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21 – 30 of 49Joaquín Aldas‐Manzano, Inés Küster and Natalia Vila
Market orientation analyses have focused on two broad‐ranging approaches: the behavioural and the philosophical. The concepts of innovation and market orientation are gaining…
Abstract
Purpose
Market orientation analyses have focused on two broad‐ranging approaches: the behavioural and the philosophical. The concepts of innovation and market orientation are gaining ground steadily in the context of an increasingly competitive and highly volatile environment, subject to the pressures of rapid‐changing customer needs and desires. This premise underlies the general aim of this study, which is to determine to what extent companies operating in the same sector and with similar market orientation are similarly concerned about innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The population for this study comprises the leading 465 textile companies operating in Spain, listed in the ARDAN database. Data were gathered from in‐depth personalised interviews with 17 company directors operating within the textile sector. In order to verify the hypotheses, groups with similar market orientation were identified using a combination of two techniques: multidimensional scaling analysis; and cluster analysis. After this, ANOVA was used to characterise each group.
Findings
This study of the textile sector, and more specifically of its leading companies, enables one to conclude that market orientation and innovation are not isolated fields. First, four groups of firms which differ significantly in their commitment to market orientation have been found. Second, although a direct relationship between market orientation and innovation could not be statistically proved, some tools and policies considered in the innovation scale are more heavily used by the firms more orientated to the market. Third, in the context of the traditional debate in the literature about the market orientation‐performance relationship, the results of this study support a positive relationship between these two concepts.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of the sample size should lead one to treat the final results with caution.
Originality/value
The concepts of innovation and market orientation are gaining ground steadily in the context of an increasingly competitive and highly volatile environment, subject to the pressures of rapidly‐changing customer needs and desires. In this sense, through this paper companies can observe how these two concepts are related in a particular industry and obtain some interesting implications.
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To compare marketing education methods in Europe and North America, and analyse the opinions about effectiveness underpinning educators' choices among available options.
Abstract
Purpose
To compare marketing education methods in Europe and North America, and analyse the opinions about effectiveness underpinning educators' choices among available options.
Design/methodology/approach
E‐mail questionnaires distributed to a sampling frame extracted from the worldwide directory of the Academy of Marketing Science were completed by 93 marketing academics in North America and 42 in Europe: a 26 per cent overall return rate. Data were analysed by χ2, ANOVA and correspondence analysis.
Findings
Three teaching‐and‐learning methods are most common in both environments: practical exercises, case studies and lectures. Europeans tend to rely on lectures and other traditional methods, while Americans make more use of technology‐based alternatives. The approach to the subject in Europe favours practical exercises, for their connection to the real world. Practice in North America reflects a cultural predisposition to personalised teaching, by emphasising face‐to‐face small‐group tutorials and one‐to‐one distance learning interaction. Teaching methods popular in the business world are little used across the sample, a somewhat paradoxical finding in a business‐school environment.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is comparatively small, and the European sub‐sample is not further broken down into cultural sub‐groups. Because the research instrument was adapted from one previous Spanish‐language survey, terminology may have influenced the responses.
Practical implications
The findings could be a useful input to planning of teaching and learning strategies, particularly in the international and distance‐learning contexts.
Originality/value
A rare comparative study of marketing education, suggesting fruitful directions for future research.
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Natalia Vila-López and Inés Küster-Boluda
– The purpose of this paper is to give some recommendations about how to design a low fat food aliment packaging.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give some recommendations about how to design a low fat food aliment packaging.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of previous studies that have analysed food packaging decisions considering personal and product influences was done.
Findings
For low fat foods, a good or a poor performance is not sufficient; you have to perform better than those competitors whose competitive capacity is strong enough to influence strategic decision taking. Low fat products must be focused to a particular target. A product of these characteristics cannot be launched for all the markets at the same time, and under the same conditions. Some personal factors do really affect food buying process: socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, income and education), involvement, time pressure or motivation. A possible recommended target for law fat aliments could be: an old/medium age women, with a medium/high economic position, educated, involved in food buying and worried about health. Some packaging factors also affect food buying process: colours, graphics, size, shape, typography. In this regard, a package for a low fat aliment could be designed including a picture on the label showing the benefits of the product (i.e. a healthy heart), with green colors, medium/small sizes and natural shapes, without sophistications. An umbrella brand for different firms acting in this market could be created, to facilitate their healthy products identification.
Originality/value
Personal variables and product characteristics are mixed together to give some recommendations of how an ideal low fat food package should be designed.
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Marcelo Royo‐Vela, Joaquin Aldás‐Manzano, Ińes Küster‐Boluda and Natalia Vila‐Lopez
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the male and female stereotypes in Spanish magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century in order to determine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the male and female stereotypes in Spanish magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century in order to determine if they reflect or not the important cultural changes of Spanish society in these years.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of 1,033 different advertisements randomly selected. To ensure reliability two independent codifiers of opposite gender worked together, one as an analyst and other as a judge. Three agreement indices were calculated.
Findings
Use of male and female portrayals has undergone relevant changes in the last 30 years in accordance with the social evolution of Spain. For both men and women stereotypes persist but there has been a move from the portrayal of the character in situations considered socially traditional to less traditional scenarios. At the end of the period analysed, Spanish magazines show low and decreasing levels of sexism.
Research limitations/implications
Only one advertising medium and one country have been analysed.
Originality/value
This is the first study developed in Spain in gender role stereotyping and sexism, and has been analysed through a longitudinal research.
