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1 – 10 of 371John W. Schouten and James H. McAlexander
Examines the concept of differentiating product offerings,including consumer services, and positioning them in relation tocustomer needs and perceptions. Approaches the subject of…
Abstract
Examines the concept of differentiating product offerings, including consumer services, and positioning them in relation to customer needs and perceptions. Approaches the subject of service positioning via an interesting case study. Concludes with recommended guidelines for the positioning of consumer services, but notes that a case study, whilst a source of interesting insights, is limited since itsobservations may not necessarily be true for other service businesses.
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James McAlexander, Rachel Nelson and Chris Bates
Entrepreneurship is a source of innovation, job creation, and vibrancy for local and regional economies. As a direct result, there is a profound interest in creating an…
Abstract
Entrepreneurship is a source of innovation, job creation, and vibrancy for local and regional economies. As a direct result, there is a profound interest in creating an infrastructure that effectively encourages entrepreneurship and incubates entrepreneurial endeavors. Western State University has responded to this call by developing the Harvey Entrepreneurship Program, which is integrated in the Enterprise Residential College.The Harvey program provides a socially embedded experiential learning approach to entrepreneurial education. Faculty, students, entrepreneurs, and technical experts are drawn together in an environment that provides space for business incubators and an entrepreneurially focused curriculum. In this article, we present a case study in which we use qualitative research methods to explore the benefits and challenges of creating such a program.The delivery model that Enterprise Residential College provides for entrepreneurial education is examined through the perspectives of program administrators, faculty, and students. The findings reveal evidence that a residential college can form a powerful nexus of formal instruction, experiential learning, socialization, and networking to influence entrepreneurship. We discuss relevant findings that may aid others considering similar endeavors.
Athanasia Daskalopoulou and Alexandros Skandalis
This study aims to explore how membership (initially as a consumer) in a given field shapes individuals’ entrepreneurial journey.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how membership (initially as a consumer) in a given field shapes individuals’ entrepreneurial journey.
Design/methodology/approach
The research context is cultural and creative industries and, in particular, the independent (indie) music field in which unstructured interviews were conducted with nascent and established cultural entrepreneurs.
Findings
The authors introduce and justify their theoretical framework of consumption field driven entrepreneurship (CFDE) that captures the tripartite process via which the informants make the transition from indie music consumers to entrepreneurs by developing field-specific illusio, enacting entrepreneurial habitus and acquiring legitimacy via symbolic capital accumulation within the indie music field. The authors further illustrate how these entrepreneurs adopt paradoxical logics, aesthetics and ethos of the indie music field by moving in-between its authentic and commercial discourses to orchestrate their entrepreneurial journey.
Research limitations/implications
This study holds several theoretical implications for entrepreneurship-oriented research. First is highlighted the importance of non-financial resources (i.e. cultural and social capital) in individuals’ entrepreneurial journey. Second, this study illustrates the importance of consumption activities in the process of gaining entrepreneurial legitimation within a specific field. Finally, this study contributes to consumption-driven entrepreneurship research by offering a detailed description of individuals’ consumption-driven entrepreneurial journey.
Practical implications
This study provides some initial practical implications for entrepreneurs within the cultural and creative industries. The authors illustrate how membership in a field (initially as a consumer) might turn into a source of skills, competences and community for entrepreneurs by mobilising and converting different forms of non-material and material field-specific capital. To acquire entrepreneurial legitimation, nascent entrepreneurs should gain symbolic capital through approval, recognition and credit from members of the indie music field. Also, entrepreneurs can acquire symbolic capital and gain entrepreneurial legitimation by either “fitting in” or “standing out” from the existing logics of the field.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the growing body of literature that examines entrepreneurship fuelled by consumption practices and passions with our theoretical framework of CFDE which outlines the transition from indie music consumers to indie music entrepreneurs.
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Mark S. Rosenbaum, Amy L. Ostrom and Ronald Kuntze
Previous research has explored the impact of customer participation in organizational‐sponsored loyalty programs on customer loyalty; however, the findings are mixed. Other…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has explored the impact of customer participation in organizational‐sponsored loyalty programs on customer loyalty; however, the findings are mixed. Other research, outside the loyalty program literature, reveals that customers who socially interact with other customers, via participation in brand communities, often exhibit an intense loyalty to the sponsoring brands. Proposes to investigate the following questions: “Can loyalty programs be differentiated based on whether or not members perceive a sense of community?”; and “Does a perception of a sense of community impact member loyalty to sponsoring organizations?”
