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This paper explores the process used to communicate public policy in political campaigns. Empirical research has been conducted into determining the voters' consideration of the importance of national political issues and the association of the electorate's consideration of the importance of issues with identification with parties in the UK. This paper attempts to show how political parties can position themselves on the basis of issue stances when targeting groups of voters. A model is suggested to aid in public policy evaluation with implications for positioning; recognising that those parties that formed the previous government have significant advantages over the opposition during the conduct of electoral campaigns since they can make use of the government's communication networks. However, the paper looks at this process from a party‐oriented perspective (where issues are used more to persuade the electorate) rather than a candidate‐centred perspective (where personalities tend to be used more). Thus, further research needs to be conducted in order to ascertain the model's suitability in and adaptability for candidate‐driven political markets.

Questions the nature of marketing methods in political campaigns based on a grounded theoretical approach conducted using in‐depth interviews. Suggests that if marketing success is measured solely by the level of turnout then the use of marketing in political campaigns would appear to be failing. Other reasons, however, may also explain this lack of success. The use of marketing may be less effective because the “market” is more restrictive, or marketing methods whilst actually being appropriate may be being used inappropriately. Concludes that, although the political “market” is different and restrictive, this does not negate the role of marketing in political campaigning.

The existing debate in the political science literature on the transfer of US campaign expertise to Western Europe is largely based on observations of campaign evolution and, to a limited degree, on surveys of US political consultants. This article attempts to provide a deeper understanding of some of the problems associated with the practical application of US political marketing expertise in European political markets, focussing primarily on the UK. The paper investigates this transfer of US campaign expertise using both a political science‐diffusion perspective and an international marketing‐market entry perspective, suggesting that the two perspectives are mutually reinforcing. Qualitative data were collected from interviews with US political consultants who had consulted to British political parties at the 1997 British general election and with three academics who are renowned researchers in this field. The paper argues that, because of the very different contextual environments and their implications for campaign conduct, the potential for “Americanisation” is limited through indirect export methods. The paper further argues that US political consultants could penetrate the European market for political consulting services through a more customised offering using indirect export methods or a more standardised offering using direct export methods.

A marketing planning framework to aid political parties in improving their image and co‐ordinating election campaigns has been developed to reflect the changing nature of electoral campaigning in the developed world towards the need for more long‐term planning; together with the development and implementation of marketing models in a wider sphere of social situations. The planning model has been developed using both a hypothetico‐deductive and an inductive approach, incorporating recent developments in US and UK political campaign management and depth interviews with political strategists in the UK. Suggests that national political parties need to co‐ordinate their election campaigns more effectively in order to strengthen their image among key citizen and voter groups by determining which target areas are most in need of resources. Further research is needed to determine how to position the party and to select and place advertising in the relevant media. Concludes that local election campaigns are becoming more co‐ordinated by national parties but that such co‐ordination neglects to provide local area research and telemarketing campaigns, and post‐election analysis exercises to monitor strengths and weaknesses in party strategy and campaign plan implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on the differences in perceptions that exist between academic and professional marketing researchers, as creators of new marketing knowledge, and explore how academics and practitioners can work together better on areas of mutual interest or separately on areas where their interests do not coincide.

The approach is via two focus groups, one with researchers in marketing from universities and one with commercial market researchers, and via online surveys of the same target groups, with 638 respondents in all.

The study indicates that the two sample groups have relatively congruent views about the advantages and disadvantages of each other's approach to research but both groups believe they could do more to make their research more comprehensible and accessible to each other.

The empirical study was conducted in the UK only, and the response rate from the university marketing research community was disappointingly low. These represent limitations on the generalisability of the findings.

It is argued that marketing research can be undertaken separately by academics and practitioner researchers but that joint working between academic and commercial marketing researchers represents another dimension to marketing research which could be facilitated by the creation of joint initiatives, including industry‐inspired academic‐practitioner research projects and the development of government‐funded academic‐practitioner research projects, building on both groups' unique sets of skills.

The paper reports on the outcome of an empirical study that has implications for the conduct of marketing research in universities and market research agencies.

Outlines the role of the Meat Livestock Commission in dealing with the BSE/CJD crisis in the UK meat industry. It covers the re‐launch of British beef, the history of the BSE crisis, the decline of the export market for beef and the increasingly political nature of the world beef and meat markets. In addition, the article assesses the impact of supermarkets, government and environmental concerns and the development of this key industry. The issue of reputation alongside natural products is considered and the complexities of a fragmented market. Suggests that there is no quick and easy fix to the re‐establishment of UK roast beef as a premier brand.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss exploratory research into the perceptions of British Muslims towards Islamist ideological messaging to contribute to the general debate on “radicalisation”.

Four focus groups were undertaken with a mixture of Bangladeshi and Pakistani British Muslims who were shown a selection of Islamist propaganda media clips, garnered from the internet.

The paper proposess that Islamist communications focus on eliciting change in emotional states, specifically inducing the paratelic‐excitement mode, by focusing around a meta‐narrative of Muslims as a unitary grouping self‐defined as victim to Western aggression. It concludes that British Muslim respondents were unsympathetic to the Islamist ideological messaging contained in the sample of propaganda clips.

The paper provides an insight into how British Muslims might respond to Islamist communications, indicating that, while most are not susceptible to inducement of paratelic‐excitement, others are likely to be, dependent on which genre of clip is used, the messages contained therein, and who that clip is targeted at.

The article consolidates the servitization knowledge base from an industrial equipment manufacturing firm's performance perspective. This conceptual review is offering an integration of the extant literature. The authors identified various advanced services impacting a firm's overall revenue, profitability, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. This paper provides a conceptual framework for industrial manufacturers' basic and advanced services to understand their relationship with various performance parameters. This study also provides a direction for future research with individual advanced services and their value cocreation with customers.

This study aims to explore how different decision-making logics (DML) and organizational learning (OL) styles are used and combined by project managers to navigate the complexities of Digital Servitization (DS) and Digital Service Innovation (DSI) projects. Specifically, the research shows the impact and interplay between the two managerial levers OL and team-level DML, and how these influence and substitute each other.

It builds on a retrospective longitudinal study of project-level cases within a high-tech multinational company active in the aerospace industry and applies a systematic combining approach and narrative analysis of critical, decisive events. The research zooms in on the application of OL (i.e. adaptive versus generative learning) and DML (effectuation versus causation) while coping with the experienced complexity during the implementation process.

Teams seek relief from complexities during the DS/DSI journeys by combining different managerial levers over time. The paper develops a mid-range theory with propositions and outlines practical recommendations.

This study’s research limitations include its single-sector focus and reliance on a small number of case studies, which does not allow generalization across industries or different contexts. Future research should explore diverse industries and incorporate broader quantitative methods to validate the proposed managerial frameworks.

A framework describing how managers alternate DML and OL styles during their DS/DSI transitions is developed. Contrary to earlier belief, the alternations of logics and styles do not follow a “predetermined sequence” as planned but are developing rather in a flexible, recurrent and emergent manner.