Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

College Students Use Social Networking Sites For Sharing With Friends, But Guess Who Else Is Looking?, Liz Alexander, Fred Mader, Deanna Mader

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Jobvite, a recruiting platform for the social web, reports from their annual 2012 survey of recruiters that 92% of U.S. companies are using social networking sites (SNS) for hiring purposes (Jobvit, 2012). Career Builder reported in 2009 that 45% of employers were using SNS to screen and research applicants (CareerBuilder, 2009). It is important that faculty and support staff working to place students, and the students themselves, understand the developments and practices in the use of social networking sites for job search and recruiting and the best methods, as well as detriments when marketing themselves. This study examines corporate recruiters’, …

The Social Accountability Paradox In The Regional Democratic Budget Policy Making, Rutiana Dwi Wahyunengseh, Sri Hastjarjo

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

Social accountability has been believed as an approach to overcome the deficit of the formal accountability (both horizontal and vertical accountability). Social accountability is percieved as a public accountability which is initiated by and aimed for the society. Several studies found the effectiveness of social accountability in encouraging a more transparent government and a wider public involvement. Those studies identified variables which contribute to the social accountability, i.e. the degree of government openness; the density of community organizations and their advocation capability; social, political, and cultural environment; and the public information accessibility. Data for this paper is collected through in-depth …

Municipal Tourism Promotion: Mid-Size Cities In The United States, Peggy O. Shields

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The competitive environment in the tourism industry requires municipalities interested in attracting tourists’ dollars to strategically manage city resources. Often public and private sector bodies cooperate and combine their efforts and resources to promote visitation to a city emphasizing the desire to maximize the limited resources of each available for tourism promotion. To succeed cities are challenged with finding an identity, or ‘personality’ that has a unique combination of functional and symbolic attributes to differentiate themselves from countless other destination options (Hankinson 2001). A city’s distinctiveness can be built on many different characteristics, such as cultural events and institutions, sporting …

Exploring Motivations And Usage Patterns Of Social Media Users, Anita Whiting

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Social media is an important aspect of marketing today. According to Hanna et al (2011), social media is not an optional part of marketing strategy but a mandatory component for most companies today. Social media usage is rapidly growing. Facebook, the largest global social network, has over 1.19 billion users with an annual growth rate of eighteen percent (Aichner & Jacob 2015).

Perceived Risk Reduction In E-Commerce Environments, C. Michael Powell, Chris Conca

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

During the past three decades, the growth of e-commerce has presented marketers with many new arenas for research and application. Certainly e-commerce has become a significant portion of the world economy and in particular the consumer sector. As previous literature has consistently considered perceived risk as a major factor consumer purchase decisions, this research identifies several major components of consumer perceived risk (PR) and their normative implications in the e-commerce environment

Using Focus Groups And Correspondence Analysis To Explore The Relationship Between Millennials' Online Behavior And Their Opinions Of Online Reviews, James E. Stoddard, Michael J. Dotson, Neel Das

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Consumer decision-making regarding a purchase is usually influenced by feedback received from other people in addition to prior experiences/beliefs/attitudes and marketer dominated information. Such diverse sources of influence are collectively referred to as the influence mix (Simonson and Rosen 2014). Of the different sources in the influence mix, word-of-mouth (i.e., feedback received from other people) is one of the most impactful sources of information (Duan, Gu, and Whinston 2008). With the advent of e-tailers on the Internet, the influence of word-of-mouth communication has grown significantly in the form of online consumer reviews (Schindler ad Bickart 2012). Research has shown that …

An Application Of Social Media Marketing For Community Sustainable Development, Lei Huang, Amelia Clarke, Wen Tian, Natalie Heldsinger

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Though the social marketing approach has been developed from commercial marketing, it is a holistic approach from various social sciences disciplines like marketing, psychology, sociology, mass communication and economics. It is basically an art to explore new ways of analyzing problems and solving them effectively. For instance, social marketing influences sustainability through the use of marketing principles to increase awareness, understanding, change attitudes, and motivate the society to change, adopt, or sustain a particular behavior. This paper attempts to explore a framework of social media in light of disseminating the knowledge of a community-wide sustainability plan among various stakeholders. Policy …

Profile Of Corporate Social Media Consumer Segments, Beverly Wright, Aberdeen Leila Borders, Paul H. Schwager, S. Scott Nadler

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The trade and academic literature is replete with commentary about the need for companies to develop promotional strategies and to adopt media platforms that are more engaging and conversational with customers than the traditional top-down company directed one-way communication strategies of the past (Thomas, Peters, Howell and Robbins, 2012; Foster, West and Francescucci 2011; Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009). This viewpoint is supported by Christodoulides (2008) who reported that many customers view information about a company or brand that they obtained from blogs, social networking sites and the like as being more relevant, believable and important to them in their interactions …

An Exploratory Analysis To Understand Organic Food Market In The United States In Comparison To Europe, Alfiya Ansar, Ismet Anitsal, M. Meral Anitsal

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

To meet the increasing continuous demand of food, many techniques are used for mass production food but these techniques in turn have diminished the quality of many products. The negative effects associated with such production methods make them controversial in nature and thus requires discussion. One such method is the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), which involves genetically modifying the Deoxyribose Nucleic Acids (DNA) of plants or animals of interest to introduce certain traits such as resistance to pests or diseases. Food allergies are on a rise and researchers estimate that up to 15 million Americans suffer from vast …

Being Green And Social Responsibility: Basic Concepts And Multiple Case Studies In Business Excellence, Alan D. Smith, Steven R. Clinton, William T. Rupp

