Market Orientation in a Small Scale Enterprise Environment: Importance of Product-Related Factors

This study uses the results of an evaluation programme to examine the value of a market orientation for small scale manufacturer in the mass retail market. Results show that an evaluator's assessment of a product's readiness for the marketplace and his/her recommendation for the type of market it should enter were better at predicting short-term and long-term performance than market orientation alone

Evaluating whether a change in organisational structure would improve its competitive advantage

The purpose of this research is to study and analyse the internal and external structure of Ultimate Clean ltd, where I do work. We have put concentration on background of the company in the starting. This information is followed by aim and scope of research, which shows that what is the research question and what is scope of our research. After that Literature review is elaborated under five main subheadings. These subheading gives us deep information about the literature of organisation structure, competitive advantage. After that, Organisational context with internal and external analyse of the company is given which highlight the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the company. Some external factors like political, economic, social and legal, are also discussed in this report. Then some information is given for method of research that why we use it, where and when it is used. Some limitations are also discussed in this report of method. After this, result section comes. In this section, we discussed deeply about the answers of customers, employees and employer. We prepare a discussion of the result and conclude it wisely. In the end, some recommendations are also given to improve organisational structure of Ultimate Clean ltd. We suggest a new structure for the organisation to develop within company to have a good competitive advantage in market place. A big list of references is also given in the end of this report

The influence of national culture on the attitude towards mobile recommender systems

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.This study aimed to identify factors that influence user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems and to examine how these factors interact with cultural values to affect attitudes towards this technology. Based on the theory of reasoned action, belief factors for mobile recommender systems are identified in three dimensions: functional, contextual, and social. Hypotheses explaining different impacts of cultural values on the factors affecting attitudes were also proposed. The research model was tested based on data collected in China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Findings indicate that functional and social factors have significant impacts on user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems. The relationships between belief factors and attitudes are moderated by two cultural values: collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The theoretical and practical implications of applying theory of reasoned action and innovation diffusion theory to explain the adoption of new technologies in societies with different cultures are also discussed.National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean governmen

Modelling an End to End Supply Chain system Using Simulation

Within the current uncertain environment industries are predominantly faced with various challenges resulting in greater need for skilled management and adequate technique as well as tools to manage Supply Chains (SC) efficiently. Derived from this observation is the need to develop a generic/reusable modelling framework that would allow firms to analyse their operational performance over time (Mackulak and Lawrence 1998, Beamon and Chen 2001, Petrovic 2001, Lau et al. 2008, Khilwani et al. 2011, Cigollini et al. 2014). However for this to be effectively managed the simulation modelling efforts should be directed towards identifying the scope of the SC and the key processes performed between players. Purpose: The research attempts to analyse trends in the field of supply chain modelling using simulation and provide directions for future research by reviewing existing Operations Research/Operations Management (OR/OM) literature. Structural and operational complexities as well as different business processes within various industries are often limiting factors during modelling efforts. Successively, this calls for the end to end (E2E) SC modelling framework where the generic processes, related policies and techniques could be captured and supported by the powerful capabilities of simulation. Research Approach: Following Mitroff’s (1974) scientific inquiry model and Sargent (2011) this research will adopt simulation methodology and focus on systematic literature review in order to establish generic OR processes and differentiate them from those which are specific to certain industries. The aim of the research is provide a clear and informed overview of the existing literature in the area of supply chain simulation. Therefore through a profound examination of the selected studies a conceptual model will be design based on the selection of the most commonly used SC Processes and simulation techniques used within those processes. The description of individual elements that make up SC processes (Hermann and Pundoor 2006) will be defined using building blocks, which are also known as Process Categories. Findings and Originality: This paper presents an E2E SC simulation conceptual model realised through means of systematic literature review. Practitioners have adopted the term E2E SC while this is not extensively featured within academic literature. The existing SC studies lack generality in regards to capturing the entire SC within one methodological framework, which this study aims to address. Research Impact: A systematic review of the supply chain and simulation literature takes an integrated and holistic assessment of an E2E SC, from market-demand scenarios through order management and planning processes, and on to manufacturing and physical distribution. Thus by providing significant advances in understanding of the theory, methods used and applicability of supply chain simulation, this paper will further develop a body of knowledge within this subject area. Practical Impact: The paper will empower practitioners’ knowledge and understanding of the supply chain processes characteristics that can be modelled using simulation. Moreover it will facilitate a selection of specific data required for the simulation in accordance to the individual needs of the industry

The influence of cognitive satisfaction on the relationship between salesperson presentation skills and customer's intention to repurchase

The application of sales presentation skills by the sales force during their interaction with customers in the sales situation can have a significant effect on customer intention to repurchase in the Malaysian Computer retail business. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relations between important sales presentation skills and the relative roles played by cognition in the development of customer satisfaction which will lead to customer’s intention to repurchase in a computer retail setting in Malaysia. This will then lead to increased benefits for the organization in the form of customer loyalty. The cognitive evaluation of customer satisfaction was found to explain customer’s intention to repurchase in a retail setting in the Malaysian market. This finding holds importance to those retailers who have been able to generate high expectations in the eyes of their customers

