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What consumers know about a product affects many aspects of their behaviour and is particularly important for marketers to understand when it comes to developing marketing strategy. The purpose of this paper is to understand the components of consumer knowledge of wine and to investigate these as a potential basis for wine market segmentation and targeting.

A quantitative, descriptive research design is adopted. An online survey consisting of three sections, measuring objective knowledge, subjective knowledge and classificatory variables, was developed and fielded, and data were collected from US wine consumers via Amazon.com’s MTurk platform. The psychometric properties of the measures used were determined, and a two-dimensional segmentation typology was developed.

The study supported the positive relationship between objective and subjective wine knowledge, while the combination of the two components led to the identification of four groups of consumers titled: neophytes, snobs, modest and experts.

In a market that is highly fragmented, consumer knowledge about wine has been shown to provide a useful basis for wine market segmentation allowing for different marketing activities to target the four groups identified.

While other research has considered either objective or subjective knowledge on its own, this study’s major contribution is the investigation of the wine consumer segments on the basis of the combination of objective and subjective consumer knowledge. A consumer knowledge type grid is developed that has implications for marketing segmentation and targeting. Implications of this new typology for future research are identified.

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which wine tour-operating companies are successfully using their websites to communicate persuasive and meaningful differences to customers in their quest to clearly position their product offering.

Text data are collected from 250 websites that promote wine tourism in five different countries’ winescapes. Lexical, regression and hierarchical clustering analyses are used.

Lexical analysis using DICTION can distinguish among websites from different countries’ winescapes, and French wines obtain the best mean review scores from customers, while US, Napa Valley, websites obtain the lowest scores. DICTION dimensions allow for meaningful clusters and can also predict TripAdvisor’s mean review scores.

There is a need to pay better attention in the development of website content and the critical role that both syntax and semantics can play in facilitating the use of a firm’s website, specifically in terms of clear positioning.

The study uses lexical analyses of website narratives to understand the current positioning of firms.

Perspective-taking is an overlooked relational competence that matters to interaction, problem-solving and cooperation in inter-organizational buyer–seller relationships. This paper aims to distinguish perspective-taking from empathy with which it has often been associated. It uses aptitude theory to propose a conceptualization of perspective-taking consisting of perspective-taking ability and motivation components that are used to explore the scope of perspective-taking in customer–supplier relationships.

An experiment and survey, are conducted among customer managers to apply and test measures to capture the ability and motivation components of the perspective-taking aptitude. The two perspective-taking components are used to propose a 2 × 2 matrix that provides a four-type typology, labelled: “talented”, “ineffectual”, “fervent” and “indifferent”. Data are collected from a sample of senior managers of manufacturing firms responsible for the dyadic relationship with a business support agency.

The data supports the presence and distribution of the four typologies among customers in business relationships and regression analysis confirms the impact of the proposed perspective-taking typology types on customer–supplier cooperation. The different combinations of the perspective-taking dimensions of ability and motivation that make up the perspective-taking aptitude type result in different dispositions to cooperate. “Talented” and “ineffectual” members with high and low perspective-taking ability and motivation scores, respectively, provide the highest and lowest cooperation dispositions. “Fervent” and “indifferent” members occupy an intermediate perspective-taking aptitude on the typology, with the former impacting cooperation moderately and the latter not found to be significant.

Understanding counterparts, inferring their motives and anticipating reactions, is a critical capacity for mutual dyadic adjustments in customer–supplier relationships in business markets. Such an understanding of perspective-taking can prove useful to effective interaction, solution development and relationship building, as interacting managers belonging to different typology types exhibit different levels of cooperation. In addition, an understanding of perspective-taking can prove useful to identify the right talent that can foster effective interaction and solution development in customer–supplier relationships. It also raises the issue as to how best sellers can interact to influence the perspective-taking of buyers in their quest to achieve better solutions and cooperation.

Provides a useful supplement to theory by bringing perspective-taking, grounded in aptitude theory, as an essential relational competence in business marketing that can provide an additional explanation to cooperation and joint problem-solving in inter-organizational business relationships. The paper develops and proposes a typology of perspective-taking that brings together ability and motivation dimensions, operationalizes and assessed their measures and tests the impact of the proposed perspective-taking typology types on cooperation in customer–supplier interaction.

This paper aims to classify and investigate customer attitudes toward luxury wine brands in the USA (a developed market) and South Africa (a developing market) by using an aesthetic and ontological framework.

Using recognized scales, consumers’ ontological and aesthetic orientation and attitudes toward luxury wine brands as part of a product category are measured. Data for the USA sample were collected using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, whereas the South African sample data were collected from a sample of Generation Y consumers. Using the two orientation scores, it was possible to create a 2 × 2 matrix with low and high scores for the two countries investigated. To determine the relationship between the resultant groups and attitude toward wine, ANOVA was performed. Differences among the groups were identified via a comparison of means.

The results suggest that the use of aesthetics and ontological orientations enables the identification of different luxury wine consumer modes in the two countries studied. In addition, these demonstrate significantly different attitudes toward luxury wine brands as part of a product category.

The samples for both countries were collected using a non-probability sampling method, and any generalization to the greater populations must be undertaken with caution.