Design/methodology/approach
Q‐technique factor analysis is utilized analyzing statements from loyalty program participants. Principal component factor and cluster analyses confirm a two‐tiered classification schema distinguishing loyalty programs based on perceptions of communal benefits. Differences between the two factors are explored. A survey developed from the Q‐sort analysis was then administered to 153 loyalty program participants, providing evidence that consumers are more loyal to communal programs.
Findings
Loyalty programs can be distinguished based on the sense of community which members perceive. Furthermore, consumers are more loyal to communal programs than to programs that simply use financial incentives. Communal programs elicit stronger emotional connections and participants are significantly less predisposed to competitor switching.
Originality/value
This study integrates the theory of sense of community into the marketing literature, also offering researchers a nine‐item, unidimensional scale to measure the construct within the context of loyalty programs. Confusion in the literature regarding the efficacy of loyalty programs is diminished by showing a positive relationship between loyalty and a member's perceptions of community.
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Joan Ball and Donald C. Barnes
The purpose of this paper is to combine the evolving fields of customer delight and positive psychology to investigate a broader conceptualization of customer delight…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to combine the evolving fields of customer delight and positive psychology to investigate a broader conceptualization of customer delight. Furthermore, to investigate antecedent variables that impact this broader conceptualization.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employed structural equation modeling in a hedonic context.
Findings
Key findings indicate that aside from joy and surprise, gratitude also has a positive impact on customer delight. Furthermore, psychological sense of brand community (PSBC) and transcendent customer experiences (TCE) were shown to positively impact the proximal antecedents of customer delight.
Research limitations/implications
Extending the domain of customer delight beyond joy and surprise contributes to the theoretical discussion on what customer delight represents to the service firm. Further, this research identifies new theoretical relationships between PSBC/TCE and customer delight.
Practical implications
By offering the broader conceptualization of customer delight, this research contributes to the discussion of whether delight is possible or even profitable. Namely, by moving past joy/surprise, this research suggests that managing gratitude can be a strategic lever that the modern service firm can utilize.
Originality/value
This is the first research to evaluate gratitude as an antecedent to customer delight. Further, by combining positive psychology and delight research this research identifies new predictors of positive customer experiences.
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Yanina Chevtchouk, Cleopatra Veloutsou and Robert A. Paton
The marketing literature uses five different experience terms that are supposed to represent different streams of research. Many papers do not provide a definition, most of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The marketing literature uses five different experience terms that are supposed to represent different streams of research. Many papers do not provide a definition, most of the used definitions are unclear, the different experience terms have similar dimensionality and are regularly used interchangeably or have the same meaning. In addition, the existing definitions are not adequately informed from other disciplines that have engaged with experience. This paper aims to build a comprehensive conceptual framework of experience in marketing informed by related disciplines aiming to provide a more holistic definition of the term.
Design/methodology/approach
This research follows previously established procedures by conducting a systematic literature review of experience. From the approximately 5,000 sources identified in three disciplines, 267 sources were selected, marketing (148), philosophy (90) and psychology (29). To address definitional issues the analysis focused on enlightening four premises.
Findings
This paper posits that the term brand experience can be used in all marketing-related experiences and proposes four premises that may resolve the vagaries associated with the term’s conceptualization. The four premises address the what, who, how and when of brand experience and aim to rectify conceptual issues. Brand experience is introduced as a multi-level phenomenon.
Research limitations/implications
The suggested singular term, brand experience, captures all experiences in marketing. The identified additional elements of brand experience, such as the levels of experience and the revision of emotions within brand experience as a continuum, tempered by repetition, should be considered in future research.
Practical implications
The multi-level conceptualization may provide a greater scope for dynamic approaches to brand experience design thus providing greater opportunities for managers to create sustainable competitive advantages and differentiation from competitors.
Originality/value
This paper completes a systematic literature review of brand experience across marketing, philosophy and psychology which delineates and enlightens the conceptualization of brand experience and presents brand experience in a multi-level conceptualization, opening the possibility for further theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary promise.
