International sport marketing : practical and future research implications

Purpose &ndash; Sport is a global product and service that many people around the world enjoy playing, watching and participating in. Whilst there has been an abundance of global media attention on sporting events such as the Olympics and World Football Cup, there seems to be a lack of integration between the sports marketing and international business disciplines both from a practical and also academic standpoint. This paper aims to discuss international sport marketing and why it is an important attribute of business-to-business marketing. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; The aim of the paper is to provide practical implications and research avenues for those seeking to further investigate international sport marketing as a unique area of academic research. The introduction to the paper focuses on the importance of sport to the global economy and how entrepreneurship is ingrained in many sport businesses and organizations. Next, different areas of international business management that relate to entrepreneurial sport marketing ventures are discussed in terms of future research directions and practical implications. These include how entrepreneurial sport ventures affect internationalization, branding, corporate social responsibility, tourism, regional development, marketing and action sports.Findings &ndash; The paper concludes by finding that there are numerous research avenues for future research on international sport marketing that combine different areas of marketing together with the sport marketing and international business literature. In addition, there is enormous potential for linking the sports marketing and international business literature through focusing on entrepreneurial sport ventures that occur worldwide.Research limitations/implications &ndash; The authors demonstrate the need to take an international perspective of sports marketing and business-to-business relationships.Practical implications &ndash; The paper discusses how and why sport firms interact in the international marketplace and how future competition will benefit from more sport-based business-to-business partnerships.Originality/value &ndash; The paper examines the important area of international sports marketing and how businesses that are both profit and non-profit orientated collaborate. The paper explores the concept of international sports marketing, and discusses the practical and future research implications of this exciting new field of marketing research.<br /

Exploration of the relationship between information systems (IS) activity and marketing activity in the case of 'X' Airlines in developing country

Connecting IS/IT strategy with business strategy has become a crucial issue. The level of integration between business strategies requires explanation of interrelationships, in order to achieve business goals with the available resources and markets conditions. This research is a holistic examination of the relationship between IS, business strategy and marketing in 'X' Airlines. Marketing is considered as core activity. The research design involves qualitative method. It covers the literature on IS integration, a case study approach to understand 'how' and 'why' in using IS in 'X'. The research discusses existing frameworks, both theoretical and practical, of IS strategic integration. The results show that there are relationships of traditional kind as back office support of IS for business strategy and marketing within 'X'

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainability: Waste Recycling

Unlike many existing research studies that explain reverse marketing from a purchasing perspective, this study recognizes it as an honest effort made by managers aiming to promote sustainability by purposefully managing waste and discusses the spillover effect of their initiatives on brand equity. It argues that efficient recycling of products through reverse marketing by a brand demonstrates its sincere intent to adopt sustainable business practices and enhances its equity in the marketplace. A business-to-business viewpoint has been used to combine knowledge about waste recycling and management through reverse marketing based on the unpretentious operations and management practices. The propositions reflect on the criticality of engaging business customer firms in a procedural mechanism of recycling for increase in brand equity as the success of reverse marketing. A comprehensive adoption of an initiative like waste management through reverse marketing by a brand highlights how sustainability initiatives can create value for the customers of the brand and ultimately drive brand equity

New product development in business to business marketing - a relational perspective.

Market position and long-term competitive advantages are dependent on companies’ ability to innovate and their capacity to launch new product or services. This paper aims to highlight the features of product development processes in business to business markets. The research method consisted of a documentary study in the literature and the results focus on the stages involved in the development and launch of a new product. In recent years, statistics have shown an increase in the rate of failure in launching new products on business markets. This has been caused by an inadequate planning and has negative consequences on both customer relationships and organizational economic performance. Given this reality, academics propose a sequential product development plan based on the following essential steps: identifying opportunities and generating ideas, selection of ideas with the highest chances of success, development of new product concept materialized in the form of a prototype, technical testing and acceptance testing, making the final changes to the product, establishing brand name, price level and other intangible elements of the product, legal protection of the product, placing the product into production and effectively lunching the product though a tactical marketing program. Practical experiences show that omission of one or more stages of this process can cause product failure, companies recording a low level of performance, below expected levels.Product development; business to business relationships; planning; ideas selection; marketing tests; product failure.

Social Networks of Researchers in Business To Business Marketing: A Case Study of the IMP Group 1984-1999

Science is a social process that functions through social networks of researchers that form invisible colleges. Analysis of these social networks provides a means for examining the structure of relations among researchers. The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group, "an informal international group of scholars concerned with developing concepts and knowledge in the field of business-to-business marketing and purchasing," is used as a case study of a network of researchers because it has been responsible for considerable research over the last decades in the area of business-to-business marketing, yet its structure remains hidden because of its informal network characteristics. The results of a social network analysis of the IMP group is described based on the pattern of co-authorship at annual IMP conferences. The results reveal a power law distribution of paper co-authorship and a small world network that conforms to the results of studies of other types of social networks. A core network of 57 researchers is identified and its network properties are described, including how it has evolved over time. The study provides the basis for further studies of the social networks of marketing and business researchers.informal networks, business-to-business marketing

Marketing in 1985: A View from the Ivory Tower: How will the business environment of 1985 affect competitive marketing strategy?

Inflation and recession, resource shortages, a web of ecological problems, changing social values, a proliferation of business regulations, and other developments of recent years have taken their toll on American business. Such changes in the external environment of business have stimulated academicians and writers for the general media to address questions such as: Can Capitalism Survive: ; Can Marketing Survive? ; Will Shortages Bankrupt the Marketing Concept? Others are directing their efforts to forecasting the uncertain future and the burgeoning discipline of futures research. This article reports on the application of one futures research technique-the solicitation of expert opinion-to the field of marketing. Its purpose is to examine the major dimensions of the future of marketing as seen by marketing education leaders

Extensiveness of business planning and firm survival: an examination into the drivers of success and survival for knowledge intensive start-up firms

A number of studies have found that writing a business plan increases the likelihood of firm survival. For instance, Liao and Gartner (2006) found that firms that completed a business plan were nearly three times more likely to launch their business than those that did not. On the contrary, other studies have found no association between writing a business plan and success. For example, Honig and Karlsson (2004) found evidence that entrepreneurs only write business plans because they are required to do so by investors, educators and advisors. While the evidence is mixed on the effectiveness of business planning, previous research has not examined individual elements of business plans. Thus, it is not clear which aspects (e.g., financial projections v. marketing strategy) of business planning are positively (or negatively) related to performance and survival. Our study addresses two main issues concerning the impact of business planning in firm survival: 1) Are surviving firms different in the extent of their business planning? 2) Which topical areas within business planning are more (or less) predictive of firm survival? To seek answers, we reconceptualize business planning along four dimensions: service/product description, marketing strategy, financial projections and organizational planning

Marketing Capability, Strategy and Business Performance in Emerging Markets of Pakistan

In this project an attempt has been made to demonstrate a positive relationship between marketing capabilities and Strategy using Porters framework and corporate performance in an emerging/developing market of Pakistan. This paper reports a study that marketing practice regulates the relationship between marketing capabilities & Strategy using Porters framework and business performance. In turn, the type of marketing practice adopted is moderated by the market served. Various studies have suggested that marketing capabilities & Strategy using Porters framework influences business performance. These discussions are summarized by a theoretical model and a series of theoretical propositions. The results suggest that Marketing Capabilities and Strategy frame exist in the business environment of Pakistan but there is a weak relationship with firm performance.Marketing Capabilities, Competitive Advantages, Business strategy, Firm Performance