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Research has shown that consumers very often do not use explicit, concrete, rational factors to evaluate products, and thus their motivation to purchase is not always easy to articulate. Traditionally, marketers have used projective techniques in qualitative research groups to overcome this problem. This method is not infallible as each moderator brings his or her own style to discussions and subjective judgement to the interpretation of results, and it is practically impossible to replicate identically over time. The work presented in this paper describes the development of a set of implicit characteristics for two animation sets to which respondents will respond similarly and with consistency, through which we can identify the brand image held and consequently the motivations behind brand choice.

Investigates the extent to which various quantitative techniques are employed in marketing across Europe. Marketing practitioners, marketing services providers and marketing educators were all surveyed in a pan‐European study aimed at uncovering the extent of diffusion into practice of quantitative methods. Finds that, despite the increased use of computers, and the wider availability of modelling software, the most popular quantitative techniques are still the most basic data summary and presentation methods. Marketing students receive only a limited exposure to advanced quantitative methods and practitioners typically find little use for the more sophisticated techniques.

To assess which components of the marketing orientation, along with the new measure societal marketing orientation, predict the performance of the firm and which are moderated by the environment.

Survey research in 1999 and hierarchical regression of 81 items.

Competitor‐based strategy has a more positive impact on firm's performance than the market‐based alternative. Its effectiveness is enhanced by the degree of competitive turbulence in the environment – as, for example, in Singapore in 1999. Societal marketing strategies, while morally appealing, are negatively associated with performance, and further negatively moderated by competitive hostility. The study found no support for the association between market orientation and performance.

The findings are limited somewhat by the size and nature of the sample and the low response rate, though these compare well with other studies in the field. The research shows the importance of the business environment as a moderator of the performance of business strategies.

Marketing intelligence gatherers and strategists should take note that choice of an appropriate business strategy is moderated by the environment. Market‐based business strategies are not necessarily the most effective.

Apart from the main findings, introduces an important measure of a firm's societal orientation.

Qualitative research that involves the use of human participants calls for the need to protect those participants to give their honest view during data collection. This is an important part of every primary data collection in qualitative studies using interviews. This paper aims to investigate all available ethical considerations that need to be observed by the researcher when conducting primary data collection through interview and to explore the theories that underpin the ethics in qualitative studies.

This paper systemically reviewed existing qualitative data on ethics and gathered information that were analysed and presented on the topic area.

The findings show that ethical considerations deal with the various approaches adopted by the researcher to make the participants feel safe to participate in any given researcher. During an interview process in qualitative research, the findings show that anonymity, voluntary participation, privacy, confidentiality, option to opt out and avoiding misuse of findings are ethical considerations that must be observed by the researcher. The outcome of the investigation also shows that deontology and utilitarianism, rights and virtue are the main theories that underpin ethical considerations in research.

The rights of the research participants need to be respected in qualitative research to assist in gathering accurate information to achieve the objectives of study. This and other ethical principles such as anonymity, privacy, confidentiality, voluntary participation and option to opt out guide the researcher to systematically adhere to data collection approaches that yield valid results in qualitative data collection using interviews.

This study, using a new method called Referenced Publication Years Spectroscopy (RPYS), aims to examine the most important historic works written in the area of knowledge management (KM).

Preliminary data of this study have been extracted from Web of Science through scientometric methods. The references used in all the papers in the core journals in this field since 1980 to the end of 2014 were studied.

The distribution of resources in the area of KM based on the publication year indicates that this field of study, during time intervals 1900 to 1980, has seen eight major mutations. A considerable influence of such fields as economics, business, social networks analysis, organizational learning and economic sociology on the realm of KM is evident. The association of Polanyi with the mutations of 1958, 1962 and 1967 suggests his obvious influence on the evolution of KM. The ratio of articles to books among the whole documents detected by RPYS was 2-13 which could direct us to the point that the channel for information transformation in KM is more focused on books than on articles.

None of the few studies done by scientometric methods in the realm of KM has been seen through the issue of the historical origins of this area. This piece of research, using a new scientometric method, can be considered the first study in which the origins of KM over time have been studied.

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether art experiences can inform service‐dominant logic (SDL) discourse through an exploration of the co‐production and co‐creation processes of art experiences.

Empirical knowledge gained about art experiences is analysed to identify emergent themes about co‐production and co‐creation. Four modes of qualitative data collection are employed: research participant diaries, photo elicitation, in depth interviews and focus groups.