The use of intellectual capital information by sell-side analysts in company valuation

This paper investigates the role of intellectual capital information (ICI) in sell-side analysts’ fundamental analysis and valuation of companies. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews, it penetrates the black box of analysts’ valuation decision-making by identifying and conceptualising the mechanisms and rationales by which ICI is integrated within their valuation decision processes. We find that capital market participants are not ambivalent to ICI, and ICI is used: (1) to form analysts’ perceptions of the overall quality, strengths and future prospects of companies; (2) in deriving valuation model inputs; (3) in setting price targets and making investment recommendations; and (4) as an important and integral element in analyst–client communications. We show that: there is a ‘pecking order’ of mechanisms for incorporating ICI in valuations, based on quantifiability; IC valuation is grounded in valuation theory; there are designated entry points in the valuation process for ICI; and a number of factors affect analysts’ ICI use in valuation. We also identify a need to redefine ‘value-relevant’ ICI to include non-price-sensitive information; acknowledge the boundedness and contextuality of analysts’ rationality and motives of their ICI use; and the important role of analyst–client meetings for ICI communication

The impact of different touchpoints on brand consideration

Marketers face the challenge of resource allocation across a range of touchpoints. Hence understanding their relative impact is important, but previous research tends to examine brand advertising, retailer touchpoints, word-of-mouth, and traditional earned touchpoints separately. This article presents an approach to understanding the relative impact of multiple touchpoints. It exemplifies this approach with six touchpoint types: brand advertising, retailer advertising, in-store communications, word-of-mouth, peer observation (seeing other customers), and traditional earned media such as editorial. Using the real-time experience tracking (RET) method by which respondents report on touchpoints by contemporaneous text message, the impact of touchpoints on change in brand consideration is studied in four consumer categories: electrical goods, technology products, mobile handsets, and soft drinks. Both touchpoint frequency and touchpoint positivity, the valence of the customer's affective response to the touchpoint, are modeled. While relative touchpoint effects vary somewhat by category, a pooled model suggests the positivity of in-store communication is in general more influential than that of other touchpoints including brand advertising. An almost entirely neglected touchpoint, peer observation, is consistently significant. Overall, findings evidence the relative impact of retailers, social effects and third party endorsement in addition to brand advertising. Touchpoint positivity adds explanatory power to the prediction of change in consideration as compared with touchpoint frequency alone. This suggests the importance of methods that track touchpoint perceptual response as well as frequency, to complement current analytic approaches such as media mix modeling based on media spend or exposure alone

The Role of the Mangement Sciences in Research on Personalization

We present a review of research studies that deal with personalization. We synthesize current knowledge about these areas, and identify issues that we envision will be of interest to researchers working in the management sciences. We take an interdisciplinary approach that spans the areas of economics, marketing, information technology, and operations. We present an overarching framework for personalization that allows us to identify key players in the personalization process, as well as, the key stages of personalization. The framework enables us to examine the strategic role of personalization in the interactions between a firm and other key players in the firm's value system. We review extant literature in the strategic behavior of firms, and discuss opportunities for analytical and empirical research in this regard. Next, we examine how a firm can learn a customer's preferences, which is one of the key components of the personalization process. We use a utility-based approach to formalize such preference functions, and to understand how these preference functions could be learnt based on a customer's interactions with a firm. We identify well-established techniques in management sciences that can be gainfully employed in future research on personalization.CRM, Persoanlization, Marketing, e-commerce,

What attracts vehicle consumers’ buying:A Saaty scale-based VIKOR (SSC-VIKOR) approach from after-sales textual perspective?

Purpose: The increasingly booming e-commerce development has stimulated vehicle consumers to express individual reviews through online forum. The purpose of this paper is to probe into the vehicle consumer consumption behavior and make recommendations for potential consumers from textual comments viewpoint. Design/methodology/approach: A big data analytic-based approach is designed to discover vehicle consumer consumption behavior from online perspective. To reduce subjectivity of expert-based approaches, a parallel Naïve Bayes approach is designed to analyze the sentiment analysis, and the Saaty scale-based (SSC) scoring rule is employed to obtain specific sentimental value of attribute class, contributing to the multi-grade sentiment classification. To achieve the intelligent recommendation for potential vehicle customers, a novel SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to prioritize vehicle brand candidates from a big data analytical viewpoint. Findings: The big data analytics argue that “cost-effectiveness” characteristic is the most important factor that vehicle consumers care, and the data mining results enable automakers to better understand consumer consumption behavior. Research limitations/implications: The case study illustrates the effectiveness of the integrated method, contributing to much more precise operations management on marketing strategy, quality improvement and intelligent recommendation. Originality/value: Researches of consumer consumption behavior are usually based on survey-based methods, and mostly previous studies about comments analysis focus on binary analysis. The hybrid SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to fill the gap from the big data perspective