Digital Commons Network^™

Culture In Services Marketing, Malcolm Mitchell

Doctoral

This research features both theoretical and empirical work underlining the potential value of marketing to contribute to commercial performance. The theory draws from those authors who have been predominant in promoting the concept of a market orientation as an antecedent to organisational success. The marketing culture paradigm is introduced and developed to specifically consider the area of services marketing. The empirical investigation concludes that there is an acknowledged appreciation of the value of a market oriented culture, particularly at senior levels of organisation, and that a market-oriented culture can be said to be associated with market shareholding and to a …

The Epistemic Consumption Object And Postsocial Consumption: Expanding Consumer‐Object Theory In Consumer Research, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

We introduce the concept of the epistemic consumption object. Such consumption objects are characterized by two interrelated features. First, epistemic consumption objects reveal themselves progressively through interaction, observation, use, examination, and evaluation. Such layered revelation is accompanied by an increasing rather than a decline of the object’s complexity. Second, such objects demonstrate a propensity to change their “face‐in‐action” vis‐à‐vis consumers through the continuous addition or subtraction of properties. The epistemic consumption object is materially elusive and this lack of ontological stability turns the object into a continuous knowledge project for consumers. Via this ongoing cycle of revelation and discovery, consumers …

Marketing, Consumers And Technology: Perspectives For Enhancing Ethical Transactions, Gene R. Laczniak, Patrick Murphy

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

The advance of technology has influenced marketing in a number of ways that have ethical implications. Growth in use of the Internet and e-commerce has placed electronic "cookies," spyware, spam, RFIDs, and data mining at the forefront of the ethical debate. Some marketers have minimized the significance of these trends. This overview paper examines these issues and introduces the two articles that follow. It is hoped that these entries will further the important "marketing and technology" ethical debate.

Pb1762-The Growing Hispanic Population In Tennessee - A Potential Market Opportunity For Farmers And, The University Of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

Marketing, Finances and Value-Added Agriculture

Tennessee farmers are motivated by current economic trends in the farm sector to seek out valueadded and direct marketing opportunities. Niche markets, including marketing to ethnic populations, are often attractive to those seeking new market opportunities. The growing Hispanic population in the state has led some to question the market potential of this audience in Tennessee.

This publication contains information relevant to Tennessee farmers and agri-entrepreneurs who are considering developing products and marketing to Hispanics. It provides general market research data and information important to understanding demand components, including geographic areas where potential demand may exist, the ability of the …

Mabs: Spreadsheet– Based Decision Support For Precision Marketing, Bert De Reyck, Zeger Degraeve

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we describe a decision support system developed for automatically scheduling and optimising broadcasts of advertisements to mobile phones via SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging. The system, MABS or “Mobile Advertising Broadcast Scheduler”, is developed in Microsoft Excel with a link to Lingo, a modelling language and IP solver. It was developed for a London-based company specialized in location-sensitive precision marketing via mobile phones. The system significantly reduced the time required to schedule the broadcasts, and resulted both in increased customer response and revenues.

Fashion Sense, Nirmalya Kumar, Sophie Linguri

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The article focuses on Zara store, which was opened in La Coruña, in Northwest Spain. The stores of Zara had a selling area of 811,100 square meters in 56 countries. Zara had become the best-known fashion brand in Spain and the flagship brand of 5.7 billion euros holding group Inditex, with sales of 3.8 billion euros in the financial year 2004. Among the keys to the success of Zara is its approach to the supply chain. Half of the garments of Zara is sourced around from third parties in low-cost manufacturing locations, including Asia. Basic collection items or wardrobe "staples," …

Bringing The Market To Life: Screen Aesthetics And The Epistemic Consumption Object, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

This article argues that the new ‘visuality’ (Schroeder, 2002) of the Internet transforms the stock market into an epistemic consumption object. The aesthetics of the screen turn the market into an interactive and response-present surface representation. On the computer screen, the market becomes an object of constant movement and variation, changing direction and altering appearance at any time. Following Knorr Cetina (1997, 2002b) we argue that the visual logic of the screen ‘opens up’ the market ontologically. The ontological liquidity of the market-on-screen simulates the indefiniteness of other life forms. We suggest that the continuing fascination with online investing is …

Finding The Sweet Spot: A Two Industry Study Using The Zone Of Tolerance To Identify Determinant Service Quality Attributes, Srinivas Durvasula, Antonio Lobo, Steven Lysonski, Subhash Mehta

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This paper makes a detailed comparison of two major financial services in Singapore: life insurance and stockbrokerage. Relationships of perceptions and expectations of service quality, mean service adequacy (MSA) and mean service superiority (MSS) with service satisfaction and loyalty are examined. Results indicate that the reliability aspect of service quality is strongly related to satisfaction and loyalty in the stockbrokerage industry, while the assurance aspect of service quality enjoyed a similar status in the life insurance industry. Results also confirm that while MSA and MSS both drive satisfaction and loyalty, perceptions of actual service have the strongest correlations with those …

Big Al's: Ten Years On, Gerry Mortimer

Case studies

This case study was developed by Gerry Mortimer of the Technological University Dublin. It was developed as a basis for class discussion, rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. The author acknowledges the assistance of research student Tara Rooney in preparing this case and of Simon Walker and Blathnaid Ni Fhatharta of Kepak Convenience Foods and Niamh MacHale of An Bord Bia (Irish Food Board) in facilitating its development.

Irish Marketing Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 & 2, 2006, The Marketing Institute

Issues

The Irish Marketing Review deals with issues, developments, research and practise in marketing. This is a special issue on " the island view of relationship marketing and networks".

The Weight Of The World: Consuming Traditional Masculine Ideologies, Andrew Dunne, Olivia Freeman, Roger Sherlock

Articles

This paper explores the relationship between the body, masculinity and the consumption of body-focussed activities. It examines the meaning and importance of strength training for men.
Strength training is of interest because its increase in popularity is occurring at a particular point in time when a growing number of men are experiencing insecurities over their masculine identities as a result of recent socio-economic changes. This paper proposes that men today are facing a dilemma in terms of masculine identity. This dilemma hinges on the growing objectification of the male body in the media and its cultural messages regarding masculinity.