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This chapter provides an interpretive account of how a large student cohort deals with a major inquiry-based learning (IBL) assessment task in a first-year Marketing Principles subject in undergraduate business studies. It offers a practical example of IBL in action in a discipline that has hitherto received little attention in the IBL literature, namely business, specifically marketing. The chapter positions IBL within the various contemporary pedagogies. The context of Hutchings and O’Rourke’s (2006) study of IBL in action is extended for first-year cohorts, technology-enhanced teaching and the marketing discipline. Further, Hutchings and O’Rourke’s four-part method for describing IBL in action is followed: (1) the enabling factors for the students’ work are described; (2) the process for which they decided on the task is discussed; (3) the method of work is considered, namely ongoing collaboration in a wiki and (4) the outcomes produced are discussed. The chapter reflects on the effects of the IBL task on student learning from both students’ and instructors’ points of view. Material from the students’ work and feedback after completion of the IBL task is used to illustrate the process and inform the interpretive account. The main lessons to be learnt for educators are summarised.

This study aims to share the use of social marketing as pedagogy and provide a transformative social marketing pedagogy for social marketing educators. By this, the authors mean the same principles used by social marketers to improve the well-being of a person or group are used as a pedagogic tool to bolster students’ learning and understanding of social marketing. In the described course, students are asked to choose one area of their lives to try and change using concepts taught to them in class. They are then asked to reflect on their personal change journey and apply it to others in the form of a social marketing plan.

The authors share a conceptual journey using social marketing as pedagogy following the evolution of a marketing for behavioural change undergraduate course. Benchmark criteria for social marketing are used to discuss and conceptualise a transformative social marketing pedagogy. The authors take a reflexive approach to explore course development, motivations, assumptions and activities to expand on their approach.

Social marketing as pedagogy suggests that behaviour change is not just taught through course content but also embedded throughout the course as a learning tool and outcome. A social marketing course can encourage individual behaviour change by asking students to critically reflect on their own behaviour change journey to fully experience and understand the underpinnings and implications for social marketing. In this way, the authors adopt transformative learning as the outcome of social marketing AS pedagogy. The authors suggest through experiential learning, including active learning and reflexivity, students are able to change their frame of reference or how they interpret the world around them, in regard to complex social issues, which may encourage behaviour change.

As social marketers, the authors must reflect not only on what they teach students (Kelly, 2013) but also on how they teach them. Previous literature has not provided any unique pedagogy for how to teach social marketing. This article provides the first pedagogy for social marketing education – the Transformative social marketing pedagogy which views social marketing AS pedagogy. The authors present the value of experiential learning as a three-pronged approach incorporating Interpretive Experiences, Transformative Experiences and developing Praxis, which includes elements of feeding forward and authentic assessment. This approach provides a unique contribution to the area by providing a pedagogical approach that goes beyond mere knowledge acquisition to transformative learning.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel hybrid approach to assess marketing-based flexibility with respect to its source factors, enablers and attributes.

The study demonstrates an application of a hybrid principal component analysis (PCA)-analytical hierarchical process (AHP)-multi-grade fuzzy approach (MFA) to measure marketing-based flexibility. Using PCA method, attributes, enablers and source factors of marketing-based flexibility were identified and a conceptual model was developed. AHP and MFA were used to compute marketing-based flexibility index.

The proposed approach measures existing level of marketing-based flexibility and therefore it identifies weak areas that should be taken care to improve flexibility.

The scope of the study is limited to plant level. The validity of the proposed approach is shown using a case study. For generalisation point of view, the application of this proposed approach should be investigated in a large number of firms in different industrial settings.

The study gives a reliable and valid method, which combines both statistical and MCDM techniques to measure existing level of flexibility and identify weak areas for flexibility improvement.

The findings provide insight into factors that should be worked upon to improve flexibility.

This paper aims to identify which marketing activities libraries are using to promote electronic resources and to examine how libraries are measuring the successes or failures of their marketing plans.

The research analyzes the literature published in library science on marketing techniques for electronic resources in use at libraries; the corpus is composed of 24 documents published from 1994‐2009. The literature is qualitatively analyzed to determine the techniques in use, the libraries' goals, targeted groups, budgets, and assessments of their marketing plans.

A total of 38 unique marketing techniques were discovered in the 24 documents consulted for this research. The four most popular techniques were patron training in a group setting, flyers/brochures, e‐mails to patrons, and surveys. Libraries were generally unclear about stating the goals for their marketing plans but were able to easily identify the target of their marketing efforts. Budgeting was inconsistent among libraries included in this research; nine libraries reported having either no budget for marketing or did not mention budgeting in the article. Assessment was the weakest part of the marketing plans, with four libraries not documenting an awareness of the need for assessment and seven libraries noting an understanding of the need to evaluate their plan but unsure how to do so.

