Search results

The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative conceptualisation of commercial insurance that is based on service thinking and compares it to the ideas flowing from goods thinking that currently appears to be a dominant mindset.

When deliberating on commercial insurance, Muslim jurists and scholars followed a misleading route of logical reasoning that is based on comparing insurance to other approved commercial contracts within Islamic Law. In this paper, the author questions such reasoning by contrasting the framework of service thinking to that of goods thinking.

The alternative framework proposed in this paper repositions commercial insurance as a unique type of service (rather than a good). It shows that commercial insurance can be seen as a bundle of benefits, which unfold in a gradual, intermittent, sporadic manner depending on the circumstances. This mode of a servicing relationship focuses on harm removal rather than the opportunistic actualisation of unfair monetary gain. Insurance premium is conceptualised as an availability fee, while compensation payout is recast as the restoration of value.

Muslim jurists and marketing practitioners can use this framework to further scrutinise the permissibility of different varieties of commercial insurance in the contexts of both Muslim and non-Muslim majority countries. As service thinking radically repositions the essence and structure of commercial insurance, the views on the relevance of “gharar” and “riba” may undergo significant re-conceptualisation. Moreover, the design of takaful options can be improved on this basis.

Service thinking can better elucidate a positive societal role of commercial insurance that is in accord with the societal and Islamic maxim of harm removal. Some objections to commercial insurance relate to public policy failures. Well-regulated commercial insurance industries can substantially contribute to the economic development of impoverished societies.

This paper exemplifies compelling power as well as potential of the discipline of Islamic marketing in contributing to significant debates concerning the permissibility of modern commercial options.

This essay examines a common assertion among middle-class shoppers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, that place of manufacture, rather than brand markers, largely determines the quality of goods. For shoppers in Ho Chi Minh City, unity of place, people, raw materials, and trade secrets at the source – a corporation’s home country – is essential to the production of high quality goods. This stands in contrast to the brand logic through which corporations outsource their production presumably without compromising product quality. By privileging production sites over brands, shoppers in Ho Chi Minh City interpret the recent increase of famous foreign brand name goods in Vietnam as an increase of domestic, rather than foreign goods.

Theories of marketing management and strategy need to evolve and change to keep pace with changes in the marketplace and in marketing practice. As the next century draws closer, it is apparent that some marketing managers are basing their relationships with customers on policies and procedures called either “individualisation”, “mass‐customisation”, or as we prefer, “personalisation”. The core of this practice involves tailoring goods and services to the individual needs and wants of specific consumers, just the opposite of one‐size‐fits‐all. We propose that personalisation is so important to marketing strategy that it should become one of the featured elements of the marketing mix, alongside product, price, promotion, place, personnel, physical assets, and procedures, to form a new marketing mix, the 8Ps.

There has been an increasing drive to improve total quality management of manufactured products internationally in recent years. This has resulted in many improvements in the quality and management of quality in New Zealand firms. Research was carried out in New Zealand to compare the opinions of manufacturing company managers about product quality with general public opinions. Probes perceptions of recent changes in product quality and compares the quality of New Zealand made goods with the quality of those made overseas. Most managers and consumers agreed that the quality of New Zealand made goods is now better than most overseas made goods. Shows a great improvement in the public perception of New Zealand made goods in recent years. Managers are still much stronger than consumers in their belief in local made high quality, which may have resulted in some complacency regarding management of product quality.

The purpose of this research is to understand the importance of value orientation on conspicuous consumption in the youth market segment in Southeast Asia. In particular, the focus is to understand three different types of value orientation (specifically cultural values, material values and religious values) and its effects on conspicuous consumption behaviour.

An integrative theoretical model is proposed based on Hofstede's cultural dimension, the materialism value scale and religious commitments to predict the relationship for the value orientations of Generation Y's (Gen Y's) conspicuous consumption behaviour. The data was collected from undergraduate students enrolled in general education courses in three universities in Malaysia. Using cross-sectional data, 262 sets of valid questionnaires were used to perform the statistical analysis for the measurement and structural model using partial least squares equation modelling (PLS-SEM) path modelling.

We position our study by raising the pertinent question of “Seriously, Conspicuous Consumption?” to establish a clear understanding of whether Malaysian Gen Y individuals are conspicuous consumers and, if they are, which of the three values matter the most. In order to answer the question of whether Malaysian Gen Y engages in conspicuous consumption, we arrive at an understanding that, given multi-value orientations, conspicuous behaviour can be motivated and impacted by one value orientation and constrained by others. Hence, value orientation offers an insightful explanation of one specific type of consumer behaviour in the context of Asia as an emerging global market. Thus, our study provides two key theoretically significant findings. In general, our findings provide insights into how the multi-value orientations (i.e. cultural, material and religious orientations) contribute to several bodies of literature—namely, conspicuous consumption, international marketing and transcultural marketing. The results revealed that collectivism and materialism were positively and significantly related to conspicuous consumption. Uncertainty avoidance, although significant, had a negative relationship with conspicuous consumption. The other values (masculinity, power distance and religious values) were not significantly related to conspicuous consumption.

