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The study investigates the impact of product‐related factors on perceived product safety. The factors examined include price, brand name, country of origin, store name, source credibility, product testing, promotion channels, discount offered and packaging. Results indicate that the perceived product safety is significantly affected by all of the mentioned factors. Implications are discussed and recommendations are offered to practitioners for attracting the large and growing market of safety‐conscious consumers.

This study aims to highlight important marketing strategies within the context of a highly competitive emerging market with few points of difference because of service homogeneity. Drawing upon the social identity and self-expansion theories, this research explores the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and discounts and packages offers (DPO) as determinants of purchase intentions. The understudied mediating role of brand love is investigated in the CSR–purchase intentions and DPO–purchase intentions relationships, with relationship age as a moderating variable for the two relationships.

Data from 359 valid responses from customers of cellular service firms in Pakistan were analyzed using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling.

The findings show that brand love partially (albeit a weaker relationship) mediates the CSR–purchase intentions relationship. Brand love also partially (albeit a stronger relationship) mediates the DPO–purchase intentions relationship. The moderating role of relationship age is not established.

Cellular firms in emerging markets experience high volatility. Therefore, understanding of the volatile behavior alongside devising strategies is of the utmost importance. This research shows that customers continue their business with the firms they love. Interestingly, the non-significance of relationship age as a moderator for both CSR–purchase intentions and DPO–purchase intentions indicates that garnering customers' purchase intentions with respect to relationship age will be very difficult for cellular firms under fierce competition. CSR and DPO should be strategically used to increase brand love to boost purchase intentions.

This study makes two important contributions to the literature of emerging markets. The first contribution of this research is the proposal and validation of brand love as a mediating variable in CSR–purchase intentions and DPO–purchase intentions relationships. Evaluation of the moderating role of relationship age in CSR–purchase intentions and DPO–purchase intentions relationships is the second contribution.

Entrepreneurship.

This case is suitable for graduate-level programmes in business management, as well as for executive education programmes.

Mabel Simpson, the sole proprietor of the award-winning mSimps fashion accessories house in Ghana, must choose from among three options for scaling up her business: an offer from a private investor for GHS 100,000 in exchange for 51 per cent stake in mSimps; or 30 per cent stake for half the amount; an offer from a fashion industry expert for GHS 10,000 in exchange for 30 per cent ownership; or a restructuring of her business model and value chain to enable her release cash to grow her business organically.

Students should be able to: understand the interplay of choice and trade-offs in business management and apply theory-driven frameworks in making optimal choices and analytically assess instances of tension between the art (e.g. passion, emotional stakes, psychological and other influences on business management philosophies) and science (e.g. the need for business skills, use of effective models and the quest for production efficiency) of business management.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Tourist destinations are constantly changing products, evolving as per the controls exerted by the stakeholders. The study aims to map the pattern of tourism development and identify the strategies formed at the destination over a seven-decade period for a state as a unit of analysis.

The paper evaluates tourism development through the tourism area life cycle (TALC) model and uses Mintzberg's strategy analysis process to identify strategies. The study involves time series analysis, pattern matching and explanation-building techniques. The TALC is plotted for the number of tourist arrivals from 1947 to 2019, and strategies are mapped for each stage.

The TALC shows a cycle-recycle pattern of tourism development. The research revealed several strategies at different stages. Both the central and state governments and entrepreneurs, distinctively and in conjunction, have formed strategies. The pattern shows the period of piecemeal and global strategic changes contributing to tourism development.

The research unearths the strategies that drive the development curves of TALC, emphasising the integration of TALC with other theories. The research also assesses the strategy formed in the pre-tourism stage.

The research brings to light the use of TALC as a strategic road-mapping tool. In addition, the study emphasises the significance of global and piecemeal strategic periods and stakeholder's regulatory and operational roles.

The research uses a unique methodology that maps the strategies, periods of strategic changes and incremental strategies for each stage of TALC, along with identifying the stakeholders.

The hospitality industry experienced an unanticipated challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research in this area is scarce. Accordingly, this study aims to unfold a three-angled research agenda to intensify the knowledge advancement in the hospitality sector. It proposes a theoretical framework by extending the protection motivation theory (PMT) to explain the guest’s intent to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as a protective measure in reaction to COVID-19.

The research is centered on outlining the pertinent literature on hospitality management practices and the guest’s transformed behavior during the current crisis. This study intends to identify a research agenda based on investigating hospitality service trends in today’s changing times.

