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Over time, the concept of word of mouth (WOM) has spread beyond marketing into other disciplines. This is because WOM is important in decision-making at both the individual and organisational levels. Also, people are more likely to trust recommendations from their peers than those from companies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived usefulness of WOM messages for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers in participating in Tanzanian public procurement opportunities.

The study collected cross-sectional data from 214 SME suppliers who supply common use items to public procuring organisations in Dodoma City, Tanzania. Structural equation modelling was used to test the direct relationships between study variables, and Hayes' PROCESS macro was used to test for the indirect effect of WOM message delivery on WOM attributes and the perceived usefulness of WOM.

WOM attributes that include expertise differential, perceptual homophily, and trustworthiness are related to the perceived usefulness of WOM. Also, WOM message delivery mediates the relationship between the WOM attributes and the perceived usefulness of WOM in enhancing public procurement participation. Therefore, the study's findings revealed that WOM is applicable in the public procurement context, under which public buyers act as senders and suppliers act as receivers. The latter finds out about public procurement opportunities and responds to them, while the former gives suppliers whatever information they need to respond to public procurement tenders that have been advertised.

Because the study was cross-sectional, it was difficult to determine whether the opinions gathered over time remained consistent. Furthermore, only suppliers who are parties to framework contracts under Government Procurement Services Agency were included in the study. Therefore, the sample was limited to only suppliers supplying common use items to various public organisations in Dodoma City, Tanzania.

This paper integrates the concept of WOM from the marketing discipline and public procurement. As a result, the study adds to the understanding of the use of information transmission in terms of the contribution of WOM messages from public buyers to suppliers to enhance small and medium enterprises' participation in public procurement opportunities.

Entrepreneurship Small Business Management.

BBA first-year students. The case is positioned at the beginning of the course.

Uzma, 25 years, enrolled in the MBA program of a prestigious university of Pakistan and owner of Baker Street, was accustomed to a hectic routine; preparing the orders, sometimes even dropping them at customers doorsteps, university classes, assignments and reports. The only thing which she felt missing from her busy life was good sleep and a great time with her family. Brand Baker Street was developed to provide baking solution to upper echelons for special occasions. The big, moist, chewy, gourmet cookies; rich and gooey brownies; the most decadent, indulgent cookie cakes/brownie cakes; and a lot more other things were developed to create unforgettable moments. Her aim after graduation was to convert her dream of opening a café into a reality. Uzma wondered whether the time was right and most importantly was she ready.

The case aims to teach the following concepts: female entrepreneurship, its potential and barriers; entrepreneurial marketing; and identify and analyze different variables involved in setting up a small baking business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This viewpoint paper is based on consultancy project in developing strategic marketing plan for building a professional recording studio in Bandung, Indonesia. Nonetheless, previous studies that scrutinize the key success factors in music recording studio industry are noticeably lacking, whereas music artists still rely heavily on recording studio providers to record their music and distribute it to the market. Hence, finding out the critical success factors (CSF) can help recording studio to craft strategic marketing plan within effective and efficient budget. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Methods carried out in this study are based on triangulation which comprises of primary observation, interviews to experts in the respective field, and literature reviews regarding CSF, service quality and service excellence. Five years of primary observations took place in five studios on two major cities in Indonesia which are Bandung and Jakarta of which many prominent musicians were originated. The interviews were conducted to six respondents who have more than ten years of experience in music industry, and have produced at least two albums through professional music recording processes in music studios including recording, mixing, and mastering.

It is found that by exploiting the conceptual theories of service quality and service excellence as the foundations, there are primarily three critical factors in music recording studio industry in Indonesia which are human resources development in primarily technical aspects, communication skills, and servicescapes which involve the recording facilities and also the studio surroundings.

This study only took samples from five studios, two major cities in Indonesia and limited experts opinion. Nevertheless, confirmatory study is expected in the future in order to gain deeper insights or other additional point of view in determining CSF in the recording studio industry. This paper, however, has contributed to the existing literature of service quality, service excellence, and CSF in a narrow scope of industry which is music recording studio.

Managers who wish to start a recording studio business must look deeply into these three critical factors to address the budget effectively and efficiently in initial investment of the studio. Through this study it can be observed that music studio as a service firm can still focus on creating critical values to strive even though the music industry landscape has been deteriorated due to piracy and the development of technology. It is expected that through this study, by understanding the CSF, managers in music recording studio can focus on creating value effectively and efficiently in recording studio business.