Purchasing luxury goods is becoming an emergent phenomenon in Asia, particularly among young consumers. This paper provides marketing managers, particularly brand owners, with practical and realisable examples of how to plan and execute their marketing plans. A more profound understanding of this relationship may also serve to aid marketing managers in devising more focused marketing strategies and thus allocate marketing resources more efficiently. Hence, marketers could develop an effective communication strategy so that the target consumers will be aware of their goods because the purchase of luxury goods is likely to be motivated by social, cultural and personal factors.

This article examines the impact of value orientations on conspicuous consumption behaviour in Malaysian Gen Y consumers. The model proposed in this study is useful in predicting conspicuous consumption among Gen Y. By identifying the factors influencing this emergent type of consumer behaviour, global retailers will be informed about this particular market segmentation in terms of its preferences and desires. The article discusses the research findings and concludes with managerial implications and limitations.

This paper aims to propose and empirically document the idea that people’s perceptions of having been treated fairly depend, in part, on whether the explanation provided to them of a product’s pricing is primarily based on the costs of labor (a service) versus materials (goods). Because materials are more fixed and tangible than the effort of labor, it is argued that people will have fewer counterfactual thoughts about how things could have been different with the cost of materials than those associated with labor. This has implications for fairness judgments more generally, as it suggests that people may be uneven in which types of data they attend to when making fairness judgments. Three experiments are presented that empirically test the relationship between the salience of goods versus services in the price paid and the resulting perceptions of fairness. Findings confirm that thoughts of money spent on a service were associated with lesser feelings of fairness than were thoughts of money spent on a good. This research uniquely identifies the mechanism by which some evaluations are considered fairer than others. Implications for organizational processes, such as procedural justice and fair compensation, are discussed.

Three experiments are presented that empirically test the relationship between the salience of goods versus services in the price paid, and the resulting perceptions of fairness.

Findings confirm that thoughts of money spent on a service were associated with lesser feelings of fairness than were thoughts of money spent on a good.

This research uniquely identifies the mechanism by which some evaluations are considered fairer than others. Implications for organizational processes, such as procedural justice and fair compensation, are discussed.

This study aims to emphasize the integration of lean start-up and design thinking approaches and investigate how they may be used together.

The report uses a systematic literature review methodology to analyze and summarize previous research on combining lean start-up and design thinking. Inferences were discovered and analyzed after relevant publications were chosen based on predetermined inclusion criteria.

The research shows that combining lean start-up and design thinking significantly impacts entrepreneurship. Start-ups can efficiently uncover consumer needs, reduce risks and improve their product or service offerings by combining the client-centricity of design thinking with the iterative and data-driven concepts of lean start-up. This integration promotes an innovative culture, gives teams the freedom to try new things and learn from mistakes and raises the possibility of start-up success.

The dependence on pre-existing literature, which might cover only some potential uses and circumstances, is a weakness of this research. It is advised that more empirical research be conducted to determine the precise circumstances in which the integrated strategy performs best. Future studies should also explore the difficulties and drawbacks of using these approaches to offer suggestions for overcoming them and maximizing their advantages.

The findings have significant ramifications for business owners and other professionals working in the start-up environment. The combination of lean start-up and design thinking emphasizes the relevance of early customer interaction and empathy-driven design. To foster creativity and hasten the expansion of start-ups, practitioners are urged to create a comprehensive strategy that integrates the advantages of both techniques. Through this integration, business owners may develop solutions that appeal to their target market, increasing adoption rates and market competitiveness.

This study is interesting in comparing lean start-up and design thinking, emphasizing the overlaps and benefits of their application to entrepreneurship. This study discusses successful start-up methods by offering suggestions for future research and practice. It also provides a basis for further developing and adopting the integrated approach.

Argues that a cognitive bias is found in the language used to describe services, since services are defined in relation to manufacturing. Proposes that services should be accurately described as they are very different from manufactured goods. Considers service from an alternative viewpoint, highlighting this perspective′s implications for marketing thought. Draws attention to practical implications with regard to the marketing mix.

Purpose – To provide a general theory for how the ancient Mesoamerican economy functioned.

Design/methods/approach – First the chapter describes formally the sectors or operations of the economy: production, consumption, labor, specialization, exchange and prices, savings and investment, credit, quasi-money, markets, and dynamics. Then it relates this economy to its Mesoamerican cultural context.

Findings – Much but not all of this economy, with its great volume of transactions, worked according to market principles, without coinage or state-fiat money yet not barter. The theory has testable implications. Periods of growth and decline in preindustrial urban societies could have been due to economic forces.

Research limitations/implications – The presentation is verbal, not mathematical. Precolumbian economic documents hardly exist; advances in this line of research will have to come from archaeology (in part informed by earliest contact-era history).

Social implications – Extending theories of money and markets to include preindustrial urban societies should deepen and enrich economic thinking generally.

Originality/value of chapter – The first nonsubstantivist model of the Mesoamerican economy; insights on specialization and competition when firms are households; how high volumes of exchange work with commodity monies.

Austrians are essentialists, one of their questions being what makes a thing good? Menger and Böhm‐Bawerk gave different answers to this question. Böhm‐Bawerk directed attention explicitly to the condition of knowing how to utilise a thing. Both Menger and Böhm‐Bawerk played down their difference. The goods characteristic added by Böhm‐Bawerk to the four characteristics formulated earlier by Menger is stressed to be of value to a better understanding of modern Austrianism. A paradox that arises (the consumer is sovereign in theory but not in practice) is solved.