Abstract

With the continuous development of technology, traditional marketing methods no longer meet the needs of the main forces of social consumption, and people urgently need more innovative and personalized marketing strategies. E-commerce companies must develop a comprehensive customer-oriented marketing strategy based on big data and multi-channel to achieve their long-term healthy development. This paper first investigated the impact of the digital economy on e-commerce enterprises, focused on the transformation of the digital economy on the marketing model, expounded the development analysis of e-commerce in the digital economy era, and described the development trend of e-commerce marketing in the digital economy era. Then, this paper expounded the current problems faced by e-commerce enterprises, and discussed the lack of integrity, homogeneity, large-scale marketing strategies, and the lack of analysis and application of big data. After that, this paper put forward the marketing strategy of e-commerce enterprises in the digital economy era, and studied it from three aspects, namely, building a reasonable product management structure, marketing strategy based on customized marketing content, and social media marketing strategy based on information sharing. Then this paper proposed to use genetic algorithm to strengthen the marketing strategy of e-commerce enterprises. Finally, based on experiments and surveys, this paper used genetic algorithms to strengthen the construction of e-commerce enterprise marketing strategy in the digital economy, and concluded that the new e-commerce enterprise marketing strategy was 21% more satisfactory than the traditional new e-commerce enterprise marketing strategy. Through comparison, it can see that the integrity of the marketing plan of the new e-commerce enterprise’s marketing strategy was 0.33 higher than that of the traditional e-commerce enterprise’s marketing strategy, and the integrity of the promotion strategy was 0.34 higher than that of the traditional e-commerce enterprise’s marketing strategy. After using the new e-commerce enterprise marketing strategy, the improved management structure was 0.29 higher than that of the traditional monitoring system, and the high quality of products was 0.18 higher than that of the traditional system.

Introduction

Electronic commerce is the combination of Internet information technology and traditional offline business activities. With the development and maturity of Internet technology, e-commerce continues to grow. Its concept, connotation and meaning evolve gradually with the evolution of technology and actual e-commerce activities. From a historical perspective and combined with the development of information technology, the evolution of the concept of e-commerce can provide a new perspective for observing the development of new forms of e-commerce. In 2023, the Ministry of Commerce implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council to accelerate the development of the digital economy, promote the important role of e-commerce in restoring and expanding consumption, promoting the integration of data and reality, and deepening international cooperation, and achieve positive results in high-quality development. With the rapid development of the digital economy, e-commerce enterprises have also experienced a golden age of development. Through the analysis and research of relevant industry data, it is not difficult to find that e-commerce business cannot be separated from a large number of consumers. E-commerce enterprises can develop normally with enough consumers. In order to survive in the highly competitive market, e-commerce enterprises must make full use of advanced big data analysis technology and formulate marketing strategies suitable for the development of e-commerce enterprises. Main contribution: This article mainly focuses on the research of marketing strategies related to e-commerce enterprises in the context of big data, and proposes corresponding improvement strategies. Objective: This article aims to promote the healthy and long-term development of e-commerce enterprises in the context of big data through improved marketing strategies based on this foundation.

Conclusions

Currently, how to promote their own development through effective marketing strategies has become an important issue that e-commerce enterprises need to pay attention to in the context of big data. This article mainly studies the marketing strategy related issues of e-commerce enterprises with big data as the background, and proposes corresponding improvement strategies. This article aims to promote the healthy and long-term development of e-commerce enterprises in the context of big data through improved marketing strategies based on this foundation. To sum up, in the new economic era, the marketing strategy of enterprises is very important. The fierce competition between enterprises requires enterprises to constantly innovate, change marketing strategies and maximize market space. Therefore, every enterprise should strive to implement marketing strategies in an innovative spirit. Only by constantly changing marketing strategies and actively adapting to the needs of economic development can enterprises stand out from the competition. E-commerce companies are shifting from single and large-scale marketing strategies to homogeneous and diversified marketing strategies. E-commerce companies need to establish accurate integrated marketing based on big data, customer-oriented and multi-channel to survive and develop in the future competition. The development of genetic algorithms has led to exponential growth in the direct to consumer personal genetic testing industry (such as 23andMe, Ancestry, Microgenes, 23Rubik’s Cube, etc.), resulting in the formation of a vast private genetic database. The author explores the potential impact of genetic algorithms on the field of e-commerce. Based on the results of behavioral GA research, the author proposes to incorporate the influence of genetic factors into the existing theoretical research framework of e-commerce, and use this to examine the potential market applications of genetic algorithms. Genetic research design can be used to test causal relationships, and consumer theory can be improved by revealing the biological mechanisms of behavior. In the future, the author will further evaluate the moral and ethical challenges related to corporate autonomy, privacy, and discrimination, and propose a future research agenda.

