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The service marketing literature has traditionally argued that the marketing practices of service firms that operate in diverse cultures should also differ. This paper aims to investigate this argument by examining the marketing practices of service firms in two highly diverse countries “Canada and Qatar” in the context of a contemporary conceptual framework.

Survey data were collected in both countries using a self-administered questionnaire that was used in previous contemporary marketing practice (CMP) studies. The data analysis was conducted in two stages. First, descriptive statistics were used to determine cross-national differences in the intensity of use of various CMP activities in Qatar compared to Canada. Second, cross-national differences in various combinations of marketing practices were identified using a cluster analysis.

The results indicate that service firms in both countries have more similarities than differences and that the overall patterns of marketing practices are similar. In addition, the firms’ marketing practices reflect aspects of all four marketing approaches rather than just one.

The study was conducted in only two countries, thus generalisability of its findings and conclusions may not be possible.

The results of this study can help marketers to better understand the changing marketing environment and identify new marketing solutions when operating in different environments.

This study enhances the literature on service marketing and expands the application of the CMP framework to a new context that has not been addressed in previous studies.

The role of managerial assumptions in the formulation of organizational strategies has been well recognized by previous studies, yet in marketing literature, the effect of such imperative on marketing practice choice tends to be ignored. Therefore, this paper aims to empirically investigate how management assumptions fit with the choice of marketing practices, and how such fit affects performance.

A model is developed and tested using survey methodology, and the data are analyzed using the partial least square (PLS) approach.

The results show that different marketing practices were coupled with different frames of reference, resulting in viable matching profiles.

Given the novelty of the approach adopted in this study, conclusions about association and not causation are drawn. In addition, the study is restricted to Qatar which may reduce the generalizability of its findings and conclusions.

The findings will help managers to examine carefully the internal logic of their marketing-related profiling, where coherent variables will enhance performance.

To one’s knowledge, this paper reports a work in an area not previously researched. In addition, this study is one of the rare papers that examines unobserved heterogeneity using the PLS-structural equation modeling (SEM) in the field of marketing.

This paper aims to investigate the interplay between managerial assumptions and institutional corporate social responsibility, and determines how such fit affects performance.

The authors developed and tested a model using survey methodology. The authors’ data from 210 hotels located in Qatar and the UAE were analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach.

The results reveal that firms with entrepreneurial, political and professional frame of reference (FoR) engage in institutional corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. In addition, the entrepreneurial and professional FoR enhances the institutional CSR – organisational performance link.

The findings will help managers to determine the effect of their FoR on their adoption of institutional CSR, thereby increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of their CSR strategy. As the study is exploratory in nature, several limitations have been highlighted and discussed.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few papers that inspect the relationship between managerial assumptions and institutional CSR and establishes their effect on performance.

本论文旨在研究管理假设和企业社会责任的关系并且决定其如何影响企业绩效。

本论文采用问卷采样形式, 位于卡塔尔和阿联酋地区的210家酒店为问卷样本。本论文采用偏最小二乘回归（PLS）来分析数据。

如果企业拥有创业者精神、政治、及专业的参考架构（FoR）, 那么往往会参与到体制性企业社会责任（CSR）的实践。此外, 创业者精神的和专业的FoR促进体制性CSR-组织绩效的关系。

本论文结果帮助经理人判定FoR对于CSR实践的影响, 因而提高了CSR政策的效果和效率。由于本研究是探索性论文, 一些所带来的限制已经在文中提到并强调。

据作者所知, 本论文是仅有的几篇论文中, 研究管理假设和体制性CSR的关系并且确立其对于企业绩效的作用。

管理假设，参考架构，体制性CSR，新兴市场，企业绩效，偏最小二乘回归

研究论文

Since Islamic markets are growing substantially, there is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of how Muslim consumers perceive products from a religious perspective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the brain responses of Muslim consumers to Halal and non-Halal products using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology.

The research model is a simplified version of the theory of planned behavior. The initial experiment began by asking participants to divide a set of images into two groups: Halal and non-Halal products. The fMRI experiment uses a blocked design approach to capture brain activities resulting from presenting the two groups of images to participants, and to record the strength of their attitudes toward purchasing the products.

Across all participants, the level of brain activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex increased significantly when Halal images were presented to them. The same results emerged when the Halal images showed raw and cooked meat. The variations in the results may be due to the high emotional sensitivity of Muslim consumers to using religious products.

This study uses a unique approach to monitor brain activity to confirm that consumers from specific market segments respond differently to market products based on their internal beliefs. Findings from this study provide evidence that marketing managers targeting Muslim markets should consider the sensitivity of presenting products in ways that reflect religious principles, in order to gain higher acceptance in this market segment.

Although the literature reports considerable research on Muslim consumers’ behavior, most of the previous studies utilize conventional data collection approaches to target broad segments of consumers by using traditional products. This paper is the first to track the reactions of the Muslim consumer segment to specific types of market products.