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Due to the internationalization that has occurred during the past few decades, the living conditions of people around the island of Taiwan have gradually changed, especially their eating habits. Among them, the growth of the coffee market has been very significant. To date, many studies have been devoted to exploring the application of experiential marketing (EM) in a variety of industries. Many experimental results have proven that a positive brand image (BI) will lead to brand loyalty (BL). In services, the best at the practice of EM is Starbucks. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the role of BI in EM and BL for Taiwan’s most popular brand, Starbucks.

In the formal test stage, 225 questionnaires were given to respondents in Starbucks located in four districts (Da-An, Zhong-Zheng, Nei-Hu and Xi-Yin), which have many more stores than the other districts in Taipei City. Two hundred valid samples were obtained. This study used structural equation modelling (SEM) to validate the relationships among EM, BI and BL.

The findings show that EM cannot directly impact BL as expected, as it needs BI to do so. In other words, BI acts a complete mediator in the relationship between EM and BL.

In this study, BI acts a complete mediator. This means that if Starbucks expects to improve consumers’ loyalty to the brand, it only needs to rely on the good overall image of the brand. Facing such business style homogeneity, people need some available information to help them to execute their following purchase decisions. Though Starbucks can bring me to its locations, meaning that Starbucks has made its first move in comparison with other competitors, I still decide to leave without any impressive image of this brand. Accordingly, we can refer to BI as a powerful endorsement of a qualified relationship between EM and BL.

Compared to past studies on Taiwan’s/Taipei’s Starbucks, this paper simultaneously inputs EM, BI and BL into the model. Though Starbucks has achieved great EM success, this study finds that EM is no longer exclusive to BL, and BI is a powerful endorsement of a qualified relationship between EM and BL. For Starbucks, it must strengthen consumer perceptions of its BI to create customer loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to test the popular perception that the storefront location choices of premium brands are positively related to adjacent rents. Focusing on the case of Starbucks, a popular international coffee chain, the authors examine the association between Starbucks locations and rents in Manhattan, New York.

The authors use a multi-year data set for average rent per square foot for office and multifamily residential properties within 1/10th of a mile of several hundred coffee shop locations in Manhattan, controlling for vacancy, job density, overall amenity density (WalkScore), coffee shop density, transit accessibility, neighborhood and the Starbucks brand. The authors take two different methodological approaches to isolate potential statistical evidence for an association between Starbucks locations and adjacent rents: the authors run a pooled-cross-sectional model and apply propensity-score matching.

The authors find a statistically significant positive relationship between the presence of Starbucks and average office rents when applying the authors’ pooled-cross-sectional model and applying propensity-score matching. This finding is consistent with several potential causal hypotheses: Starbucks may be attributed to higher rent office locations; the “Starbucks effect” may cause higher rents in adjacent locations; or there may be a mutual reinforcing of positive feedback between Starbucks locations and office rents. The authors find no strong association between Starbucks and residential rents (one model indicates an effect of 2.3 percent on residential rent at 10 percent level of significance), which challenges the direct linearity of the consumption theory of gentrification popularly called the “Starbucks effect.”

In the literature, the existence, causality and directionality of a relationship between Starbucks locations and neighborhood change have been largely unstudied. In this paper, the authors test the hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between Starbucks locations and rents.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which the use of social media can support customer knowledge management (CKM) in organizations relying on a traditional bricks‐and‐mortar business model.

The paper uses a combination of qualitative case study and netnography on Starbucks, an international coffee house chain. Data retrieved from varied sources such as newspapers, newswires, magazines, scholarly publications, books, and social media services were textually analyzed.

Three major findings could be culled from the paper. First, Starbucks deploys a wide range of social media tools for CKM that serve as effective branding and marketing instruments for the organization. Second, Starbucks redefines the roles of its customers through the use of social media by transforming them from passive recipients of beverages to active contributors of innovation. Third, Starbucks uses effective strategies to alleviate customers' reluctance for voluntary knowledge sharing, thereby promoting engagement in social media.