Based on the analysis the paper makes it clear that as libraries engage in marketing activities, they should make themselves aware of general principles before beginning their plan. Special focus should be given to selecting activities that match the goals of the marketing plan and choosing an appropriate evaluation technique before beginning the marketing activities.

This paper aims to investigate a guest’s subjective appraisal of a hotel’s green marketing program, or green equity, along with value, brand and relationship equities on guest loyalty.

Study 1 presents three models to explicate the role of a luxury hotel’s green initiatives in influencing guest loyalty. By means of structural equation modeling, one model emerges with the best fit. Study 2 examines how tourists assign economic value to a hotel’s green programs.

Green equity plays a significant role in customers’ overall assessment of a hotel’s marketing programs; however, the effect is weaker when compared with the other indicators, including a hotel’s value proposition, brand image and loyalty programs. Furthermore, the results reveal that tourists are willing to pay a price premium for a hotel’s green marketing programs.

The paper links green marketing to the customer equity model and clarifies the impact of green marketing programs on loyalty and profitability. However, the study was conducted among luxury hotel guests and tourists in Macau, a leading gambling destination; thus, these customers might not have been concerned with green marketing initiatives.

The results show that green initiatives are beneficial as long as managers include these initiatives in their overall strategic marketing programs that also promote firm value propositions, brand images and reputation.

The paper clarifies the role of green marketing programs in hospitality and shows how hotels can benefit from enhanced guest loyalty and decreased operational expenses by implementing green initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether travel agencies that implement comprehensive marketing performance assessment systems (MPASs) enjoy superior overall performance. Drawing on the knowledge-based view, the authors propose and test a model demonstrating that the relationship between MPASs and overall performance is fully mediated by the depth of market-related knowledge absorbed by the travel agency.

A survey was administered to a sample of Italian travel agencies; 171 complete questionnaires were received. The suggested relationships were assessed using a covariance-based structural equation modeling approach, including the estimation of both the measurement model and the structural model.

The findings indicate that the implementation of sophisticated MPASs has a significant and positive effect on performance and that this relationship is fully mediated by the depth of market-related knowledge absorbed by the travel agency. In addition, the results highlight that the number of marketing metrics monitored by the travel agency has no effect on its performance.

The specific features of the travel agency sector in Italy include a remarkable level of fragmentation. The cross-sectional design does not permit an assessment of the medium-term effects of the adoption of an MPAS.

Travel agencies selecting proactive marketing strategies can particularly benefit from the adoption of sophisticated MPASs. Suggestions are provided to assist managers in designing their MPAS.

This study enriches the field’s knowledge about marketing performance measurement and proactive marketing strategies, and indicates that the implementation of well-designed MPASs improves a firm’s overall performance. It also explains the knowledge-related processes that produce this positive effect.

This article assesses the state‐of‐the‐art on the subject of international market selection based on a comprehensive review and synthesis of the literature. It provides an inventory, taxonomy and brief review of the normative quantitative models that have been proposed in the literature, and compares them to current business practices in selecting foreign markets. This comparison reveals a theory‐practice gap that is discussed in the context of the methodological and conceptual weaknesses of the models. Suggestions for future research are made.

Marketing professionals are under pressure to implement methods and metrics that demonstrate the value of the function. This paper aims to propose a model to measure marketing performance, focusing on four categories of metrics and two types of factors that influence the effectiveness of the assessment process.

The paper is organized in three parts. The first part includes a synthesis of the theoretical background on the subject. Next, the rationale and architecture of the model are presented, together with an explanation of the elements that compose it. A reflection on the work developed is presented in the last section.

Benefits regarding how to best assess marketing practice are considerable, as organizations with effective performance measurement systems tend to show better results than others. In this context, the choice of metrics is important, but it is also necessary to understand the mechanisms through which the effectiveness of the measurement process can be improved.

Literature has mainly focused attention on the effect of individual programs on specific measures or on conceptual models that do not sufficiently address all major elements in the marketing assessment process. This work extends previous contributions on the subject, presenting a model that combines metrics with factors underlying the measurement process.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate and extend existing knowledge about marketing performance assessment, making a case for a measurement system identifying five categories of metrics on which attention should be focused.

The paper is organized in three parts. It starts with a summary of the current state of knowledge about marketing performance assessment, followed by the presentation of the model in terms of its rationale and architecture. Then, the metrics that make up the model are explained and operationalized. Lastly, a concluding note is presented.

Both scholars and managers have been calling for methods and concepts addressing the how and why marketing succeeds or fails. The author believes that certain metrics, when integrated into a holistic and actionable framework, can have a positive and transformational impact on the way marketing is measured in organizations.

Metrics are meaningless when viewed in isolation. Yet, most of the literature on the subject focus on individual indicators. Also, it tends to overemphasize marketing outcomes. This work offers a complementary view to what has already been written on the subject, suggesting a performance assessment model that highlights requirements/prerequisites, processes, outcomes and organizational context.