Abstract

     We study the inter-temporally optimal innovation strategies of incumbent manufacturing firms that compete in an established market and can extend their product line through product innovation. Firms invest in production capacity and R&D knowledge stock, where the R&D knowledge stock and the current R&D investment determine the hazard rate of innovation. Our findings show that the firms’ optimal R&D strategies are driven by a subtle interplay between the relative positions of their R&D knowledge stocks and their current relative positions on the established market. First, we find that under symmetric investment costs the knowledge leader should spend more on R&D than the knowledge laggard only if it has a substantially smaller market share on the established market. If the knowledge leader’s market share is sufficiently large, its optimal investment in R&D is so small that its innovation rate is lower than the knowledge laggard’s. Second, optimal investment in R&D knowledge is negatively affected by the opponent’s production capacity on the established market if the competitor has not innovated yet. However, we find that this effect is reversed after the competitor has successfully introduced the new product on the submarket. Third, the manufacturing firm with higher costs of adjusting production capacity for the established product has a higher incentive to engage in product innovation and might even achieve a higher total discounted profit than its more efficient competitor.

Introduction

     A considerable fraction of product innovations in related submarkets is accomplished by established incumbents (e.g. Buensdorf, 2016, Chandy, Tellis, 2000, Franco, Sarkar, Agarwal, Echambadi, 2009, King, Tucci, 2002, Sood, Tellis, 2011). This observation raises the question how an incumbent’s optimal strategy in an R&D race depends on its strength on its established market. To illustrate, in 2010 when Apple and Samsung introduced Tablet PCs and thus created a new submarket that coexisted with the established market of portable computers, they had relatively small market shares on the Laptop market (3.4% and 2.8% respectively) compared to Hewlett Packard and Dell (18% and 12% respectively). Interestingly, HP and Dell entered the Tablet market much later in 2013.1 In the market for smartphones, Nokia, as the clear market leader in the early 2000s (market share 2005: 32.5%), introduced its first touchscreen phone in 2011, while its initially smaller competitor Samsung (market share 2005: 12.7%) introduced its first smartphone with a touchscreen in 2008. As a result, Samsung achieved a higher market share in 2012 and also exhibited strongly positive dynamics of profit in the smartphone market compared to Nokia.

Conclusions

     In real-world markets, action-reaction or increasing dominance patterns of innovation can be observed. Under action-reaction, the smaller incumbent manufacturing firm in the established market becomes the innovation leader in the new market. Under increasing dominance, the dominant incumbent manufacturing firm in the established market also dominates the new market. In this paper, we develop a stochastic duopoly framework in order to highlight some of the drivers that endogenously lead to one of these patterns of innovation in equilibrium. In particular, we study the factors that determine the incentives of incumbent firms to invest in the development of a new product which extends their product range. Our dynamic setting particularly emphasizes the interplay between the firms’ relative positions in terms of their R&D knowledge stocks and their relative strengths on the market for the established product. We explicitly take into account that the adjustment of production capacities as well as the build-up of R&D knowledge are costly and take time.

Abstract

     Research offers some indication that the online customers’ shopping experience (OCSE) can be a strong predictor of online impulsive buying behavior, but there is not much empirical support available to form a holistic understanding; whether, and indeed how, the effects of the OCSE on online impulsive buying behavior are affected by customers’ attitudinal loyalty and self-control are not well understood areas of research. In this study, we examine how functional and psychological dimensions of the OCSE influence online impulsive buying within e-commerce platforms. We will investigate customers’ attitudinal loyalty as a mediator between the OCSE and online impulsive buying behavior, and the customers’ self-control as a moderator between customers’ attitudinal loyalty and online impulsive buying. To analyze these relationships we will conduct an online survey (n = 1489) with customers of two leading Chinese e-commerce platforms: Jindong and Taobao. The findings from structural equation modeling indicate a positive relationship between the tested dimensions of the OCSE and customers’ online impulsive buying. We also find a mediating role of customers’ attitudinal loyalty and negative moderation of customers’ self-control. Theoretically, the findings contribute to the literature regarding online impulsive buying and the online customer experience. For managers, the findings stress the importance of ethical management with regard to the online shopping experiences.

