits themselves. This study addresses the gap by investigating the perceptions and experiences of students on two modules, both of which take similarly designed critical approaches. In practice, students were found to perceive the modules as more labour intensive and intellectually challenging than others, due primarily to the volume and depth of required reading. The task of being critical was itself perceived as difficult, due to the need for a different mindset, and for students to have confidence in their own ideas. However, overall evaluations of the modules were positive, and students identified a number of benefits and personal rewards from their experiences, at least some of which matched with those proposed in the literature. The paper discusses factors influencing students' perceptions and concludes with some practical recommendations.     

Successful exporting to the Arabian gulf region: A survey of Bahraini consumers

This paper details the emerging need for relational skills in marketing. The challenges of fostering relational resources within marketing practice and pedagogy are then discussed. Next, the paper explores the value of experiential learning approaches in education and considers different experiential models for fostering relational resources. An African Drumming circle was chosen, because it offers exciting opportunities to explore relational principles both through the actual lived experience as well through the active exploration of the metaphor. The paper concludes that the drumming circle offers an interesting access to experiencing the movement from being an individual actor to collaborating as part of a wider network of actors. Thus, insights are generated at the level of lived experience as well as at a more metaphoric one. The paper therefore serves to foreground the role of pedagogy in Relationship Marketing     

The Impact of Collaboration Between Industry and Academia on SME Growth

One important aspect in the small firm sector is the increased provision of training available to encourage small businesses to expand and develop their knowledge base. In the belief that new small firms can generate a number of new jobs at a time of high unemployment, the UK government in the early 1980s developed public policy to encourage small firm formation and growth. Measures have been enacted to assist small firms in the UK in areas of taxation, education, funding and placement schemes. (Cross 1983). Although Curran (1986) describes this as a 'heading plunge' into a policy of discrimination in favour of the small enterprise, and is critical of the effectiveness of many of these actions, the measures are a clear indication that public policy and funds are firmly committed to support the small firm sector (Marlow 1992). Since then local support agencies, such as The Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), and Local Enterprise Councils (LECs) in Scotland, funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and European Union offer professional consultancy advice and training to small firms and their owners. Such agencies offer help in the form of business start-up support and training, management skills and any aspect, which can aid growth in the small firm. However, the indications from the agency consultants have found that not enough owner/managers are utilising this enterprise network to assist business growth (Marlow 1992, Choueke and Armstrong 1998).     

Quality of Export Memory Content: A Conceptual Framework

Exporting is still one of the most common ways for organisations to reach foreign markets and its success is often key to sustaining and enhancing overall firm performance. In order to maximise the likelihood of developing sustainable competitive advantage in export markets, exporting organisations now need to learn better and faster than their competitors. This paper examines organisational learning in the context of exporting activities, and more specifically focuses on export memory. A framework of export memory is proposed, with key propositions concerning performance outcomes of export memory. Conclusions are made and future research directions are indicated.     

Do Customer and Technology Orientations Influence Product Innovativeness in SMEs? Some New Evidence from Greece

Due to the recently articulated need for a better understanding of product innovativeness determinants, this study focuses on firm-specific factors that influence the innovativeness level of new products. A path analysis model pertaining to a dataset of 150 manufacturing SMEs in Greece is applied to examine customer and technology orientations' direct effects on product newness to customers on the one hand and their indirect effects through learning orientation on new product uniqueness on the other. Empirical results indicate that technology orientation is more important than customer orientation in explaining product newness to customers and thus increases the chances of the firm producing a new product beyond their experiences and consumption patterns. They also suggest that learning orientation being enhanced by stronger customer and technology orientations constitutes a key organisational capability in creating more unique new products for the market. These findings are discussed in the context of Greek SMEs in the food & beverages and textile industries, taking into account the specific conditions prevailing. Apart from providing some new evidence in the important area of SMEs, this study also reveals interesting implications for managers and policy-makers while providing potential avenues for further investigation.     

Market Orientation and Organizational Learning Capabilities

The platform of contemporary marketing thought is founded upon the marketing concept. While there has been much debate about the precise nature of this concept, related discussion concerning its manifestation, in the form of a firm's market orientation, has developed to suggest that it is a feature exhibited by organizations possessing superior skills in understanding and satisfying customer needs. Despite the favourable externalities likely to accrue to an organization that is market oriented, it has been claimed that for a firm to achieve its full potential to learn about the marketplace, instilling a market orientation is only a first principle. While market orientation provides the norms for responding to the marketplace, this needs to be complemented by appropriate mechanisms and processes for higher-order learning to occur. This article examines such a conceptual argument and empirically investigates the relationship between two key constructs: market orientation and organizational learning capabilities. Data were generated from a survey of medium and large industrial firms and five dimensions of organizational learning capability items are tested against two different groups of firms in terms of their degree of market orientation. As contrasted with low market orientation firms, organizations characterized by high levels of market orientation perceived greater organizational learning capability with regard to the dimensions of strategic awareness, operational flexibility, strategic development processes and managerial skills. Discussion is given to these findings and implications are drawn for business executives and future research.