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Enrique Bigné, Inés Küster and Francisco Torán
This paper supports the need for a market‐oriented industrial salesforce. So, in the first part, a definition of industrial salesforce market orientation is proposed…
Abstract
This paper supports the need for a market‐oriented industrial salesforce. So, in the first part, a definition of industrial salesforce market orientation is proposed, distinguishing between a philosophical approach and a behavioural approach. In the second part, an empirical research is carried out to propose and analyse diverse instruments to measure market orientation in an industrial salesforce context. Unidimensionality, reliability and validity are studied. The aim is to offer some guidelines to sales managers in order to implement market orientation at salesforce level.
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Natalia Vila and Ines Kuster Boluda
Marketing has attracted increased interested over the past 15 years in both academic and commercial circles and there has been a market rise in the number of students. At the…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketing has attracted increased interested over the past 15 years in both academic and commercial circles and there has been a market rise in the number of students. At the university level, the characteristics of the teacher play an essential role in student/teacher interaction and influence academic results and future professional success. This influence is revealed in three main areas: the choice of subjects, teaching media and teaching methods. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most commonly found marketing teacher profile and the differences among marketing teachers with respect to the marketing subjects that they impart and the media and methods that they use.
Design/methodology/approach
International research was carried out among 135 marketing teachers from universities in Europe and the USA. The AMS directory was used. Respondents were representative of the research‐active marketing academic community. The Z‐test was used to contrast the hypotheses. To answer the research questions, χ2 method was used to analyse significant differences between the different groups (male/female; old/young; expert/unexperienced; PhD/master degree/bachelor degree).
Findings
With the exception of age, no significant differences have been identified in marketing teacher profiles between North American and European universities. The most common marketing lecturer profile is that of a man, over 35 years old, with more than 15 years of experience, and with a PhD degree.
Originality/value
The paper presents some interesting results with regard to marketing subjects, teaching media and teaching methods that marketing lecturers select according to their gender, age, years of experience, and degree of training.
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– The purpose of this paper is to prove the existence of significant differences between private and public corporate credibility antecedents and effects.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to prove the existence of significant differences between private and public corporate credibility antecedents and effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Totally, 816 Spanish viewers’ valuations were obtained (408 for the public television network and 408 for four private first generation broadcasters). Results show that some corporate reputation antecedents (perceived quality) and effects (attitudes) are stronger when private broadcasters are considered.
Findings
Result show that proposed credibility reputation antecedents and effects are significant and that some differences between private and public entities really do exist.
Research limitations/implications
To enhance a television network's reputation managers can follow two different but related paths: improve the quality and improve the consistency of the network's visual identity. That is, they should act on both content and form. However, public or private commercial broadcasters should emphasize different ways.
Practical implications
The general impressions subsumed under the concept of corporate credibility are used to easily and automatically evaluate particular offers.
Originality/value
Show, in the broadcasting industry, that new challenges and responsibilities for public broadcasting services in this new digital era of liberalization do really exist compared to private companies.
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The purpose of the paper is to analyse the importance of innovation for firms involved in international marketing.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the importance of innovation for firms involved in international marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 154 general managers in the textile sector were interviewed on two main groups of questions: entry forms when going abroad; and innovative decisions in products, strategies, processes, and markets. Univariate (ANOVA) and multivariate (discriminant analysis) methods were used.
Findings
The present results have demonstrated that not all types of innovation dimensions are required to find new clients in new countries.
Research limitations/implications
This study has been based on a mature sector, as is the textile sector in Spain. The results obtained should be understood in this framework.
Practical implications
These results should lead managers to adopt sophisticated entry modes (higher internationalisation degrees), even if they are still young enterprises, without new state of the art products, and without new market demands.
Originality/value
This paper examines whether more innovative and less innovative enterprises correspond to high internationalised and less internationalised enterprises. This means, in line with Jeong, that the standarisation principles supported by Levvit should be questioned, given that innovations are in fact prometed when yo go abroad.
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César Camisón, Marisa Flor, Sonia Cruz and Inés Küster
Suggests that the implementation of TQM systems in the tourist industry is still a recent phenomenon to which little research has been dedicated. Examines problems in initiating…
Abstract
Suggests that the implementation of TQM systems in the tourist industry is still a recent phenomenon to which little research has been dedicated. Examines problems in initiating total quality management systems in Valencian hotel firms according to the evaluation criteria of the European Quality Award, comparing results with both customers’ and management’s perspective. Shows that a serious gap exists between the quality perceived by the customer and the self‐assessment of quality by the management team. The empirical evidence presented typifies a firm hardly oriented to the market and whose TQM systems need important improvements to increase the satisfaction of the customer, to reduce service variability and to improve the management of customer‐employee interactions.
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Neha Patel, Natalia Vila‐López and Ines Kuster‐Boluda
A company's corporate image is very important and it can be conveyed through visual images. In order to provoke interest and grasp attention, visual application is an important…
Abstract
Purpose
A company's corporate image is very important and it can be conveyed through visual images. In order to provoke interest and grasp attention, visual application is an important communication process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the cultural aspects that affect consumers' interpretation of visual communication in terms of corporate imaging/branding through electronic images on the internet. Specifically two different countries' cultures are being compared: the United States and India.
Design/methodology/approach
Web images of 30 brands, selected from a list of top 100 brands have been chosen and compared in both scenes.
Findings
The results show that some differences really do exist, especially regarding illustrations, groups of people and information in the visual image.
Research limitations/implications
There are additional sub‐cultures in both countries. Future research could take these sub‐cultures into consideration.
Practical implications
Marketing managers should take cultural aspects into consideration when developing virtual marketing campaigns because culture does matter when it comes to visual images as not every culture prefers the same types of visual appeals. Additionally, by adapting visual images to cultures a company will be able to clearly identify its target group and can be assured that the right audience is being reached.
Originality/value
Much research has been done on examining Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom with Asian countries such as China and Japan, but not with India.
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