Loyalty Programmes: Practices, Avenues and Challenges

<div align=justify>Complexity of modern business requires managers to strive for innovative strategies to acquire and retain customers in any product market field. As acquiring new customers is getting costlier day by day, business organizations have offered continuity/loyalty programmes to retain/reward existing customers and maintain relationships. The premise of CRM is that once a customer is locked in, it will be advantageous to both the organization as well as customer to maintain relationships and would be a win-win situation for both. Consumers find it beneficial to join such programmes to earn rewards for staying loyal. Through loyalty programmes, firms can potentially gain more repeat business, get opportunity to cross-sell and obtain rich customer data for future CRM efforts (Yuping Liu, 2007). This paper, exploratory in nature, attempts to provide a conceptual overview of Loyalty in organized retail sector, outlines practices of grocery retail outlets in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat and the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in India, with a population of 56 lakhs (5.6 million). It also throws light on consumer expectations, perceptions and problems faced through indepth exploration. Based on literature review and environment in India, an emerging economy, it attempts to predict future of such programmes specifically in Indian organised retail sector and discusses managerial challenges of managing loyalty programmes and provides agenda for future research directions.</div>

Establishing and Developing B2B Partnerships in Healthcare Services Industry: A case study of a Swedish healthcare provider

This study’s purpose is to find out in what ways do healthcare providers in Sweden establish their B2B partnerships. This study seeks understanding of the practical deployment of relationship marketing as a process. To fulfill this purpose, in this study two theories are used – network theory and commitment-trust theory. It follows the qualitative research analytical design and the main tool for gathering empirical data are semi-structured interviews conducted with the representatives of Skåne Care, Swecare and the University Hospital in Lund and Malmö. The object of this study is Skåne Care and its B2B partnerships with the aforementioned healthcare organizations operating in the Swedish healthcare market. The purpose of this research was accomplished and led to new findings on the importance of personal encounters in the beginning of the relationship establishment and lack of power plays in the relationships under study. These findings were followed by a couple of theoretical and practical implications

Integrating internal communications, human resource management and marketing concepts into the new internal marketing philosophy

Successful companies attach great importance to human resource management and internal communications, because they are aware of the value of those activities and of strategic advantage they can bring to the organization. They should also realize that it is necessary to live internal marketing philosophy, if they stream to offer quality products and services to both markets: internal and external. The idea of satisfied employees for the benefit of satisfied customers is accepted and developed by both academicians and practitioners, through the concepts of internal marketing, internal communications and human resource management. Consequently, the paper had two objectives: (1) to analyze concepts of internal marketing (IM), internal communications (IC) and human resource management (HRM) parallelly, and define their scopes, overlaps and differences; and (2) to propose a new internal marketing philosophy that combines three before mentioned concepts. The conclusion that emerged after reaching both objectives was that the new internal marketing philosophy should be grounded in a relationship marketing theory. It should not be limited to neither of three functional areas that are commonly connected to it – internal communications, human resource management or marketing. It is for sure that managing internal relationships should not be restricted to any function, and should not apply traditional marketing concepts and tools. That would ruin the nature of internal relationship marketing, and would not encompass all tasks it should fulfill.internal marketing philosophy, internal marketing, internal communications, human resource management (HRM)

Coopetition and strategic networks in the fast-moving consumer-goods industry : category management as a strategic opportunity in crisis

Managers need to understand that networks should be an important part of their strategy and that cooperation and competition should be intertwined in the business context. The biggest opportunities in business don’t come from playing the game better than everyone else - they come from changing the fundamental nature of the game itself to your advantage. In a context of crisis, these aspects take an even bigger importance, since most of companies fail to grow or to present results. I introduce a tapered approach to the fast-moving consumer goods industry in order to relate these strategic networks with the coopetition theory. Taking the interviews made to the players hovering in this industry in addition to the existing body of knowledge of published articles and recent environmental dynamics into consideration, this paper will attempt to compare and contrast the category management approaches regarding coopetition and tactical networks’ practices, inserting this concept in a broader strategic view that encompass not only the marketing understanding, but also the strategy point of view, enclosing it as a strategic coopetitive tool and alternative to grow, especially important in crisis times. This thesis will be supported by one case study that intend to illustrate the evolution of the networking-level strategy and coopetition in the consumer-goods industry, mainly supported by the category trade management in a context of crisis