This study contributes to fill the gap of empirical discussion in determining CSF in the music recording studio business in Indonesia in the context of service quality and service excellence, which has not been examined by previous scholars.

This paper aims to gain an understanding of the nature and extent of the practice of “public relations” in history.

The paper uses an analysis of popular narratives (in particular rumour, legend and myth) to inform a detailed case study of Glastonbury abbey in the medieval period.

Glastonbury Abbey worked in partnership with the Crown to develop a detailed promotional campaign based on powerful narratives. As a consequence it was able to grow to become one of the wealthiest communities in the country. The Crown, meanwhile, consolidated its position by being able to engender a whole national “brand” around the mythical corpus.

Methodologically, using folklore and other popular narrative material is useful as to an extent it is outside official control, but also provides information about the story tellers and the audiences.

The research builds on Watson's recent work on St Swithun and Winchester, taking the ideas forward several hundred years (and finding many of the same patterns). It finds new developments in terms of co‐branding and brand revivals.

Considers which interactive marketing behaviours will result in the broadest word‐of‐mouth or the largest volume of new client referrals. Suggests that the intensity and variety of client participation during the service delivery process is predictive of positive word‐of‐mouth and referrals. Reports on a study examining participation during service delivery which highlighted four key factors – tangibility, attendance, empathy and meaningful interaction. Maintains that these results support interactive marketing management in the field of complex services and can help the creation of a specific service delivery system.

Examines the importance of the verbal exchange of positive and negative information about a firm′s products and services. Presents suggestions for learning what is being said and how to gain systematic control over the word of mouth process. Suggests a model of this process, including interpersonal communications among a variety of stakeholder groups. Highlights the case of the hospitality industry, but makes suggestions of use to all service businesses.

Defines the pester power phenomenon as the repeated delivery of unwanted requests, arguing however that this is not the main driving influence in purchasing behaviour. Shows instead that a large number of highly successful products, notably Harry Potter, became popular not through marketing but via word‐of‐mouth, and the staying power (or stickiness) of a product like Pokemon illustrates the importance of social learning. Recounts the experiment of Stanley Milgram’s chain letter, and the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, which shows the amount of connectedness in society. Relates this to diffusion research is central to word‐of‐mouth marketing, and also mentions viral marketing and coolhunting, both of which involve word‐of‐mouth.

The quality of service delivery and maintenance of service performance relationships potentially depend on the extent to which service providers and service receivers share similar beliefs about a service and its delivery. Congruent expectations facilitate maintenance of service relationships, while disparate cognitions of expectations encumber and work toward terminating relationships (switching behavior). An empirical investigation of service switching in a child‐care setting reveals that highly educated child‐care consumers place more importance on the service encounter, and are more likely to engage in negative word‐of‐mouth about the service in the event of failure. However, in terms of service switching, the perceptions of child‐care providers are significantly different from those of consumers when attributing causes of switching, and examining post‐switching behavior. Provides practical implications for childcare providers, and service providers, in general.

Word‐of‐mouth (WOM) marketing has become a key focus for many organisations. However, little research has sought to identify the dimensionality of WOM. The present research project aims to describe the development of a 12‐item measure that can be used to assess WOM at an individual message level for positive and negative WOM and among givers and receivers of WOM.

The research includes four studies, a qualitative focus group phase and quantitative phases involving surveys of over 2,000 consumers representing givers and receivers of positive and negative WOM.

Three distinct dimensions emerged. Two (cognitive content and richness of content) reflect the composition of the message, while the third, termed strength of delivery, reflects the manner of delivery. The scale has strong psychometric properties and was found to be generalisable in the four contexts – sending positive/negative messages and receiving positive/negative messages.

The authors addressed consumers' WOM messages solely in a one‐to one‐context. The results cannot automatically be extended to a variety of other media, which requires future research. Further, the authors did not test the measure in a goods context.

The scale has a variety of potential applications and can serve as a framework for further empirical research in this important area.

While much previous research on WOM relates to the sending of positive WOM, this scale has applicability across four WOM contexts, positive and negative giving and positive and negative receiving.