Introduction

     Online shopping is a common, globally found activity (Erjavec and Manfreda, 2021; Shao et al., 2022). In 2020, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion United States (U.S.) dollars and this is projected to grow to 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022 (Coppola, 2021). Within this vast market, customers will often make spontaneous, unplanned, unreflective and unthoughtful purchases (Habib and Qayyum, 2018; Kimiagari and Malafe, 2021) and this is referred to as ‘online impulsive buying’ (Wu et al., 2020). For instance, customers in the United Kingdom (U.K.) spend approximately £1 billion per month on impulsive buying (Bushi, 2020) and eighty percent of adolescents in the U.S. are estimated to have made impulsive purchases online (Carter, 2018). Other studies reveal that up to 40% of all online purchases worldwide can be classified as impulsive (Chan et al., 2017; Verhagen and van Dolen, 2011).

Results

5.1. Direct effects

     Results related to all hypotheses for direct effects are presented in Table 4. All of the hypotheses are supported. Firstly, the results indicate that all four functional components of the OCSE (i.e., interactivity, informativeness, visual engagement, navigation, and search ease) significantly affect online impulsive buying from e-commerce platforms (H1). Secondly, the findings reveal that customers who trust e-commerce platforms and find them more convenient and enjoyable to undertake their purchasing process are likely to make more impulsive buying decisions (H2). Hence, H1 and H2, which respectively state that the functional and psychological dimensions of the OCSE significantly impact online impulsive buying, are fully supported. We also found that components of the functional and psychological dimensions of the OCSE have a significant positive impact on customers’ attitudinal loyalty towards an e-commerce platform, demonstrating support for H3 (a, b, c, and d) and H4 (a, b, and c). Finally, the findings show that customers with greater attitudinal loyalty towards the e-commerce platform are more likely to engage in online impulsive buying, and this finding supports H5.

1- Introduction

2- Research background

3- Methodology and data

4- Results and discussion

5- Managerial implications and policy insights

6- Conclusions and future research

References

Abstract

There is a substantial body of literature relating to freight transport sector’s economic impact at the macro-level, but less is known about how freight demand gets translated to an establishment’s expenditures at the micro-level. This paper addresses this research gap by collecting data about expenditure patterns of establishments and applying market segmentation technique based on finite mixture models. Three latent segments – heavy spenders, medium spenders and light spenders – and their associated profiles are identified. The results indicate that significant differences exist between the three expenditure-based segments of establishments in terms of spending patterns, business size indicators, locational characteristics and freight travel patterns. The heavy spenders tend to be strongly influenced by employment, gross-floor area, business age and fleet ownership levels. The length of haul and truck type choice have a strong incremental effect on the volume of expenditures and larger shipment sizes are associated with expenditure reduction due to economies of scale. The diverging characteristics of expenditure segments emphasizes the need of the logistics providers to “identify their markets” and planners to “identify how demand translates to transport expenditures”. The overall conclusion is that segmenting establishments based on unobservable heterogeneity with respect to their freight transport expenditure is preferable and more informative than treating them as one homogeneous group. The study findings provide important information that planners and logistics providers can utilize in developing effective logistics plans and marketing strategies.

Introduction

Over the last decade, significant media coverage, government attention, and scholarly inquiry have been directed to both passenger transportation expenditure (PTE) and freight transportation expenditures (FTE). While it is widely understood how PTE is influenced by household characteristics (Rivigo, 2018), location (Haas, Morse, Becker, Young, & Esling, 2013), and travel pattern (Li, Dodson, & Sipe, 2015), effects of their freight system counterparts – establishment characteristics, location and freight travel pattern – on FTE have remained elusive. This is a critical research gap in the context of increasing requirements faced by freight transport systems to augment their capacity and, in turn, reduce the costs of mobility (Giuliano, 2014; Rowell, Gagliano, & Goodchild, 2014). An average establishment’s logistics cost amounts up to 10 to 12% of their sales, of which 4 to 6% amounts to the expenditure on freight transportation (EDD, 2016). The growing body of literature on freight flow analysis (Guerrero & Proulhac, 2014; Kijewska, Iwan, Konicki, & Kijewski, 2017) which indicate that these figures are set to further increase in the upcoming years. Naturally, this is concerning as high freight transport expenditures diminish the economic competitiveness of businesses (Malik, Sánchez-Díaz, Tiwari, & Woxenius, 2017). Due to the spectrum of cost components and level of services involved in them, substantial differences exist in freight expenditure across the world. In a competitive market where moving freight is a service that can be bid on, these costs are heavily influenced by the freight rates charged by the logistics providers. Apart from the direct out-of-pocket expenses based on these freight rates, freight expenditure also includes time costs and costs related to possible inefficiencies. Since the latter can only be fully assessed after the shipment has reached, the direct components of freight transport expenditure form the base of mode, truck type and route choice by shippers and forwarders (Tavasszy & Jong, 2014).