Evolution of Sustainability as Marketing Strategy: Beginning of New Era

AbstractTime has witnessed the different phases of marketing strategy. Out of which, sustainability is the key issue which has emerged in marketing strategy over the time. In earlier phase of 1970s, ecological issues have emerged as a new paradigm in marketing strategy. Then in next decade, social issues picked up the lime light and emerged along with ecology. Reassessment of the issues resulted in evolution of green or environmental issues in marketing strategy and now the sustainability in marketing strategy has become the focus of attention of the researchers. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are, first, to review and understand concepts of marketing strategy and sustainability, secondly, to discuss evolution of sustainability in marketing strategy and lastly, to discuss the future of sustainability marketing strategy

Value appropriation in business exchange: literature review and future research opportunities

Purpose – Value appropriation is a central, yet neglected aspect in business exchange research. The purpose of the paper is to generate an overview of research on active value appropriation in business exchange and provide the foundation for further research into value appropriation, as well as some initial guidance for managers. Design/methodology/approach – Literatures investigating value appropriation were identified by the means of a systematic review of the overall management literature. Findings – The authors provide an overview and comparison of the literatures and find that they apply diverse understandings of the value appropriation process and emphasize different mechanisms and outcomes of value appropriation. Research limitations/implications – Based on the literature comparison and discussion, in combination with inspiration from alternative business exchange literature, the authors propose four areas with high potential for future research into value appropriation: network position effects, appropriation acts and behaviors, buyer-seller relationship effects, and appropriation over time. Practical implications – Boundary spanning managers acting in industrial markets must master the difficult balance between value creation and appropriation. This review has provided an overview of the many managerial options for value appropriation and created knowledge on the effects of the various appropriation mechanisms enabling managers to secure company rents while not jeopardizing value creation. Originality/value – To the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt at reviewing the management literature on value appropriation in business exchange. The authors provide overview, details, comparisons, and frame a research agenda as a first step towards establishing value appropriation as a key phenomenon in business exchange research.Chris Ellegaard, Christopher J. Medlin, Jens Geersbr

VIP-room Contractual System of Macau’s Traditional Casino Industry

This study provides a systematic analysis of the VIP-room contractual system of Macau’s traditional casino industry. It examines the system’s historical background, its organizational structure, its operational mechanisms, and its role in Macau’s casino industry. This analysis examines the evolving and likely future changes in the VIP-room sector—as well as the mass market sector—caused by the liberalization of Macau’s gaming laws in 2001 and the Free Individual Travelers Scheme, introduced by the Chinese government in 2003. This study develops a framework to explain how the two sectors’ market shares are determined by examining the economic and cultural forces at work. The existing structure of the VIP-room contractual system in Macau’s casino industry will not likely continue in its traditional way, and will be replaced by newly evolving systems consistent with the new competitive realities. However, the VIP business will likely continue in one form or another.Regulation, gambling, casinos, Macau, baccarat

Service-oriented architecture as a driver of service innovation in newly emerging service systems: An exploratory view

Innovation in services can be regarded as an inter-play of service concepts, service delivery practices, client interfaces, and service delivery technologies. Furthermore, innovations in services are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected for their unique capabilities and operated in a coordinated manner, referred to as a service system or service value network (SVN). Bringing such service innovations to market by a network of firms requires extensive coordination and integration of data, information/knowledge and processes, while ensuring strategic alignment of partnering firms. In this research we examine how Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and its effect on Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility (ITIF), may act as a potential enabler for recently identified organizational drivers of services innovation in a service system, namely Collaborative Architecture Management (CAM) and Collaborative Organizational Infrastructure (COI). A preliminary qualitative study of a Telco and its partners in the Middle East validates the dynamic capabilities at play in our proposed research model