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Through a qualitative business case approach, three major manufacturing firms in Pittsburgh, PA were reviewed for their eco-friendly sustainability strategic initiatives and products/services. Undoubtedly, use of green best practices are value adding steps for a company may be initially difficult to justify to spend the time and resources developing such a process. This is especially true when other core business needs are present, such as driving revenue, product development and meeting governmental or consumer expectations. However, green and sustainability initiatives may not be currently dictated needs, but many companies feel strongly that charting such a course would be to their …

An Exploratory Investigation Of The Public's Attitude On The Effects Of Global Warming: The Media's Role In Influencing Opinions As Moderated By Having Lived Through A Major Storm, George W. Stone, Percy Willians, Britney Hamilton

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

While the debate over changing global weather patterns and the negative role mankind plays in altering the earth’s climate continues to rage, there appears to be no real movement in the views of entrenched participants on either side of the argument, or, for that matter, in the culture at large (Whitmarsh 2011). Even though global warming advocates claim the debate is now “settled science” and that a consensus of climatologists has emerged indicting mankind as one of the prime culprits in changing global climate patterns, an equally compelling argument has been made that naturally occurring phenomenon (e.g., such as volcanic …

The Clothing Swap: Social, Sustainable, And Sacred, Mary M. Long, Deborah Fain

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

While there is much focus on recycling household waste such as paper, plastic, and metal, there is less focused attention on the waste produced by clothing and textiles. As noted by Joung (2013), consumers dispose of clothes by recycling, donating to charities, or giving to friends and family. But when individuals are not motivated to do this or are unaware of recycling options, they simply discard unwanted clothing where it ends up in landfill sites.

Motives for recycling clothes can range from altruistic (e.g., donating to a clothing drive for the poor or victims of a natural disaster) to economic …

What Drives Conspicuous Consumption? - The Case Of Chinese Consumers, Y. Henry Xie

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Conspicuous consumption refers to a type of consumer behavior that people display wealth by spending a large proportion of their incomes on luxury products and services (Trigg, 2001). Different from other goods, the satisfaction that conspicuous goods provide buyers often comes from audience’s reaction, as opposed to product’s actual use (Wong, 1997). In other words, consumers exhibit certain conspicuous consumption behaviors due to their hopes to be seen more favorably in the greater social hierarchy (Podoshen, Li, & Zhang, 2011).

Can Scalability Be A Marketing Liability For Sustainability?, Dennis F. X. Mathaisel, Clare L. Comm

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

A common principle of modern business marketing is that growth is good. It is usually thought that all businesses should market themselves with the goal of increasing their revenues and gaining market share. Scalability is developing products or services that people want and figuring out how to produce and promote many of them for lower costs while selling more of them (Dudnik 2010). It is the purpose of this paper to show that some businesses, especially small ventures with unique value propositions, should not necessarily seek to grow or scale up. There are numerous examples of new ventures failing for …

The Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility Information In The Consumer-Brand Relationship, Lei Huang

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Given the increased interest and empirical research in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI), the interest of this paper is given to the impacts of corporate operational performance (COP) and corporate social performance (CSP) on consumer brand advocacy and brand trust. In this consumer-brand continuum, customers evaluate brand trustworthiness by two scopes: (1) the product or service the firm offers (i.e., product brand) that is usually associated with COP (Rust, Moorman, & Dickson 2002); and (2) the firm which provides the products and services (i.e., corporate brand) that is connected with CSP (Korschun, Bhattacharya, & Swain 2014). In addition, …

Chinese Consumers' Involvement In Wine Consumption And Their Willingness To Visit Wineries In California, Mahmood Hussain, Roblyn Simeon, Lutfus Sayeed

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This research fills a gap in wine tourism literature, taking into account the effects of consumers’ involvement in the pre-purchase stages on their willingness to visit wineries in California or in a foreign country. The theoretical framework presented in this paper provides support for a strong linkage between product involvement, consumption, and eventual propensity to visit a wine destination. As of this writing this paper constitutes the first of its kind econometric study of these effects.

Fitting Consumer Needs To Perceived Product Value: The Example Of Apple Versus Samsung Products, Yi-Chia Wu, Arturo Vasquez-Parraga

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This study explores the fitting of consumer needs to product perceived value using the example of two lines of competitive products in the area of communication electronics, Apple products versus Samsung products. Five types of needs regarding digital communication and three types of related product value are evaluated for these two brands in order to know if product value differences have a distinctive effect on consumer needs.

This study focuses on the impact of perceived product values on certain consumer needs. We use Apple products and Samsung products to accomplish this.

Factors Affecting Dimensional Precision Of Consumer 3d Printing, David D. Hernandez

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This paper investigates the factors affecting dimensional precision of consumer-grade 3D printing, attempting to isolate and mitigate sources of error. The focus is on creating engineering prototypes of, tooling for, or finalized instances of mechanical devices. A specific fused deposition modeling printer – the Ultimaker 2 – is analyzed in terms of meeting precise physical dimensions, consistent shapes, and predictable surface finish. Extensive trial and error resulted in removal of several sources of bias, with square test articles exhibiting a lower-than-anticipated mean percentage error of -0.387% (SD = 0.559), a value comparable to other modern manufacturing techniques. A full …

2015 Q2 Market Pulse Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Market Pulse Report

The quarterly IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Survey was created to gain an accurate understanding of the market conditions for businesses being sold in Main Street (values $0-$2MM) and the lower middle market (values $2MM -$50MM). The national survey was conducted with the intent of providing a valuable resource to business owners and their advisors. The IBBA and M&A Source present the Market Pulse Survey with the support of the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project and the Graziado School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

Boiling The Ocean, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Social entrepreneur Durreen Shahnaz set out to change Social Entrepreneurship in Asia, which she likens to “boiling the ocean”; it is now at least lukewarm