The scope of the paper is limited by the window of the data collection period. Hence, the findings should be interpreted in the light of this constraint.

The lessons gleaned from the case study suggest that social media is not a tool exclusive to online businesses. It can be a potential game‐changer in supporting CKM efforts even for traditional businesses.

This paper represents one of the earliest works that analyzes the use of social media for CKM in an organization that relies on a traditional bricks‐and‐mortar business model.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate spiritual performance from the perspective of a globally operating corporation.

The paper uses spirituality at work as its subject‐matter and takes the form of a literature review. The paper approaches the topic by: giving a general overview of the shift in global corporate behavior; a short historical review of American business culture; defining workplace spirituality; examining Starbucks Corporation's performance from three angles: suppliers and societies, employees, and customers; and a conclusion and postscript.

The paper finds that: spiritual behavior at the organizational level does lead to enhanced corporate performance; workplace spirituality, when encouraged by top management, is oftentimes instigated by personal life experiences; and spiritual behavior, at the organizational level, leads to advantages for multiple stakeholders.

Limitations to the research are that the research findings were of a secondary nature. The information was gathered through massive readings, but not through primary research‐gathering processes. This study only reviews the performance of one major corporate entity, which reduces the justification of generalizability. Suggestions for future research would be: applying primary studies on a broader sample of globally operating entities to measure their spiritual performance; and formulating particular standards for this type of measurement.

The practical implications are that globally operating but also smaller entities may start scrutinizing their performance toward stakeholders in a more spiritual light.

New in this paper is the: viewpoint of the Starbucks corporation as a spiritually performing entity; reflection of this major corporation's behavior in three dimensions: toward employees, customers, and suppliers and societies; and reflection of the elements of the definition used here for spirit at work on Starbucks' performance.

Founded in 1971 and acquired by CEO Howard Schultz in 1987, Starbucks was an American success story. In forty years it grew from a single-location coffee roaster in Seattle, Washington to a multibillion-dollar global enterprise that operated more than 17,000 retail coffee shops in fifty countries and sold coffee beans, instant coffee, tea, and ready-to-drink beverages in tens of thousands of grocery and mass merchandise stores. However, as Starbucks moved into new market contexts as part of its aggressive growth strategy, the assets and activities central to its competitive advantage in its retail coffee shops were altered or weakened, which made it more vulnerable to competitive threats from both higher and lower quality entrants. The company also had to make decisions on vertical integration related to its expansion into consumer packaged goods.

Understand how strategy needs to be adapted to new contexts. Understand how to manage tradeoffs involved in growth. Be able to identify possible threats to competitive advantage as a result of growth.

By early 2009 Starbucks had nearly 17,000 stores worldwide, with about a third of these outside the United States. Despite multibillion-dollar annual revenues, the giant coffee retailer's yearly growth had declined by half, quarterly earnings had dropped as much as 97 percent, same-store sales were negative, and its stock price was languishing. Factors such as a global economic downturn and increasing competition in the specialty coffee market from large players such as McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts had driven this decline, resulting in the closings of hundreds of domestic stores already, with many more planned. Founder Howard Schultz, who had recently returned as CEO, and his executive team were convinced that Starbucks's growth opportunities lay overseas, where the firm already had a strong foothold in markets like Japan and the United Kingdom and was preparing to open hundreds of new stores in a variety of locations. But recent international challenges, including the closing of most Australian stores due to sluggish sales, made clear that Starbucks had more to learn about bringing its value proposition—a combination of premium coffee, superior service, and a “coffeehouse experience”—to foreign soil. The key question was not whether Starbucks could transport its value proposition overseas, but how the value proposition's three elements would play in recently entered and new markets. And the stakes of making the right international moves rose with each U.S. store closure. Schultz and his team also faced a broader question, one that applied to both their U.S. and foreign stores: Could they “grow big and stay small,” remaining a huge retailer that delivered both high-quality products and a consistently intimate and enjoyable experience to consumers worldwide? This case presents this challenge in the context of Starbucks's history, well-established value proposition, and domestic and international growth and vision.