Nowadays, retailers are interested in how customer preferences regarding service quality are changing due to the adoption of different devices for shopping purposes in both the desktop and mobile contexts. To answer this question, this paper first replicates, in the mobile commerce (m-commerce) context, the results from Blut et al. (2015), who conducted a meta-analytic review of electronic service quality. Replication results question the robustness and generalizability of the conceptualization in the mobile service quality context. Thereby, practitioners and academics are encouraged to adapt a customer-centric approach in organizing marketing practices. The replication extends the conceptualization of electronic service quality by considering a unique dimension named ubiquity of services, defined as the retailer’s ability to provide offers based on location and time. To reveal psychological mechanisms explaining the results of the replication study, a follow-up study draws on these contextual factors. In this context, this study uses a quasi-experimental approach by utilizing propensity score matching to account for self-selection effects to examine differences between desktop and mobile device users. As a result, this research contributes to the literature by identifying contextual boundary conditions regarding the shopping trip intentions and risk perceptions of mobile device users and desktop device users. Based on the results, major implications for retailers and further research are given.

Introduction

Nowadays, retailers are interested in how customer preferences regarding service quality are changing due to the adoption of different devices for shopping purposes in both the desktop and mobile contexts (e.g., Kannan and Li, 2017; Kumar, 2018; Marketing Science Institute, 2018; Souiden et al., 2018). Whereas the desktop context is mainly represented by laptops and desktop computers, customers are increasingly using smartphones and tablets as primary devices for shopping in the mobile context (Criteo, 2018). This classification is reasonable, since recent research indicates that tablets act as complementary devices for smartphones and as substitutes for laptop or desktop computers, respectively (Xu et al., 2017). In order to better understand and satisfy customer needs, and therefore to generate greater revenue, retailers are advised to adopt a customer-centric approach in organizing their marketing practices around distinct customer groups (e.g., mobile device users and desktop device users) rather than product categories (Althuizen, 2018; Crecelius et al., 2019). Consequently, the main goal of this research is to compare shopping trip perceptions and intentions of e and m-commerce users in order to enable customer-centric marketing practices. To achieve this goal, a replication study and a follow-up study will be conducted. First, the replication study is justified by the rise of mobile devices as primary shopping device (Criteo, 2018). In this context, retailers are still struggling to deliver satisfactory levels of mobile service quality (MSQ), resulting in lower conversion rates and higher shopping cart abandonment rates compared to the electronic counterpart (de Haan et al., 2018; Huang et al., 2018; Kaatz et al., 2019).

Despite their increasing practical and theoretical significance in a globalizing world, marketing capabilities in an international context and their inter-organizational dispersion remain in the shadow of research. Specifically, the usefulness of direct effects of capabilities and their dispersed organization on certain strategies and firm performance is unclear. Drawing on the Dynamic Capability framework, this study investigates boundary conditions that guide the management of capabilities dispersion and its effects on strategic actions and performance. Employing survey data from a sample of firms, findings show that dispersed capabilities are advantageous due to their ability to help firms accomplish key performance objectives indirectly through developing ability to manage overseas elements (adaptation strategy). Furthermore, firms’ decisions regarding dispersing capabilities are contingent where market dynamism and coordination moderate the dispersion-adaptation link. The study deepens knowledge on additional ramifications of marketing capabilities, provides new lenses to view marketing dispersion, and offers guidance to managers.