Key findings are there are three stakeholders involved in the co‐creation of art experiences, which all have critical and different roles; co‐creation and co‐production are both temporally based and evolving and there are points where they interact and intersect; and high levels of engagement in co‐production enhance individuals' contribution to the co‐creation of positive value and make their participation in future co‐production opportunities more likely.

The paper is exploratory and not a general population study. The methodology and sample of participants employed do not allow for the generalisation of the findings to the broader population.

Organisations may benefit from devising strategies to encourage greater dialogue and connection between all stakeholders involved in co‐production and co‐creation. The higher the level of individuals' co‐production of art experiences the greater likelihood of positive value being co‐created. Furthermore, the greater the possibility of individuals engaging in other co‐production experiences in the future. While individuals are attracted to co‐production possibilities, there are factors that are external to an experience that can act as either barriers to or facilitators of co‐production, and that consequently impact on co‐creation.

There is little extant research that explores the applicability of art experiences to SDL. This paper is significant in that it employs empirical research methods to develop knowledge on the topic. Furthermore, this paper is innovative in that it seeks to see whether the art experiences can inform generic marketing models, rather than whether generic marketing models can inform arts marketing.

Strategic management development (SMD) uses corporate objectives and strategies as drivers for management development and aims to achieve multiple outcomes. Most studies of SMD have concentrated on consultant‐ or practitioner‐based accounts of “best practice”. There has been little development of conceptual frameworks to inform a more rigorous understanding and evaluation of SMD. Considers the usefulness of some existing frameworks and then, based on literature review and synthesis, proposes new conceptual frameworks for SMD. The first of these new frameworks explores the relationships between individual and organisational objectives in the SMD processes. Many management development interventions have both types of objective and other interventions may be more polarised in purpose. These tensions have to be resolved at the level of the individual manager. Because of environmental change account will need to be taken of emergent needs and opportunities. The second framework reflects this showing how a dynamic environment will lead to more organic forms of management development. The third framework considers the barriers and drivers influencing SMD, and proposes the key requirements for success.

This study aims to address an acknowledged gap in the literature for the analysis of experienced practitioner views on the effects and implications of mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR).

Using an exploratory and sequential design, data was collected from South African regulatory policy documents, organisational comment letters and semi-structured interviews of practitioners. These findings informed a field survey, administered to auditors, investors, chief financial officers (CFOs) and audit committee members of Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed companies.

Practitioners expressed considerable pushback against the potential efficacy of MAFR to improve audit quality due to various “switching costs”, notably the loss of client-specific knowledge and expertise upon rotation. In addition, the cost and disruption to both the client and audit firm are considered significant and unnecessary, compared to audit partner rotation. The audit industry may suffer reduced profitability and increased strain on partners, leading to a decline in the appeal of the profession as a career of choice. This is likely to have negative implications for audit industry diversity objectives. Furthermore, the industry may become more supplier-concentrated amongst the Big 4 firms.

The findings have policy implications for regulators deciding whether to adopt the regulation, as well as guiding the design of policies and procedures to mitigate the negative effects of adoption.

The participants are experienced with diverse roles concerning the use, preparation and audit of financial statements of large exchange-listed multinational companies, as well as engagement in the auditor appointment process. The extant literature presents mixed results on the link between MAFR and audit quality, with most studies relying on archival and experimental designs. These have a limited ability to identify and critique the potential’s witching costs and unintended consequences of the regulation. Experienced participants responsible for decision-making within the audit, audit oversight and auditor appointment process, are best suited to provide perspective on these effects, contrasted against the audit regulator’s position.

Canada’s primary care system has been described as “a culture of pilot projects” with little evidence of converting successful initiatives into funded, permanent programs or sharing project outcomes and insights across jurisdictions. Health services pilot projects are advocated as an effective strategy for identifying promising models of care and building integrated care partnerships in local settings. In the qualitative study reported here, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the strengths and challenges of this approach.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 primary care physicians who discussed their experiences as pilot project leads. Following thematic analysis methods, broad system issues were captured as well as individual project information.

While participants often portrayed themselves as advocates for vulnerable patients, mobilizing healthcare organizations and providers to support new models of care was discussed as challenging. Competition between local healthcare providers and initiatives could impact pilot project success. Participants also reported tensions between their clinical, project management and research roles with additional time demands and skill requirements interfering with the work of implementing and evaluating service innovations.

Study findings highlight the complexity of pilot project implementation, which encompasses physician commitment to addressing care for vulnerable populations through to the need for additional skill set requirements and the impact of local project environments. The current pilot project approach could be strengthened by including more multidisciplinary collaboration and providing infrastructure supports to enhance the design, implementation and evaluation of health services improvement initiatives.