The key objectives of the case focus on the successful growth of local city brand, to a country brand, to a global brand, leaving the questions: 1. How much more can it grow? 2. Can it? 3. What is the impact of new competitors in a given market and/or the impact of the global economy on discretionary spending by a loyal customer base? 4. How important is it to the sustain a brand's core value(s) proposition when innovating for new audiences and customer preferences?

The purpose of this paper is to examine how an international joint venture (IJV) company can efficiently develop a competitive international service strategy in the competitive global marketplace. Specifically, this study seeks to highlight the key antecedents related to the development of an international service strategy and its implementation through the case of the IJV of Starbucks Korea.

The case study method is used. A series of in-depth personal interviews with the CEO of Starbucks Korea, a marketing manager at Starbucks Korea, and outlet managers of Starbucks Korea were conducted. Furthermore, an array of secondary data and company documentation was reviewed to triangulate the findings of the study.

Several themes illuminating the development and implementation of a successful international service strategy in the case of an international joint venture are identified. It was found that one of the critical antecedents related to the successful international service strategy in the context of an IJV is the similarity of organizational values between the IJV partners. The similarity between the corporate values and missions of the two partners in Starbucks Korea has become a major impetus in the development of a competitive international service strategy for Starbucks Korea.

The findings of the study may not be applicable to other service firms since the study uses a single firm and a single country as its context.

The results of the study should help international service firms understand the importance of a successful international service strategy in the case of an international joint venture. Furthermore, the findings of the study illustrate the importance of understanding the local culture to develop a successful international service strategy.

This case describes the financial and non-financial performance of Starbucks, a large organisation provided as on 2007. Howard Schultz, the promoter and chairman of the corporation is disturbed by the decline in the performance of Starbucks, especially the dilution of customer experience. He is required to analyse what happened and adopt a course of action to strengthen Starbucks' performance vis a vis competitive attacks. The participants are required to analyse the situation, generate options for Starbucks and make recommendations for the future, including whether Jim Donald, the current incubent, needs to retained as the CEO of Starbucks.

Can the return of its founding CEO turn a lagging Starbucks around? Howard Shultz must map a strategy that addresses the company's decreasing sales and perhaps too rapid growth. Had the previous CEO's efforts to streamline operations compromised the Starbucks experience or was a changing economy to blame? Schultz considers whether to close existing stores, slow U.S. growth while expanding overseas, and improve the customer experience, which he believed had eroded the company's value proposition.

Following a report released by the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, multinational corporations like Starbucks, Google, and Amazon found themselves in a firestorm of criticism for not paying or paying minimal taxes after earning significant profits in the UK for the past three years. Allegations of tax evasion led to a serious crisis for Starbucks in the UK, which played out in a public forum via social media. The researchers explored whether Starbucks’ corporate ethics insulated its reputation from negative media coverage of alleged tax evasion evidenced in its “hijacked” social media “#spreadthecheer” campaign. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using an exploratory case study analysis of news articles, Starbucks’ annual reports, #spreadthecheer Tweets, and David Michelli’s The Starbucks Experience, data collection helped to inform the discussion of authenticity and whether it helped to insulate Starbucks’ reputation during its crisis in the UK.

Authenticity is key when organizations face a turbulent environment and active publics and stakeholder groups. Findings from this study also suggested proactive reputation management strategies and tactics, grounded in the organization’s corporate culture and transparency, could have diffused some of the uproar from its key publics.

Authentic corporate cultures should align with corporate business practices in order to reduce the potential for crises to occur. It is possible that ethical core values and a strong organizational approach to ethics help to insulate its reputation among publics during a crisis.