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The increasing importance of corporate social responsibility in recent years has been largely discussed, mainly as a part of business strategies to cope with growing environmental challenges. Discourses regarding corporate social responsibility intensified with the emergence of financial crisis. Many of these debates refer to the role CSR plays in society and reasons for a company to involve in supporting social causes in times of crisis.

Social marketing is based on general marketing principles and strategies aimed at selling products and services to consumers with the purpose of changing an existing action; changing individual or group behavior, attitudes or beliefs; and reinforcing desired behaviors. The purpose of the study is to assess the acceptance of social marketing by librarians in post-Communist Romania within the context of this country's efforts to adopt democratic values into its social system. The study also uses the social marketing concept as an idea that requires change in attitudes and behaviors about the nature of librarianship. In so doing, it can be used as means of understanding the willingness of Romanian librarians to accept change. During the Communist regime, the librarians acted as tools that supported the dissemination of the totalitarian government's views. Fifteen years after the collapse of Communism they continue the struggle to implement principles of participatory management. However, visible changes in Romanian librarians’ mentalities, attitudes, and behaviors are still to come. A group of 74 librarians in attendance at a conference responded to a survey questionnaire based on the Social Marketing Scale (SMS) designed to determine the participants’ acceptance and willingness to support social marketing within their institutions. Results reveal that on the surface, social marketing was rejected by the sample group studied. The study suggests that, if social marketing is to play a role in Romanian librarianship, Romanian librarians must first accept the concept that libraries are important institutions and that libraries play a vital role in a democratic society. Once Romanian society begins to perceive the library as an information agency, knowledge and experience in social marketing must be gained so that the administrative and institutional will to pursue social marketing can be encouraged. Romanian libraries continue the process of redefining themselves within the country's transition to a civil society.

Developing countries in the former Soviet-bloc region have received little attention by Western researchers of libraries. This study attempts to broaden this limited knowledge concerning librarianship in Eastern Europe by offering some insight into the culture of Romanian libraries and the Romanian librarians’ readiness for change as they faced and continue to face the transition from an autocratic cultural and governmental system to a more open and democratic society with Romania's admission to the European Union as of 1 January 2007. The study uses “social marketing” as one means of ascertaining the degree to which Romanian librarians are willing to accept change.

In this essay, two purposes are of importance. One is to frame anti consumption as a social marketing issue on micro and macro levels. The second is to set forth dance as a persuasive element in anti consumption social marketing strategy, which heretofore has been under utilized and under theorized.

This essay draws from relevant existing literature in social marketing and builds and extends dance theory in television ads to conceptualize dance as a viable consumer culture aesthetic in anti consumption social marketing campaigns.

Effectively employing dance images in anti consumption social marketing campaigns may contribute to redesigning of the self-image and identity of consumers. Moreover, through linkages of positive behaviors to dance celebrations and rituals, aligned with an overall social marketing campaign, dance may facilitate reduction of negative consumption behaviors.

Social marketers’ strategic success in high involvement behavior change depends in part on the target audience’s favorable response to message processing. The social marketing field encompasses a variety of such behaviors that if changed, improves both society as a whole, and the lives of individuals.

There are three aspects of value and originality in this contribution. They include forwarding anti consumption as a social marketing issue in consumer culture; theorizing dance as a somato-visceral and kinesthetic approach to anti consumption social marketing behavior change; and demonstrating dance as a positive persuasive element that can reside within the boundaries of social marketing ethics.

