Search results

The paper's aim is to explain historical methodology in a marketing context.

The paper draws on the author's personal experience, being trained in the history method and using the historical method.

An awareness of time contexts and complex change is essential, so too is an appreciation of primary sources (as defined by historians). Reading the present into the past (anachronism) is to be avoided, and the interpretation and explanation of events are essential to good history.

The paper represents the author's own personal experience.

Using the German book trade as a case example, the aim of the paper is to show how the evolution of segmentation began with increasingly sophisticated marketing practice long before formal thought was developed to explain matters.

The paper's approach is a careful and critical examination of exclusively primary sources.

Marketing practice developed increasingly sophisticated segmentation over the 100 years before there was formal marketing thought about it. Marketing thought developed in part because the growth of universities stimulated the development of formal disciplines, and in part because businesspeople wanted to accelerate learning what they should do to grow their businesses.

The paper is based on an in‐depth examination of one of the first businesses to adopt aggressive marketing.

During the 1920s and into the 1930s, German‐language work on consumer behavior led the world; for example, segmentation was clearly discussed from the late 1920s. The purpose of this paper is to show how marketing thought in Germany and Austria reached a peak even as the environmental substructure that sustained it was being seriously eroded by political and economic changes that forever consigned it to a peripheral position upon the world stage.

The design of the study is a critical historical one relying heavily upon documents produced during the period discussed. Statements are weighed and evaluated.

The paper finds that very impressive, at times world‐leading, work was being done in the 1920s and early 1930s, particularly in the areas of segmentation and what would later become known as consumer behavior. Much of what later became known as Motivation Research, or example, was pioneered in Germany and Austria before 1934.

The primary implication is that a great deal of marketing thought developed outside the USA, sometimes drawing upon US marketing thought, in other cases developing completely independently. A second implication is that marketing thought can be weakened by political and economic conditions, as Germany and Austria painfully experienced.

This is the first study to explore historical German and Austrian marketing thought in a cross‐cultural manner, comparing and contrasting them with thought developed elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to show how 1940s and 1950s motivation research laid the foundations of present day consumer behavior as a discipline.

This research uses standard historical methodology – heavy reliance upon primary sources, avoidance of anachronism, heavy use of contemporary quotations, and effort to explain and interpret.

Using sociology, anthropology, and clinical psychology to explain how and why consumers buy, motivation research provided business with valuable information, and, in the long run, began today's consumer behavior field of study.

This paper offers a different view of motivation research, stressing its use of sociology and anthropology. It offers a corrective to the prevailing over‐emphasis on Ernest Dichter.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the beginning of the controversy over subliminal advertising in late 1957, as news of a supposedly successful commercial test of subliminal advertising became widely disseminated. The paper investigates the test and the reactions to it.

The paper reviews many contemporary accounts of the events described, and pieces together a coherent description and interpretation of what happened. This is of course standard historical methodology.

The primary finding is that many reactions to subliminal advertising were fearful and wildly overblown – and have continued to be so down to the present despite no proof that subliminal advertising is effective. The deep roots of the fear are best explained by the paranoid and fearful intellectual climate in the USA.

The originality of the paper lies in its thorough review of original sources, and in its explanation of why the fear of subliminal advertising became so intense.

Process orientation is important for improving organizational performance. The process view is considered a key enabler of digital transformation, and thus management control systems (MCS) are expected to incorporate this view. However, the existing body of knowledge is fragmented, as different process approaches are often considered independently following a reductionist view of control practices. This paper aims to provide recommendations for further research as well as guidance for practice by a systematic review of the state of research of MC for process orientation. It is based on both a comprehensive view to MC using an MCS package approach and a comprehensive view of process orientation.

A systematic literature review addressing major types of process orientation approaches was performed by applying the comprehensive MC framework of Malmi and Brown. The results were synthesized and propositions were developed.

All components of the MC framework, as well as MCS packages, are highly relevant for process orientation. Propositions regarding configurations of MC for process orientation show directions for future research. However, comprehensive considerations of packages and of individual components, especially cultural controls, remain scarce in the literature.

To the best of the authors‘ knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive, structured overview of MC for process orientation, applying a nonreductionist view, based on an MCS Package approach, and consolidating the so far fragmented view of different process approaches.

Managerial interpersonal skills (MIPS) are widely considered important for management development, yet the nature of MIPS has eluded researchers. The purpose of this paper is to propose five MIPS core skills, giving attention to the role of context, the relationship of MIPS to traits, and implications for training design, assessment and evaluation.

The authors interweave a discussion forum of domain experts (Hillary Anger-Elfenbein, Timothy Baldwin, Paulo Lopes, Bronston T. Mayes, Ronald Riggio, Robert Rubin and David Whetten) with research commentary and implications for management development. The discussion focussed on: first, how do we define MIPS? Second, how important is context for defining, assessing or developing MIPS? Third, are MIPS traits, or skills that can be developed?

The authors propose MIPS include five core skills that sequentially build upon one another: managing-self, communicating, supporting, motivating and managing conflict. Although context may impact the importance of each skill across cultures, situations and jobs, the authors offer these skills as a useful starting point for MIPS assessment, training design and evaluation.

The proposed five core skill model for MIPS needs further research and psychometric validation.

By proposing MIPS include five specific trainable skills that are relevant across contexts, this paper advances MIPS research, assessment and development.

Looks into sexual harassment complaints at Mitsubishi Motors in Illinois, USA, which could become the largest sexual harassment case in US history with nearly 500 female plaintiffs eligible to receive a total amount of US$150 million in compensation and damages. Mentions other foreign companies operating in the USA, which have been charged with violation of employee rights. Mentions Employment Practices Liability insurance, which protects companies against the costs of workers winning damages in cases of discrimination or wrongful discharge. Attributes some of these employee abuse problems to the lack of flow of information within a company’s communication network. Points out that most companies have got downward communication from top management to employees sorted out, but that other forms of communication are lacking. Suggests that this might be due to control, incompetence, lack of understanding and unfairness when dealing with various societal groups – all of which can cost organizations a load of money, particularly in the litigious USA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the Conferences on Historical Analysis & Research in Marketing (CHARM) from their inception in 1983 through 2007 focusing on the influence of Stanley C. Hollander, who co‐founded the CHARM conference and whose drive and determination fueled its growth for the first 20 years.

This study uses traditional historical narrative based on personal interviews, archival research, and content analysis of CHARM Proceedings.

The history of CHARM is described and Hollander's role in developing the conference is highlighted.

There is no written history of CHARM. This story is a major part of Hollander's legacy.