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The purpose of this article is to define and explore the strategic value of customer advocacy through the lens of the brand management literature.

The paper reviews recent analysis of the value and vulnerabilities of brands and branding in order to understand why customer advocacy is becoming an attractive strategic option for many firms. A model of empowered consumer value drivers is constructed to demonstrate how they are becoming an important source of brand value. A framework for brand management in a customer advocacy context is introduced and examples of companies pursuing advocacy‐based strategies and practices are illustrated.

Through careful brand management, customer advocacy is capable of unlocking new consumer value.

The paper offers a discussion of the opportunities presented to brand management when developing customer advocacy.

This chapter explores the importance of early autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment and diagnosis to facilitate early treatment. This chapter will have a particular focus on ASD assessment and diagnosis within a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) context. We propose using a Cultural Competence framework to process, analyze, assessment, and diagnosis results/findings. BME assessments/diagnoses can be delayed by up to 18 months longer when compared to Whites.

ASD Assessment aims to assess certain developmental traits in individuals to identify ASD which is a developmental disability. Autism is a spectrum condition which can manifest differently in each diagnosed individual. There are core features necessary for an ASD diagnosis to be made. These include among other traits: poor eye contact, abnormality in body language: for example, gestures, difficulties with social communication and social interaction, often they exhibit repetitive patterns of behavior, have obsessional interests, rigid thinking patterns, and have an aversion to certain sounds and textures and an unusual interest in sensory satisfaction.

As organizations increasingly engage with consumers over mobile devices, there is a growing need to understand how consumers react to impression management over platforms with limited textual content. The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess how different impression management tactics can be used in mobile media to enhance consumer perception-attitude-intentions toward a corporate brand.

We surveyed 670 consumers and estimate structural equation models and repeated-measures ANOVAs to determine how short passages employing alternate impression management tactics influence consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions.

Results reveal that each impressions management tactic (i.e. ingratiation, intimidation, organizational promotion, supplication and exemplification) influences consumer perceptions, attitudes and intentions. The authors compare differences in how the impressions management tactics influence each stage of the perception-attitude-intentions model and find evidence that initial differences in perceptions favoring ingratiation and exemplification appeals become magnified for purchase intentions.

Recent calls for research focus on an understanding of how consumers process information on reduced-content platforms of small-screened mobile devices. These results provide empirical evidence of the use of impression management and the difference between five impression management tactics on enhancing consumer perception-attitude-intentions model.

The results of this study will provide marketers with insights to optimize communications and corporate brands with consumers over mobile media.

This paper adds to the nascent yet vital literature on mobile marketing by focusing on how impression management tactics influence perceptions, attitudes and intentions through the short message characteristic of mobile platforms. The authors develop a framework for how corporate brand management can strategically use impressions management tactics in this novel domain.

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate branding and market driving. This is achieved by focusing on key dimensions of brand identity such as brand values and staff behaviours, while acknowledging the role of vision and organisational culture. The links between these brand constituents and the actual activities of the firm in a market are explored through interactions with stakeholders.

This research is based on an in‐depth case study of IKEA at a corporate level and its local market activities in Russia. The single‐case approach is used to generate insights into how corporate branding is related to market driving practices and to identify the mechanisms of market driving in the Russian market.

The corporate brand provides a further source of the “leap” in customer value recognised as a requirement for a market driving approach. Through a case study of IKEA in Russia it is shown that the core values of the brand guide both the behaviour and activities of internal stakeholders and the relationships with external stakeholders, and the interactions between the corporate “global” brand values and local market level activities are explored.

The paper provides insights on the role of a corporate brand as a driving force of market driving from a broad stakeholder perspective.

Current relationship marketing literature has stressed the importance of building customer‐employee bonds. These efforts sometimes result in customer‐employee relationships that overwhelm or supersede the customer‐firm relationships. Previous studies report that such an imbalance weakens the firm's position with the customer. Very little research has investigated what factors contribute to the imbalance and its consequences for the firm's relationship with the customer. This research aims to look at customer relationship quality (RQ) imbalance, specifically the imbalance that favors the employee, and identifies six factors as important antecedents. Also studied are the customers' cognitive and emotional reactions to the termination of the customer‐employee relationship when RQ imbalance favors the employee.

In total, 780 customer‐employee pairs from 72 service firms were surveyed using a structured questionnaire.

Analyses of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant group difference along all six antecedents and three consequences.

The findings of this study suggest that imbalanced customer relationships might be prevented, or at least predicted, if the causes of such relationship structure are better understood.

Service organizations should be aware of the negative consequences of imbalanced customer relationships and take necessary caution in their company policies in order to eliminate the negative consequences of imbalanced customer relationships.

This study is the first quantitative inquiry into imbalanced customer relationship issues, which are extremely important in the services industry. Thus, it enhances the literature on services management.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategic role of purchasing and model its transformation process based on a case study of a military firm.

The paper reviews the existing literature to highlight the strategic role of purchasing and put forward the transformations the function is undertaking. The model system dynamic approach is then detailed and applied to model the transformation of the purchasing function of a military firm. The modeling software Analytica is then used to run the model and get to results.

The shift of purchasing toward a more strategic function is complex and multidimensional. Implementing these transformations requires flexible designing approaches such as the system dynamic modeling that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative variables to model the function’s changes. The paper details the methodology of applying the system dynamic approach. It recommends a new structure of the purchasing function as well as new and upgraded indicators of purchasing performance and suppliers’ management.

A single-case study research. Even though, the objective is not to generalize the findings but to enrich the existing literature as regard the system dynamic modeling in a specific domain, the one-case research setting can be seen as a limitation against generalizeable findings.

A clear step-by-step action plan of conducting the transformation of the purchasing function using the system dynamic modeling approach. The paper gives ways to upgrade existing measures of purchasing and policies of suppliers’ management.

The application of the system dynamic modeling approach to the specific domain of military purchasing.