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Marketing boards are an integral part of the farm economy in Canada. Their purposes have been debated for decades but seldom from a marketing perspective. Such an approach makes for an interesting way to study them. The purpose of this paper is to assess the pros and cons of marketing boards, suggesting how they can be made more responsive to market forces.

The paper positions the need for Canada to bring agricultural market reforms. The wave toward freer access to world markets makes the study of supply management that more interesting and relevant in the twenty‐first century. A brief history of marketing boards is presented, followed by a discussion of their economic, social and constitutional impacts on Canadian society. Dairy supply management issues are discussed because they serve as the basis for comparative analysis, given that dairy trade liberation has been the most successful. The impact of marketing boards on consumers is well documented.

The research points out that marketing boards lack managerial savvy to make them more efficient and responsive to market changes. Logistical and supply chain management approaches seem to be lacking. A failure to respond to markets has resulted in lost market opportunities, both domestically and abroad. The quota values, the legal and constitutional powers of Canadian marketing boards and the interprovincial trade barriers, among other issues, have stifled entrepreneurship and innovation, all with rising prices to consumers. Trade liberation will not be easy to implement even if it is urgently needed.

Some of the suggested market reforms presented in the paper are bound to have repercussions not only on farmers and their current ways of doing business but on Canadian society as well.

Few studies on marketing boards have been done from a marketing perspective rather than an agricultural economic one. It is the most current review of Canadian marketing boards. Marketing studies are needed to know more about how such boards are managed and function. They need to be more accountable. The recommended managerial studies on boards make the paper unique. While trade liberation is highly recommended for milk and dairy boards to meet world pressure, the paper does not call for their elimination.

Billions of people around the world live in subsistence conditions. While this has traditionally been treated as a humanitarian challenge, it also represents a business opportunity. Academic research has yet to explore this notion adequately, particularly from the perspective of marketing. In this chapter, we draw on social capital theory to show how rich social ties in otherwise poor populations constitute assets that can be leveraged for the benefit of firms and consumers alike. Building on these ideas, we contend that a decentralized and externalized marketing structure should be more effective in subsistence contexts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Focuses on product advantage, a major contributing factor to new product performance, by examining the launch strategies associated with high and low levels of product advantage. Views a launch strategy as integrating protocol decisions, which have steered the course of a product’s development with the tactical marketing mix decisions. Data confirm all associations between key elements of new product protocol and product advantage. Growth‐related objectives guide the development of new products with high advantage, while the speedy development and early timing of the projects, the focus on growth markets, and the use of a niche targeting strategy are the hallmarks of products with high advantage. Contends that companies offering the world a better mousetrap do not believe the myth that a path to its door will be beaten; the better mousetrap requires and receives a different launch treatment from more pedestrian competitors.

The creation of sustainable value has become a key driver of competitive advantage for many companies. The field of organization development and change can assist these companies because it provides the theories, research, models, and tools they need to embed sustainability into their core business practices. In this chapter, we provide a brief history of sustainable value, demonstrate how and why it is an important source of competitive advantage, and describe five core capabilities companies need to embed sustainability throughout their organizations. We use case examples to illustrate these ideas and conclude with implications for research and practice.

Strategic contingency theory maintains that a successful strategy should fit the features of the environment in which it is implemented, suggesting that different strategies are required in different world markets. In contrast, Porter posited three generic strategies, and asserted that to be effective firms should consistently use only one of the three. This paper aims to address this apparent disagreement by discussing the transfer, by developed‐country multinational companies (MNCs), of a cost‐leadership strategy to emerging markets.

Presenting theoretical arguments, based on deductive reasoning and examples reported in business publications, the authors focus on why firms from developed countries may find a cost‐leadership strategy ineffective in emerging markets. This focus on both emerging markets as a group and on the ease of the transfer of the cost‐leadership strategy fills a gap in the international management literature.

It is argued that implementation of a cost‐leadership strategy by developed‐country MNCs is rarely effective in emerging markets, and that MNCs may benefit from using different strategies in different markets.

The paper provides at least a partial explanation as to why developed‐country firms may struggle when they apply a generic competitive strategy across countries. The contribution of this paper is two‐fold. First, it explores the question of emerging market strategies by focusing on developed‐country MNCs that use a cost‐leadership strategy in these markets. Second, the paper contributes an important critique of the claims made by some business strategy theorists that MNCs need to use a single generic strategy globally in order to achieve high performance.

This paper aims to study how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can best integrate legitimacy concerns into their new product-launching strategy to successfully introduce high-value hi-tech innovations in emerging countries.

Theoretical constructs on the role and process of legitimacy construction for the introduction of a new product are built upon the existing literature. Then they are validated and refined through the formulation and analysis of case studies of the launch of genetically modified cotton seeds by Monsanto in India and a HIV/AIDS drug cocktail by Merck in Brazil.

Legitimacy construction can serve MNEs to face challenges successfully while launching high-value hi-tech products in emerging countries. Challenges to MNEs are likely to be founded on a combination of four types of uncertainties: technological, commercial, organizational and societal. Expected challengers are public agencies and actors representing civil society. An MNE can prepare itself through legitimacy construction along three dimensions: redesign of technology, revision of marketing strategy and non-market investments. To implement the aforesaid, MNEs can engage in outreach in the form of strategic patience, market transaction, business collaboration, compromise and/or confrontation with diverse carefully chosen stakeholders.

The authors limited ourselves to tracing only the formal interactions of MNEs, while it is well-known that many informal and backdoor activities can also accompany their growth in emerging economies.

