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Reviews product life cycle theory and examines empirical evidence. Reports on empirical research carried out to determine the applicability of the theory to popular record products. Proposes a framework of the relationship between the producer life cycle and the marketing mix.

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.

‘We have a problem with communications’ is probably the most common phrase that trainers come across in their needs analysis process. Consequently a vast amount of training effort is expended in the area of improving people's skills in how to communicate. What is neglected on the majority of courses is why people say and do things and especially why they react to a communication stimulus in a particular way. By analysing oneself it is possible to appreciate why some communication problems arise and Transactional Analysis by providing the framework for such an analysis is an important training tool in the search for improved communications.

This conclusion summarizes key insights from the former chapters, and highlights political dimensions of media use in digital everyday life. I particularly underline how our more digital everyday lives intensify communicative dilemmas, in which individuals in everyday settings negotiate with societal norms and power structures through their uses of media technologies. I also discuss how everyday media use connects us to different societal spheres and issues, also pointing to global challenges such as the pandemic and the climate crisis, arguing that everyday media use is key to our understandings of society. I discuss how to analyze this in media use research, emphasizing attention to processes of change and disruption.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the harmful effects of negative externality at both national and firm level by identifying practices that impact Malaysian Chinese ' s well-being in the form of work-life imbalance.

This paper adopts an emic approach using phenomenological enquiry to investigate what factors influence and shape work-life balance experience of Malaysian Chinese working adults. Emic approach, which takes into account elements that are indigenous to a particular culture, is useful to explore the uniqueness of the Malaysian context. Semi-structured interviews with six Malaysian Chinese working adults were conducted to understand their experience of work-life balance in the Malaysian Chinese context.

The findings highlight how contextual elements in the macro-environment (such as government legislation and policy, societal values, and practices) and the firm environment (owner and leadership values, superiors’ attitude) come together to shape the overall experience of work-life balance among Chinese Malaysians. The findings show that current work-life practices in Malaysia fall short in a number of ways, which ultimately leads to an unsustainable human resource position for Malaysian firms.

From a practical perspective the paper highlights the need to focus on employees’ work-life balance as a means to create sustainable and productive workplaces.

Given that the concept of work-life balance is grounded in western literature, it is important to explore the nature and relevance work-life balance in sustaining human resources in nonwestern, especially less developed business settings. Findings of this study contribute to the work-life literature by exploring the work-life balance experience in Malaysia through emic approach using a phenomenological lens. The findings identify a shortfall in sustainable people management arising through the interplay of unique negative externality multi-level contextual factors.

Omega Films Ltd. is a case study in negotiation theoretically based on Berne's Transactional Analysis which provides an objective analysis of a failure in a business negotiation situation from real life. It draws attention to the significance of interpersonal, emotional and cultural factors in negotiations. The story takes place in Hungary and the participants are three firms, the (Hungarian) Omega Films Ltd., the Holm PR‐Agency, which is owned by an Austrian citizen and Bau Ltd., an important subsidiary of an Austrian concern in Hungary. The case study can be used in courses relating to either business negotiations or inter‐personal relations and it works well with both MA and MBA students.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of a dialogical approach, associated with the Russian literary critic and philosopher Bakhtin, in understanding the portrayal of managerial identity in management narratives. In particular, it applies these ideas critically to understand how managers' identities are partly shaped by the dominant discourse or idea about what a manager should “be.”

The paper draws on three written narratives of managers. It applies a dialogical approach to consider how they position themselves interactionally in the narratives in such a way as to highlight a managerial identity based on being “enterprising” and “for change,” while simultaneously voicing alternative identities negatively. The use of the written narratives of managers and the application of a dialogical approach is an important contribution to the literature.

The findings suggest that managers, when reflecting on organizational events through narrative, assume a managerial identity that reflects current dominant discourse about what a manager should “be.” In doing so they reject other possible discourses that offer alternatives, not only to managerial “being,” but also to what management and organizations might reflect and represent. The paper also, however, recognizes that some managers reject this identity and its implications for organizational activity.

The paper suggests that managerial identity is partly a product of a dominant discursive/ideological formation rather than individual choice. Although managers may reject this interpellation creating an alternative is constrained by the regime of truth that prevails about what management is at any given time. The approach might be considered overly deterministic in its view of managerial identity.