Marketing is an important component of libraries and other information centres. In the past, few approaches where used for marketing library collections and services. However, the use of social media tools in marketing library collection and services have over the past many years promise to be an important channel for marketing library collections and services. The purpose of this chapter therefore is to dig answers on the challenges and opportunities of using social media technologies in marketing library services and collections in 21st century environment. The chapter start with a snapshot overview of the importance of marketing library services and collection, highlight social media tools that can be used for marketing library collection and services. In addition, the chapter examines and presents the challenges facing libraries and other information centres in marketing the collection and services in 21st century environment. The methodology that will be used for this chapter is literature review comprising of journal articles, books, conference papers and newspapers articles.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insight and analysis into E-commerce in China and how it has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society. Split into four distinct sections, the book first lays out the theoretical foundations and fundamental concepts of E-Business before moving on to look at internet+ innovation models and their applications in different industries such as agriculture, finance and commerce. The book then provides a comprehensive analysis of E-business platforms and their applications in China before finishing with four comprehensive case studies of major E-business projects, providing readers with successful examples of implementing E-Business entrepreneurship projects.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.

This chapter is a descriptive study of digital marketing to stimulate electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) through the social impact of content creation. This chapter firstly introduces the background, concept, and development of e-WOM. Secondly, discuss the relationship between digital marketing and e-WOM. Finally, make recommendations for the business. In the discussion of the relationship between digital marketing and e-WOM, this chapter expounds the social impact of content-generating, one of the essential means in digital marketing. It discusses the relationship between social impact and e-WOM. This chapter can provide references and the basis for exploring the relationship between digital marketing and e-WOM.

HR professionals have identified the power of information sharing for employer branding that could be obtained through the rapid growth of social media usage. The growing interest in and power of social media seem to be important for companies that want to make themselves known as interesting employers and to recruit prospective employees, using techniques that are more common to job seekers and recruiters. This study aims to explore the immediate future of employer branding through social media, as envisioned by academics and HR practitioners.

To look into the future of employer branding, we use the Delphi technique for forecasting, planning, issue identification, and framework development (Bobeva & Day, 2002). Two groups of respondents participated in this three-part study: 11 academics and 20 HR professionals. They were selected because of their research into the integration of HRM and IT from the e-HRM Global mailing list. The panelists participated in the research via electronic communication. The data were collected in three rounds from November 2010 to April 2011.

Research has revealed differences in the opinions of academics and HR professionals on the impact of social media on employer branding. The academics see its general effect as the targeting of audience for recruitment, marketing/company brand, and ways of communication/HR competencies. The practitioners see the image of the employer, visibility of the company, and organization responsiveness. The study presents other findings within the boundaries of employer branding value proposition, internal and external marketing, and the role of HR professionals. According to the academics, HR professionals in the future will need to possess knowledge about marketing and communication studies and web-based applications/develop new skills. They think that social media will impact the image of HR in organizations. On the other hand, HR professionals think that the future of their activities will depend on their awareness of recruitment trends, HR innovative thinking, and HR networking skills. Although the object of their activity will remain recruitment, HR professionals will have to be continuously updated on what is new in the social media in terms of recruitment.

This study presents the results of the Delphi technique, which is itself considered an original research method and not widely accepted in the tough “publish or perish” world. The value of the research is its forecast about the future developments of employer branding through social media, as envisioned by academics and HR practitioners.

The aims of this article are threefold. First of all, to show the concept of value to customers as a determiner of a company’s competitive advantage. Second, to explain the changing role of marketing activities toward social responsibility. Third, to assess the influence of social marketing activities on a company’s image and the resulting value to customers.

By drawing on existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and marketing literature, the achievements and gaps of socially responsible marketing (SRM) can be demonstrated. In addition, the literature review focuses on showing the relationship between SRM and value to a customer. In order to achieve the purposes of the chapter, an analysis of market research based on secondary data as well as qualitative interviews has been conducted.

Marketing activities should accomplish both economic and social objectives as well as aim at delivering expected value to customers. Nowadays value comes not only from lower prices or a better product range. According to research, customers are becoming increasingly sensitive to evil and to social injustice, damage to the environment, as well as the increasing level of poverty. This makes companies develop new strategies for creating value for customers. These should come from socially responsible activities the company is undertaking. Thus, companies, which implement a concept of SRM, are more likely to count on increased interest and loyalty from their customers.

This chapter offers a fresh approach to the study of the evolution of marketing toward social responsibility and the impact on the value for customers.