Introduction

Dynamics such as heightened globalization, technological advances, and increasingly networked value chains (Teece, 2014) require firms to access resources not only throughout the organization but also across their boundaries in order to evolve (Hillebrand, Driessen, & Koll, 2015; Krush, Sohi, & Saini, 2015). In the marketing domain, activities rooted initially within the firm relentlessly move across its functions and eventually connect with external companies to ensure market-based value creation (Hult & Ketchen, 2017). Indeed, marketing in many companies is moving toward an “extended fabric of partners, marketers and providers” (Day, 2011, p.194) and appears as diasporas of dispersed capabilities that span across external independent organizations (Webster Jr., Malter, & Shankar, 2005). The increasing in firms’ international involvement, emergence of new foreign operation forms, and changes in marketing’s roles, put international marketing (IM) in the limelight as a boundary-spanning and fundamental interface with external environments and organizations (Gnizy & Shoham, 2014; Morgan, Feng, & Whitler, 2018). Besides, international operation in a globalizing world is the most common strategy that ensures survival and allows firms to achieve higher levels of growth and performance (Spyropoulou, Katsikeas, & Skarmeas, 2018). A ten-years-ago McKinsey survey found that dispersion of firms’ activities is associated with growth opportunities abroad and in most firms IM activities show more dispersion than other activities.

This article aims to analyze whether the effectiveness of frontline employees’ competences (task and interaction) at managing customer satisfaction with the store differ depending on situational circumstances, specifically, on type of query (consultation vs. assistance) and store crowding. A qualitative study was used to investigate the importance of these two situational circumstances in sales encounters. Subsequently, the hypotheses were tested by a quantitative study based on a survey of 575 customers about their shopping experience. The findings indicate that the effect of frontline employees’ task competence on customer satisfaction increases when the store is crowded, while the effect of interaction competence is stronger in relation to consultation queries than to assistance queries. Important theoretical and practical implications for frontline employees and store managers are outlined.

Introduction

Customer experience management entails analyzing each encounter between the customer and the firm (Vorhees et al., 2017). Managers have started to monitor these encounters as a means by which to provide their customers with outstanding experiences that translate into favorable consumer outcomes and behavior, such as satisfaction, purchase intention, and loyalty (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Previous research on service encounters in retailing has focused particularly on customers’ interactions with employees, other customers, atmospherics, and technology (Bowen and Schneider, 2014; Vorhees et al., 2017). Customer–employee contacts, also known as sales encounters, are critical encounters that have a significant impact on clients’ impressions of the retailer and of the brand, largely determine perceived service quality, and influence consumption behavior (Söderlund, 2016; Jha et al., 2017; Söderlund et al., 2018). Despite the importance of the online channel and the inclusion of information technologies in physical stores, mainly self-checkouts, frontline employees “are still the service” (Zeithaml et al., 2009, p. 352) of retail companies and key to the success of the company (Cadwallader et al., 2010). The online channel and self-checkouts are options that can enrich the retailers’ frontline service and help create shopping value (Pantano and Migliarese, 2014; Verhagen et al., 2019). However, they do not replace employees; in fact, they become even more important to determining customer satisfaction when self-checkouts fail (Fernández-Sabiote and Román, 2016). In addition, shoppers still value the frontline employees’ service because of the interaction and trustworthiness that they offer (Riquelme et al., 2016; Larivière et al., 2017; Lee, 2017).

Green marketing strategy has increasingly become a sustainable business operation goal, and Green Marketing Audit (GMA) is an effective measurement tool. In order to satisfy the green marketing quality assurance, the tight integration of green marketing missions, competition, stakeholders’ requirements, and business activities are necessary. This study focuses on the establishment of green marketing audit criteria and priority sequence, using Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to combine the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques. The major contributions of this study are as follows: (1) the proposed model provides a new practical architecture of GMA, which incorporates the experience and judgment of professional experts, and satisfies the needs of existing internal auditing operations; and (2) the GMA evaluation shows that linking the green marketing activities and firm performance contributes to the development of green marketing strategy management in Taiwan.

Introduction

Sustainable city development is an increasingly important focus of government policy, where the alignment of climate change and low-carbon strategy implementation are the key challenges (Mi et al., 2019). In the complex business world, traditional business operation strategies are insufficient to face increasingly strict environmental policies, stakeholder requirements, and the competition for innovation products/services. Implementing internal green practices and introducing monitoring mechanisms into firm operational processes can contribute to environment performance (Li et al., 2018). Regarding internal green marketing actions, Papadas et al. (2018) indicated that strategic green marketing and internal green marketing actions have positive influence on competitive advantage. The success of green marketing strategy depends on the effective implementation of green marketing activities. Although many approaches and checklists of marketing audit have been proposed (Herhausen, Egger and Oral, 2014; Morgan, Clark and Gooner, 2002), the main focus is limited to the audits of sales and collection (Taghian and Shaw, 2008). Given the impact of growing consumption on the environment, the number of companies developing green products has been rapidly increasing, and consumers have shown an increasing interest in these green products (Dangelico and Vocalelli, 2017).

