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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

To Segment Or Not To Segment? An Investigation Of Segmentation Strategy Success Under Varying Market Conditions, Sara Dolnicar, R. Freitag, Melanie J. Randle Apr 2012

To Segment Or Not To Segment? An Investigation Of Segmentation Strategy Success Under Varying Market Conditions, Sara Dolnicar, R. Freitag, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

A computer simulation study is conducted to explore the interaction of alternative segmentation strategies and the competitiveness of the market environment, a goal that can neither be tackled by purely analytic approaches as there is neither sufficient and undistorted real market data available to deduct findings in an empirical manner. The fundamental idea of the simulation is to increase competition in the artificial marketplace and to study the influence of segmentation strategy and varying market conditions on organisational success. Success/failure is measured using two performance criteria: number of units sold and survival of organisations over 36 periods of time. Three …


The International Volunteering Market: Market Segments And Competitive Relations, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle Apr 2012

The International Volunteering Market: Market Segments And Competitive Relations, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

The number of nonprofit and social agencies relying on the help of volunteers has grown enormously in recent decades. This has lead to increased competition between these organisations for the limited resources available, and the growing adoption of what have traditionally been considered ‘commercial’ business techniques such as marketing. There have been calls for greater and more sophisticated use of ‘tried and tested’ marketing concepts such as competition, segmentation, and positioning to help volunteering organisations manage this pressure effectively. This study shines the spotlight on individuals who volunteer for multiple types of organisations in an effort to determine which organisations …


Fighting For Volunteers’ Time: Competition In The International Volunteering Industry, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle Apr 2012

Fighting For Volunteers’ Time: Competition In The International Volunteering Industry, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

Despite increased competitive pressures in the volunteering industry, the structure of competition within this non-profit sector has not been examined in the past. This study uses selected respondents from the 1999-2002 World Values Survey who have previously volunteered for multiple organisations. Based on the patterns of organisations that volunteers donated their time for, competition between volunteering organisations with different missions was analysed, resulting in five dimensions of volunteering missions within which volunteering organisations appear to be competing: altruistic, leisure, political, church, and other missions. The altruistic mission groups is the broadest and includes a wide variety of volunteering goals, whereas …


Cultural Perceptions Of Volunteering: Attracting Volunteers In An Increasingly Multicultural Society, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle Apr 2012

Cultural Perceptions Of Volunteering: Attracting Volunteers In An Increasingly Multicultural Society, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

Contributing 42 billion dollars to the Australian economy annually, volunteering has become an industry of major importance. The increasingly multicultural nature of Australia has presented new challenges for nonprofit marketers in terms of designing recruitment strategies that appeal to the extremely heterogeneous cultural groups that make up our society. While various studies have focused on the application of marketing techniques to the nonprofit sector, there has been a lack of research looking specifically at the nonprofit organisations competing within a particular marketplace, and whether the perceptions and image of these competitors differs between cultural groups. This empirical study seeks to …


Environmental Volunteers: Are They Driven By Altruism And A Strong Feeling Of Regional Identity?, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar Apr 2012

Environmental Volunteers: Are They Driven By Altruism And A Strong Feeling Of Regional Identity?, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Melanie Randle

The significant growth of the nonprofit sector in Australia has lead to increased competition between organisations in attracting and retaining volunteers. Nonprofit managers are under increasing pressure to adopt commercial marketing techniques in order to achieve volunteer targets, and are recognising the need for detailed market information in order to develop customised and targeted marketing strategies. Environmental organisations within Australia lack information in relation to the particular segment of the market which is most likely to volunteer for their type of cause. This study addresses this issue by investigating whether environmental volunteers display unique characteristics, such as strong levels of …


Who Donates Time To The Benefit Of The Environment And Animal Rights? Profiling Volunteers From An International Perspective, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar Apr 2012

Who Donates Time To The Benefit Of The Environment And Animal Rights? Profiling Volunteers From An International Perspective, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Melanie Randle

Despite increased competitive pressures in the volunteering industry, there remains a lack of studies which segment the volunteering market with the aim of gaining deeper insight into the characteristics of different groups of volunteers. This study addresses this issue by using data from the 1999-2002 World Values Survey, specifically investigating those individuals who volunteer for Environmental and Animal Rights (EAR) causes. Differences are found between (i) EAR volunteer and individuals who do not volunteer for any cause, and (ii) EAR volunteers and individuals who volunteer for causes other than the environment and animal rights. This information is useful for managers …