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The purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial decision-making challenges of the use of data from online and offline customer data flooding into firms and managed through interactive dashboards. The paper provides insights into how managers within the hotel sector both manage and use the data as a core tool in discussions with finance managers/directors during negotiation on critical marketing investments.

The research design followed a multiple-case study design of five market-orientated hotels, which were selected as high performing data and dashboard users. Across each case company multiple informants were interviewed and shadowed, including marketing managers, general managers and finance managers/directors. There was also an in-depth investigation of the collection, dissemination and particularly use of traditional market research data and online data from social media sites, web sites and web and mobile analytics. This was augmented by a study of the customized, off site managed interactive databases, in use in all case companies.

This paper identifies managerial challenges experienced by general managers, marketing and financial managers using digital customer data. It investigated the power of the customer voice internally and found that unstructured qualitative data had greater visibility and usage once supported by a financial imperative. It also found that the use of interactive dashboards were a powerful manifestation of data technology use and increased marketing’s visibility, power and accountability within the firm.

The paper provided a limited hotel perspective which impacts on generalizability. The findings should be tested quantitatively to ascertain their validity across a wider sector of businesses and operations. Though multiple site and cross-functional research adds value, one site might have provided more depth.

This paper reveals that managers need support in terms of time, resources and personnel to manage the flood of information into their organizations. It also suggested that general and marketing managers need to develop the skills to interpret the data for decision-making, so that the financial implications are understand.

Most social media studies within the hotel sector focus on the impact of social media reviews on consumer purchasing processes and/or on how managers communicate online with consumers. This paper takes an internal managerial perspective on data use for decision-making. This paper expands our understanding of marketing strategic decision-making through an in-depth exploration into how cross-functional decision-making uses contemporary customer data.

This study aims to provide more insight into how customer voice is captured and used in managerial decision-making at the marketing-finance interface. This study’s focus is on understanding how the customer voice, often communicated through online and social media platforms, is used in high-performing hotels.

This research is based on a case study of four high-performing Irish hotels. For each case, multiple informants, including marketing managers, general managers and finance managers, were interviewed and shadowed. Twenty seven decisions across the four cases were analysed to assess the use of customer voice in managerial decision-making.

Social media provides a stage that has empowered the customer voice because of the public nature of the interaction and the network effect. Customer voice is incorporated in managerial decision-making in three distinct ways – symbolically as part of an early warning system, for action-oriented operational decisions and to some extent in the knowledge-enhancing role for tactical decisions. While there is a greater appreciation among senior managers and the finance and accounting managers of the importance of customer voice, this study finds clear limits in its utilisation and more reliance on traditional finance and accounting data, especially in strategic decision-making.

The cases belong to a highly visible open environment of hotels in an industry where customer voice has immediate and strong effects. The findings may not directly apply to industries characterised by a relatively more closed context such as banking or insurance. Moreover, the findings reflect the practices of high-performing hotels and do not necessarily capture the practices used in less successfully operating hotels.

While marketers need to enhance their ability to create a narrative that links the customer voice to revenue generation, finance managers also need to develop a skillset and adopt a mindset that appropriately reflects the influential role for customer voice in managerial decision-making.

Despite the linkage of marketing performance to business performance, there is limited research on the impact of customer information on managerial decision-making. This research provides insight into how customer voice is considered at the critical marketing-finance interface.

This paper aims to provide a review of how the role of information and communications technology (ICT) within marketing practice has developed over the past decade and to develop a research agenda to meet future challenges.

The paper adopts a theoretical approach and reviews the historical and current deployment of ICT into marketing practice. It focuses on the CMP framework of marketing practice and, within that, on the original conceptions of e‐marketing within the framework and the corresponding empirical results from various CMP research projects..

The paper concludes that, regardless of the dominant focus of marketing within an organisation, marketing practitioners increasingly have an ICT requirement within their marketing practice.

The paper develops the argument for academic research to focus more on ICT practice and implementation to provide a deeper understanding of ICT deployment.

Despite the emphasis on ICT deployment in the late 1990s marketers have struggled to embrace ICT within their organisations due in part to a lack of academic clarity and study. This paper extends the Contemporary Marketing Practice framework to examine this issue.

The objective of the Contemporary Marketing Practices (CMP) research program is to develop an understanding of how firms relate to their markets in a manner that integrates both traditional and more modern views of marketing, and incorporates an understanding of both the antecedents and consequences of different practices. This paper aims to review its first decade.

The paper adopts a theoretical approach. It reviews the history of CMP research and its outcomes. The assessment concludes with a discussion of the program's contribution to marketing knowledge and some issues and challenges for future research.

Now a decade old, the CMP research program has undertaken research in over 15 countries. The study finds that it has made a unique contribution to marketing knowledge by bridging the gap between theory and practice.

By adopting a multi‐paradigm philosophy and a multi‐method approach, a broad perspective has been achieved that integrates the traditional managerial view of marketing with relational and process arguments.

This paper aims to highlight the value of adopting a middle‐range theory approach in conceptualizing and investigating marketing practices.

Building on the work of Merton, the paper discusses O'Driscoll's article on the role of paradoxes (both theoretical as well as methodological paradoxes).

The paper argues that it is important to rescue and stress the benefits that adopting a multi‐paradigmatic view has in providing a better understanding of current marketing practices.

This position allows one both to avoid the incommensurability “trap” of being “boxed” into the explanatory dimensions of the chosen paradigm and to develop a richer holistic view. The discussion is grounded on the Contemporary Marketing Practices (CMP) research project.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon social marketing and its implications for the contemporary marketing practices (CMP) classification scheme.

The paper adopts a theoretical approach. Examples from the public engagement with science are used in the reflection.

A phenomenon not commonly associated with social marketing is the growing number of science communication, outreach and public activities to engage the public with science. These scientific initiatives, established to drive knowledge‐based societies around the world, are charged with changing the public's behaviour towards science. This analysis shows the application of the CMP classification explicitly to the broader context of social marketing.

This paper examines how complex multiple exchanges, and social and environment influences, associated with social marketing provide a broader context to examine marketing practice. Further investigation is needed as to whether a sixth aspect of marketing practice is required to fully capture social marketing practice.

The objective of this paper is to explain the conceptual framework of paradox.

The paper adopts a theoretical approach. It outlines marketing's current and limited interest in the notion of paradox and highlights the difference between a classic paradox, the tension between transactional and relational marketing, and the Contemporary Marketing Practice (CMP) research program.

A future research agenda for paradox and marketing is speculated on, addressing issues such as likely domains for exploration, methodology, as well as the type of organizational structures and marketing leadership required. Finally, there is reflection on how paradox engineers a strong bridge between theory and practice.

The paper reveals useful information on paradox and marketing.