The findings demonstrate a unique approach that provides an alternative form of segmentation for luxury wine brands. Recommendations to target the different identified modes and how these impact attitudes toward luxury wine brands as a product category in the two countries are made.

The study contributes to the literature by providing a unique and alternative method of market segmentation and shows how this affect attitudes toward luxury wine brands as a product category.

Socialisation by children is seen as taking place within a socio‐cultural environment where family patterns of communication play a pivotal role. The socio‐ and concept‐orientation are two predominant parental communication styles that are likely to affect the perceived influence that children believe they hold. This study focuses on the perceived influence of children resulting from the communication pattern adopted by parents. Research is conducted among a dyad consisting of parent and child that visit a recreational site. Results are reported, conclusions are drawn and recommendations for future research are made.

Forecasting enables the efficient utilisation of a firm’s resources. There are various types of forecasting models that can be built. Illustrates the steps involved in building a forecasting model utilising seasonal regression with a practical example. The model obtained for the carbonated soft drink brand under consideration estimates a growth rate of 3,568 units per month during the last five years and identifies the seasonal effect during each month of the year. The model also computes the cannibalisation effect that the introduction of a brand extension has had. The development of such models can provide a useful input to both marketing and operations planning.

Excellence and quality would be regarded by most managers as worthy objectives. These managers would also, in all likelihood, agree on the importance of imbuing their organisation with a market orientation, and believe that these factors contribute to corporate performance. A sterner interpretation of this, however, would necessitate a more in‐depth understanding of these constructs. What is excellence? Is there a link between excellence and a market orientation? Is the market oriented service firm more concerned with understanding and managing customer expectations and delivering a reliable service? How do these variables affect corporate performance? While there are studies linking a number of these individual constructs to performance, (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991; Peters and Waterman, 1982; Narver and Slater, 1990; Narver, Park and Slater, 1992; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993) less work appears to have been done on investigating the more complex relationships between these constructs. The objectives of this article are to propose the existence or otherwise of relationships between excellence, market orientation, expectations management practices, “being reliable”, and corporate performance, and, to suggest ways in which these can be studied in service firms.

Adult Playfulness with advertising can be described as the way individuals derive enjoyment during their interaction process with advertising. It is an area that has received little attention in the literature. The study adopts an interactionist approach to playfulness that recognises the role of both trait and state theory. It investigates the correlations among the dimensions of adult playfulness and those on the Viewer Response Profile and considers whether the level of adult playfulness impacts on viewer response to different advertisement execution. Findings indicate that advertisement executions are not equally effective at reaching individuals with higher levels of playfulness. Implications for theory and management are discussed, limitations are noted and directions for future research indicated.

Many professionals abhor the thought of marketing their services. Marketing is assumed to be merely advertising and it is widely believed that advertising commercialises and hence demeans professional services (Chan, 1992; Darling and Hackett, 1978). Although restrictions on advertising have been removed or relaxed in a number of countries, many professionals and their associations still regard advertising with suspicion and regulate its use. This is perhaps nowhere more so than with medical professionals. A fundamental rule set by medical professional associations in European and North American countries is that the doctor's job is not a business. More explicitly, the Medical Council in Luxembourg specifies that medicine cannot be exercised ‘as a business’. While it is perfectly acceptable for other professions to declare that profit is the enterprise's driving force, such a statement would go completely against the professional conscience of the medical profession. Medical practitioners are expected to observe a high ethical code. Respect for life should come before any other consideration. However, the medical professional's ability to survive depends as much on marketing as on his specialised technical skills. A different marketing approach from that used conventionally in the business sector may be needed, but the utility of marketing cannot be denied. Like businesspersons, medical practitioners also network with their market by being active within the community. These and other actions all contribute to make the individual a well‐known figure within the area of his practice (Gelb, Smith and Gelb, 1988). Medical practitioners in the various countries frequently belong to national medical professional associations. These often have legal standing, and are empowered to issue regulations and sanction non compliance on many aspects relating to the profession including advertising. This study first aims to position within a North American and European perspective the approach to advertising adopted by the Malta Medical Council. Secondly, it seeks to empirically investigate (1) the attitude of Maltese medical practitioners towards advertising by their profession, and (2) the attitude of the Maltese general public towards advertising by medical practitioners. In America, the general public have been found to have a more positive attitude towards advertising than medical practitioners and professionals in general (Darling and Hackett, 1978; Dyer and Shimp, 1980; Miller and Waller, 1979). Similarly, we expect that in Malta medical practitioners will exhibit a more negative attitude towards advertising than the general public.

The importance of corporate reputation is widely acknowledged in both contemporary and academic business writings. While reputation is a difficult concept to measure, managers frequently assume a positive relationship between business performance and corporate reputation. The literature avers that from a client’s perspective, a healthy reputation may act as a risk suppresser. In this empirical study, the nature of corporate reputation and risk aversion in professional engineering consultancies is examined. Findings support a three‐dimensional reputation construct, but there is no evidence to suggest that a good corporate reputation reduces clients’ perceived risk. Implications are drawn, limitations noted and directions offered for ongoing research.