The paper extends the understanding of managerial identity and how it is portrayed through narrative by using a dialogical approach to interpretation.

This chapter investigates sidewalk sociability and neighborhood use, by focusing on the regular encounter of a group of retired men to play cards on their neighborhood’s main street. Direct and ethnographic observations were used on one Lisbon suburban working and lower middle-classes residential district.

Sidewalk card-playing is understood as “focused gathering” (Goffman, 1971a) and this concept discloses the social organization of a public gaming held encounter and the specific rules created to regulate interactions between players and their audience. The sidewalk sociability effects produced by card-playing are interpreted as originating from “triangulation stimuli” (Lofland, 1998; Whyte, 2002) and “sociability pillar” construction (Charmés, 2006).

Card-playing encounters are discussed in detail as a practical and symbolical neighborhood-use (Blokland, 2003) enacted by an elder-men peer-group. Research underscores the relationship between the elderly peer-group members’ practices and the neighborhood’s public space appropriation, their public characters’ attributes (Jacobs, 1972) and behavior, and social construction of a sidewalk small social place. Among aged peer-group members, sidewalk card-playing accounts for an increase in social and psychological benefits, ranging from social contacts to memories self-expression, derived either from the gaming situation or from its pervasive sociability.

For the past four decades, there is no evidence of a consensus on the suitable community-based rehabilitation (CBR) evaluation methodologies. To this end, the purpose of this study is to provide a narrative review on CBR evaluations and the potential of photovoice method when used alone and when used in combination with quality of life assessment tools as CBR evaluation methodologies.

A narrative review was undertaken, but including some aspects of scoping review methodology.

Thirty-three full-text articles were included for review. Three key findings were an overview of the evolution of CBR evaluation; the use of photovoice method in CBR evaluation and the use of photovoice method in combination with quality of life assessment tools in CBR evaluation.

Photovoice methodology was found to be participatory in nature and as has the potential to elicit the experiences of persons with disabilities. However, photovoice falls short of measuring the quality of life of persons with disabilities, thus will need to be collaborated with another assessment tool. A combination of photovoice and World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF and WHOQOL-Dis assessment has a potential to give an adequate representation of the voices of persons with disabilities and their quality of life.

There is need for changes in CBR evaluation methodologies in response to the evolution of disability models from medical model to human rights model. Thus CBR evaluation methodologies should embrace the diversity among persons with disabilities in interpreting life experiences and quality of life.

The case portrays an actual organization, real people and an authentic marketing situation. Both primary and secondary data were used to develop the case. Interviews with the company’s founders were a major source of primary data. Email exchanges with the company’s leadership were used to verify and elucidate details within the case and instructor’s manual. Other primary data included direct observations of how maize was milled, sold in the marketplaces and cooked into various staple foods. Secondary data about the company were obtained from the company’s website, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and articles in the press. Information on the company’s operating environment was derived from published government reports. The authors also drew on secondary data about the statistics, practices and issues involved in maize production and the agro-processing industry in Ghana.

This case features Sahel Grains Ltd, an agro-processing company based in Ghana, West Africa, striving to grow its maiden product, Faast Mmori. This ready-to-cook corn dough provides a more hygienic and convenient way of preparing local meals, compared to the traditional method, which involves taking maize grain to the local mill facilities and paying to have it milled before cooking. Alternatively, consumers purchase corn dough from the markets to make traditional meals. Since the company launched the product in Kumasi in 2018, sales have grown with the augmented street sales promotion and expanded distribution in premium supermarkets such as Shoprite and Citydia. However, starting in November 2020, the sales seemed to plateau with dwindling new customers, and the monthly dough sales in Kumasi dropped for the first time in December 2020. Although the sales regained positive growth, they then started to lose momentum.

In this scenario, Kofi, the CEO and co-founder, is considering marketing strategies to catalyze growth. Students assume the role of Kofi and are asked to recommend growth strategies to move the company forward. In doing so, they must scan the market environment and analyze the product’s market positioning. More importantly, they are challenged to develop strategies for managing growth.

This case is intended for undergraduate students in an introductory course in marketing, management, entrepreneurship and business in general. It introduces students to key marketing concepts, such as market environment scanning, positioning, product life cycle and market growth strategy.