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The purpose of this study is by drawing on signaling theory to address the need for more investigation into the conceptual underpinnings of sponsorships by investigating and seeking to understand sponsorship objectives, opinions and practices, with a focus on smaller organisations.

This empirical study contributes to the literature through researched findings from German respondents and a critical evaluation of literature relating to the impact of sports sponsorship on SMEs within local German communities.

Drawing on signalling theory and extant studies, the following four categories of SME sport sponsorship activities are proposed: value-based connections, social engagement, recognition and bonding.

Sponsor, sponsee and dyadic antecedents have increased in both sophistication and complexity, resulting in expected positive consumer outcomes as the justification for marketing communication investments.

Sponsorship has evolved from short-term philanthropic activities to long-term strategic alliances involving billions of dollars of annual spending globally.

SME companies have certain local opportunities that larger multinational corporations cannot replicate.

No study to date has provided researchers with a framework to understand sports sponsorship from an SME perspective. This paper contributes to the theories and practice of sport sponsorship, drawing on signalling theory and extant studies.

The concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC) was developed in the 1990s and has gained significant interest from academics and practitioners, yet it is seldom achieved in practice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons behind this assertion.

Knowledge needed for this study was generated from a case study of a global company, operating a decentralized organizational structure in the health-care industry.

Thirty semi-structured interviews were performed with marketing employees and management. This paper contributes to facilitating marketing communications by developing a conceptual model using strategic guiding principles to align marketing communication activities.

Thematic analysis generated three integration areas: efficiency, consistency and relationship.

The information generated from this research paper should assist managers when attempting to implement an integrated approach to marketing communications.

As IMC is intertwined with the concept of strategy, if it is implemented as a strategic process; similar social influences are relevant for strategic IMC implementation.

This paper contributes to facilitating marketing communications by developing a conceptual model using strategic guiding principles to align marketing communication activities.

Despite scholarly effort to understand customers’ recovery evaluation, little progress is evident in deciphering how customers develop online failure/recovery perception. This paper aims to address this issue.

Social constructivism was the epistemic choice for this study. This approach is holistic and offers a comprehensive understanding of each side of the phenomena. This provided social scientific descriptions of people and their cultural bases and built on, and articulated what was implicit in interpretations of their views.

Online banking customer groups were identified as: exigent customers, solutionist customers and impulsive customers. Customers’ position in each group determined failure perception, recovery expectation and evaluation, and post-recovery behaviour. Comparisons were observed and discussed in relation to Albania and Kosovo. It was suggested that banks should expand their presence in social media platforms and offer a means to manage online customer communication and spread of online WOM.

For exigent customers, the failure/recovery responsibility is embedded within the provider. This explains their high sensitivity and criteria to define a failure.

Online banking customers’ request of a satisfactory recovery experience included: customer notifications, customer behaviour, customer determination, and the mediator of request. 10;Providers should examine customer failure/recovery experiences in cooperation with other banks which should lead to a higher order understanding of customer withdrawal and disengagement activities.

Post-recovery behaviour is linked to the decline of online banking usage, switching to new providers, and the spread of negative online and off-line word-of-mouth.

This is the first empirical study on online service failure and recovery strategy to provide information on customers’ unique preferences and expectations in the recovery process. Online customers are organised into a threefold customer typology, and explanation for the providers’ role in the online customer failure-recovery perception construct is presented.

A phenomenon that has revolutionized society is the technological millennial approach to communication. Social media has matured into a prime channel for regular interactions and development of brand–customer relationships that enrich a social identity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how this affects business communications.

The study utilized a social constructivist perspective, adopting an inductive and embedded case study strategy.

Drawing on the social identity theory, this paper examines how evolving social media platforms have impacted on brand perceptions in the fashion apparel and accessories industries. Fashion brands’ online presence provide a platform for customers to supplement social identity based on associations with brands, and ultimately this can shape brand perceptions among customers through promised functional and symbolic benefits.

The paper investigates a specialized marketing activity in the UK. A broader internationally based study would add strength to these findings.

The paper focuses on theoretical and managerial implications and proffers significant roles that social media and identity may play in keeping up with the design and development of marketing communications programs.

Multinational corporations have embraced internet technologies and social media in adopting platforms that their brands can use to contribute content to followers.