The U.S. retail industry has undergone dramatic changes, leading to the closing of brick-and-mortar retail stores on a large scale. Understanding perceived market competition among small retail businesses may help explain why certain businesses survive or fail in the altered retail environment. This study investigates small retail businesses’ perceptions of competition within/outside the community, underlying reasons for their perceptions, and variations in perceptions by different business characteristics. Contrary to common expectations, we found that more than half of businesses interviewed were optimistic in the face of competition. Our data reveal two salient underlying reasons for pessimism and five for optimism. These perceptions tended to differ by operational locality (urban clusters vs. urban areas), business revenues, and innovativeness. Based on the findings, we developed propositions and a framework of small businesses’ perceived competition and sustainable competitive advantage. We discussed theoretical and practical implications for small retail businesses’ sustainable growth in the challenging retail environment.

Introduction

The U.S. retail industry has undergone substantial restructuring as numerous physical retail stores, large or small, have been permanently closed in the last few years, a phenomenon called “retail apocalypse” (Helm et al., 2018). The competition in the U.S. retail industry has become more fierce with rapid digitization and the growing dominance of e-commerce retailers (Huang et al., 2019). While some retailers are successfully transforming or revamping their businesses to adapt to the fast-changing retail landscape, many brick-and-mortar retailers are at risk or slow in transformation (Baird, 2018; Helm et al., 2018). Small local retailers are particularly vulnerable to these changes because small businesses in approximately 93% of U.S. counties are still struggling to recover from the recent financial crisis (Morath, 2016). Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the engine for the U.S. economy, accounting for approximately 99.9% of U.S. businesses and 47.5% of the private workforce (Small Business Administration, 2018). However, small businesses also have a high failure rate: around 50% of them fail within the first five years (Otar, 2018; Turner and Endres, 2017). Understanding the reasons for success or failure for small businesses is crucial to the sustainability of local economies (Nadim and Lussier, 2015).

1. Introduction

2. Review of the pertinent literature

3. Coopetition and COVID-19

4. Managerial implications and recommendations

5. Directions for future research

6. Conclusions

References

Abstract

Although coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition) should positively affect company performance, it is unclear how implementation of these business-to-business marketing strategies can take place during large-scale emergencies. Therefore, guided by resource-based theory and the relational view, this investigation examines how organisations have used coopetition to cope with the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Key examples include retailers sharing information about stock levels, pharmaceutical organisations working together to develop a vaccine, technological giants collaborating for the greater good, and charities forming alliances for a joint cause. This paper strengthens the extant literature by highlighting the heterogeneity of coopetition strategies that firms can use within a global crisis. Practitioners must balance the risks and rewards of coopetition activities. In turn, they should decide whether to continue to cooperate with their competitors once the pandemic has ended, or resume operating under individualistic business models. This article ends with some future research directions.

Introduction

“The basic aim of collaboration is to pursue goals collaboratively that otherwise would be difficult to pursue” (Di Benedetto, Lindgreen, Storgaard, & Clarke, 2019, p. 1). While the health-related shocks associated with the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) are well known, the disease has caused commerce to change in unprecedented ways (Cortez & Johnston, 2020). Most employees are working from home (instructed by policy-makers to self-isolate), demand for home deliveries has risen substantially, restaurants and many other establishments have closed their doors to the public, and business failure rates have increased exponentially (Washington Post, 2020). That said however, certain sectors are performing better in comparison to others, such as food and beverage retailers that have served as substitutes for the now-closed bars and restaurants (MSN, 2020). Various recommendations exist for preparing a business for a post-pandemic world, including open innovation and horizon planning (Chesbrough, 2020; Lund Pedersen & Ritter, 2020). For example, Ritter and Lund Pedersen (2020) noted the importance of decision-makers reviewing their business models, focusing on customers, value propositions, value demonstrations, and capabilities, together with the connections between these issues. They add that decision-makers need to define realistic objectives for their organisations, during and after the crisis. In fact, a number of firms (e.g., Coca-Cola, Chevron, and Ford) have changed their business models, through producing aspects of personal protective equipment (as opposed to their normal products) to contribute to the global effort to fight COVID-19 (Fortune, 2020).