The study sets out a research agenda that includes three dimensions as follows: AI and robotics, cleanliness and sanitation and health care and wellness. This study’s findings suggest that AI and robotics may bring out definite research directions at the connection of health crisis and hospitality management, taking into account the COVID-19 crisis.

The suggested research areas are anticipated to propel the knowledge base and help the hospitality industry retrieve the COVID-19 crisis through digital transformation. AI and robotics are at the cusp of invaluable advancement that can revive the hotels while re-establish guests’ confidence in safe hotel practices. The proposed research areas are likely to impart pragmatic lessons to the hospitality industry to fight against disruptive situations.

This study stands out to be pioneer research that incorporated AI and robotics to expand the PMT and highlights how behavioral choices during emergencies can bring technological revolution.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the mediating effect of service quality (SQ) in the relationship between relational capital (RC) and organizational performance (OP) within the Egyptian mobile telecommunication setting.

A valid research instrument was utilized to conduct a survey of 384 top- middle- and supervisory- level managers from three Egyptian mobile telecommunications companies. The hypothesized direct relationships were tested through multiple linear regression, and the mediating effect was tested using a structural equation modeling technique.

The results revealed that the firm's “customer and supplier relations” and “marketing capability” positively affect both OP and SQ, “customer knowledge” positively affects SQ only, while “strategic alliances, licensing and agreements” do not have an association with SQ or OP. Moreover, SQ was found fully mediating the effect of RC on OP.

This is an empirical research applied in the Egyptian telecommunication setting. Its results need further investigation in other settings and countries. Also, traditional limitations of a cross-sectional study apply with respect to the attribution of causality and the time lag effects.

The optimal procedure for the Egyptian telecommunications companies is to focus their efforts on leveraging all four components of RC in order to improve SQ and consequently enhance their OP. The telecommunications companies must do all they can to connect the unconnected. As the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis has shown, connectivity is a public good.

This is the first research that merges the concepts of RC, SQ and OP in an integrated model, and tests this model empirically in the Egyptian mobile telecommunications setting.

Using dynamic capabilities (DCs) theory, the authors assess whether micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) can leverage DCs to improve operational capabilities (OCs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors also identify whether organizational learning (OL) affects the relationship between DCs and OCs.

The authors test these propositions on a sample of 419 MSMEs from Australia and New Zealand.

DCs have no direct effect on OCs, technological or marketing capabilities (TCs or MCs). OL moderates the effect of DCs on both TCs and MCs.

The study assesses only MCs and TCs as OCs and does not explicitly measure pandemic impacts on organizations. However, the results illustrate the importance of OL during crises for recovery purposes.

Managers can use the findings to improve structure, processes and knowledge management emanating from MCs and TCs within organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors use a multi-dimensional measure of OL and show that during the pandemic, OL is a critical factor that allows organizations to transform the benefits conferred by DCs into MCs and TCs.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

Cross-selling becomes critical for business success as pent-up travel demand drives travelers to spend more on vacations. The primary purpose of this research is to identify if an unexpected discount leads to consumers' additional purchases online. This research proposes effective cross-selling strategies across hospitality sectors.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate factors that influence travelers' add-on spending. Study 1 determined the psychological mechanism of unexpected discounts on hotel customers' additional spending by individual thinking styles. A 2 (discount: none vs surprise) x 2 (thinking style: holistic vs analytic) quasi-experimental design was utilized. Study 2 applied the identified pricing strategy by individual thinking styles to cruise line add-on selling. A 2 (discount: none vs surprise) x 2 (product type: hedonic vs utilitarian) x 2 thinking style (holistic vs analytic) quasi-experiment was used.

The findings indicate that an unexpected discount increases holistic thinkers' overall travel spending, regardless of add-on types. Although the unexpected discount effect on analytic thinkers' overall spending was significant, an unexpected discount enhanced their intentions to purchase a hedonic add-on.

Hospitality operators can improve cross-selling strategies with a surprise discount offer. Offering add-on items in the same transaction with a cabin booking will increase add-on purchases. Hotels can make add-on purchases more appealing by emphasizing the experiential aspects of a hotel stay.

This research broadens knowledge of cross-selling by linking add-on purchases to discount pricing on a primary product. The findings provide new strategies to stimulate add-on purchases and maximize profitability.