In total, 30 potential participants, drawn from diverse backgrounds, were contacted via social networking sites, e-mails and telephone. In total, 22 agreed to participate and their mean age was 26. An open-ended questionnaire allowed for elaboration, providing appropriate responses for a second interviewing phase. Four industry professionals were recruited through the researchers’ personal networks to participate in in-depth interviews that sought to investigate the significance of social media as a marketing tool from an industry perspective.

A number of problems have been highlighted in relation to the roles of marketing and engineering and reported in the Journal of Marketing Management in 1993 (Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 141‐53). This earlier article merely pointed out the problems of this uneasy relationship and hinted at solutions. Much has been researched and reported since then. Attempts to integrate this material over a number of areas including an international dimension, strategic and tactical implications, service and quality improvement issues and product mix decisions. Then goes on to propose solutions based on the researched evidence that is currently forthcoming.

Industry's challenge to the academic world to produce graduates with the right blend of new ideas and practical experience has been taken up by Huddersfield Polytechnic. The course they are pioneering — aimed at producing a marketing strategist who really knows about engineering — is described here by two of the polytechnic's senior lecturers, Geoff Lancaster and Jim Bannister.

Originally undertaken on behalf of a national multiple food retailing chain concerned about a 50 per cent fall off in sales at a new store within six months of its opening, this research includes a comparative study of two other supermarkets in the same town. Interviews were conducted with 321 store customers and 189 people at random locations elsewhere and a standard questionnaire completed to determine the store features important in attracting their patronage, including price, layout, selection and variety of goods, opening hours, parking facilities and convenience of location. It was established that there was nothing radically wrong with the client company′s store and subsequent implementation of recommended “fine tuning” of a number of its features has led to its developing a comparably favourable level of popularity. However, it is concluded that marketing research should be commissioned at the initial planning stage, with particular reference to suitability of location, rather than as a means of sorting out deficiencies which become apparent only after completion and opening.

Explores the degree to which UK based hotel groups had exploited the medium of electronic customer relationship marketing (E‐CRM). Research is incorporated that investigated their use of the Internet to verify whether customer relationship marketing was being implemented within online operations or whether their Internet presence merely revolved around the basic functions of “providing information” and “hotel reservations”. The findings and subsequent discussion showed that on the Internet, hotel groups used their relationship with customers to provide rather than gather information. The majority of the hotel groups had only embraced a few elements of E‐CRM and even indicated that they had no intention of being led online by the concept. Although the findings of the questionnaire indicated that hotel groups were generally aware of the potential of Web technologies and strategies, they also showed that companies were not putting this knowledge into practice when it came to implementing E‐CRM. Primary research concluded that hotel groups based in the UK were failing to take advantage of the many opportunities identified through the secondary research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how customer relationship marketing/customer relationship management (CRM) can be a strategic solution to hotel companies or part of their tactics.

Secondary data from academic and news sources are discussed and analysed, together with empirical data collected previously by the first author during the course of her own doctoral research.

The essence of a customer‐focused environment is a preliminary indication of how the hotel industry can truly benefit from a strategic and focused approach to CRM. Hotel companies have in evidence had recourse to elements of CRM for a variety of strategic and tactical reasons. It is argued that the success of a strategy depends not only on the ability of a company to identify and understand what its target customers genuinely need and want, but also on the company's ability to deliver enhanced value in terms of these specific needs and wants.

Both the strategic options of a company and the achievement of competitive advantage are directly linked to the elements or features that targeted customers genuinely favour. It is suggested that hotel companies must not only identify what their target customers genuinely seek, but that they should also ensure that they themselves understand the dynamics of CRM as a strategy. Unless the fundamentals of CRM are truly understood, it is argued that hotel companies will not be able to optimally integrate CRM in their strategies and benefit from opportunities.

The research has concluded that hotel companies should decide to focus on customer acquisition, customer retention or customer account development: the three strategies associated with CRM.

This article is a corollary to three articles published earlier in Management Decision. More precise definitions of a modern value chain are proposed, in terms of it being a business system that creates end‐user satisfaction and realises the objectives of other member stakeholders. Comparisons are drawn with the current notion of supply chain management and an explanation is given as to how the supply chain fits into the wider perspective put forward in this paper. Ideas are advanced in relation to value chain relationships and options. Models are then suggested relating to a number of well‐known international companies, where the authors have researched, at primary or secondary level.