1- Introduction

2- Related literature

3- Method

4- Results

5- Discussion and implications

References

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of four types of cause-related marketing (CRM) strategies on consumer responses to a fashion brand and to assess the relative effectiveness of each.
Design/methodology/approach – An experiment was conducted with young adult consumers (n ¼ 344) and undergraduates (n ¼ 415). Using a between-subject design, each participant was randomly assigned to one of four CRM scenarios and completed a questionnaire.
Findings – Across all CRM conditions, the effect of CRM strategy on consumer responses (e.g. perceived brand distinctiveness/credibility/attractiveness, customer–brand identification, brand attitude, customer loyalty) was significant. The effect of corporate social responsibility image on perceived brand distinctiveness was strongest for cause-related event marketing, followed by cause-related experiential marketing, transaction-based CRM and sponsorship-linked marketing. Practical implications – By providing information about the relative effectiveness of four types of CRM strategies, this research aids fashion marketers in their selection of the CRM strategy that generates the best performance. Adding an event component to their CRM activity would increase the effect of CRM strategies on consumer responses.
Originality/value – This research contributes to the extant literature on CRM by identifying types of CRM strategies, their relative effectiveness, and key variables (e.g., C–B identification) that explain the impact of CRM strategies on consumer responses.

Introduction

Over the past decade, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has evolved from a “nice-to-have silo” to a “fundamental strategic priority” for businesses (McPherson, 2017). CSR as a concept refers to the idea that corporations should take responsibility not only for the economic consequences of operating a business but also for any impacts that the business has on social and environmental issues (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2008). One strategy that falls under the umbrella term of CSR is cause-related marketing. Cause-related marketing (CRM) involves mutually beneficial cooperative efforts between a company and a non-profit organization (NPO) designed to promote the company’s sales and the NPO’s cause (Grantspace.org). CRM impacts consumer’s behavior as the 2017 Cone Communication CSR report noted 87 percent of US consumers are likely to purchase a product from a business that advocated for issues they cared about. Then, can companies “do well by doing good” through strategically practiced CRM? Companies engage in CRM for several reasons such as improving their image (Vanhamme et al., 2012), enhancing consumer’s attitudes (Melero and Montaner, 2016) and increasing customer loyalty (Park et al., 2017). Consumers also directly benefit from companies that engage in CRM initiatives. Participating in a brand’s CRM can result in consumers’ experiencing positive emotions as well as enhancing self-perceptions.

1- Introduction

2- Theorietical background

3- Methodology

4- Results

5- Discussions and conclusions

References

Abstract

In order to succeed in today’s competitive business environment, a firm should have a clear business strategy that is supported by other organizational strategies. While prior studies argue that strategic alignment enhances firm performance, either strategic alignment including multiple factors or strategic orientation of firms has received little attention. This study, drawing on contingency theory and configuration theory, investigates the performance impact of triadic strategic alignment among business, IT, and marketing strategies while simultaneously considers strategic orientation of firms. A research model is tested through SEM and MANOVA using data collected in a questionnaire survey of 242 Yemen managers. The findings indicate that (1) triadic strategic alignment has a positive impact on firm performance and (2) there is an ideal triadic strategic alignment for prospectors and defenders. This research contributes to strategic alignment literature and managers’ understanding of how to align business, IT and marketing strategies to improve firm performance.