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Clara Koetz and John Daniel Tankersley
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of a subculture of consumption organized toward a nostalgic brand on a social media platform. More specifically, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of a subculture of consumption organized toward a nostalgic brand on a social media platform. More specifically, the authors examine the role of these nostalgic feelings in the development of a community identity and the benefits they promote in the creation and perpetuation of this group.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a netnographic study to examine the case of Caloi 10 on Facebook. The data collection was carried out by following interactions among members of this community for seven months. Besides this, field observations and interviews were also considered in the analysis.
Findings
Four categories emerged from the analysis: Identity and nostalgia, the subculture’s ethos, consumption habits and hierarchical social structure. Nostalgia was shown to have a collective dimension, connecting the group around the brand, and positively affecting the ties between members and members and the brand.
Practical implications
On-line brand communities can be promoted to strengthen connections between consumers and a brand, and between consumers with each other. For that, it is important to understand the characteristics and specificities of these groups.
Originality/value
Few studies have dealt with the characteristics of brand communities in social media, as well as the role of nostalgia in these groups. This research fills these gaps, exploring aspects related to consumption as a way of transmitting symbolic meanings and expressing nostalgic feelings in on-line brand communities.
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Alan Bradshaw and Stephen Brown
Collaboration is the norm in marketing and consumer research, yet the dynamics of academic cooperation are poorly understood. The aim of this paper is to probe the sociology of…
Abstract
Purpose
Collaboration is the norm in marketing and consumer research, yet the dynamics of academic cooperation are poorly understood. The aim of this paper is to probe the sociology of collaboration within marketing scholarship by means of a detailed case study of the seminal consumer odyssey.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a history of the consumer odyssey based on a range of secondary sources.
Findings
The consumer odyssey, one of many collaborate circles in marketing thought, was a seminal moment in the development of marketing research.
Practical implications
This paper encourages reflection on the dynamics of collaboration and the collegial character of marketing scholarship. Also, the paper has implications for institutional policy, for example the RAE, which measures research as an individual endeavour.
Originality/value
This paper presents a rare reflection on the social dynamics of marketing scholarship. Although it focuses on the interpretive research tradition within consumer research, its findings are relevant to every marketing academic, regardless of their philosophical bent, empirical concern or methodological preference.
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Shawn Stevens and Philip J. Rosenberger
Sport has evolved into one of the largest industries in Australia and there is a corresponding increased interest in the factors influencing fan loyalty. This paper presents a…
Abstract
Sport has evolved into one of the largest industries in Australia and there is a corresponding increased interest in the factors influencing fan loyalty. This paper presents a theoretically developed conceptual model which empirically tests the relationships between fan identification, sports involvement, following sport and fan loyalty. Survey results indicate that fan identification, following sport and involvement positively influence fan loyalty, while following sport was found to mediate the involvement-fan identification relationship.
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This study aims to advance theory on business in conflict zones (often termed “business for peace”) so as to enable the categorization of empirical work testing the field’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to advance theory on business in conflict zones (often termed “business for peace”) so as to enable the categorization of empirical work testing the field’s assertions.
Design/methodology/approach
In this conceptual paper, the authors present an assessment framework for categorizing research on the peace impacts of business entities, as suggested by Oetzel et al. (2009). This framework allows researchers to make comparisons across methodologies and fields on whether particular business actions contribute to peace.
Findings
Drawing on peace and conflict research, this study proposes a three-stage process in response to the presence of violence and its level of intensity, identify applicable research methods to assess the impact of business actions on peace at each of the three stages and offer suggestions for future research.
Social implications
Categorizing research impacts in the business for peace field will allow societal actors to evaluate the efficacy of claimed business for peace efforts. This is particularly true for those in within international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who work with the private sector and for those in the private sector whose work attempts to enhance peace.
Originality/value
As a societal actor, business has a key role to play in peacemaking. The past decade has seen a proliferation of qualitative research work surrounding this theme. In a seminal work, Oetzel et al. (2009) suggested a research framework building on the theories of Fort and Schipani (2004) and suggested five actions that businesses could take to promote peace. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one to respond to that suggestion by proposing a means of categorizing the impacts of business actions.
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