Legitimacy construction can help MNEs face challenges successfully while launching high-value hi-tech products in emerging countries. This calls for an evaluation of the systemic uncertainties followed by the formulation of a strategy for legitimacy construction and implementation through outreach to diverse systemic actors. Strategic patience can yield positive returns. Market transactions can serve as economic anchors. Collaboration can be pursued with parties who can share the costs of legitimization construction and/or reduce technological and marketing uncertainties. Confrontation should be the last choice. Compromise is the most probable but not the only outreach strategy possible after a confrontation.

Legitimacy implies product acceptance not only from the targeted consumer but also other societal stakeholders concerned with the safety and equity of the consumption in the emerging country, especially when regulations are not well-defined and/or implemented. The two kinds of societal stakeholders which are likely to monitor MNEs are public agencies and civil society groups. Public agencies will be concerned about the quantity, quality, technology or price of the innovation to be introduced. Civil society and NGOs may help the MNE act as citizen watchdogs for the environment and vulnerable communities.

Theoretical constructs have been developed in this paper on the sources of challenges in new product introduction, the types of challengers and the components of the firm’s legitimacy construction strategy and its implementation through an outreach strategy.

The paper has twin aims, one practical and one theoretical. From a practical point of view, the aim is to begin to identify appropriate marketing strategies and tactics for complementary and alternative therapists. From a theoretical point of view, the aim is to shape a research agenda for the exploration of marketing frameworks – such as service quality, consumer behaviour and relationship marketing – in the new and rather unusual context of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

The paper reviews the literature on CAM from a UK and a US perspective and provides the findings from a small online survey of users of CAM.

Initial research suggests that factors ancillary to the main therapeutic purpose of the medical treatment, particularly the level of personal care felt by the client, can have a substantial effect on client satisfaction. It is suggested that this is a sector in which marketing through relationships, networks and alliances is practised extensively and implicitly, and, therefore, that it would be a fruitful context in which to research and to apply relationship marketing principles.

The paper develops a research agenda for further inquiry into the emerging area of business and marketing in CAM.

The paper investigates the relationships among learning orientation (LO), market orientation (MO), human resource practices (HRPs) and innovation and their association with organisational performance. The aim is to show that HRPs and innovation are important mechanisms for transmitting the benefit of LO and MO into performance outcomes.

Building on extensive literature, a model of the relationships is developed and empirically tested using survey data collected from 220 businesses. Data are analysed through structural equation modelling and/or path modelling. The primary aim is to assess direct, indirect and total effects of LO and MO on performance outcomes through HRPs and innovation (conceptualised as administrative, process and product innovation) as mediators. The study carefully traces the effects of each variable to distinguish between indirect effects and mediated effects.

HRPs are a major mechanism for transmitting the benefits of LO and MO. In some models this is even more important than innovation. The results also suggest that LO should be viewed as exploration while MO is the interface between exploration and exploitation and, finally, HRPs and innovation must be viewed as exploitation or implementation issues.

The study suggests that marketers should include HRPs in models of LO, MO, and innovation to enhance the explanations of these to organisational performance. This study suggests HRPs and innovation are important mediators.

The paper suggests that marketers need to consider the impact of HRPs on achievement of marketing goals and organisational performance.

An important task following international acquisitions is to coordinate customer relationships; that is, to organise customer interfaces and possibly establish new relationships between customers and the acquirer/the acquired party. Yet, such coordination may prove to be problematic, not the least since customers react to acquisitions. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss customer relationship coordination challenges following international acquisitions. Focus is placed on business-to-business customers in the country of the acquired party.

The paper is based on three case studies representing overlapping customers, customers of an acquired party new to the acquirer, and customers new to the acquired party. Non-standardised, face-to-face interviews were the main data source, and were complemented with secondary data such as newspaper items and annual reports.

Three main challenges are identified: internal competition and cannibalisation; customers not being interested in the new party; and the acquired party demonstrating its independence through customers.

Managerially, any coordination of customer relationships needs to be weighted towards risks for customer losses. It is important to maintain ties to customers – sales and maintenance staff, the product/service, etc. – if customers are to continue with the firm. It is also important that sales and maintenance staff see the benefits of the acquisition.

While international acquisitions are a frequent means to reach new markets and customers, the problems of coordinating customer relationships following them have not been previously researched. Theoretically, the paper contributes to research through categorising and contextually explaining customer relationship coordination challenges in international acquisitions.

Although several types of innovation are identified in the extant literature, researchers have not resolved conflicting theoretical predictions about the implication of adopting innovation types. Following the conceptualization of Damanpour et al., this paper aims to distinguish between three innovation types (i.e. services, technological process, and administrative process) and make suggestions for banks on whether to focus their innovation efforts on a specific type or composition of different types in order to optimize the returns to innovation.

Based on an empirical case study of a large multinational bank in Ghana (name withheld for anonymity), data were collected with questionnaire instruments from 51 bank managers. Two regression equations were estimated and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

The paper finds evidence that focus on adopting a specific innovation type seems to contribute more to performance than adopting bundles of different types of innovation. As the bank focuses on adopting only administrative process innovation it enjoys higher growth in market share than when it adopts services innovation and technological process innovation in conjunction with administrative process innovation.

It seems that even when resources are in abundance, and complementary changes or innovations are found to be necessary, there is less need to introduce different types of innovation with a more balanced rate simultaneously.

The study proposes to resolve conflicting theoretical predictions and ongoing policy disputes about the effects on business performance (i.e. market share) of the adoption of a specific innovation type versus composition of different innovation types.