Introduction

For years, strategic management scholars have emphasized the importance of aligning organizational strategies to the overall business strategy (Cao, Baker, & Hoffman, 2012; Daft, Murphy, & Willmott, 2010) since such strategic alignment will lead to a more concerted and focused pursuit of organizational objectives, which in turn improves firm performance (Donaldson, 2006; Hooper, Huff, & Thirkell, 2010). While prior research has indicated that strategic alignment generally enhances firm performance, it is also “one of the most difficult challenges facing managers” (Vorhies & Morgan, 2003, p. 100) and researchers know little about how strategic alignment should be organized to improve firm performance (Cao et al., 2012; Vorhies & Morgan, 2003). Thus, this study aims to develop our understanding of strategic alignment by addressing the following two research gaps. The first research gap concerns the lack of understanding of triadic alignment among business, information technology (IT), and marketing strategies. While business strategy clarifies how a firm coordinates organizational activities to achieve its overall goals and objectives (King, 1978), marketing strategy supports business strategy by identifying threats and opportunities in the environment to best position the organization in the market place (Babatunde & Adebisi, 2012; Varadarajan, Jayachandran, & White, 2001). In other words, marketing strategy focuses on ways in which the firm can differentiate itself effectively from its competitors, capitalizing on its distinctive strengths to deliver better value to its customers within a given environment (Jain, 2000). At the same time, IT has increasingly become a significant part of most organizations (Cha, Pingry, & Thatcher, 2009; Doherty, Champion, & Wang, 2010) and is significantly influencing how business strategy (Gerow, Grover, Thatcher, & Roth, 2014) or marketing strategy is implemented (LaForge, Ingram, & Cravens, 2009; Zhu & Nakata, 2007). Expectedly, a firm’s performance is highly likely to be determined by how effectively and efficiently the firm’s business, IT, and marketing strategies are implemented to support one another (Olson, Slater, & Hult, 2005). However, prior research has focused on the performance impact of dyadic alignment between, for example, business and IT strategies predominantly (e.g. Chan, Huff, Barclay, & Copeland, 1997; Chan, Sabherwal, & Thatcher, 2006), marketing and IT strategies (e.g. Hooper et al., 2010; Trainor, Rapp, Beitelspacher, & Schillewaert, 2011) or marketing and business strategies occasionally (e.g. Johnson, Martin, & Saini, 2012; Theodosiou, Kehagias, & Katsikea, 2012). No research seems to have investigated the influence of triadic strategic alignment among business, IT, and marketing strategies on business performance. A second research gap pertains to the limited understanding of strategic alignment by considering specific strategic orientations of firms simultaneously.

1- Introduction

2- Literature review and hypotheses development

3- Methods

4- Results

5- Discussion

References

Abstract

This paper seeks to clarify and refine the relationship between strategic and internal green marketing and firm competitiveness. Despite the significance of corporate environmental strategy to firms adopting a triple-bottom line performance evaluation, there is insufficient focus on strategic green marketing and its impact on a firm’s competitiveness. This study fills the gap by providing a comprehensive view of strategic green marketing and its impact on competitive advantage. Findings also reveal the moderating role of internal green marketing actions towards the development of a sustained competitive advantage. Specifically, the findings build on contemporary green marketing literature suggesting that a significant interplay between strategy and people exists which enhances the creation of competitive advantage. This in turn increases financial performance. Finally, this research uses an updated approach to build on current literature concerning the drivers and outcomes of strategic green marketing. This provides managers with nuanced insights about environmentally-driven competitive advantage.

Introduction

Unlocking the relationship between corporate environmental strategy and firm competitiveness is paramount for contemporary business researchers, policy makers and practitioners (Gibbs & O’Neill, 2016). A green economy that is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive is also the goal of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2011). Despite calls for radical, holistic approaches beyond mere technological fixes and product innovation (Geels, McMeekin, Mylan, & Southerton, 2015; Lim, 2016) there remains a perceived but unresolved tension between green marketing and competitive advantage. A reluctance to pursue a green marketing orientation (Papadas, Avlonitis, & Carrigan, 2017) undermines universal engagement with sustainable business practices, and exacerbates corporate risk and losses. Despite the potential costs involved, the damaging and costly environmental consequences of traditional linear production and consumption are driving more innovative firms to shift their focus to clean production, design for the environment and ecoefficiency (Banerjee, 2017), and pursue resource efficient circular economy (CE) strategies including materials recycling and product repurposing (Moreau, Sahakian, van Griethuysen, & Vuille, 2017). CE has also gained momentum in the European Union Circular Economy package (EU, 2015) and Chinese law. There is no alternative to sustainable development and yet many companies remain convinced that their competitiveness will be eroded if they become more environmentally-friendly (Nidumolu, Prahalad, & Rangaswami, 2009). Further, much research in marketing remains data rather than theory driven (Hult, 2011; Webster, 2009). This hinders progress and leads to fragmented understanding of environmental concerns in marketing. A gap exists for a sound theoretical approach to provide a holistic understanding of the intersection between green marketing and competitiveness. Such an advance in knowledge not only presents theoretical support for future empirical investigation, but also provides legitimacy for managers facing resistance to the adoption of a green marketing orientation. This paper addresses that theoretical gap.