From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing

Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management

Everybody knows that digital technology has revolutionized our economy and our lifestyles. But how many of us really understand the drivers behind the technology – the significance of going digital; the miniaturization of electronic devices; the role of venture capital in financing the revolution; the importance of research and development? How many of us understand what it takes to make money from innovative technologies? Should we worry about manufacturing going offshore? What is the role of India and China in the digital economy? Drawing on a lifetime’s experience in the industry, as an engineer, a senior manager, and as a partner in a global venture capital firm, Henry Kressel offers an expert personalized answer to all these questions. He explains how the technology works, why it matters, how it is financed, and what the key lessons are for public policy.

Competing for the Future

The role played by perceived usability, satisfaction and consumer trust on website loyalty

Purpose – To provide important empirical evidence to support the role of knowledge management within firms.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a mail survey sent to CEOs representing firms with 50 or more employees from a cross‐section of industries. A total of 1,743 surveys were mailed out and 443 were returned and usable (27.8 percent response rate). The sample was checked for response and non‐response bias. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.Findings – This paper presents knowledge management as a coordinating mechanism. Empirical evidence supports the view that a firm with a knowledge management capability will use resources more efficiently and so will be more innovative and perform better.Research limitations/implications – The sample slightly over‐represented larger firms. Data were also collected in New Zealand. As with most studies, it is important to replicate this study in different contexts.Practical implications – Knowledge management is embraced in...

Knowledge Management, Innovation, and Firm Performance

This paper studies the dimensions of brand image, focusing on the functions or value of the brand as perceived by consumers. In this way, four categories of functions are identified: guarantee, personal identification, social identification and status. By way of hypotheses, it has been proposed that these functions have a positive influence on the consumer’s willingness to recommend the brand, pay a price premium for it and accept brand extensions. The hypotheses have been tested in the Spanish sports shoes market and were partially supported. The results obtained confirm the convenience of analyzing brand associations separately and enable the ascertaining of the brand associations that are the most relevant in order to attain certain consumer responses.

The effects of brand associations on consumer response

This work considers the development and validation of a measurement instrument of brand equity based on the value ascribed to brands by consumers The results obtained indicate the existence of four basic dimensions of brand utilities: product functional utility, product symbolic utility, brand name functional utility, brand name symbolic utility The various tests employed show a reasonable degree of reliability and validity of the proposed scale for the sports shoes sector

Consumer-based Brand Equity: Development and Validation of a Measurement Instrument

The effect of market orientation on buyer–seller relationship satisfaction

Market orientation promotes the satisfaction of market needs with a higher degree of excellence than competitors. However, its potential effects on the companies' innovation strategy are discussed. The question is whether or not market orientation, due to an excessive customer focus, leads mainly to the development of incremental innovations and, consequently, to reactive innovation strategies. To obtain further insight into this topic, a market orientation measurement scale is first developed, taking into account the instrument proposed in the last decade. Then, the scale psychometric properties are evaluated. Once it proves to be a solid instrument of measurement, the relationship between market orientation and the following variables is analysed: firms' commitment to the innovation activities, effective innovation rates, degree of innovativeness of the new products developed, firms' competitive strategy and companies' performance. The study supports the beneficial effects of market orientation on the i...

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN012788.pdf

Market orientation, innovation and competitive strategies in industrial firms

Very little attention has been devoted so far to the study of the market orientation concept in private non‐profit organisations. However, there is a general agreement concerning the positive effects that this concept’s adoption has on the non‐profit services implementation as well as on these organisations’ long‐term success. Thus this paper aims at obtaining further empirical evidence on this field of research using a private foundations sample. Nevertheless, it is considered that the distinctive and specific nature of private non‐profit organisations’ activities deserves the development of a special instrument to evaluate their degree of market orientation. In this sense, one of this study’s main contributions is the development of a market orientation measurement scale which accounts for the peculiarities of private non‐profit organisations’ operations. Additionally, the study proves the positive effect of market orientation on the non‐profit outcomes and on the fulfilment of these organisations’ missions.

Rodolfo Vázquez

Papers

The effects of brand associations on consumer response

Consumer-based Brand Equity: Development and Validation of a Measurement Instrument

The effect of market orientation on buyer–seller relationship satisfaction

Market orientation, innovation and competitive strategies in industrial firms

Market orientation and social services in private non‐profit organisations